Yes, there was. A collective memory of the taste and smell of the cholent. Rabbi Kahane noticed it, too, thirty years ago, in his book, “Why Be Jewish?”:

“Were I a Talmudic sage I might phrase it: ‘On two things does the modern Jew stand – on goyim and on cholent.’ . . .

“For millions of Jews who had left the Judaism of tradition and Torah, becoming members of the New Judaism, the intellectual contradictions and objections were muted by cholent. I do not speak of cholent that cooked away all Friday night in the oven and that emerged with its potatoes and beans, hot and more than filling. I am speaking of all the cholent that remained as warm nostalgic memories in the minds of countless Jews. I speak of the nostalgia that passed for Judaism and that kept the Jewish dreamers from breaking with their people.
“Millions of Jews remained Jews because they were raised in truly Jewish homes. Imbedded in their memories were their own experiences and early lives. They had seen and lived a real Sabbath in their parents’ or grandparents’ homes; they remembered the Kiddush wine cup and the two challas; they remembered the real Passover Seder; they remembered the packed Orthodox shul where people went to daven, not to ‘pray’; they remembered the Jewishness of the Old Judaism and so they moved on to New Judaism, but could never bring themselves to face the contradictions and absurdities that would force them to drop it entirely. They had to remain Jews because of the grip that nostalgia had upon them. Because of cholent.” (p. 87, 88)

“The American Jew, product of the goy and of cholent, whose Judaism is nostalgia, ethics, the memory of the Holocaust, and the UJA. But what of his child? What of Bernie? . . .

“What happens when a child is born free and unencumbered with memories? . . .
“And what happens when a young Jew arises who does not know cholent? Who comes from a home where Judaism lives only in the nostalgic mind of the parents but which is never practiced? Who never saw the shul but only knows the mausoleum that passes for a temple? Who never tasted the Kiddush wine or searched for chametz on Passover eve? Who never saw a sukkah and never danced on Simchas Torah? Who never smelled the cholent! He has no nostalgia; he remembers nothing warm and tender that pricks his conscience and makes him ashamed of letting go. He has no cholent to make him forego the shiksa. And when has neither goyim to beat him and force him to be Jewish nor cholent to prod him into nostalgic reminiscences, he has no reason to be Jewish and so he leaves.
“He leaves and runs to Bridget and there is nothing to stop him.” (p. 92f)

“If it is easier for you to believe that serious non-O Jews are simply lazy or willfully ignorant, I am quite certain there is no way to convince you otherwise so I will not try.”

How many ’serious non-O Jews’ would you estimate are left?
Sadly, it seems that the percentage is negligible, even if you count only those who identify themselves as Conservative Jews.

“I will say that my congregants are not likely to be persuaded to be more observant by such accusations.”

Do you find anything that persuades your congregents to be more observant?
Sadly, it seems that most are rushing to less observance.

I hope I’m wrong. What do you think?

AK

Don’t get excited, Charles is just teasing us…

And WADR to the writer, the “famous saying of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik is that all Jews have a “Brit Goral”, “A Covenant of Fate” which is separate from a Covenant of Faith” has nothing to do with the nostalgia-Judaism whose loss he is lamenting. Rav Soloveichik was discussing an obligation to the well-being of the Jewish people, whereever they may be and whatever befalls them, regardless of commonality of rememberance of “how mama cooked.” To cite one obvious example, the Sephardic Jews and others of the Edot ha Mizrach were and are culturally very different from the Jews of Poland, but we share a common destiny as klal yisroel.

Dear Garnel,

I am not the Baal HaBlog and I don’t control who posts here. I, like you, only shared my opinion about yours. Perhaps I wasn’t clear in what I was trying to say but this is a nice blog and one of the things that makes it stand out from the rest is that it’s not an incessant bashfest of those horrible child-eating, fire-breathing “Hareidim”. For that you can go elsewhere. I’ve seen a only a few of your comments and somehow your sentiments about black hatters come out loud and clear each time, regardless of the subject. I for one, am tired of that nonsense and I sense that many others are as well. That’s just my opinion however, and you’re free to do as you wish. From whatever I’ve read of yours not related to the B”H’er’s you sound like a person whose opinions would be worth reading.

>I am really insulted by the comment of Garnel Ironheart that seems to equate non-observance but having a religious background with Baalei Teshuva who do the best they can, not having a mesorah to learn from.

I’m truly sorry to have offended you. Certainly such was not my intention. I also didn’t mean to give the impression I am equating the two groups, only that in addition to the group mentioned in the article, there is another one with other issues.

Dear Mark,

I’ll try to be less provocative in the future but I thought this part of the blog was about sharing opinions. If certain ones aren’t welcome, it should be posted at the top.

G.I.

Cutting to the chase:

If you don’t believe G-d dictated the Torah why on earth don’t you eat shrimp and go shopping on Shabbat?

What tells you those aren’t from the “made-up” sections of the Torah?

Was it your heart or your analysis that led you to conclude that this is what G-d wants?

If it is easier for you to believe that serious non-O Jews are simply lazy or willfully ignorant, I am quite certain there is no way to convince you otherwise so I will not try. I will say that my congregants are not likely to be persuaded to be more observant by such accusations. If I was looking for an easy way out I would not be Conservative. I was raised non-observant and would be happy to be able to eat shrimp and go shopping on Shabbat, but I do not do so because I believe that the Conservative halachic lifestyle I follow is the closest approximation I can arrive at of what God wants of me.

I do not think I have greater halachic knowledge than RMF z”l. I do believe that some of my teachers such as Rabbis Roth, Novak, Halivni, Reisner have sufficient halachic knowledge to rely on them. But the difference is more one of methodology. IOW I do not believe in yeridat ha-dorot, period. RMF cannot pasken shailas anymore. The methodologies available to earlier generations are available to us.

I know that men and women of greater intellect than I accept the Divine Dictation Theory of the origin of the Torah. The evidence available to me simply tells me otherwise. You call it a matter of choice. I don’t agree. Analysis, perhaps, but not choice.

You have described the normal process of attrition when non-authentic Judaism is offered to the younger generation.

Young people want THE REAL THING. Don’t be afraid to give it to them!

Ori: That may be the case. However, they have been raised as they have been raised. It you want to reach them, you have to do so at their level in a way that they will understand.

If I understand things correctly, even the Torah does that. For example, Bereshit 18:1 says that G-d “shows Himself to” Abraham (וירא אליו). G-d is incorporal, so it can’t mean what it would mean if you said that a person would “show himself to”. However, the Torah speaks in a language that people understand.

Whatever you do, please don’t be insulted by dear old Garnel’s words. Firstly, I doubt he was referring to BT’s. His primary target seems to be “Black-hat Yeshivish”. For whatever reason, they cause him a serious bit of discomfort and he’s rather quick to insert that wherever he finds a blank space.
Second, please note that this blog has been around for some time and no one has the time/inclination to respond to each of his provocations which more or less are rants against those he perceives to be too frum. His comment is so off the mark, it’s not really worthy of a response, let alone, getting insulted over.

I do have a number of congregants who are thoughtful and knowledgable and they, too, feel that at least for them Orthodoxy is intellectually untenable. Again, intellectually untenable? Or are they unwilling to give up their lifestyles? Some of the greatest intellects in the history of the world believed in Torah. Orthodoxy is a matter of belief applied to evidence. The evidence is there, a person can choose to believe or not believe.

They know all the rules and live their lives religiously by them (forgive the pun) but there’s something lacking to them, something “Yiddish” that’s missing. They’ll hold the cup on Friday night for kiddush a certain way because the Artscroll book told them to while the older traditional folks held it that way because “papa” did.

However, their children will indeed hold it not only, because Rabbi Art Scroll told them to do it but because abba or tattie did it that way. Many of them will also hold it “that” way because they actually learned the reason behind the custom.