Bits and Pieces of Self and Day

Tonight rather than dancing, I went with zodiacmg and Steve and Steve to a panel on COnservative Judaism that was part of the USCJ Biennial Convention and was free for college students (including free food that we got there sort of late for- but they were willing to wait for me to get home from work, so...) We got there late for dinner, but still got fed- and we got there successfully, although my windows started fogging up and I had to wipe them once or twice, which made me rather nervous- but we drove successfully to the T, and took that to the hotel the event was at, and we drove home from the T successfully too, and discovered that really all we needed to do was follow one street and it became Moody and from there, the route is known and I've done it plenty, give or take.

The event itself was humorously in the same place that Junior/Senior formal was the year I went (maybe every year, I don't know- I didn't go last year, and won't go this year unless it magically turns into an event with dancing of a sort I like rather than mostly things that dont' look at all appropriate for polite company, especially polite company wearing fancy evening clothes), which seemed mildly odd to me. I mean, not from a realistic point of view- a large space is a large space. But from the egocentricism of my internal processes that tend to treat myself like the main character of a long and not terribly well plotted novel, it was odd.

The talk and panel themselves were interesting and quite controversial at moments. R. Gillman basically argued that the statement that conservative Judaism is a halakhic statement is meaningless- that it can't be disproved, but in disproving the things that people use to contradict it, it died of overproof. And that it doesn't mean anything to most of our laypeople anyways. It was an interesting and in many ways a valid point, but one that unsettled me a bit- I mean, I agreed to this label because the halakha is important to me, and I agree with a lot of the positions, and Orthodoxy clearly isn't a box I fit in. So- if the movement went that way, I would be out a label, I guess. And for someone who was pretty iffy about adopting that label in the first place, that is a surprisingly lonely concept to contemplate.

And now I've been distracted by a long conversation with a friend about egalitarianism and halakha and orthodoxy, etc. And I should ahve been in bed hours ago. But I'm too darn wound up. Especially because said friend is reminding me frighteningly of Steve, which he's always done, but well, now also in the not-thinking-about-the-implications aspect of things too.

Bits and Pieces of Self and Day

Tonight rather than dancing, I went with zodiacmg and Steve and Steve to a panel on COnservative Judaism that was part of the USCJ Biennial Convention and was free for college students (including free food that we got there sort of late for- but they were willing to wait for me to get home from work, so...) We got there late for dinner, but still got fed- and we got there successfully, although my windows started fogging up and I had to wipe them once or twice, which made me rather nervous- but we drove successfully to the T, and took that to the hotel the event was at, and we drove home from the T successfully too, and discovered that really all we needed to do was follow one street and it became Moody and from there, the route is known and I've done it plenty, give or take.

The event itself was humorously in the same place that Junior/Senior formal was the year I went (maybe every year, I don't know- I didn't go last year, and won't go this year unless it magically turns into an event with dancing of a sort I like rather than mostly things that dont' look at all appropriate for polite company, especially polite company wearing fancy evening clothes), which seemed mildly odd to me. I mean, not from a realistic point of view- a large space is a large space. But from the egocentricism of my internal processes that tend to treat myself like the main character of a long and not terribly well plotted novel, it was odd.

The talk and panel themselves were interesting and quite controversial at moments. R. Gillman basically argued that the statement that conservative Judaism is a halakhic statement is meaningless- that it can't be disproved, but in disproving the things that people use to contradict it, it died of overproof. And that it doesn't mean anything to most of our laypeople anyways. It was an interesting and in many ways a valid point, but one that unsettled me a bit- I mean, I agreed to this label because the halakha is important to me, and I agree with a lot of the positions, and Orthodoxy clearly isn't a box I fit in. So- if the movement went that way, I would be out a label, I guess. And for someone who was pretty iffy about adopting that label in the first place, that is a surprisingly lonely concept to contemplate.

And now I've been distracted by a long conversation with a friend about egalitarianism and halakha and orthodoxy, etc. And I should ahve been in bed hours ago. But I'm too darn wound up. Especially because said friend is reminding me frighteningly of Steve, which he's always done, but well, now also in the not-thinking-about-the-implications aspect of things too.