Thread by @JYuter

1. THREAD: After several recent conversations, I'd like to try articulating some ideas regarding social psychology and Orthodox Judaism. While I've amassed a long bibliography, I'll be omitting most academic citations here in the interests of clarity. 🧵

2. Let's stipulate that identity is important to individuals and that certain aspects of identity will be more important to an individual than others. Also, the ranking of these aspects of identity will vary from person to person.

3. For example, race can be an aspect of identity though more for some than others. The same can be true for one's gender, religion, occupation, or even the identity of being a good, upstanding, moral human being.

4. We have the freedom to believe whatever we'd like to about ourselves. However in many cases, self-identity is insufficient without *recognition* from others that affirm our sense of identity.

5. The lack of recognition from others - or at least recognition from a group to which one desires recognition - can create psychic distress and cognitive dissonance.

6. In plain English, many people want the freedom/autonomy to think about themselves as they wish but also want (if not expect or demand) other people to validate their authenticity/legitimacy.

7. One way this comes up in Judaism is regarding halakhic observance and halakhic change.

8. Individuals (and even communities) have the autonomy to do Judaism as they see fit and set their boundaries for acceptable Judaism. But this would imply that others have the same autonomy to do the same, including setting their own boundaries, even if it excludes others.

9. But therein lies the problem. Many people want to do Judaism as they see fit while insisting (if not expecting or demanding) recognition from others as being legitimate/authentic.

10. This is why there's so much contention over the brand/franchise label of "Orthodox" Judaism: the label of affiliation implies a form of legitimacy/authenticity, but it's still ultimately dependant on recognition by others (exactly who these "others" are may vary).

11. I wrote a bit about this a while back introducing the concept of "recursive recognition" in which communities and rabbis can engage in a relationship of reciprocal recognition and validation of legitimacy and authority.
joshyuter.com/2019/06/24/jud…

12. Sometimes the motivation for identity recognition is explicit. Other times it may be masked behind a mosaic of cherry-picked sources and incoherent reasoning bec the method of discourse is itself subject to recognition even if the substance doesn't stand up to scrutiny

13. In sum, when there's a conflict between the norms of Orthodox Judaism and one's personal preferences, one can either 1. change one's identity 2. change one's preferences 3. change the norms

14. But changing the norms requires the recognition of others, not to mention the shifting the cognitive dissonance from one person to another.

15. There's much more to say on this topic, but in the meantime, I'd ask people to pay close attention to how people discuss halakhah and advocate for change in Orthodox Judaism.