Torah Jews are Jews who believe it’s their God-given obligation to observe the Torah laws as explained and codified by Judaism’s best and most dedicated scholars. That’s the long and short of it. 

It’s why we don’t drive on Shabbat, shave with razor blades or eat shellfish. It’s why we observe the monthly mikvah rituals, wash our hands before eating bread and pray three times daily in separate-seating synagogues.

To some extent, it’s also why we give charity, speak honestly, pay wages on time and avoid gossip.

As a community and as individuals, we can sometimes be inconsistent. We all have better and worse days, moments of strength and weakness, times when our personal practice falls short of our stated ideals, but we try our best to maintain our God-given ideals.

Although usually a Torah lifestyle can be pleasant, fun, and life-affirming, it is not always so. The Torah lifestyle is sometimes costly and demanding. It’s sometimes, admittedly, inconvenient, contrary to common sense and complicated. If anything, it’s idiosyncratic.

That’s just the way Torah is.

Therefore, it has become predictably upsetting to read the critical assessments by some who don’t understand what Torah is and isn’t. They portray anecdotal incident, community quirks and legitimate Torah particularity as all part of the same unflattering package.

Of course, women can play a new role in Jewish life, as can recognition of the State of Israel in our religious outlook, Holocaust memorializing in our liturgy, and scientific advances in our daily lives. But while it’s true that the Torah community hasn’t done enough work in these areas, those least educated in Torah should hardly be the ones aggressively advancing the most innovative ideas. They might mean well, but their thick, broad brushstrokes can often ruin a beautifully intricate pointillism.

The next time you hear complaints about “those religious types,” recall the way you might listen to your well-meaning, non-Jewish Canadian co-workers who offer platitudinous opinions on the Middle East. You know where they’re coming from and believe their heart to be in the right place, but you also know that they simply don’t have a clue. They probably need to understand what they criticize before they aggressively go public with their opinions.

Rabbi Yechiel Goldreich is the rabbi of Congregation Bnai Torah in Toronto.