It's All-or-Nothing

B"H

Now that I've introduced the idea of the BT-caricature, I'll go into the "all-or-nothing" mentality that FFB's are often raised with.

It's really weird. If you listen to a "generic", former-secular BT perspective on Yiddishkeit (okay, so there's no such thing, but humor me) and a "generic" FFB perspective on Yiddishkeit, they sound like they're talking about two different religions.

Apparently, it seems that the rabbis who are advising the secular-raised BT's that Judaism isn't "all-or-nothing" are the same people telling the frumies that there is no "middle ground" and that you "can't pick and choose."

Hmmm...

What happens is that frumies sometimes wind up, chas v'shalom, totally off-the-derech, instead of exploring a different hashkafah or seeking out a like-minded rav from a different community than the one they were born into. By the same token, stereotype BTs can wind up having kids that don't "get" why being shomeir mitzvot is so important.

Gosh, that's really sad.

Balance, people. Together, we'll find the balance between extremes and make it all ONE.

The truth is in there, somewhere.