We Bought a House

This seems to be a week full of news. First Israel, now a house.

I think I’ve written before about my dilemma about where to buy a house. Do we buy within walking distance of our Shul (which is no longer a very Jewish area), or do we buy in a Jewish area (even though that would mean we have to either walk to Shul, or switch to an Orthodox Shul – which we are not willing to do at this time). We decided on the latter.

We bought in a new community in the Bathurst and Highway #7 area of Thornhill. It’s a very Jewish area, with a lot of couples our age buying there. There is a small Orthodox Shul a short walk away (The Country Shul). They offer any educational programs, which I look forward to taking advantage of, and I may even go to Shabbat service there when Mandy is not able to come with. When Mandy comes with to Shul, we’ll have to rely on the Conservative position allowing you to drive to Shul on Shabbat.

They are building a whole Jewish Community Centre complex 10 minutes away (complete with several Jewish day schools) so it should be a very nice area to live in.

I really don’t like the Conservative position about driving to Shul… basically it allowed for the destruction of any cohesive Conservative Jewish Community. There is no longer any need to live around the Shul, so there is no need to have a spatially localized community. Of course, I think the logic behind the ruing is valid; you can make a strong case for limited driving being permitted on Shabbat (I’ll present that case another time) – almost as strong as the case that the Orthodox make to say it’s not permitted. So you would be breaking what is at most a modern Rabbinic prohibition, in order to be able to daven with an minion on Shabbat. Seems like a reasonable trade off.

Of course, right now this is a moot point, since we drive on Shabbat anyway. But if we ever decide to become more observant (which we very well may), it would have been nice to be able to walk to our Shul. I guess we could always move at that point.