Tradition, TRA-DI-TION! (and why it doesn't inspire me)

An argument I hear for orthopraxy is "even though Torah may not have been given by god and even though god may not exist there is value in following the traditions of the Jewish people". This argument doesn't do anything for me. I've been in discussions with people on the blog where they have used this argument on me and my response was fairly ho-hum. I think they may have gotten the impression that I was be factitious but I genuinely don't get it. Over Pesach I think I figured out why.

Pesach featured a lot of discussion about minhagim (traditions which lack a textual source but still have binding status in Jewish law). As you may or may not know, within Judaism minhagim are taken very seriously. In general, one is supposed to keep all of their parent's minhagim. Having been raised Lubavitch I was raised with many minhagim that are different from the brand of orthodox Judaism I now belong to. Since leaving the sect I've dropped nearly all of my Lubavitch minhagim. I didn't ask a Rabbi for permission, I just stopped doing them.

Being orthoprax is very much like following a minhag. There is no source for following a particular tradition but you follow it anyway. If you're orthoprax you may not believe in the source for being orthodox but you follow it anyway.

I think the main reason I'm fairly indifferent to ancient Jewish traditions is a result of my parents being BTs. They (and by extension, I) are not part of some never-ending chain of people following a set of traditions that snakes back to Moses. My folks just joined up. Maybe they had grandparents who might have followed some of these practices. But I can trace my family's tradition of sports allegiances farther back than my family's tradition of religious observances. (BTW, I feel very strongly about my sports allegiances but then again, I would compromise them in a second if there was reason to). You can argue that even if my family isn't part of a never-ending chain we are all Jewish and my tribe has been following these traditions. My response is that I can point to a mixed marriage or two up the chain and that I can claim a genetic/familial connection to a couple different ancient traditions. Why should I invest in Judaism in particular? Because this is what my parents selected a couple decades ago?

But this is just one issue. When I was frum in my mind I didn't practice Judaism because I needed to be a part of something greater than myself. I did it because I believed it was what god wanted of me. Whether the commandments were 33 years old or 3,300 years old was irrelevant. The fact that minhagim lack a source bothered me then. (If god didn't decree it then why does it matter? Let's do what makes sense!) Why do I separate from my wife for an extra seven days? Tradition? Why should I care about tradition for tradition sake? Traditions are great if they take on meaning. But I don't care for artificially applying meaning where there is none simply for the sake of trying to justify meaningless practices. This is also my basic critique of orthopraxy. Inventing meanings all day does not make acting-orthodox meaningful.

A lack of tradition is the only one my family's got.

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Interesting side note: In writing this blog I remembered that before I went mentally OTD I once made the argument for "tradition" to The Candy Man. In particular I remember telling him that even if he doesn't believe in god/Torah/orthodoxy there is something cool in wearing a kippah if only because it is a custom that dates back hundreds, or thousands, of years. I don't think I was very convincing. I remember thinking I wasn't totally in love with the argument but thought it might do something for him.

I recently asked The Candy Man if he remembered this conversation. He said he did and that he recalls that we got on the topic because I was feeling uneasy about not wearing a kippah at work. It's been a long ride.