Well I’ve been here for almost 2 months now and I’d say things are going extremely well. That’s saying a lot because I?m not a guy who usually transitions into new situations all that great but all things considered I can’t complain. Yes indeed things are going smoother than I could have ever imagined possible. That’s not to say that there haven’t been bumps along the way Just that there have been few and those that did happen have been minor at best.

I managed to finish a summary report for the first part of my thesis project (albeit a couple of weeks late) and that’s taken a huge amount of pressure off of me.

Tamara and I are having a lot of fun and getting along very well in my opinion. We’ve had the opportunity to do a little bit of traveling and spend some time with her parents which has been nice. We’ve also managed to do a pretty good job of keeping off of each other’s toes, which is not always the easiest thing to do with new couples.

Los Angeles is an incredible city and there’s a lot for us to do and to my pleasant surprise there are lots of very cool things to do for little or no cost at all. We’ve been going on a lot of walks and completed our first rural mountain hike.

Jewishly we are doing a lot of socializing which is great for me because my last few months in Ottawa were spent acting like a Jewish hermit. We’ve been attending a few synagogues regularly as part of our “Shul Shopping” and I believe we have pretty much figured out where it is that we will be joining and that?s VBS. Having said that there are a few other places like IKAR and Knesset Israel where I’m sure will be spending a fair amount of time as well but it looks like we will be calling VBS home.

In terms of daily observance I think we?re doing an excellent job of keeping kosher both in and out of the home and that’s something I’m/we are both really proud of. Although (holy crap I just realized I’ve been keeping kosher at home for about a year now, wow time flies) I was initially very reluctant about taking on Kashrut Observance, I absolutely love it as a spiritual discipline and couldn’t imagine giving it up. Having said that, although Tamara is the one who pushed me in to the kosher thing. I think it’s been harder for her to adjust to keeping kosher out of the house than it has been for me but I’ve got to admit she’s really leaned into it and doing extremely well.

Also we have set ourselves up with one of those fancy hand washing cups and have been washing our hands and reciting blessings/prayers in the morning and although it can be difficult to remember what gets done when, I’m finding it very spiritually rewarding. I think we’re both hoping to gradually introduce more and more of this kind of observance into our daily life but we want to do it in a sustainable fashion, without making ourselves feel overloaded. One thing I know Tamara really is attracted to, is reciting blessings at meals, so we’ve started working on that. As of yet we haven’t been all that successful in this department but were making small steps and it’s getting easier.

As for Shabbat were far from being Shomer Shabbos but I think we’ve both come a long way in a short amount of time. Friday nights we try to have arrangements either to eat at someone’s house (preferably walking distance) or have guests over. If nothing is going on then we just keep it simple but do nonetheless light candles do Kiddush and Hamotzi. If we are just staying home I’ve committed to turning off my computer and staying off of the telephone. A lot of this stuff has been initiated by me but I’m trying not to be a bully about it, so I have also done some compromising. For example Friday nights if nothing is going on then we keep open the option of watching an “in the spirit of Shabbat Oneg” DVD and that’s ok. I myself turn off my computer and won’t watch any television other than the DVD if that’s what we’re doing. Ideally I would like to be a little more Shomer Shabbos in this regard but Tamara has made huge compromises so I’m willing to hold back on this one, until she’s ready to go a little deeper, that’s if she’s willing to go a little deeper. As for Saturday’s were doing very good. No television, no computer, no telephone, no movies, no buying, no radio and no car unless it’s driving to shul (which is acceptable according to conservative Halacha, which is our current measuring stick) and then it?s just to and fro with no radio. So that means driving when we go to VBS or Ikar but if it’s Knesset Israel then we walk about 25 minutes. I really do enjoy walking to shul on Saturday morning but both of us prefer the services at VBS so were still working it all out. However besides that we do not get into the car and I must admit I love it.

Also in the spirit of full disclosure and this is something I’m not exactly proud of because it feels like cheating, even though it was my idea. For the summer we’ve set fixed times for beginning and ending Shabbos, so we’re going from 6:30 PM Fridays to 6:30 PM Saturdays. Even though I realize that this is cheating I also realize that we’re doing much more than a lot of other Jews we know. More importantly we realize that our observance isn’t fixed or static and we both have a committed goal of deepening our connection and practice so it doesn’t feel like we’re being lazy. If anything, I guess the way we see it is where learning to crawl before we walk.

Tamara and I are even doing some formal Jewish studying. We’re both registered for something called “Everyday Holiness” which is an intro to Mussar course, something I’m sure I’ll be blogging a lot about in the coming weeks and months. Were also trying to do Saturday Torah study when we attend shul, which I forgot to mention we’ve committed to doing a minimum of twice a month. We’ve actually been going more but we thought we should put in a minimum just in case we get lazy but to be honest I’m the one who has a hard time with Saturday Shabbat services and not Tamara. I’m used to attending a Reform synagogue back home where there’s a lot of English now that everywhere we go have conservative style services I’m having a very hard time. Which although can be painful is good because it’s taught me that I really need to lean into my Hebrew learning a lot more. We are also attending a Thursday night Torah study series at VBS which is sure to be excellent. Then come October we will be doing the UJ Marriage Preparation course which I’ve already blogged about. I was thinking about starting an adult bar mitzvah course offered at VBS in September but I’ve decided that we just have too much going on. I do want to do an adult bar mitzvah but I think I’m going to wait until after we’ve gotten married so that means sometime next year I guess.

Wow, this post has gotten HUGE and although I haven’t managed to get through everything I wanted to, I think I’m going to wrap up here but try to follow up with another post covering our Jewishness for two’ishness probably sometime next week. There are a few other things I want to get to this week both in terms of blogging and real-world stuff.

Anyhow that’s it for now and as always if you were able to make it through this long-winded post please feel free to share your thoughts and comments because I love to get the feedback.

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Many of you probably don’t know this but I’ve been a huge fan of the chickpea most of my life, especially in tasty dishes like apple curried chickpeas, hummus or in a pasta dish. Anyhow last night I learned a couple of very interesting facts about chickpeas and their relationship to Jews and Judaism.

For example, apparently chickpeas were such a prevalent food among the Sephardic Jews living during the times of the Inquisition, that members of the Spanish Inquisition considered their use in cooking to be a sign of Jewish cuisine. Therefore people (whether actually Jewish or not) who were caught making things like chickpea stew, were subject to arrest based on the grounds that cooking with chickpeas meant that you were probably Jewish.

Another interesting fact I learned last night was that chickpeas which are easily grown in abundance were therefore considered to be a sign of fertility. Also their round shape symbolized the cycles of life and the year and therefore foods containing chickpeas were (are?) commonly served at events like birthdays. In fact (and I did not know this until last night) apparently chickpeas area a traditional Rosh Hashanah food because they represent, a wish for a well-rounded year to come.

Anyhow, I thought it was interesting!

PS feel free to share your Jewish chickpea stories and/or facts if you got them.

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Today a cool NPR program showed up in my RSS Reader on the subject of Jewish thought and practice as it pertains to marriage and family life. OK, actually it’s just the first half hour. The last 30 minutes focuses more on the Christian take and I’m not so into that. Not that there is anything wrong with the Christian take but its just not my cup of tea is all.

Anyhow obviously this is a subject which is of great interest to me both as an engaged (as in soon to be wed) and as a committed Jew. However I really enjoyed listening to this program for a few reasons above and beyond the obvious ones already mentioned.

The Jewish expert interviewed is Rabbi Elliot Dorff who just happens to me one of my favorite Contemporary Jewish Theologians. Incidentally he also teaches UJ here in LA which is a place I would eventually like to study at.

Another really cool and new thing I learnt listening to the show is that according to Rabbi Dorff a recent study looking at divorce showed that Jews who complete the UJ Marriage Preparation Course apparently only have an 8% divorce rate. I don’t know anything about how this study was conducted but 8% is a great number (even if only anecdotally) considering about 31% of US marriages end in divorce. More importantly is that Tamara and I have been planning on taking this course as soon as we can, so that 8% stats is very reassuring!

Rabbi Dorff ( in the extended interview - see below) also covers tons of other interesting stuff including sexual dynamics, the spirituality of marriage, homosexuality and divorce, to name but a few.  

There certainly is something of value here for anyone who is going to, is now, or has been married. So check it out!

Oh and if you do listen please feel free to share your thoughts on the topic!

Marriage, Family, and Divorce (July 5, 2007)

American ideals of courtship and marriage echo with Biblical imagery ? “bone of my bones” “flesh of my flesh.” But what does the Bible really say, and how has it been taught across the centuries in which the institution of marriage has changed dramatically? With a rabbi and a New Testament scholar, we explore nuances of biblical teachings about marriage, family, and divorce ? the surprising ambiguities of the New Testament and the striking practicality of Jewish tradition across the ages.

• Link
• Enclosure

Update: Click here to hear the full/unedited version of the Rabbi Dorff interview.

PS: TAMARA Check this out!

Summer 2007 Basic Seminars

Tue 7-9pm ? July 10 through September 11 ?  Wilshire Boulevard Temple (Olympic and Barrington) in West Los Angeles  

Wed 7:30-9:30pm ? June 13 through August 8 (no class July 4)

Thur 8:00-10:00pm ? May 10 through July 12

There’s not much time to think about this and it may even be too late to register but I thought I would put the the idea out there just in case you are into it!

Let me know what you think!

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So I’ve been in Los Angeles now for just under a month and I’ve noticed a couple of things. At the top of the list is something which has really taken me by surprise and that is (at least thus far) I seem to be more concerned and focused on being observant than many of my Jewish “by birth” friends and acquaintances. Now back home it was the same way but I just chalked that up to the fact that I belonged to a reform community where the patterns of observance where for the most part weekend warrior?s although there certainly were some exceptions. Here the people I associate with are certainly not reform, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if a few them were to take issue with being labeled as such. However to be honest most of the people I hang out with our newly engaged Jews, meaning that they were not raised in observant families. I would say that most of them have for whatever reason decided as adults to engage or reengaged with their Jewish identity be it spiritual or cultural and in this case most of them are somehow associated with or participating at a Chabad center.

It’s not like I’m hanging out with a bunch of black hats (although there are also a few of those in my extended network) but nonetheless, I’m really surprised at the way many of my friends approach observance. For the most part it seems that people pick one thing (keeping kosher or doing the minyan thing daily) but seem to willfully ignore other patterns of observance. In fact I’ve noticed that some people actually look for reasons to exclude other practices from daily or weekly life. I’ve got to admit that I’m having a hard time understanding why some of my friends are doing this. I’m not trying to say this in a judgmental sort of way or anything; it’s simply that I’m cognitively not getting it. Maybe it’s because I’m a Jew by choice or maybe it’s because I’ve done a non-Orthodox conversion and on some level I feel I need to make sure that I’m at least trying to cross my T’s and dot my I’s because it’s harder for me to be taken seriously in some circles. Who knows?

Since arriving here in Los Angeles I’ve found myself in several situations where I’m actually pushing gently nudging people (in a natural and organic kind of way - I hope) to lean into their observance a little more. Whether it’s wearing a Kippah outside of shul, walking on Shabbos (even if it?s really hot) or encouraging/supporting someone in finding ways to stay off the computer on a Saturday afternoon.

I don’t view the Mitzvot as binding so it’s not like I think people have to do everything in an or else kind of way. In fact one new insight I’ve gained since arriving in Los Angeles is that I seem to approach the Taryag Mitzvot more from a perspective of making a committed vow than I do from a place of submitting myself to a set of external commandments. I don’t want to go too deeply into this subject with this post because all of this is still being worked out in my mind and I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression, including myself LOL.

So anyhow I suppose what really gets me confused is how people seem to stay willfully ignorant of anything currently outside of their comfort zone observance wise. I know that I’m far from being mitzvah observant in any comprehensive sort of way but I certainly don’t look for ways to exclude new practices from my life. Unfortunately this is something that I have noticed in a few other people down here and I just don’t get it. I myself have worked extremely hard to change my way of thinking about Mitzvot from an attitude of pessimism and punishment to one of spiritual opportunity.

For example take Shabbos which is something I’ve really started to focus on since arriving in Los Angeles. At this point I’ve committed to giving up television, computers/Internet, audio books, telephone, spending money and driving (Unless we’re going to a shul or someone’s home for Shabbos which is just too far away to walk to - at this point anywhere I/we can walk to within an hour is doable at least according me) and to be honest there’s been next to no sense of loss over any of it. I said committed to giving up instead of “have given up” because I live with someone else that I think is having a harder time with this stuff than I am. So I’m trying (note I said trying which does not necessarily mean always pulling it off) to be somewhat flexible and gentle with all of this, albeit in a way that doesn?t make me feel like I’ve sold out my principles.

To be honest I really don’t feel like I’m giving anything up. In fact I increasingly feel like I’m making room for new things that would be impossible to have if I kept doing things the old way. When it comes to observance it’s really easy to come up with the reasons not to do something, O know this because I’ve done it myself many times. However it seems to me that as progressive (non-Orthodox) Jews who want and claim to be serious about our Jewish engagement, the onus is on us to go the full distance (and then some) when it comes to finding ways to make observance relevant because it is too easy to do just the opposite.

To my way of thinking the term “not binding” in no way equates irrelevant. So I suppose it’s just that I feel some of these people choose not to take on the responsibility of finding ways to make wider patterns of observance personally relevant, never mind actually becoming more observant! Its seems like the non-binding thing is just used as an excuse for too being lazy to intellectually engage with this stuff and IMO that’s not kosher (it’s not even kosher style).

I suppose that all of this is kind of funny in a sad sort of way because as I sit here typing this out what comes to mind is that many of us “progressive” Jews consider ourselves to be (in many ways) more evolved because we see ourselves as being much more “inclusive” than those “Orthodox” Jews. The ironically sad part of this is that although we struggle with and fight our own internal prejudices and bigotry in order to become ever more inclusive in terms of issues like sexual orientation or gender and race equality. Yet it would seem that many of us are exclusionists when it comes to Jewish tradition. Especially with regard to the Mitzvot and their potentially significant role in our spiritual development and understanding.

Anyhow I think I’ve rambled on long enough about this so until next time be well.

PS: The title was kind of meant as a joke because although I’m a Jew by choice who converted reform (apparently making me less Jewish and to some even not Jewish at all) I’m still much more frum than many of my friends who happen to be Jews by birth. I know, I’m witty and funny, you don’t need to tell me!

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Sunday morning I was searching Google video to see if there were any new cool “Jewish” videos worth checking out and I stumbled across an interesting new (I’m guessing) access cable series. It’s called “I Believe” and it seems to be a show about religion and interfaith understanding. From what I gather this guy goes around in interviews leaders from various religious communities about their beliefs and practices. It’s really basic introductory kind of stuff but interesting nonetheless.

Anyhow the latest show is on Reform Judaism and it was quite interesting to watch. I actually wanted to post this yesterday morning when the show was still fresh in my mind. Because there were a few interesting things which caught my attention and it would have been fun to expand on some of the themes presented. However it is now 4:50 PM on Monday afternoon and I can’t for the life of me remember in any detail what it was that grabbed my attention other than I actually enjoyed watching it quite a bit.

So this post I guess is basically just an FYI for those of you who are interested in such things. As usual if you do watch it feel free to post your thoughts. Who knows that might just be enough to jog my memory.

Enjoy

From the episode description.

Join host Dennis Wholey for a conversation about Reform Judaism - beliefs and practices - with Rabbi Lance J. Sussman, Senior Rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia, PA.

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A couple of days ago I stumbled upon this short interview clip in which Reb Zalman is asked if he could impart one thing about Teshuvah to his grandchildren what would it be.

Reb Zalman replied with a lovely little snip it taken(I believe) from some Hassidic teaching tale which went something like this.

G-D is more angry that we don’t take advantage of Teshuvah then he is over the sin.

Actually it’s so short and easy enough for me to embed into this post why don’t you watch Reb Zalman tell the story himself.

I can’t really speak for anyone other than myself but I feel this simple and pithy statement hits the nail right on the head. I’m often able to realize when I’ve made a mistake (after the fact that is). I can even take such insights and integrate them into my conscious mind so that I’m less likely to fall into the same trap in the future. However I don’t really like copping to my mistakes so much.  I mean I’m good with learning from the past and do my best not to repeat mistakes but I have a hard time stopping myself once I realize I’ve screwed up and then go apologize to the person.  I think it’s often a combination of pride and embarrassment.

Reb Zalman’s thoughts on the subject really hit home in that I unfortunately all too often engage in the exact opposite of what he’s suggesting. Anyhow I guess there’s always room to grow and improve. I think that I will end this post with a Thank you to Reb Zalman for gently and accurately shining a little light on one of my many blind spots.

Be well

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This past weekend was crazy busy for me (which probably equals regular busy to most people) but it was a lot of fun.

Here’s the short version of what went down.

Friday Night

• A lovely Shabbos dinner with friends over at their place.

Saturday

• Tamara and I went for a 5 & 1/2 km Shabbos walk including a lovely visit with friends.
• Tamara made me what is probably the best homemade sandwich I’ve ever had in my entire life (no joke).
• A last-minute coffee date with a buddy to talk about Kaplanian Theology and gelato.

Sunday

• An Early Sunday morning trip to San Diego in order to attend a headstone unveiling.
• Two power stops at what I’m told are San Diego’s only two Judaica stores, where I bought Shabbat candles and a book.
• A power drive to Orange County from San Diego in order to spend Father’s Day with some of Tamara’s family.

Monday

Tamara decided not to go to work so we made it a fun day!

• Went out for a kick ass Israeli style kosher breakfast at a great little restaurant in the valley called Cafe Eilat.
• Checked out a few kosher shops in the valley where Tamara picked up some of her favorite kosher gum.
• Spontaneously decided to go and check out VBS which is one of the finalists in our current shul shopping as a couple thing.
• Found this kosher meat restaurant where we proceeded to buy some take out vegetarian lunch.
• Drove down to the La Brea Tar Pits where we enjoyed a picnic style lunch and then toured the park.

I realize that it doesn’t look like that much but it sure felt like a lot to me. I mean I’m a guy who spent the last eight months or so trying to go out no more than once or twice a week. I’m not complaining rather just sitting here thinking, wow I did more this past weekend and I normally do in a week back home. All in all it was very fun and I look forward to doing more of this kind of stuff with Tamara. It really is great that we are finally together as a couple.

Anyhow that’s about it for now, so ttyl.

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I stumbled on to this article Saturday night and thought to myself “wow this sounds like something I just wrote“.

It’s nice to see that I am not just making this stuff up in my deluded mind. Yes indeed it seems that others are just as delude as I am and I just love synchronistic craziness.

Here is a snippet from the article for those of you who are interested in the topic!

Kashrut - rooted in the Bible, and developed by the Rabbis - is the Jewish tradition’s clearly delineated response to this challenge. Kashrut sets limits on what foods we can eat: for example, we can only eat certain (primarily domesticated) animals, and we must slaughter them in the least painful, most respectful way. The blood must be drained and buried, because the life is in the blood and must be returned to the earth. There are also prohibitions against eating shellfish, and the mixing of meat and milk products.

We felt a need to expand this traditional understanding of Kashrut to include global environmental and social issues which the Rabbis of two thousand years ago did not face. In conversation with Jewish people in many communities, we have developed the following tentative guidelines for a Kashrut which speaks to our planetary concerns.

1. We are concerned about the earth as a living being, including the soil, water, air and all the planet’s living systems. It is important to choose foods which are produced, transported and packaged in a way that is sustainable and not harmful to the earth. For us this means buying organic foods even when they cost more, and we also try to choose foods grown locally - or grow our own! This minimizes transportation and connects us to the earth’s natural cycles.

2. We are concerned not only with how animals are slaughtered, but also how they are raised. Animals are often treated as commodities, to be “manufactured” as efficiently as possible for maximum profit. The resulting “factory farms” are appalling places, filled with unspeakable suffering. Upon reading John Robbins’ description of them in Diet for A New America, we decided to avoid all animal products that have not been raised humanely and respectfully.

3. We are concerned about the health of our bodies. We are responsible for taking good care of the bodies that God has given to us. Too much food can be destructive to our systems - especially if it is full of fat and sugar. Tobacco, alcohol, caffeine and other drugs can also be harmful. We eat mostly whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes and nuts. We try to pay attention to how our bodies feel about the food we are eating and to make our meals as nourishing and pleasing as possible.

4. We are concerned about the people who produce and prepare our food. We have extended Kashrut to include concern for how the people who grow and harvest it are treated. We use our food dollars to support growers and producers who demonstrate concern for their workers (and we avoid, for example, commercially produced grapes in response to the United Farm Workers’ boycott). We also use the Council for Economic Priority’s guide Shopping For A Better World to identify and support socially responsible producers.

You can read the entire thing over here if you like.

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I tend to see myself first and foremost as a spiritual person and that’s something I’m usually pretty proud of. I’m also a person who talks a lot about gratitude as an essential part of the spiritual path. I read about it and I think about how I can become more grateful towards myself, others, G-D and life. Unfortunately I often seem to fall short in this department. I think much of this problem is rooted in the fact that I’m so disconnected from many aspects of my life.

Anyhow today I spoke briefly with my mother on the phone and she told me a story that really hit home. Apparently one of her friends has a son who is roughly my age and overweight (but slightly smaller than me according to my mother) who was recently sent to the hospital for heart trouble. I didn’t get exactly what was wrong but apparently it’s serious and he’s going to need to be medically monitored and make some significant lifestyle changes. My mother is very cautious with me because of our history, so she didn’t say anything about my health and or weight but I could feel the concern in her voice.

Coming back to the idea that I am a “spiritual” person, over the past year (on and off at least) I’ve been trying to bring my body into the equation and it’s been a huge struggle. I’ve had a rough life and have overcome a lot including heavy alcohol abuse (oh by the way later this month marks my third year clean and sober, yay for me) so it’s not like I’m unable to master my addictions. It is just that for whatever reason this weight thing has been very difficult, frustrating and depressing.

My mother’s story has me worried because although I’ve been very fortunate even as an overweight adults in terms of health. I’m slipping into that age group now where things like weight can really start to get you into trouble.

I don’t want to come off as someone who’s unhealthy because I’m not actually at this point unhealthy I’m just fat. I mean compared to a lot of people I’m actually very healthy because I don’t drink, I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs. Also for most of my adulthood I’ve lived off of a primarily plant based diet and as of last month I’ve given up what little meat I was previously eating. It’s funny because Tamara thinks I’m one of the healthiest eaters she knows she just always adds “your portions are just way too big” and she’s right about that. I really don’t think I’m unhealthy I’m just unfortunately pretty fat and that puts me at risk of becoming unhealthy every day I stay like this.

This week I’ve realized that I don’t need to change the foods I eat. In fact I don’t even think I need to change my attitude towards the foods I eat. I’ve realized that I need to change my attitude towards my body when it comes to food.

I’ve also realized that I need to move my sense of “Spirituality” out of my Neshamah, past my mind and into my body a little bit more because there seems to be a disconnect in this department.

I’ve never been super connected to my body in fact I’ve spent a lot of time trying to escape it, which is why I wound up neck deep in booze and drugs growing up. I guess the process of reconnecting to my body is something that has been slowly taking place for years and now it’s just time to kick it up to the next level or something.

I have been doing stuff on this front for a little while but I think it’s time to try something new. It’s time to bring G-D into this equation or rather bring my relationship with G-D into the process. Because up until now I haven’t done that, well at least not with any measure of honesty.

Okay so bringing it back to gratitude and its role in spirituality I’m wondering the following.

Can one honestly claim to be grateful towards Hashem if that gratitude isn’t reflected in the way we treat our own bodies? Can I truly be taking a sense of covenant to heart if I’m ignorantly destroying the very body that holds that heart? Do I have the right to criticize anyone for being environmentally unfriendly, when I mismanage my own physical environment?

Okay yes I’m being a little melodramatic but the basic points behind these questions are in my opinion worthy of some serious consideration.

Anyhow bearing the above in mind I have decided that it’s time for me to put more effort into connecting to my body as a way of connecting to G-D. I really don’t know how all of this is going to unfold but I think that reciting “Asher Yatzar” daily is a good start.

And on that note I leave you with the following lovely version of “Asher Yatzar” taken from a sermon at Temple Beth-El of Richmond, Virginia.

“Blessed are You, O Lord, our God, king of the universe, that created the human being with infinite wisdom, and created passages that are supposed to be open (like mouth and nose) and passages that are supposed to be closed (like stomach and heart). It is revealed and known before the throne of Your glory, that if those intended to be closed were open or those intended to be open were closed, we couldn’t exist and arise before You. Blessed are You, O Lord, healer of all flesh and who does wondrously.”

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The more I Learn about Rabbi Rami Shapiro the more I’m impressed with him. I think it’s because Rabbi Rami is the kind of person who is able to draw beautifully outside of the lines. Reading him I can’t help but think to myself here’s a guy who is an outsider but not in some sort of finger-pointing disgruntled way. Nope, he just comes off as a guy with the right balance of self-deprecation, humor, insight and honesty.

If you haven’t checked out his blog I highly recommend it. I mean you know it’s gotta be good when Steg is commenting on it.

Anyhow Rabbi Rami’s latest post explores the issue of what he’s referring to as Lukewarm Judaism. Although I’m not sure I agreed with it 100%. I would say that 99% of it hit the target in terms of where my thinking on the subject is these days.

Here are a few snippets from his latest post which I found to be rather interesting.

I agree with Michael: “watered down versions of religious faith fail.” Where I disagree is over the implication that Reform Judaism is watered down. Today’s Reform Judaism is actually thickening up. Traditional norms, rituals, and Hebrew liturgy are making just enough of a comeback as to thicken Reform into Conservatism Lite. What I would say is that lukewarm religion fails, and that contemporary Reform Judaism is definitely lukewarm.

I haven’t been around long enough to base my thinking on anything other than intuition and limited experience and although I agree with Rabbi Rami that Reform is indeed thickening up. I’m not certain that I agree that Reform Judaism is just lukewarm. There’s something about the way he phrased it that sounds too definite, too permanent and I’m not sure that I agree. The way I see it reform is doing exactly what it is supposed to do “Reforming” itself and I don’t think that necessarily makes it Conservative light.

The original Reform Judaism of the late 19th century was ice cold. It had bite. It stood for something. You either loved it or hated it. It was either genius or heresy. Today it is long forgotten as Conservative and Reform Judaisms slowly merge into a massive blob of tasteless porridge, Orthodoxy is dynamic, creative, hot, hard, and authentic. It is also homophobic, misogynist, and medieval.

I think it’s great how he’s characterized the polar oppositeness of these two traditions and I think that he’s right on the money. However he may have been a little bit unbalanced because although he’s right in pointing out how orthodoxy is indeed homophobic, misogynist and medieval he leaves out how Classical Reform was in many ways disrespectful, flat and intellectually dishonest. Having said that I’m not sure that he would disagree with my statements (not like I know him or anything) but it would’ve been nice if only for the sake of balance if he had also mentioned these things in his post.

We need a new Judaism. One that is a icy alternative to Orthodoxy’s blistering heat. One that blends the Neo-Hasidic fervor of Jewish Renewal with the theological daring of Mordecai Kaplan, and the religious humanism of Martin Buber. We need a Judaism unafraid to be deeply spiritual, contemplative, postmodern, scientific, soulful, and blessedly anarchistic. We need a Judaism of which Spinoza and Einstein could be proud.

Amen To That!!!

He is indeed right on the money with the above statement and reading it I couldn’t help but be struck by an overwhelming sense of synchronicity. What Rabbi Rami has written is a pithy summary of where my own thinking has found it’s self over the last couple of months.

Anyhow both this post and Rabbi Rami are certainly worth checking out.

Be well

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