viva la pluralism!

to recap: the last 3 days have been spent indoors. the first whiff of fresh, non-recycled air I got in 3 days was this afternoon. I am an outdoorsy type person (to some extent). being without fresh air is a bit of an issue.

to tell the honest truth, I had a really good time at model un this year; there was a very good balance between fun & seriousness in committee sessions, I didn't bother meeting people or making friends outside of sessions (or in sessions too much for that matter) and I kind of just stuck to myself. nice.

anyway, it's amazing to see how these people at these sessions go NUTS over yeshiva university. it's like constant drool. they look rabid. also, the amount of people who go to this thing JUST to meet other jews is unbelievable. while I was sticking to myself, people were out there meeting their future shomer-negiah spouse. I shit you not. again.

I guess I have moms & pops to thank for not ever making me think that I need to marry a jew. granted, that would be pretty hypocritical on their end given their connection to the interfaith marriage world, but still. putting me through 13 years of jewish day school and still being considerably alright with the idea of me marrying a non-jew is a pretty big feat.

another facet of this conference that fascinated me was how out of my comfort zone I was. it's incredible that the different denominations of judaism are really SO different in so many different ways. dress, mannerisms, behavior, attitude, resonance, etc., etc. the list could seriously continue. what has judaism become? how can all these people from all these different backgrounds with all these different beliefs in God really be jewish? that's why I've begun to tell people that judaism is a religion of selfishness -- a pick and choose, salad bar religion. the different denominations of judaism enable each practicing jew to pick and choose which aspects of the religion resonate with said individual. this doesn't mean that the person even has to opt for all of the ideas of a specific denomination; you can associate your views with one denomination and call yourself a practicing other-denomination (it's like calling yourself fiscally conservative but everything else liberal...to a certain extent). anyway, this aspect of judaism is its greatest strength and weakness all in one.

how to we connect as a nation? what are the underlying characteristics that make us jewish? (there are none, unless I'm wrong in which case feel free to correct me) what can we say connects everyone? there is nothing. but, how has judaism survived? why do people still keep converting in? (because people can make judaism fit into their lives in pretty much any way they want, which gives religion a place in a primarily secular-dominant society).
and so I take this time to express my love for pluralism, the idea that we can all learn together and respect each other and coexist in one environment. it sounds like coexistance should be required inter-religiously, but it kind of just needs to exist intra-religiously first. denominations of judaism need to respect each other and live together (ah, israel, if only you could do this for us...but you cannot). and that's where pluralism comes in. it allows each person to be selfish in the best way possible by giving everyone the respect that religion commands and is so frequently lost in day-to-day life.

and so I preach pluralism over orthodoxy or reform or conservative or conservadox. pluralism: the best form of selfishness ever; the selfishness to be independent. how's that for a novel, 21st century idea?