You Ought To

Check out the current issue of Zeek, lots of great articles, most about the indie-minyan scene.

I found the following paragraph especially interesting:

Of all these [issues that most independent minyanim are committed to], halacha in particular gets a bad rap, primarily because of specific holdings and conclusions that some find objectionable or problematic, as well as because of its propensity to overly legalistic conversation. But as I am employing the term, halacha refers to the shared spiritual discourse of mining the Jewish past for insight and wisdom, without assumptions of how the discussion will conclude - or whether it will conclude in the same way for everybody. It thus ought to be applicable to a vast range of possible Jewish communities - not just those conventionally referred to as “halachic” - ultimately including any community that wants to bring the discourse of halacha to bear on contemporary Jewish life. The details always come out differently in different conversations, but the assumption that we seek normative guidance from our tradition - that is, guidance on how we ought to live - is, I think, at the heart of any engaged, thoughtful and self-reflective Jewish community, “halachic” and otherwise.