When tribalism is a suit of clothes.

 From a Facebook response:

1. Not every Jew can afford to flee to Israel, nor has the health and vitality to make a life there.

2. We’ve been praying for a lasting peace since before Israel became a state. But we continue to engage in war with surrounding Arab states, and we can’t not engage in that warring. Call it human nature, call it othering, call it whatever you want. I no longer dream that peace will come, because we keep showing ourselves that it won’t. There are too many factors beyond our control, too many strings being pulled by stupidly, *criminally* rich men, for lasting peace to come about.

3. For my own personal reasons — and my parents’ — I wasn’t raised to be insular and tribal. Becoming more tribal has been the hardest, most impossible part of my Jewish journey and such a sense of nationalism may well be unattainable in my lifetime. I may have already failed at developing and embracing a strong sense of tribal belonging out of the gate. Maybe it’s just too personal and individual.

If that’s so, then Judaism for me can only be a personal practice, a way of moving through the world. It can’t be cosmic or heavenly ordained, it can’t last beyond my death or supersede my humanity. And if that’s the case, I’ll own that. If that’s the case, I guess I’ll have to muddle through and do the best I can with what I have. 

4. I can’t just put on tribalism like a suit of clothes, no matter how hard I’ve tried. Some things have to be created and nurtured in the roots.

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If you’re not raised in a tribe, if you’re never taught how to be in a tribe, then adopting that life as an adult is mighty hard, and maybe impossible.

Perhaps this is my greatest stumbling block. Not being tribal, but universal.