Can we improve the "One Jewish Practice" question post?

Question

The One Jewish Practice post is the subject of significant controversy regarding its fitness for Mi Yodeya. It's been around for 18 hours, and in that period, it has received:

• 11 upvotes and 1 downvote

• 6 answers, each of which has received between 5 and 12 upvotes and few to no downvotes

• 5 closure votes, resulting in its being put on hold as "primarily opinion-based"

• 4 re-open votes

• Comments advocating for its closure and re-opening

• An appeal by the author, added to the question post

The voting indicates that there is content here that the community sees as valuable, and the close/re-open activity indicates that there's significant controversy regarding whether the post fits within our scope and Q&A model.

If possible, it would be good to edit the post in a way that makes it a more clear fit for Mi Yodeya, so that it can serve as a repository of valuable content and not of ongoing controversy. How can we edit this post to achieve this aim? If the edit requires invalidating some of the answers, so be it, but the less such invalidation, the better.

Answers that simply articulate clearly what's unfit about the post in its current incarnation are welcome, even if they don't propose a solution themselves.

Answer 1

I do feel bad that this is the response that a new user got - that his first post was closed so quickly - and I hope that at least the positive feedback to his question helps to offset any ill feelings he may have against the site. Based on the OP’s edit to his question, I imagine that this was indeed his response.

That said, not wanting to mistreat a new user is no excuse for leaving poor-fitting questions open. Nevertheless, I see that a comment on the question argues that

by voting to close on this new contributor, you are shutting off the possibility for anyone to offer a better response

and another that argues that

if this site is not for this stuff, then what site is for this stuff[...]?

I don’t think this is the appropriate approach to these situations. We need to evaluate each question on its own merits, not asking where else on the Internet it fits, or by taking it easier just because it’s a new user.

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As the question stands, I think it is indeed opinion-based, and if I were early enough to the discussion, I probably would have voted to close myself (while gently explaining why to the OP in the comments - just because I’m not taking his status as new to the site into account when evaluating the question doesn’t mean that I’m going to be mean to him when voting).

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Evaluating questions on the merits of their answers (or potential ones) is a terrible practice. Nevertheless, I’d like to look at them to see how the community perceives the question to see if and how it can be improved.

I see six answers as of posting, containing these suggestions:

1. Put on tefillin daily
2. Say Shema daily
3. Learn something Judaism-related daily, preferably at the same time each day
4. Being careful with saying Shehakol (starting with drinks, to start small)
5. Being careful with other Berachos Rishonos
6. Making Friday night meals enjoyable
7. Giving Tzedakah
8. Lighting candles on Friday night
9. Turning off electronics on Friday night

Of these, only SAH’s answer (suggestion #3) and LN’s answer (suggestion #4) give support for their suggestions - not just saying “this is a good idea” but actually explaining, based on the halachic and hashkafic sources behind these concepts, why the OP should take it on. If we expand “authoritative sources” to “...and personal experiences,” then we can add Josh K’s answer (suggestion #6) as well.

If it were clear from the OP that these are the kinds of things he’s looking for - say, tacking on “based on sources and experience” or some equivalent to the end of his second paragraph - I think we wouldn’t be in this situation. But as it’s written, it’s asking for an opinion, rather than a more objective answer.

TLDR: I think as it stands, the question was appropriately put on hold, but I think it’s very easy to fix it up, maintaining the author’s intent while keeping it up to the standards we ask for.

But, to play devil’s advocate...

Answer 2

I did not vote either way, but it seems to me that the question was asked in a somewhat subjective manner. As it currently stands, it simply asks for suggestions for one thing the person can do. There's not really an objective way to answer that. There can be as many answers as there are things to do in Judaism. Any answerer can just suggest his/her own favorite practice, or something he/she feels will be beneficial to an irreligious Jew.

Basically, there are no criteria by which to construct an answer. And there are no criteria by which to judge whether an answer is good/bad, useful/not useful, helpful/not helpful. To quote from the text of the close reason:

answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise

As it stands now, that's what the answers look like. With the exception of perhaps one of them, they all seem to just be the opinions of those who posted them. While opinionated suggestions might still be helpful to the person asking the question in this particular case, it still doesn't fit Stack Exchange guidelines. A question that has no way to determine a right answer (or right answers) is essentially a discussion, something that this platform is not designed for.

I think the question could easily be salvaged if more information is added that would make it possible to give objective evaluations. For instance, more information about a specific type of practice that the person is looking for can make it possible for people to give answers that fulfill specific criteria, and provide support for how the answers fulfill the criteria, and allow others to be able to judge whether and to what extent the answers have fulfilled the criteria.

Alternatively, the question can be rephrased to ask if there are existing sources within Judaism that address what a person in such a situation should do. So, for instance, something like:

Does Judaism prescribe a hierarchy of practices for someone who will only be minimally involved?

This can be answered objectively (either "yes" or "no") and the relevant sources can be cited.

Note that there is nothing wrong with the topic per se. Indeed, if someone is simply seeking suggestions and opinions they will be welcomed with open arms in the Mi Yodeya chatroom, which is more suitable for a discussion of this sort.

In any case, it should be made clear to the questioner that whether the question remains open or closed, it is not anything personal. It's certainly not because we don't like him/her, or we're not welcoming to new users, or we're not tolerant of questions from irreligious Jews. We are only trying to determine whether this particular question, as currently phrased, fits the guidelines for this site. This of course can, and will, be debated by the community until we reach a conclusion, but it is not really something that we can simply ignore.

Answer 3

Here are the ways in which this post's fitness for Mi Yodeya is questionable, to my mind:

• The post clearly asks for personal recommendations, which sounds a lot like asking for a personal ruling, which Mi Yodeya can't provide. The optimal next action for this individual would be best advised by a rabbi who knows (or comes to know) the individual and his/her communal context and who is qualified to offer Halachic advice.
• The post is asking for recommendations that fit a fairly broad brief: Jewish practices that can be done regularly but that are "doable" as in short of "shmiras shabbos". That looseness makes it difficult to objectively evaluate the value of answers. It needs to be possible to evaluate answers to a great degree based on criteria described in the question rather than based on the subjective opinion of the author or of the voter.

Answer 4

My true feeling on the matter I’ve written up in my other answer here. However, I feel it’s worthwhile to play devil’s advocate and let the community decide.

This isn’t a halachic question, nor is it a question on a classical source. It’s not a question of “what does Judaism think of X,” nor is it a question of important Jewish figures or texts. It seems to be a question of “As Jews, you all would be knowledgeable about X, so can you help me?” - the type of question we refer to as Jewish Life.

As the top-voted answer there explains, not all Jewish Life questions are on topic. But some are. This is essentially an adapted version of the Good Subjective, Bad Subjective policy which states that constructive subjective questions (loosely defining constructive) are still on-topic.

I believe that the guiding principles (though not a bright-line rules) for on-topicness should be:

Is this question expressly or implicitly motivated by a desire to understand or practice Judaism?

and

Is it reasonable to expect that a group of people who base their lives on Judaism would be especially able to give informed answers, due to their basing their lives on Judaism?

As Isaac explains there, these (loose) principles ensure that the question is A) a good fit for the site, and B) answerable by the community.

So, does our question pass the white-glove test?

Is this question expressly or implicitly motivated by a desire to understand or practice Judaism?

I’ll let the question speak for itself:

I am Jewish and an atheist, yet I have a pintele yid and I mean this request sincerely.

What about criterion 2?

Is it reasonable to expect that a group of people who base their lives on Judaism would be especially able to give informed answers, due to their basing their lives on Judaism?

Also check. He’s asking a group of Jews what they think is the best, easy thing for a Ba’al Teshuvah to take on. That seems like something we’d be capable of answering.

These are loose criteria, but if we take them as general guidelines, then this question should be reopened.

Answer 5

The OP did not request "the best" Jewish practice to adopt, which would be seeking out opinion-based answers, but, rather, simply asked for one Jewish practice he could adopt. As such, any Jewish practice one suggests is a fact-based answer. On another Judaism discussion site, someone posted a question a few days ago asking how Sarah Imeinu died. Well, we have 5 different midrashim about that. Any one of those would have made for a valid answer. This is an open-ended question, rather than an opinion-based one. As such, answers to this question, though they likely reflect the posters' opinions, are factual as long as they do not conflict with Jewish practice ("Sacrifice your children to Ba'al Peor" would be rejected on these grounds)

Answer 6

This particular question is fine as presented by this 'New Contributor'.

The objections which precipitated the HOLD are about the responses made so far. The original 5 should direct their action to the individuals that offered answers, not the individual posing this question.

As has been observed by the response of this new contributor in their comments and question edit, they are confused by this shut-down of their simple, appropriate and innocent question.

In addition, by placing the question on hold, it prevents anyone else from offering a better response.

There is, in fact, a textually based, non-opiniated answer to this question. But hasty and inappropriate action has closed off the possibility of presenting it.