It’s been quiet on the blog.

For two reasons:

1. Life has been wonderfully crazy – with our recent Shabbaton, and with the upcoming weddings of my baby sister, and, two weeks later, my baby brother-in-law.  (Don’t worry – they’re in their twenties now.)

2. I’ve been assessing where I am with the blog.  My cyber-sister Skylar recently posted a State of the Union update on her blog, so I’ve decided to copycat.

For some time I’ve been feeling that I’ve accomplished what I set out to in this blog.  I’ve covered many of the major aspects of Orthodox Judaism – leastwise, the ones I’m willing to blog about – in a way that I feel have opened the doors of communication in a respectful way.  So ought I agonize to continually come up with new aspects of Orthodoxy that are different?  Maybe there aren’t all that many, as it turns out.  In the words of the iconic Oprah, as she interviewed a Hasidic family, “We’re more alike than different.”

So does that spell the end of the blog?

No.

I believe it’s just the beginning.  Because with our differences safely out of the way, let’s talk!

Now that we’ve formed a safe community here at OOTOB, I’d like to move on to stage 2.  In stage 2, I’ll be doing the following:

1. Seeking to publish the first half of this blog into a book.

2. Maintaining dialogue about all things Jewish, with your participation.

3. Responding to and discussing stuff that’s in the news or trending out there in the world, as it relates to Jews of various persuasions – like the Oprah story above, the Victoria’s Secret model story, and so much more.

4. Sharing my involved musings on life through the prism of my faith.

5. Posting on topics I hear about from you, my readers, and relating to your comments and thoughts.

That said, I’ll probably be posting less frequently – maybe once or twice a week.  And I’ll be taking about a month’s break to celebrate the weddings in our family!

But I’ll be back – and I can’t wait.  I’ve missed you guys.