BJ--
I'm not sure you disagree, either. Sure, Judaism does cover the basics of humanitarianism and environmentalism-- indeed you could (and some do) claim that we invented those fundamental things.
But I also think that those fundamental things (and I do not dispute your point that they're more important than the bone/fish/Shabbos issue) can't define us as Jews, since, by and large, they're just good ideas that could be characterized as "natural law."
A Christian or Buddhist who is charitable to others, fair to his employees, kind to animals, and practices crop rotation does not thereby become a Jew.
So, ironically, perhaps this explains our (frequently irritating) emphasis on the minutia of seemingly pointless ritual. One can be a good human being exclusively through the qualities of justice and kindness, but then one risks losing one's identity as part of a particular tribe.
If, indeed, we are the ones who gave the world the virtues you mention, perhaps it's a good thing for us to continue to maintain a separate identity and not disappear just because everybody is a decent fellow, Jewish or not.
So, maybe the justification for those mind-numbing rituals is that they focus us on adherence to a larger code that includes not only the rituals, but all those good moral laws that everybody else is now copying.
In the end, I don't have this answer-- one could just as easily argue that our mission is accomplished and we need not hang around any longer. Alternately (and, hopefully), we still have a contribution to make as a people. If so, then some attention to the rituals nobody else performs might be what holds us together long enough to make that contribution.
What say you?
Unless I'm mistaken, isn't "bal taschit" a prohibition against specifically wasting semen? And what's the connection between shemittah and social activism?
Otherwise, I agree insofar as I think that everybody has (or should have) a certain degree of responsibility towards others. But I also think that Judaism, even if it were just an abstract method of meditative contemplation, would still have a right to exist even without these responsibilities.
Morgan mentions charitable Buddhists and Christians, but both of these faiths have venerable hermit traditions, in which a person (or community) lives off of the charity of others and produces nothing in return save their own inner enlightenment. Judaism has now begun to develop a comparable process within the kollel-movement: how do you feel about that?
At the end of the day, I think that Judaism has a long tradition of social activism and social justice, but to suggest that Jews invented these ideas is a little like saying that they invented the wheel because the Talmud talks about circles. My experience, anyway, is that these concepts (for the religious Jews amongst whom I have lived) are specifically to do with social justice and social activism for Jews and not for Gentiles.
Still, despite the fact that I do think that people need to have a sense of moral obligation towards others (all others), I don't have too big a problem with Judaism becoming increasingly inwards-focused. We constitute such a small proportion of the world's population - is it really so bad if all we contribute is more literature?
Bilbul,
The interest of righteousness of action over the external expressions of ritual observance is the consistent message found throughout the Prophetic tradition.
Isaiah 1:
10Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Without the ikkar of righteousness, the rituals are meaningless.
Morgan: Perhaps our rituals do make us unique. And certainly many of them are beautiful. But why the guilt? Why the ridiculous stringencies? I've enjoyed Channukah a lot this year because for the first time, I haven't been wracked with guilt about whether the candles burnt long enough. I believe that there is room for our unique rituals to be important, while increasing focus on more significant (to the world at least) causes.
Simon: I have always learned ba'al tashchit as being a more general prohibition against waste. Certainly that's how I was brought up anyway. Shmitah is a social law because the produce is ownerless, so the poor are free to gather it.
I dislike the kollel movement for many reasons.
I don't think Judaism, or any other religion, has to have invented a concept for it to be important to them. I think that if Judaism becomes more inward-focused, all that it will produce is more obscure texts on why you can pick black fluff off a white shirt on Shabbat, but not white fluff off a black shirt. That's no contribution to the world, especially not compared to what Jews have already given.
Orthoprax: Good quote. I just wish the charedim would pay attention to it. Of course, learning Nach as a little too out there for them.
(And you should know my name is BJ! My blog is called Bilbulatsia. But I'll forgive you ... especially since BJ isn't my real name. 
)
BJ--
Why, indeed. I do think that some rituals are important, and I share your sentiments with regard to many of the rituals (the guilt thing really doesn't do much for me, either).
There's a tricky part, however. Once you say "X is meaningful and Y isn't, so I'll only do X," you have essentially claimed authority to rescind both X and Y. Then, you're the boss instead of God, and what's the point of having the religion anymore?
I suppose that one solution would be to become a Karaite. But, to be honest, I really don't have an answer for this one.
BJ,
"And you should know my name is BJ!"
I did know that! Temporary loss of memory is all
Morgan,
"Then, you're the boss instead of God, and what's the point of having the religion anymore?"
If God didn't make the rules to begin with then you've been 'boss' all along. Thus being, the religion is what we make of it, not what was made for us by others.
BJ,
Being that Judaism is predominantly an immoral relegion, using it as a base for social justice. I am not even refering to the specific section that can be seen as immoral, alemek, the 7 nations, David commiting genocide in edom etc..., but the basic fundemental underlying idea of Juadiasm is that Jews are superior to non Jews due to their observance, and observant Jews are superior to non observant Jews, and people who don't get that, be they inhabitance of Jericho, people who don't keep shabbos, homosextuals, or people who whorship another god, should be killed.
Now, we could take judaism and purge it of all that stuff and say what's left is moral and keep it, but why bother? We don't need judaism to keep social justice. We can be be kind and give charity if we are keeping judiasm too
"Thus being, the religion is what we make of it, not what was made for us by others."
So Judaism is really nothing more than any individual's experience of (or preferences vis-a-vis) Judaism? No, there's obviously a tradition which exists (or existed) as a funtional system. Since the system, as designed, functions as a "package deal," one who opts out of part of it is, in essence, removing one of the major underlying premises of the whole thing and, thereby, transforming it completely.
Why must Judaism or the Jewish people justify themselves?Does Mexico justify itslf? Nigeria? Any nation or people?
We have made some contributions, and if we do nothing for a century or two who is counting? God? Certainly all you progressive heavy breathers can't appeal to God.
Of course Judaism needs to justify itself. Yes, there are some famous Jewish scientists and politicians, but how many of these were religious? They came about only because of previous environmental selection for studiousness, not because Judaism encouraged them in their fields.
On the other hand, Judaism as a system makes many people's lives miserable through enforcing poverty by discouraging tertiary study and encouraging Torah study; by encouraging large family sizes; by insisting on stringent Shabbat and kashrut laws; etc etc. Judaism has ALOT to justify. All the hardship it causes could possibly be justified by it being a command from God. But there is no proof whatsoever that it's anything of the sort: if anything the evidence points to a series of rabbis making life difficult to increase their control over their people.
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