Spirit and Story Archive

Welcome to Spirit and Story, where you will find the latest thoughts and reflections by CLAL faculty and associates on the contours of our contemporary spiritual journeys. Every other week you will find something new and (hopefully) engaging here!

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When We Become the Olden Days

By Vanessa L. Ochs

Thinking about the Jewish practices that feel "traditional" to us, but are, in fact, fairly new in the Jewish scheme of things, I was struck by the words of British sociologist Alan Warde, who writes that one reaction to social change is to reaffirm the value of tradition. Established conventions, proven procedures and well-tried practices carry appeal for many people. In the face of the "cult of the new," some people seek out authentic or shared sets of customs that can be protected, defended or reproduced. Much popular discussion of change in all areas "assumes that there was once a set of shared and common practices that have recently passed into desuetude." Warde suggests that behind new, or invented traditions that tend to capture the popular imagination, "lurks the imagined community, a site of social group membership that promises collective security and group identity. Acceptance of the authority of comparatively fixed and shared dispositions or customs of a social group is a comforting antidote to the uncertainties of personal adventure and innovation.

For Warde, who happens to be talking about the cultivation of traditional food-ways in British cooking, one response people make to the fear of newness, modernity and change, is to hark back to the ways of a time long ago (or even a short time ago that feels long ago-as my daughters would say, "You know, in the olden days, when they had the Beatles"). People turn to former ways that evoke certainty, security and instant emotional gratification. Does this mean that people romanticize the past in order to face the present? Indeed, you bet we do, selectively forgetting the messy and annoying realities of the past, and if necessary, we will INVENT the past that the present necessitates our creating.

I wonder how our own great-grandchildren will look back at our turn-of-the-century Judaisms, remembering, forgetting, selecting and inventing what they choose to of our world so they can live with more integrity, stability and happiness in their own world, particularly when they want to feel anchored in the face of their own challenges and the threatening novelties of their age. I wonder what they will laugh at and what they will find ridiculously quaint. I wonder what they will choose from our world to elevate as an indispensable sacred way that "preserves the essence of Judaism," or whatever fancy words for passing on beliefs and identity they coin. If I could asked my great-grandmother, of blessed memory, which of her behaviors her great-grandchildren would be recalling and practicing with love and affection, I bet she'd say she could not have anticipated any of their choices. I don't think we can control what our ancestors will find worth of preserving (or of imagining they are preserving) of our Jewish lives-I think all we can do is live Jewish lives that are ethical, creative, vibrant and celebratory. The melody will stick, if not the precise notes.

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