Okay, so tell me -- what is wrong with this scene? The cat isn't in any danger. The woman isn't in any danger. No one is getting hurt. Were the other passengers simply being prude? Why is this wrong?

I suppose in our mixed up world nothing is wrong anymore. It isn't wrong to breast-feed a kitten in public. It isn't wrong to pierce our tongues. It isn't wrong to run naked on a university campus. And it isn't wrong to have a co-ed bathroom in a college dormitory (something a college-attending member of our congregation just revealed to me)...ala Ally McBeal.

WAIT A MINUTE. Our religion doesn't simply demand that we Jews do the right thing, but that we Jews also do the holy thing. Kadosh. Holy. Separate. Distinct. Different. If God wants us to behave in a holy way, because God is holy, then it is okay to tell our kids that they can't have something or do something or be something because Jews aren't supposed to do unholy things. Yes, it says so in the Torah. It tells us to separate good and evil. It tells us to distinguish between right and wrong. It commands us to differentiate between life and death, men and women, linen and wool (another time) and strong and weak. It also says something about milk and meat -- I think you probably knew that one!

So many people act like animals. This is nothing new. That is why the Torah has so many laws about the things that we share most with animals: eating and sexuality. Animals eat. Animals have sexual relations. We as Jews can elevate these activities by performing them in holy ways. For that matter, we can elevate just about anything by doing it in a holy way.