Market Positioning

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I know that perhaps a title like this isn't the very best thing to use, but hear me out.

My wife and I formally changed our tags on Facebook from the ambiguous labels from before to Jewish. Are we Orthodox? Conservative? Reform?

And there are other "variants". We have Chabad, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Traditional... It's a soda shop of deliciously Jewish flavors. We aren't sure where we are, and we know we hit multiple points of the spectrum.

For example. I am primarily Chabad. I wear my kippah, usually hidden under a ballcap to keep those less Semitically favorable at bay (read that "my employer"), we observe Shabbat in a very stringent fashion, we have the timers and such, but no synagogue close by.

For the first time in my life, I managed to "score" a pair of tefillin via crafty personal budget manipulation, and my wife keeps her hair covered in public. On that note, I finally get it. I am now used to seeing her in the scarf, and naturally, I think her very beautiful (after all, I married her, didn't I?). At night, when the scarf comes off, I always say, "Wow!" It has a very positive impact.

With all of the cultural differences, I share the progressive forward thinking. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew. Sexual preference doesn't matter to me, and I have no problem with a homosexual or a woman becoming a Rabbi, and I believe that if one has done the study, then the title on the hat should fit.

However, I draw the line at women donning tefillin, just as I strongly object to males giving birth to live young.

My wife has converted of her own accord, and it is highly possible that she might not have even needed to. But that means our little growing jellybean will be Jewish by birth.

We have two sons that will end up having to formally convert (should they desire to) and in toto, three young potential husbands that are driving us batty at the moment. I spend a good deal of time trying to get myself in check so that they have a proper role model to emulate. I'm not always as patient and tolerating as I should be of pre-adolescent nonsense.

But seeing them eager for kiddush, and running around with their kippot on just screams that we as a people aren't going down. Completely, anyway.

In the end, we're simply Jewish. The tags just don't work so well.