tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8484964530322163939.post499362444253487389..comments2023-10-07T05:24:14.956-04:00Comments on Skeptical Observations: Three Ways of Looking at Being JewishMiles Rindhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03733605717776262840noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8484964530322163939.post-11694841579370197732016-03-02T14:00:33.078-05:002016-03-02T14:00:33.078-05:00I've just discovered your blog, and I'm fi...I've just discovered your blog, and I'm finding your approach extremely refreshing. I wrote a post on my own blog a while ago on my realization that the feeling of being in a tribe can bring on emotions that are surprisingly strong. Here's the link to that post: http://josette-the-voice-within.blogspot.com/2013/10/safe-inside.html<br /><br />I also wanted to say that your assertion that you merely feel as though you belong but do not practice is true only if you don't count this blog as a form of practice. I believe that there are few limitations on what you may consider practicing Judaism. Since you are thinking deeply about Judaism (Jewish culture, practice, history, law, identity, beliefs, etc.) I consider that a sort of meditation or study. If you define "Torah" as "Jewish lore" or "teaching" or "thought" then you are a scholar of Torah and therefore a practicing Jew (one of the mitzvahs is to study Torah, after all). I guess you could do that as a non-Jewish academic studying and writing about Judaism, but there's a certain flavor to your writing that imparts an emotional component — because you write not as an outsider but from your identity as a Jew. If you were writing an academic blog, you probably wouldn't write in the first person, for example.<br /><br /> Josettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04102342149434683516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8484964530322163939.post-53911461697161369252010-01-04T16:46:44.251-05:002010-01-04T16:46:44.251-05:00Interesting post.
I'm curious to know more ab...Interesting post.<br /><br />I'm curious to know more about what you actually <i>experience</i> when you say you feel a "sense of belonging." Certainly it can't be illusory if you feel something, right? How does your sense of belonging to the Jewish people differ from, say, your sense of being an American? Is there a difference, and if so, what is it?<br /><br />By the way, your first thought of how to title the post, "Three Ways of Looking at a Jew" was perhaps even more apt: Is there not a sense in which one is Jewish not because of anything you think, say or do, but because others see you as a Jew? The fourth "way" would then be "One who other Jews says is a Jew."<br /><br />I have a good friend, and Israeli, who was born to a Jewish mother but who in no way identifies herself as Jewish. She doesn't have or want to have any personal connection to anything "Jewish." She <i>recognizes</i> that others see her as Jewish, but she takes this in the same way that I <i>recognize</i> that some Christians believe I will go to hell unless I accept Jesus as the Christ. <br /><br />She and I have had many (friendly) arguments about this. She could care less how I or anyone else identifies her. I, on the other hand, found something personally troubling about her stance, as if the act of saying "I don't belong" makes it so...because if it does, then what could be the meaning of saying "I <i>do</i> belong"? I now understand much better (not surprisingly) that it was my <i>own</i> questions about the meaning and content of my <i>own</i> identity that her position was so "troubling" to me...but it took being exposed to it (and a lot of reflection) to see that.rogueregimehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16747123415617348742noreply@blogger.com