I have spent many years trying to figure out what Modern Orthodoxy is. In earlier days, I was under the illusion that somehow Modern Orthodoxy successfully reconciled Modernity and Orthodoxy, for example with Science and Torah issues. When I figured out that it didn't, and in fact was just as fundamentalist as Chareidism in all the most important areas, I was profoundly dissapointed, not to mention annoyed. Since then, I spent a few years trying to create a 'version' of Modern Orthodoxy (or rather Orthopraxy) which was true to reality, but somehow retained the practices and values of Orthodoxy. But such an approach has 2 key problems; 1: Clearly the religion itself sees itself as fundamentalist, and you have to really really kvetch to pretend it doesn't, and 2: Even if you can somehow create a version of Orthopraxy which is somehow evolutionary rather than revolutionary it's hard to maintain much commitment.
But this weekend I thought of another approach entirely, and it goes something like this.
We are used to the idea of a religion being all encompassing. It defines almost your entire identity. Especially Judaism, where one of the main motifs is how Judaism takes every aspect of your life and every aspect of this physical existence and turns it Holy. When the Enlightenment happened, the Reformers felt that the only way to address it was to change Judaism profoundly, because there was no other way to be Jewish. In their mind too, Judaism was an all encompassing identity, so it had to be changed radically. When the Conservative movement started, they too had a similar idea, that Judaism must be changed to match the new reality (e.g. Bible Criticism). They too had this idea of Judaism being an all encompassing reality.
But what happened to Reform and Conservative? They offered such a watered down version of Judaism that it essentially crumbled away to nothing. Reform were so concerned about matching their values to those of Western Society that they essentially discarded Jewish values entirely. What's the point of having a religion if you essentially just match the values of the surrounding culture?
All of these approaches seem to have one thing in common - they all view religion as an all encompassing identity, and therefore that identity must be congruent with reality, or at least with the reality that surrounds at this moment in time.
But why does this have to be the case? We have complex identities in this modern world - I can count at least three identities that we have:
1. Family Identity: I'm a member of the X family. My wife is Y, my kids are Z. It's my social identiy.
2. Career Identity: Many people significantly define themselves by what they do: I'm an accountant, I'm an artist, I'm a Computer Nerd.
3. Religious Identity: I'm a Jew, I'm an Orthodox Jew.
Now these are not entirely seperate, there is some overlap and inter-dependency. But for most people, your family and social identity is quite different from your career identity. Likwise, for most people (unless you are a Rabbi or in Chinuch), your career identity is quite seperate from your religious identity.
Do I define my entire life by my career? No I do not. Certianly my Career is very important, and being gainfully employed is probably the most significant contributor to my personal self esteem and self worth, but it's not everything. Likewise my family. And so too should it be with religion. Religionm isn't everything. It shouldn't be.
This brings me back to Modern Orthodoxy. The standard explanation of Modern Orthodoxy is that 'Modern' is a modifier - i.e. we take classical Orthodoxy and 'modernize it'. But we know that doesn't work. However here is a different take on it - Modern Orthodoxy means we are both Modern and Orthodox. In other words, we are modern people who also happen to belong to the Orthodox religion. That doesnt mean we entirely define ourselves as Orthodox - it's just one aspect of our lives. Does it need to be compatible with every other aspect of our lives? Well, ideally it should, but if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world either, because it's just one aspect of our lives.
And actually, I think this is how quite a few of the LWMO really approach religion. It's not that they neccessarily don't take religion seriously, or that they are just crazy meikel on Halachah, rather it's that they see religion as just one aspect of their life and identity, not the whole thing. So in Shul they are 'Orthodox', but outside Shul they may do whatever they want (within reason).
And this approach strikes me as more authentic - rather than trying to twist and stretch Judaism to reconcile it with Science or Western Morality (which it clearly can't), rather we accept Juaism for what it is - an ancient and venerable religion which has much value, but of course is not consistent with modernity - I mean how on earth could it be?
Does this mean we compartmentalize? Not really. It means we have multiple aspects of identity - and those aspects overall must be reconciled in the individual, rather than in the constituent parts. Here's a concrete example - Our religion tells us that Homosexuality is completely wrong. Meanwhile Western society tells us that of course there's nothing wrong with it at all. Of course morality and values are subjctive - it's up to you as an individual to figure out what you feel is the correct value and morality. Kind of like when Reform says 'religion has a vote, but not a veto.', except that when REform say that, they mean to change the religion. I say, the religion is what it is, and changing it so drastically is just not authentic (or honest). But the religion isn't everything, and we have to decide ultimately what our values are - based on all aspects of our identity.
That's what modern Orthodoxy is about - being both a Modern and an Orthodox at the same time. Modern is not a 'modifier', it's an entirely different (and conflicting) part of our identity. And that's not a bad thing - from thesis and antithesis emerges synthesis.
Someone once commented on one of my many former blogs that religion is a form of kabuki (Japanese theatre). And this time of year, the theatre is in full swing. 
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