Religious, observant, oh my!

I've read a lot of funny things in the past few days. My personal favorite line in all the wisdom and clashing ideas was just so simple it would be a shame to go without repetition: "neo-observant youth."

I imagine you understand by now that I am talking about the Jewish Week article.

What a strange issue this is; well strange is hardly the right word, perhaps estranged is more suited to this circumstance. Because we are in many ways estranged from the old religious traditions our people once held dear, are we not?

Alas in this post-modern world (It's a buzz phrase so sue me), I may live to eat those words. Since reading that article I've argued with myself and ate many a time the Jewvanile conclusions I came to.

Now for the big question: What is it to be "more religious" or "more observant?"

Does that mean laying tefillin every day for a morning prayer session or could that be as "religious" to one as a morning jog is to another? Can one ever be more religious than another? And if so, what is the criteria for that? Is it more religious to spend Saturday morning in Shul or doing volunteer work and picking up trash? What is this concept of "more religious?"

"'I’m definitely one of the more observant people in my [rabbinical school] class,' Singer said." Charged words from a wise man. What is it then, this thing: "more observant?" As I ate dinner this evening (a fantastic concoction of Stouffer's microwaveable lasagna, highly recommended if you're looking for treif), I could not help but think of the words I had read in Singers blog not so long ago: "I don't eat treif so that I can remember that even the way I eat can be holy."

Hmmm. Is that what it is to be more observant? Does that make David more observant than me? Is the, now empty, package of meat and cheese in my trashcan what makes me a less observant Jew?

Or when we talk about observance or religiousness, do we mean to talk about something else, something English lacks the ability to express? Do we mean observance as a strictly "I follow more commandments than you?" or an "I follow them better?" or are we trying to expresses "I attempt to embody more of our peoples traditions than you do?"

Then the biggest question, far (or not so far?) removed from the labels of more religious or more observant, what is it to be holy (or more holy? Is there a more holy even?)? Is one holy as a result of being observant or religious? Observant of what then, ritual or good deed?

Now I am more confused than when I started writing this. The final question is the really scary one though: does all this even matter? You tell me.