Birthday story: Mr Maximalist, Mr Minimalist and the problem with taking halakhah too seriously

Another year of my life has passed. And recently I have grown a bit less anxt-ridden about birthdays and may one day even come to enjoy them. A voice in my head sometimes says in a vaguely California accent: 'Maybe I should go travelling?'

And then I see the Facebook pictures of my fellow Hendonites after their fun south eastern Asian adventures and remind myself that actually Cornwall with tea and toast is probably more adventurous than scuba diving with elephants on instagram. 

The Rabbi Dweck affair has affected me far more than I could have possibly imagined and I'm glad it's drawn to a close. 

So for my annual reflection I invented a story about two friends, mr maximalist and mr minimalist which is my semi-trippy reflection on how I see religious society at 26.

The theoretical aspect Orthodoxy tends to be dominated by mr maximalist. Halakhic 'maximalism' is the idea that every aspect of life should be carefully understood and defined within a strict halakhic framework. Halakhah should incorporate everything. 

Mr maximalist is epitomised by rabbis or recent yeshivah graduates trained to see the details found within Jewish law as comprising the entirety of religious experience. 
The more adventurous might locate developments in scientific thought and incorporate them into this framework with permission from superiors, but either way all things claiming to be religious in a Jewish sense must pass through its gates and its approval. 

If the individual is compared to a small village, the halakhah is the boundary that must be passed to visit the big city. Being 'medakdek' or very meticulous in observance is regarded as a prerequisite of authentic religiosity. 

The question of secular studies or knowledge outside of Jewish sources often becomes a question of permissability or apologetics. 

If you observe and study (with passion and devotion) you are a good religious individual. 'A good relationship requires attention to detail' the mantra goes and it is therefore very important to understand the rules, appreciate the rules and embrace  a life in which each tree matters, each law has intrinsic spiritual worth and each externality must pass the test of 'am I allowed to'. 

Mr Maximalist is probably the 'consensus' ideal from a perusal of classical Jewish sources. He is also how most people view being religious in a specifically Jewish sense. More strict incorporation of halakhah, more God, more religious. 

Less strict, less God, less religious.

But time, time time see what's become of me?

Just from looking around, mr maximalist carries a vision which does not cannot last the test of time for (from my own observations and conversations with others) most people. And I say this without being denigrating. His is a time and place-bound vision. 

My thoughts drift to the classical sermon, where people sit, at times attentive, at times half asleep. It's not that it isn't interesting. It's that it belongs to a compartment in their heads labelled 'religion', and cannot honestly encompass their entire being. The sermon is a great example of how Mr Maximalist compartmentalised religion.

Anyone who has read much of this blog knows my rant about ' religion being stuck at eighteen years old forever'. In note form it goes a bit like this:

For the devoted 18 year old: Yeshivah = details, details, analysis of details and a dynamic engagement with texts. Mr maximalist is king. 

Leave the place, discover other things. Priorities begin to compete - life without love becomes a dreaded experience, depressing without progression in financial and lifestyle areas. Friendships expand, some discover the allures of 'going travelling', life comes and goes and new directions are forged and discovered. By about twenty four it becomes increasingly difficult for mr maximalist to be a viable philosophy of life for the simple fact that he is competing with too many other things that must come first.

So for many religion becomes compartmentalised into specific times, places and perhaps people - switch on - switch off. When religious life is defined entirely by mr maximalist, being religious can become time bound too. 

Some try to constantly keep mr maximalist on his throne whenever possible. Some eventually abandon him entirely.

Most remain in an honest situation where they aware that the trials and tribulations of life are far more important to them than each detail of observance but have a good compartment reserved for that aspect which remains a key part of them. There is a strong social and communal aspect and this keeps things ticking along.

Those that champion mr maximalist become leaders or at least the spokespeople for the religion. They are the doctors and professors of maximalism. Their adherents follow them when the time and place is right.  

But the dissonance tends to be as follows - in vital areas of life such as family, relationships, knowledge of the world, science, medicine, philosophy etc. Laypeople are often far more knowledgeable than their leaders. Rightly, there is uproar within the community whenever a leader has been found to have abused his position. But in the specific box labelled 'religion' they defer as in terms of halakhic knowledge they usually know much less.   

The great clash between the mr. men occurs only when someone realises that mr maximalist has overstepped the mark in terms of where his knowledge has led him. Usually this is a question of political and public decisions, institutions and control.

Because whilst mr maximalist doesn't think he knows everything, he usually thinks that he has both the tools and the framework with which he can solve everything. Judaism being a religion dominated by book-knowledge is particularly susceptible to that.

And this can lead him to become overzealous and reckless in the eyes of the other mr men because he hasn't considered a broader context, at least one that to them is self-evident.

From the shadows of the mr men emerges mr. 'Minimalist', who looks with incredulity at how his friend has translated knowledge of sources into a knowledge of everything, and he howls in frustration.

For mr minimalist has always grudgingly accepted that his personal journey to God is somehow inferior to mr maximalist's but suddenly he reacts in confusion. 

He might ask big questions:

How could you not try and know everything about this world? How can you possibly see religion as being restricted to a few texts, no matter how profound? How could God want you to remain ignorant about His universe? How could you ignore the nuances and implications of your actions?

Some mr men just think - something is messed up over here, it just isn't right.

And some lose faith in those institutions they saw as representing their religion. 

Mr minimalist is careful in observance but regards it as a framework for other important values, e.g. kosher encouraging moderation/ limits to animal nature etc, and not necessarily as the most important end in itself. Creative solutions should be sought to problems. Leniancies are found because why make life too difficult, where is God in that? 

For mr minimalist the real arena for religious life lies primarily within his individual self surrounded by the broad framework of halakhah. He must discovering the wisdom within this world and act in a way that is good for his family and society. 

Halakhah is the starting point, it has carefully defined limits, but is not really the emphasis.

The minimalist sometimes reaches radical conclusions that the 'frummest' of mr men are not particularly religious because they are unwilling to explore issues beyond their knowledge of Jewish books. To him, God is found precisely in their areas of ignorance.

If a difficult societal topic is examined without nuance, it is religiously unacceptable as God demands that we improve our thinking. 

 And it is true that the minimalist treads a tricky path that could perhaps collapse beneath him, but he realises that the road he may have travelled once before with his friend has ended, to all intents and purposes. He must of course remain friends with mr maximalist and ensure they live in harmony and speak regularly but he can't obey his authority any longer. 

And mr minimalist knows that he on the same wavelength as most of his fellow mr men and only he can transform a kind of permissiveness and apathy into a vibrant religious life. 

But he knows that most of the leadership do not and cannot think along these lines so he waits patiently... 

And on my twenty sixth birthday, I see these roads, and these mister men, and sometimes think that if only my contemporaries would have been exposed to mr minimalist  earlier in life, perhaps they could have carried religion, not as a dead weight on their back but as a companion and aid to their truest selves, and find the harmony between their intelligence, moral integrity and a religion they truly hold dear.

 Let us see what the next year holds in store ;)