Thursday, September 14, 2006

Long Live Heterogeneity

In the comments to the post Modern and Charedi, Rabbi Dovid Schwartz positively referenced me and a few others who frequently try to make the point over at Beyond BT that Judaism is not, and never has been, monolithic. Leaving aside the issue of "heterodoxy" and respecting other Jews for the fact that they actively identify as such and try and express Yahadut in their own way, even if I/you/we/they believe that that way is incorrect, within the ranges of Orthodoxy there is such diversity of custom, culture and psaq that people ignore it at their own risk. When you make the first move to write someone out of your world, they may just write you out of theirs in return.

Or as the Knitter of Shiny Things might say,
"Every community is different.
No two communities are not on fire."


...with the fire of Torah!

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

that's just weird man. obscure homestarrunner references.

9/14/2006 11:35 PM  
Blogger Phillip Minden said...

Are you saying that each and every Jewish group, community and -doxy is motivated by the fire of Torah alone?

9/15/2006 2:58 AM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Miryam:

Hey, i'm not the one who applied it to Jewish communities in the first place... i just added the Torah part(y) :-P

Lipman:

Of course not, but they all, or almost all, have some kind of Torah-based intentions among whatever other intentions they may have.

9/15/2006 7:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Steg -- Just because someone else said it doesn't make it cool.

Lipman -- How do you discern the source of their hashkafot?

9/15/2006 11:09 AM  
Blogger Neil Harris said...

Great post, and a fairy good discussion at BeyondBT.

9/15/2006 1:06 PM  
Blogger Phillip Minden said...

Lipman -- How do you discern the source of their hashkafot?

I don't, as a rule. (That was Steg, so ask him! :-B) But if I had to, I'd make use of sociology (including historical sociology) and psychology and their tools.

9/17/2006 4:59 AM  
Blogger Knitter of shiny things said...

Miryam:
What's wrong with obscure homestarrunner references?

9/17/2006 9:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

that's a great article there

9/19/2006 11:57 PM  
Blogger Esser Agaroth said...

B"H So, um,...what about so-called orthodox who chip away at Torah observance, and throw out an arbitrary pasuq and call it Hallalachic support for what ever they want to do?... No, wait a minute. That's the so-called "Conservative" mvt. OK. So, what about the "Modernim" who arbitrarily decide that certain restrictions upon women are no longer applicable today? No, wait a minute. Those are the "Conservative" Jews who think they're Orthodox.

9/20/2006 5:13 PM  
Blogger Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Ben-Yehuda:

either you didn't understand the point of the post or you purposely rejected it.

10/08/2006 9:12 PM  

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