I dislike many, perhaps most of the halachic Jewish rules, yet, for the most part I observe them. That doesn’t make me a hypocrite but a responsible citizen of the Jewish nation, respectful of the other Jews’ opinion.

Let’s say, everyone drives 65 miles an hour and I feel that’s absurd. I can safely drive twice that fast. It would be wrong to disregard the tradition and drive at whatever speed pleases me.

So here I am: advocating for massively changing the rabbinical law but observing it insofar as it remains a law. Not that the law is fundamentally wrong; it preserved the Jewish nation in the Exile. But now, as the Exile’s formal criteria came to an end, most of the rabbinical law is no longer necessary.

Jews no longer live under the Gentile dominance. Jews gathered to our country from all corners of the world. We didn’t come with the force of weapons, but through a legitimate arrangement with other nations in the UN. Thus, I could not understand the Satmar’s appeal to the Talmudic prohibition of returning forcibly (Rambam ignored it, anyway, when he formulated a positive commandment to conquer and settle the land). God signaled us with a host of miracles that the Exile has ended and now it is our responsibility to settle the country properly.

Our lawgiver took great care to exorcise adoration and superstition from Jewish religious practice. The Torah commands Jews to make an altar of earth or unhewn stones. The deep explanation is that only man-made objects incur impurity but earth and stones remain pure regardless of the constant contact with sacrificial blood. Sages stressed another point, that the altar, the centerpiece of Jewish worship, remained decidedly simple to dissociate from pagan practice of adorning their altars. Add to this the atmosphere of the Hebrew temple: wild stench from burning feathers and bird’s innards, old blood which – whatever the rabbis say – could not be fully cleaned out each day. Just imagine that unbearable stench in hot weather, what the Torah calls sweet smell. Not surprisingly, the Torah prescribes virtually no prayers in the Temple. The idea was to drive the flock out of it. While allowing Hebrews all the familiar ritual brouhaha, the Torah actually forces them to abandon it for the abstract religion.

Contrast that with the rabbinical observances: kissing the Torah scrolls in silver crowns, blowing kisses to adorned mezuzot, carved expensive arc in every synagogue, and hour-long prayer services. An average Jew today prays way more often than King David; midrashim assert that he prayed a lot.
Mega-prayers substitute for offerings in the rabbinical Judaism, and the rabbinical establishment (not all rabbis) evolved into the most rabid opponent of resuming sacrifices. Disregarding Rambam’s opinion, they wait for the Temple to be delivered from heaven rather than coming up with brick and mortar and building it in Al Aqsa’s place. But even without the Temple, sacrifices are still a must. Samson’s parents sacrificed under angelic supervision without bothering to make pilgrimage to the Tent of Meeting. Nor is it likely that a multitude of Jews who lived behind the Modiin line, even as far as Galilee, undertook arduous trip to Jerusalem for every sacrificial occasion, such as giving birth. Like it or not, ancient Jews made sacrifices to God out of the Temple, and there is no reason for us to imagine ourselves more pious than they were.

Judaism evolves. The direct descendants of Aharon are not blowing shofar, and there is no hereditary priest to consult the magic urim and tummim. We have a choice of honestly reconstructing our religion, trying to remain as close as possible to the original, or flounder about in the sheer hypocrisy of treating 4/5 of the commandments inoperative.

Take Shabbat, for example. The Torah is clear that no one is allowed work on Shabbat in our towns: neither slaves (who have no property, opinion, or religion of their own), nor resident aliens (converts) or cattle. But what should we do about police or hotels? Not all the police work is about saving lives. The prohibition does not include members of other religions, and hotels employ them extensively – but that’s a sham. Non-Jews are prohibited from working in Israel on Sabbath because they are prohibited from Israel at all. So yes, there are serious questions about religious observance which Jews have to systematically resolve.