Forty-something and Frum

First blog post. SJM, newly frum (observant). In my forties. Never married (not my fault, but that's another post... or many more posts, so stay tuned). No children.

Wanted to provide opportunity for people to read my story as I travel on the derech, get some comments and feedback, and find an outlet for things that I can't easily say to either my not-so-observant family or my new frum community.

Nu... was reading up today on the more liberal wing of modern Orthodox Judaism a la YCT and the more or less centrist wing represented by RIETS. I'm too new to Orthodoxy (having been raised in a Conservative family not observant of shabbos or kashrut) to have a strong opinion on this or to decide how I trend.

I'm very aware that people with an agenda can find or derive obscure halakhic reasoning to rationalize many things that they have already decided on, even if "we don't posken that way" in the majority of the time. So I understand the criticism of "Open Orthodoxy" (and YCT which may be guilty only by association). 

And I'm also bothered by the sometimes automatically reactionary view in centrist  (never mind more machmir) Orthodoxy of new ideas for which there appear to be no explicit halakhic prohibitions.

So far, most of the criticisms of more liberal interpretations of halakha that I've personally heard and read have come from laypeople, not from the rabbinate. None of rabbis whom I've personally encountered in the frum world will criticize each other directly or "throw snowballs at each other" (as a friend joked they might like to do, during a recent big snowstorm).

I like the way things seem to be (at least on the surface) in my community: live and let live. Multiple shuls, learning and outreach centers, a community kollel, etc., with different hashkafot. The rabbis all have different yet complementary skills, personalities, and perspectives. Yet all the community members pull together for each other. They have to because they have children in the same schools, are often mishpachah to each other, and share resources in many ways for learning, mikveh, simchas, shabbatons, etc.

It's very new to me, and I have much to learn. But I like being part of traditional Jewish community, especially this community.

"Success is the best revenge", and it sure seems to me that frum communities are the most successful at transmitting Torah, Torah values, Jewish tradition, and ensuring Jewish continuity. I want to be part of that success.