"Tradition" is the opening number of the musical, "Fiddler on the Roof." The musical has achieved iconic status as being the typical history of the American Jewish family. The song talks about how tradition is the cornerstone of Jewish culture. I was thinking about this lately, especially in light of all the talk about "Traditional Marriage" and the progress of marriage equality.
In the story, the patriarch of the family, Tevye, arranges a marriage for his eldest daughter. Upon learning of her love for another man, he concocts a way out of the arrangement, breaking that tradition. With his second daughter, she does not even seek his permission to marry, only his blessing. His third daughter marries outside the faith. Tradition is pretty much obliterated at this point. Even though he disowns this daughter, he later begrudgingly accepts the fact of her decision.
More tradition below the fold.
Two weeks ago, Daylight Savings Time ended, putting us back on Standard Time. At this point, we now spend more of our year out of Standard Time. It makes me wonder why we call the deviation, the lesser amount of time, Standard. When a formerly mainstream position is held by only a fringe contingent does it still get to claim to be a conventional view?
The "Traditional Marriage" defenders often cite the Bible and say that marriage is between one man and one woman. In the Bible, it is actually between one man and as many women as he wants. How many wives did Solomon have? Polygamy was legal in the United States until 1862. Interracial marriage was against the law in many states until 1967. Tevye would indeed be proud of our flexibility on this issue.
I had a rather traditional Jewish upbringing. I recall blanching when I first saw a woman as a rabbi. I was taught that you could not play music in the synagogue on the sabbath. I just attended High Holy Days services where they had a pianist, a cellist, and a clarinet. I loved it!
The rabbi at this temple spoke about taking part in a protest to allow men and women to pray together at the "Western Wall" in Jerusalem. It is 2013! Men and women are separated. The Ultra-Heebs as I call them cite tradition. This tradition didn't even allow women to go to school not that long ago.
Somebody needs to tell Richard Cohen (whose last name I regrettably share) that when over 70% of the population disagrees with you, your views have ceased to be conventional. The Right often defends its positions by cloaking them in the veneer of "Traditional American Values." I claim that the most traditional of all American values is change.
The United States was born in a culture where a ruler derived his powers from Divine Right. We turned that idea on its head and said that the citizenry had Divine Rights, and we formed a government for the express purpose of securing those rights for us all. One of the most important aspects of the Constitution was the provision of Amendments. Indeed, the first thing we did after adopting the Constitution was adopting 10 amendments collectively called the Bill of Rights. The message being, please feel free to change as necessary.
I remember when Don't Ask Don't Tell came about. I was happy that they were going to allow gay people to serve (that was the intent of the law despite how it turned out to be used). I was afraid of being drafted and thought that for each gay enlistee that was one less need for my service.
Tradition is a line in the sand drawn by Bugs Bunny daring us to cross. The good news is that we are not Yosemite Sam, and there are no negative consequences when we do cross it.