Sixteen contingents, to show their sympathy with, if not observance of, the American boycott did not join the parade.
And lest one imagine that this is just another battle between the more progressive Reform and Conservative denominations and the more observant Orthodox, it must be noted that the criteria used by the rabbinate are driven by internal Haredi politics, not observance.
"We strongly believe that what we need is not observers but observance, meaning observance on the part of the Palestinians to observe the cease-fire," said Avi Pazner, a government spokesman.
Strict shmita observance, like not watching television, became one of the things that separated the strictly Orthodox from the modern.
If this was indeed written in the fifties, as I suspect, it would fall within Singer's own "return to faith," not as observance but as a literary memorialization of his parents' faith.
Indeed, as Rabbi Cardozo pointed out, religiosity is not about observance (i.e. following the strictures of outward indicators of religiosity), but rather about spirituality and awareness of the presence of God.
That he was far from the Palestinian Hellenizers and that he regarded himself as an observant Jew is clear, however, from his statement that one should not omit the observance of any of the Jewish customs that have been divinely ordained.
His Judaism is not about religious observance.
This system of corporate timekeeping affects all life, not just cultic observance.
Lent, Hilary, Trinity, Michaelmas, the names if not the sacral observance, remain firmly ensconced in English legal, academic and public life.
The elementary school, with 337 students -- only one is African-American -- is one of the few in the state that does not close in observance of Dr. King's birthday.
