Israel, the Jets and the JewsThe stated purpose of this blog is my posting of thoughts about these three topics, with "the Jets" including sports generally.
Lately, I've posted a lot about the Jets (and the Mets), but not so much about Israel or the Jews. There are two primary reasons for this.
First, while I can very quickly type up thoughts about sports, posting about religion or Israel requires more consideration. On a number of occasions just in the latest few weeks, I started drafting something about Israel or a Jewish issue, but was interrupted by other responsibilities and didn't have time to finish, and have not been able to get back to the topic.
Second, after nearly 3 1/2 years of blogging, I've already said much of what I have to say about Israel and the Jews. Readers likely have an idea of where I stand on most issues and I certainly don't want to be redundant just for the sake of posting.
While I surely will at some point post more about serious topics, the result of my recent shift toward sports has been my de facto virtual elimination from the mainstream Jblogosphere. Instead, I'm now among a relatively small group (including Elster, Jewboy, MoC and a few others) who post about whatever we choose.
I think I like it better this way. It's not just that the Jblogosphere has become a nasty place, but that the nastiness really doesn't reflect the reality of Orthodox Jewish life. In real life, there are differences of hashkafah and practice and sometimes strong disagreements, but most people get along fine. Indeed, many extended families have members who are very charedi and members who are non-observant and/or marginally religiously observant. Most people also have a heterogeneous group of friends, acquaintances and co-workers.
In the warped world of Jblogs, the modern Orthodox hate the dark aged charedim (chasidim especially), the charedim think Rav Soloveitchik was a buffoon, and Rabbi Natan Slifkin is either the godol hador or a heretic.
We have plenty of problems in real life, but fortunately most people are a lot more nuanced than the blogosphere would suggest.
So I don't think it's a coincidence that when it comes down to it, my Jblog friends are both sports fans and people who have demonstrated not only tolerance but respect for observant Jews to their right and left, as well as to less observant Jews and to non-Jews, who, at last count, comprise more than 97 percent of Americans.
As a result, we can focus on topics other than bashing each other based upon religious differences, and instead argue about Chad Pennington, Willie Randolph, Walter O'Malley and Herm Edwards.
posted on 10/06/2006
