2024-10-10

Choosing a Community

Since October 2023 I've been living in social isolation with no community I can call mine in physical proximity. To my surprise and joy, I haven't been suffering from loneliness. I've even been feeling that I'd prefer remaining in such social isolation to being part of a community that isn't sufficiently compatible with my views, values and taste. For this reason I want/have to live in a city where there are at least several options I can choose from.

It took me years to finally realize that the single most important factor for me in choosing a Jewish community where I daven regularly is its ritual music that accompanies regular prayers. It's often said that music is universal, but at least for me nothing is less universal than music. On the one hand, there are types of music that make me cry out of joy, but on the other hand, there are also types of music that are nothing but tortures for me. I like East European music best.

Another important factor that is specific to my choice of a Jewish community is the pronunciation of Hebrew prayers. I prefer a community that doesn't use Modern Israeli pronunciation as its public norm. Here again I like Ashkenazic, or to be more precise, that variety of pronunciation used in the so-called Northeastern Yiddish in prewar Eastern Europe and still preserved, for example, in Chabad communities.

These two, musical and linguistic, factors generally correlate with worldviews of regular members. There is one ideological branch of Judaism I can't tolerate any more. Values are more subtle and less apparent. Another word for values is the state of consciousness of individual members and of a community as a whole. Ideally, I'd choose a community where the majority of regular members have systematically studied Chassidus and are aware of the roles the ego plays in our life. But practically, I already know that this is too high a demand.


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