IF THAT IS THE PEG, WHERE IS THE HOLE?

Tzipporah asks:

OK, BoTH, if you want to be part of the JIBS, I'm DYING of curiosity as to what category you (not your blog, YOU) fit into, as someone who claims not to be "a Red Sea pedestrian."

(Yes, I've been trying to play cool before and not ask, as though I had any clue at all...)

:D




I realize that my blog is pretty much self-explanatory (and that's a good thing too, seeing as I would be hard put to explain anything at all about the content since inception, or about my fabulously large ego in bilboarding my writings for the world to see here).


But how to explain where I fit in?


Well, I'm not a Jew. Nor likely to become one.

[Not Jewish, not planning to convert.]


Converting would require a huge act of faith on my part, plus conviction, and a desire to belong. My faith is founded upon doubting, my conviction is paired with a strong skeptical streak, and for the past three decades I have arrogantly considered myself a majority of one.

[Besides, how could I redefine myself as a Jew, when I've already defined myself strongly as an irritating Dutch-American? How could I even consider lessening the ethno-cultural collective which is 'irritating Dutch-American'? There are not enough of us as it is!]


I'm not exploring different religions or belief-systems - while I read about non-Jewish religion with fascination, I'm pretty much planted in a monotheistic Judaic pot, and not really simpatico towards any of the more exotic creeds.

[Slight exception being Sikhism - how can one not admire a religion which as one of its major ikarim has a belligerent "we're not gonna take any crap from anybody" attitude?
But Sikhism is founded upon monotheized Hinduism, and fuelled by the historical Punjabi resistance to the Muslim conquest and tyranny. It is as culturally based as any other socio-political movement. I am neither a member of that culture, nor that much in love with all the sparkling facets of Punjabiness, that it has any strong appeal. I admire Sikhs. I like their robustly greasy cuisine. And their sense of humour and sheer ballsiness is immensely appealing. But I do not find myself engaged by their creed.]

Judaism is a fundamental part of my cultural woof. Of course, Christianity is also part of my environment, but there is too much cultic nonsense in Christianity to make it palatable, entirely aside from the avoda-zaraishkeit of trinitarianism and the Nicaene creed.
I cannot swallow any significant part of the Christian textual corpus, nor believe in so precisely defined a deity as Christianity postulates.
I do not accept answers that are so black and white, nor convictions not open to questioning.

[Which is also why I find Marxism utterly repulsive.]


Judaism presents a different approach to the whats and whys. Specifically, a fundamental part of Judaism is argumentative - what does this mean, why does it say this, and how does it relate to anything else? You have to ask the questions, and follow the arguments. But it is accepted that you may not necessarily answer the questions the same way, nor present the same arguments.
Judaism almost demands agnosis and flexibility from the student.
Other variants on monotheism hardly tolerate any multiplicities of interpretation.

[Yes, I know that there is much simplistic conviction and rejection of questions among Jewish groups as well. But on the other hand.... shivim panim le Torah categorically allows for differing approaches, and the idea of the hester panim denies absolutes.]


I have to doubt that the Torah is the word for word transmission - but it is a most fascinating lab record of the experiment with knowing the divine, and there is so much that is based on Torah that even a lifetime is not enough to explore the whole of it.

[And there too, Torah and Talmud, and the mefarshim, and Hashkofo, and the Shulchan Aruch, the Mapa, the Mishne Torah, Tanya, and, and, much and, and, differ from many other textual traditions.]


The Judaic tradition presents an ongoing dialogue about beliefs, behaviours, practices, and ethics.
Even if it weren't the only game in town, it would still be endlessly intriguing.
Addictive even.


So, Tzipporah, the answer to your question where I fit in, is that I probably don't fit very well, though I'm more or less a fellow traveler.
Jewy, but not Jewish.