Arikm7 - your questions (especially the second one) posed choices that were not only non-mutually exclusive, but overloaded.  It's like me asking you - "which do you like better, pork chops or shrimp, and does that mean you quit eating pork last week? - Yes or no!!!"

P.S.: I'd give you bonus points for the phrase "polemical hem-hawing and martyr genuflection", but my response was neither polemical nor martyr-ical.

Note: Forum rules require me to make the following disclaimer.

This post is not Jewish teaching, rather it is Mark's personal opinion as a non-Jew.