Socially, it provides the opportunity for members to meet other people with similar interests. Psychologically members gain a sense of security and belonging. The cost of this includes possible dependency on community involvement, which happens to be Boyarins case.
"I suddenly discovered the distance between the world and myself," states Boyarin after his family moved out of Farmingdale. The realization that he is on the "outside" occurs to him when he encounters discrimination from his neighborhood peers. From this point on, he feels that he has lost his connection to his former Jewish identity and the quest to reconnect begins. Individuals on the outside often do not understand the significance of connecting with a community; and therefore may .
prejudge or discriminate those who are involved due to ignorance. A benefit of not associating with a community is that non-members are spared the ridicule, stereotypes and discrimination that a community must endure. .
"Any marginal group in mass society may be subject without warning to the loss of its cultural landscape, and therefore those who are able to create portable landscapes for themselves are the most likely to endure" (Boyarin, 149). Boyarin's "portable landscape" was his personal connection to his faith. He carried this connection with him throughout his travels and compared each new community with the one he felt he had lost. A benefit of not associating with a community is that a person is not on a constant search for a connection, and therefore does not experience loss when he cannot find one that fits.
Boyarin's decision to wear the yarmulke was a significant step to his religious self-discovery. "In assuming the yarmulke, I perhaps do not stop to consider that neither my actions nor my knowledge match the stands that it symbolically represents. But it works effectively, almost dangerously, as a two-way sensor, inducing Jews to present themselves to me and forcing me to try to understand how I am reflected in their eyes" (Boyarin, 154).