Community and Judaism

Okay, so now, twenty-four hours into the life of this blog, I've been asked to expand on why I've started it. Well, here goes....

Why I started this blog:

Judaism is a religion, a culture, and an ethnicity, and in all three contexts exists predominantly as a majority - only in Israel is this not the case, and that is a recent and contentious phenomenon, so Judaism is far from stable. Additionally, Judaism has always changed with the times. It was born out of a polytheistic past, evolved into a religion centered on the land and a Temple, then later became a religion scatterred about the world, facing one crisis after another. The Judaism we practice today, no matter our denomination, is different from the Judaism of any past period, and I'm sure from any period yet to come.

So, how do we define ourselves as Jews? Well, the traditional answer is that your a Jew by blood or by conversion, but it must go deeper than that. To even accept the idea of conversion there must be principles and ideas that define what Judaism is. Those ideas have never been constant, and with few exceptions haven't ever been unanimously accepted either (ask six rabbis for an opinion, you'll get at least seven answers, and a WHOLE lot of explanation). The bottom line is that Judaism defines itself the same way many communities do - via common consensus within the community. Thus, to "feel Jewish," I wanted to be sure I had a community that could validate my religious and cultural practices, whatever they may be at any given time.

With that said, I can't ignore the most important reason I really started this blog. Okay, great, we can define ourselves as Jews this way. More importantly, we can explore the common bond we all share - a Jew anywhere in the world feels tied to every other Jew. While many of us mingle with non-Jews frequently (I myself am married to a United Methodist), we still seek those Jewish ties. We seek a place to be Jewish. To that end, all of us in this community, Jew and non-Jew alike, now have a place to share ideas, discuss our lives, learn more about what it means to be a Jew, and just generally kibitz.