Mrs. Balabusta's "Rosh Hashanah Primer"
I don't know whether I'll have time to post again before Rosh Hashanah, so I ask forgiveness of anyone whom I might have offended, and wish all of you a Shanah Tovah u-m'tukah, a good and sweet year.
A tallit-and-tefillin-wearing woman in a traditional Conservative synagogue?! An unorthodox—and non-orthodox—perspective on Jews and Judaism from a perpetual misfit. This blog, welcoming the entire Jewish community, is dedicated to those who take Judaism seriously, but not necessarily literally.
Here's my final(?) comment to my post on whether it's modest for women to be leaders.
Shira Salamone said...
JDub, you said, "Being orthodox isn't about a level of observance . . . It's a mindset, and a process. It's a belief system that says "yes, we look at the poskim and the halacha, not the situation." Either you buy the whole system, or you don't. You don't, and that's fine, but you can't get mad that there is a system in place."
"it's better that if you can't, or won't, accept the viability of these questions, that you not become orthodox, rather than bang your head against them."
JDub, the more I encounter questions of this type, the more I realize that you (and Too Old to Jewschool Steve, and sometime commenter The Rabbi's Husband) are right--in matters of principle, I really am a Conservative Jew. The "lack of any commitment to precedent and tradition" is a serious issue, but not enough of one to make me willing to surrender my freedom of thought and my freedom to make my own decisions, which is how I, personally, would experience a switch to the Orthodox camp. What I see as the Orthodox way is simply not the way that I, personally, form opinions on issues: I don't wish to filter my every thought, and even my thought process--my freedom to ask whether something should be a question in the first place--and my every decision through the eyes of others. I don't see myself ever becoming a baalat t'shuvah. Thank you, JDub, and all of my commenters, for helping me clarify my position.
Tue Sep 23, 08:16:00 AM 2008
These are my choices:
Kvetch (complain) as I might about being relatively observant by comparison to many Conservative Jews, I know myself well enough to know that being Orthoprax--one who observes the mitzvot/commandments without accepting many of the beliefs that go with them--would be a serious challenge. Fundamentally, I'd have to keep my opinions to myself for the rest of my life. I'm not sure I'm even interested in doing that, much less capable of it. I've always been one to speak my mind, and I prefer to continue doing so. I hate to disappoint some of my Orthodox readers, but, apparently, I’m not a candidate for kiruv (“bringing close,” [“converting” to Orthodox Judaism from a different version]).
I appreciate all that I’ve learned, and all the encouragement that I’ve gotten to increase my observance, from being a blogger, and will continue to learn and grow in my Jewishness as a result of reading so many blogs by Orthodox Jews. Thank you very much for being my teachers. But I must say that the week I spent at the NHC Institute was a necessary corrective. Apparently, I have to be reminded periodically that my thought processes are much closer to those of many non-Orthodox Jews than to those of many Orthodox Jews. JDub is right—from my own perspective, there are some questions that shouldn’t even be questions, and that perspective really does make me a non-candidate for the derech (the Orthodox “path”).
On the one hand, no one has been able truly to convince me that the presence of thousands of Palestinians within Israel’s current borders (such as they are) does not constitute a demographic time bomb that threatens to end, in the long run, the Jewish majority in, and, therefore, the Jewish character of, the Jewish state.
On the other hand, no one has been able truly to convince me that the political leadership of the Palestinians is really interested in peace with Israel, and/or would survive assassination attempts—political or physical—long to make it a reality. The last time Israel tried to exchange land for peace, it got war within less than a year, some of it originating from the very land that it had given up.
On the third hand (you should pardon the expression), the Israeli government has yet to convince me that it’s not more serious about making peace with the Palestinians than about maintaining peace among its own citizens. All this talk about ceding parts of Yehudah and the Shomron/the West Bank (pick your preferred term) is giving me a serious case of déjà vu. Does the Knesset really expect settlers to move out of their homes willingly, after seeing the evacuees of Gush Katif and the Northern Shomrom left to rot in caravilla camps (American-English translation: trailer parks) for over three years, many still unemployed?
In my humble opinion, there should be no peace agreement until two basic conditions are met:
As far as I’m concerned, unless both those conditions are met, the residents of Peduel should stay put. The thought of the Israeli government creating yet another group of semi-homeless and possibly unemployed Jewish refugees and leaving yet another piece of abandoned real estate to be used for launching missiles makes me ill.
The Punster and I went scouting for a good location in Central Park. We found a spot that, while visible from a few paths, is: