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Is there an existing branch or organization of Judaism that blends Orthodox philosophy with more Reform/Conservative-style services? Or congregations you have seen that so this effectively?

I’ve been all over the spectrum…family is reform, went to conservative day school and bar mitzvah in a conservative shul, modern orthodox high school, and now part of a very yeshivish Orthodox shul/community even though I’m not especially Torah observant.

I have come to appreciate the Torah-centricity of Orthodoxy. Although I don’t observe all the mitzvot, I like just accepting that even though the Torah and rabbinic law say I should do XYZ, I’m simply imperfect and don’t do it all and maybe one day I will feel more inspired to. I don’t want to feel like I’m moving the goalposts just to accommodate my actions, since that precludes growth that I feel would be positive for me, such as keeping Shabbat more rigorously.

At the same time, I don’t like the mechanism of prayer we have at the yeshivish spot I’m in now with such heavy focus on the 1:1 relationship between congregant:Hashem through davening, which is not how many Jews grew up and gained comfort in a Jewish community. I find the real transformative work on the self and on that relationship to come about through a wide variety of modalities, including practices of meditation and mindfulness, some of which could perhaps be incorporated into services. Maybe Avraham could pray his way into a real deep connection with God but I don’t think the average person in 2022 is achieving what davening was created for. So I think creating a more inspiring davening would be beneficial. I like my experiences in reform and conservative where people are doing it more together and in the same place and as a community, I just prefer that alongside the attention to rabbinic and Torah law. I don’t think these things have to be mutually exclusive.

I don’t think Conservadox or Modern Orthodox are quite what I’m talking about. I guess it’s more of an adherence to Orthodox philosophy but executed in a way that is more comfortable and accessible to people who didn’t grow up in that environment.

Is there anything that really bridges these effectively today?

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