Jewish Law "Meme"

In lieu of red tape- I mean, of talking about another day of stuffing envelopes and beign slightly mopey... Lizarded from smartphil8.
Why do you do halakha--whatever that means to you--I'd like to know. Simply add in comments or stick it in your lj.

He had a whole list of reasons, and I'm honestly not sure any of them are quite my perspective- either that or all of them are, but only sort of. Sure I do it because G-d said so, and because they're useful for me, and because they're good structure, and they feel good. But really, as far as I can tell, it mostly works down to intuition that this is what I should be doing, regardless of why. It feels Right, with a capital R, and beyond that, all the reasons sort of blend and are only partially useful. At some point I became aware that this is just what I should be doing, and I was going to do it. I'm not really sure where the should came from. It just was there, and I finally got around to noticing it. I don't know if it was coming from me or G-d or the interface between me and the divine. I probably should put more energy into understanding that, but I don't know where to begin at all.

To borrow an idea from Madeleine L'Engle (who was applying it to the rules of life in general, and good and bad and stuff like that- she mentions it in A Wrinkle In Time, and references it again in I think THe Summer of the Great-Grandmother in reference to her personal life and her adopted daughter) it's sort of like a sonnet- if it doesn't follow the form, it isn't a sonnet, and a sonnet is a particularly strict form- iambic pentameter, rhyming, 3 stanzas and a couplet. But that said (and this is my own elaboration) there are several varieties of sonnets. Similarly, there isn't, I don't think, only one exact true path with halakha (Jewish law)- there are variations.

Nevertheless, there are things that I don't do that are legislated by halakha not because I'm simply not ready for them, but because I don't find them meaningful- and that doesn't fit into the whole pattern I described earlier of really buying into the system as a system, both for G-d and myself. So I guess- I buy into the system if there's any chance that I'll find it meaningful, but some things just feel too far out there for me, and for those, I'm willing to write a piece of poetry that isn't a sonnet, or occasionally even something close to one. It's a back and forth.

I don't think I've really answered the question at all. But oh well.

Jewish Law "Meme"

In lieu of red tape- I mean, of talking about another day of stuffing envelopes and beign slightly mopey... Lizarded from smartphil8.
Why do you do halakha--whatever that means to you--I'd like to know. Simply add in comments or stick it in your lj.

He had a whole list of reasons, and I'm honestly not sure any of them are quite my perspective- either that or all of them are, but only sort of. Sure I do it because G-d said so, and because they're useful for me, and because they're good structure, and they feel good. But really, as far as I can tell, it mostly works down to intuition that this is what I should be doing, regardless of why. It feels Right, with a capital R, and beyond that, all the reasons sort of blend and are only partially useful. At some point I became aware that this is just what I should be doing, and I was going to do it. I'm not really sure where the should came from. It just was there, and I finally got around to noticing it. I don't know if it was coming from me or G-d or the interface between me and the divine. I probably should put more energy into understanding that, but I don't know where to begin at all.

To borrow an idea from Madeleine L'Engle (who was applying it to the rules of life in general, and good and bad and stuff like that- she mentions it in A Wrinkle In Time, and references it again in I think THe Summer of the Great-Grandmother in reference to her personal life and her adopted daughter) it's sort of like a sonnet- if it doesn't follow the form, it isn't a sonnet, and a sonnet is a particularly strict form- iambic pentameter, rhyming, 3 stanzas and a couplet. But that said (and this is my own elaboration) there are several varieties of sonnets. Similarly, there isn't, I don't think, only one exact true path with halakha (Jewish law)- there are variations.

Nevertheless, there are things that I don't do that are legislated by halakha not because I'm simply not ready for them, but because I don't find them meaningful- and that doesn't fit into the whole pattern I described earlier of really buying into the system as a system, both for G-d and myself. So I guess- I buy into the system if there's any chance that I'll find it meaningful, but some things just feel too far out there for me, and for those, I'm willing to write a piece of poetry that isn't a sonnet, or occasionally even something close to one. It's a back and forth.

I don't think I've really answered the question at all. But oh well.