Defining and Redefining
August 11, 2006
A few more days of significant group introspection, somewhat taxing, somewhat exciting. Now enroute to Boston for the wedding weekend and then off overseas on Sunday night.
Much of the past few days would be categorized as TMI, but I will share one interesting conversation. Along with a representative “young Jewish leader” to facilitate our discussion, we had a fascinating discussion on obligation, spirituality, and community among this generation of new Jewish expression. I ingratiated myself to the facilitator by immediately objecting to his categorization that my generation’s new Jewish communal and artistic projects were of a different character and measure than all preceding generations. Now while I do think that Matisyahu and the Hebrew Hammer are new forms of Jewish expression that should be recognized by the established community, I just had trouble with the notion that these upstart minyanim somehow differ in character and intent from the havurot of my parents’ time. Every generation reinvents their own modes of expression, sometimes substantively different from their parents’ modes, sometimes more similar.
In a larger sense, I had some trouble with the idea of a generational shift in ritual and communal practice as speaking to the power of a mono-generational community. While I do appreciate the security and hominess of the same-age communities my friends and I have created (and that my parents created), I think we lose a certain perspective and breadth when we just spend time with people our own age and demographic. I also feel a sort of allegiance with the older shul members who call out, why don’t you just join a synagogue rather than starting your own thing? Maybe it’s just where I’ve thrown my lot over the past few years, but I have less and less patience for those who reject an intergenerational perspective in favor of hyping our generation’s innovations.
I write this from the train to Boston, a ticket for which I last-minute booked after the craziness on the planes in Heaththrow. When I told my mother about the emotional upheaval of the last week, she said, “you’re at one with the world.” Between bombs falling in the north and our destruction of Beirut to liquid explosives on airplanes in the UK, the world seems to be moving closer and closer to crisis. May this coming year be better than the one that’s passed….
A few more days of significant group introspection, somewhat taxing, somewhat exciting. Now enroute to Boston for the wedding weekend and then off overseas on Sunday night.
Much of the past few days would be categorized as TMI, but I will share one interesting conversation. Along with a representative “young Jewish leader” to facilitate our discussion, we had a fascinating discussion on obligation, spirituality, and community among this generation of new Jewish expression. I ingratiated myself to the facilitator by immediately objecting to his categorization that my generation’s new Jewish communal and artistic projects were of a different character and measure than all preceding generations. Now while I do think that Matisyahu and the Hebrew Hammer are new forms of Jewish expression that should be recognized by the established community, I just had trouble with the notion that these upstart minyanim somehow differ in character and intent from the havurot of my parents’ time. Every generation reinvents their own modes of expression, sometimes substantively different from their parents’ modes, sometimes more similar.
In a larger sense, I had some trouble with the idea of a generational shift in ritual and communal practice as speaking to the power of a mono-generational community. While I do appreciate the security and hominess of the same-age communities my friends and I have created (and that my parents created), I think we lose a certain perspective and breadth when we just spend time with people our own age and demographic. I also feel a sort of allegiance with the older shul members who call out, why don’t you just join a synagogue rather than starting your own thing? Maybe it’s just where I’ve thrown my lot over the past few years, but I have less and less patience for those who reject an intergenerational perspective in favor of hyping our generation’s innovations.
I write this from the train to Boston, a ticket for which I last-minute booked after the craziness on the planes in Heaththrow. When I told my mother about the emotional upheaval of the last week, she said, “you’re at one with the world.” Between bombs falling in the north and our destruction of Beirut to liquid explosives on airplanes in the UK, the world seems to be moving closer and closer to crisis. May this coming year be better than the one that’s passed….
posted by S. @ 8:13 AM
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