Those of you who are more-mature in your practice (this usually means Ethnic Orthodox or culturally Catholic instead of the hyper-maximalism common in the convert community) may find here a very strong sense of similarity.

Yup.

Sorry, that’s “nuance”…

Hi Huw, thanks for the links. I’ll check them out.

What you describe about converts is very familiar to those in the orthodox Jewish world as well. There’s an additional group I think you’re aware of, those who were born into Jewish families and are “returning” to observance, either from never having been raised to observe, or after having left a traditional life and coming back. They are sometimes called Baalei Tshuvot (literally “children of repentance”), vs. those colloquially called FFB’s (Frum [observant] From Birth). Right now, paralleling the boomlet you describe among converts to Eastern Christianity, there’s a trendlet of people going BT. Does this exist in the Orthodox Christian world as well?

[Side note: among non-Christians, the idea that a Christian moving from one Christian group to another is called a convert is almost incomprehensible. Even though there's often a re-baptism, anointing, or other ceremony, outside the Christian world people assume that "Christian" is an umbrella term for everyone who follows Jesus. As my mother, God rest her, said when I asked permission to become a Lutheran at age 16, "It's okay, but why do you want to worship statues?"]

When I converted to Christianity (Lutheran) as a teenager I had a convert’s intensity about everything, along with that particular intensity that goes with being an adolescent. I don’t know how my parents put up with my snooty attitude about our family’s secular-Jewish Christmases and Easters for those few years. (BTW, I now refer to my upbringing as Secular Humanist Pagan Jewish. Best term I’ve ever come up with to define it.)

In re the second paragraph in your original post: yes, it is more than that, but it’s hard to describe in a liberal context. For observant Jews (Orthodox and some Conservative Jews, and those in the middle now calling themselves Conservadox), “commandment” is really closer to the mark, because it describes a level of obedience to God that isn’t covered by “good deed.” And as this is the backdrop against which liberal Jews define themselves, there’s always a hint of guilty feelings, a defensiveness about not being observant, that lurks below the surface. Many will vehemently deny it, but it’s there. I was recently at a gathering and happened to be sitting at table across from one person of mixed Jewish-Christian descent (mother Jewish), and next to another who was Jewish. The Jewish person ordered something with bacon, and as we shared that we were all three of Jewish descent, one said to the other, “That’s what I love: pork-eatin’ Jews.” This got a big laugh from our companion. Yet, there’s a self-consciousness about this, isn’t there? You never hear non-Jews joke about being pork eaters; why would they? They’re not transgressing a commandment and a millennia-old tradition. So even among non-religious Jews who deny everything, there’s a subterranean awareness of the importance of the mitzvot as commandments and their own status as rebels against the tradition.

Also, although liberal and non-observant Jews prefer “good deed,” and talk about individual choice, etc., the onus is (theoretically) upon Reconstructionist and Reform Jews to make *educated* choices; that is, they’re supposed to be learned in the tradition *before* they make their choices. So right away you have a backdrop of learning about the importance of the mitzvot as more than just, I don’t know, suggestions for a happy lifestyle.

The problem, and here’s where I have an issue with the liberal movements, is that they’ve fallen down in the education department (as have most Conservative congregations I’ve known and heard about, actually). So while Jewish members of the Reconstructionist movement are fond of quoting Kaplan’s “voice not veto” policy, and Reform’s policy is that Jews are to make “informed” Jewish choices, the fact is that in the vast majority of these settings the tradition is not properly taught (by that I mean with all its fascinating history, complexity, and spiritual power). So, over the past couple of hundred years or so, as Jews have been permitted to integrate with their surrounding communities and attain full citizenship, the non-orthodox have rushed to assimilate, letting traditional practices fall by the wayside. So that by now, generations on, there are Jews who know nothing about their history and inherited culture. In the early 60s when my grandfather chastised my mother for not teaching me the Exodus story (although being, himself, no observer), my mother replied, “I never knew it.”

The liberal movements struggle to make observance “relevant,” while gutting the tradition of references to God, so as to make their texts and prayers more acceptable to Jews who are pretty much secular in their orientation. (Thus, the “good deed” translation replaces the “commandment” translation, which omits the whole idea of God commanding us.) So those of us who seek God often find Him (sorry, I’m old school) outside of Judaism. As a Jewish woman I met once said to me, “I couldn’t find any Jews who would talk about God.” So she started meditating with a group of nuns, and telling herself that really, Judaism was just Christianity without Jesus, right? (Don’t get me started.) Finally, I heard that she had found her way to a welcoming Orthodox (Jewish) congregation and was thrilled. Yes, there are some Jews who talk about God. But they sort of think you should also do something about God, too.

I’m still not clear about whether sacraments are real parallels to mitzvot, however. What’s the sense that sacraments are originated and commanded by God? I think that’s a big difference; in Judaism (well, orthodoxy), commandments — even those mediated by rabbinical authorities — are considered given by God, not men, and therefore are holy acts. Is this true of sacraments?

You might enjoy reading the works of rabbis who consider(ed) performing the mitzvot a way of bringing heaven down to earth, thus sanctifying the everyday. These include the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson and the late Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. Is there a similar thinking about sacraments? Is the energy in those a way of drawing down and giving forth, sort of an sacred energy cycle?

I’m thinking that you might find a truer parallel in the Modern Orthodox movement (not a formal movement, an informal affiliation at best), considered the most left wing part of Orthodoxy (although not left wing as others would see it). As you say about Orthodox Christian practice, there is much variation in the Jewish tradition as well; the view that it is a dry, stagnant tradition is completely false. That’s why the rabbis are always debating! There are always new questions, rehashings of old questions, reinterpretations, etc. Social pressures always exert a push and pull. Among the Modern Orthodox, however, you have another strand: what is known as Torah u’Madda, Torah and Science (aka modern learning). These are observant Jews who engage with modern media (TV, films, etc.) to some extent, who study science as part of God’s creation, etc. This group may be a closer model to Eastern Christianity than the liberal groups.

It’s interesting to note that those who hold the reins of Reform these days have backtracked somewhat, realizing that the originators of the movement threw the baby out with the bathwater (although one acknowledges the reasons why and tries to be sympathetic with their desperate and ultimately doomed attempt to blend in with their non-Jewish neighbors). So there’s a push on within Reform leadership circles to teach Hebrew, to suggest to their congregants that they might want to consider keeping kosher (or, now, “eco-kosher,” an interesting development), find some way to keep the Sabbath, etc. Some say it’s a little too little, a little too late. I think if there’s no engagement with God as a real presence who demands something of us, it’s all window dressing on the community center synagogue model.

I’m still thinking of exploring the Reform rabbinical school, so I’ll report in if I take the tour.

Ciao.

No time for a long reply right now, but just to say: Nothing of what I wrote was intended as a criticism of anything you wrote. As for the movements within Judaism — well, I guess I mean my remarks more as observations. I definitely come from a particular point of view, which is that there is something “real” about God. For those Jews who don’t connect to that, or who connect only as a mental concept rather than as a lived experience, there’s lots in liberal Judaism that works. Anyway, I’m just trying to add to the discussion/exploration. If anything came across as criticism, I apologize. It may just be the way I write.

Ciao…