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essential torah
There was a lively discussion. As regular readers of my journal know, this is something I often come back to. I don't see how I could just pick the easy/fun/appealing stuff, and I don't. Life would certainly be a lot easier if I didn't keep kosher, for instance; I could eat more easily in restaurants, and I could eat the foods I like but no longer eat. If I didn't keep Shabbat I could run errands on Saturdays, go to shows on Friday nights, and not have my work schedule constrained in the winter. But yet, I do these things anyway (and others).
Sure, there is intrinsic value in being mindful of what and how you eat (even if the rules seem goofy), and in taking a forced day off from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the week. But there are lots of ways to achieve those goals without wrapping them up in religion. And for me, they weren't goals but, rather, effects.
Yet I do not keep the torah in the way that Orthodox Judaism teaches. There are theological reasons for this (which I'll go into if asked). But I don't set the torah aside as irrelevant; it plays a central role in how I live my life and relate to God.
What, then, is my "essential torah", the principle that guides how I understand the whole of torah and the traditions that follow? Talmud torah k'neged kulam, the study of torah is equal to all the mitzvot because it leads to them. My core obligation to the torah is to study it, try to understand it (recognizing that this is a lifelong task), and be willing to make changes in my life based on that understanding. As Rabbi Hillel said, all the rest is commentary.
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Ok, I'll ask.
Seriously, I think "Orthodox" is a poor label. If you're shomeret shabbat v'kashrut why should it matter to anyone whether your doxy is ortho? I'm curious why you choose to identify as you do.
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Seriously, I think "Orthodox" is a poor label. If you're shomeret shabbat v'kashrut why should it matter to anyone whether your doxy is ortho?
There's a difference between orthodox and orthoprax. (I'm not -prax either, but I'll get back to that.) I think your doxy has to inform your praxis, else what's the point? So I spend time trying to figure out just what I believe and what that implies.
I believe that revelation happened, more or less as described or that it might as well have. I believe that Israel had encounters with God and that the torah, written by people, captures the essence of what happened and what God commanded. I don't believe it is the precise word of God and that nuances like spelling variations signify divine intent. (They're interesting curiosities sometimes, and sometimes jumping-off points for valuable lessons, but not divine signals.) I don't believe that all of halacha was given at Sinai and transmitted flawlessly until it was written down centuries later. And I don't believe that halacha was meant to be frozen in time.
I think we are required to struggle with God, with torah, and with life, just as our ancestors did. I think we're each obligated to pursue a relationship with God and flesh out the details of the brit as it applies to each of us. We don't have to go it alone; I've certainly asked my rabbi many halachic questions, because sometimes you just want an answer and not a research project. But I think both the privilege and the responsibility fall to the individual Jew, not to an institution.
All Jews "pick and choose" to some extent, because none of us is perfect or perfectly-observant. My Orthodox friends talk about the ladder of mitzvot, and that which of the 613 rungs you're on isn't as important as the direction in which you're travelling. I use the ladder analogy too, but I'm not sure how many rungs there are and there's more than one ladder.
So even if I keep some critical number of mitzvot perfectly according to traditional interpretation (which I don't), I do it out of a sense of personal obligation and understanding rather than because that's what the system mandates, and I think that makes a difference. It's not a difference in level, but in approach.
People sometimes see me walking to shul on Shabbat, or not eating certain foods, or whatever, and they draw the conclusion that what I do is incompatable with Reform Judaism. Lots of people seem to think that being Reform means having the freedom to say "I don't do X", but there's a flip side -- it also means having the freedom to say "I am obligated to do X". I don't want my fellow Reform Jews to write me off as Orthodox and thus let themselves off the hook too easily. :-)
My observance of key mitzvot is serious, but it wouldn't always pass halachic muster. This is true for some Orthodox too, of course, but their doxy requires them to view their failings as errors to be corrected. I don't think I'm sinning by eating vegetarian food in restaurants; it's not that I wish for a kosher-restaurants-only observance but am not there yet, but rather that I think where I am is fine. That could change with more study and contemplateion, but that's where I am now. Or, to pick another example, I don't believe that the God of Psalm 150 doesn't want us to use musical instruments in worship on the holiest day of the week, so I have absolutely no problem with our guitar-led services (and if I played guitar, I'd be happy to lead 'em myself). I've studied Shabbat 73 and the 39 avot melachot; I just don't buy that particular connection.
I don't know if I'm making sense. I should write a more-organized essay, but then you'd've had to wait even longer. :-)