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.

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More from @JYuter

25 Aug
1. This is untrue, bordering on slander. There are certainly batei din that have little respect for what potential converts are going through and impose needless delays. However, most take a long time to fully acclimate a potential convert to the Jewish community
2. And I say this as having a long track record opposing certain political developments in Orthodox conversions.
3. Even before these changes, serious batei din would often have conversions be a year so that a potential convert could experience the entire Jewish calendar and become acclimated/integrated in the community
Read 5 tweets
16 Aug
Article behind paywall, but IIRC this was one of the more astute observations re US intervention. Between Syria, Libya, and Iraq, US employed diff of doing nothing, military operation w/o occupation, and military operation w/occupation, and *all* were disasters in their own way.
We can only ever know the results of our actions or inactions. It's really easy to point to the failures and costs of what we've decided to do or not do, but it's impossible to predict what would have happened had another course of action been taken.
As I keep saying, foreign policy is often a choice between, "really, really bad" and "somehow even worse."

Both action and inaction have their own negative consequences and sometimes the best we can hope to do is mitigate those negative consequences to the best of our ability.
Read 4 tweets
20 Jul
1. A brief thread on the significance of this statement (apologies to those who have heard this before) 🧵:
2. Years ago the Jewish social justice group @uriltzedek initiated a "Tav HaYashar" campaign to certify kosher establishments that met halakhically mandated obligations towards their employers, specifically paying workers on time, paying min wage, and safe working conditions.
3. One criticism in response was that kashrut certifications should only be about the kashrut of the food to the exclusion of everything else lest it confuse the concept of kashrut certification.
Read 6 tweets
8 Jun
1. Aren't tax returns supposed to be private? And shouldn't the release of personal information register as just a *little* bit concerning?
2. I see we're still having trouble understanding how private equity works.
propublica.org/article/the-se…
2. The "wealth" being discussed isn't a Scrooge McDuck money bin, but the percentage of ownership in companies whose wealth is determined by the market. Which means this "wealth"
1. Is "on paper"
2. Has no theoretical ceiling
3. Isn't a collective resource such that others lost
3. If you don't want Buffet, Bezos, etc. to have so much wealth, simply convince people to sell their stock in the companies they own at a lower value (and ensure others don't start buying it up).
Read 4 tweets
8 Jun
Opinion 1: @Likud_Party needs to take several seats (metaphorically, not electorally) and its social media team should reevaluate what it's doing and what it's trying to do.

In real democracies, it's possible for longtime leaders to lose elections legitimately. Image
Opinion 2: I don't have a problem complaining that a politician broke a campaign promise. I do have a problem when the complaint comes from a party that does so on the regular.
Opinion 3: All political parties, without exception, would be much better off if they approached political failures and losses by introspectively thinking about why they failed and what they can change to improve in the future rather than whining about the other side.
Read 4 tweets
6 Jun
100% agreed. In its heyday, Aronson was responsible for publishing some wonderful volumes on Jewish scholarship, several of which I'm fortunate to own.

Other publishers have picked up some slack, but Aronson filled a particular niche that I don't think has been replicated.
One of my favorites is Who's Who in the Talmud. While it has some errors in citations, it's the most comprehensive single-volume I know of documenting the personalities of rabbinic Judaism
amazon.com/Whos-Who-Talmu…
Another favorite is Shoshana Zolty's And All Your Children Shall Be Learned: Women and the Study of the Torah in Jewish Law and History
amazon.com/All-Your-Child…
Read 5 tweets

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