While reading the recent Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) teshuvot on the Halakhic Status of Gay Men and Lesbians and the associated survey, one thing really got my attention; they were teshuvot, not teshuvah. I was reminded of the old joke, “two Jews- three opinions” but in this case I guess it would be, “one Movement- three opinions”. As I spent my Tuesday night curled up with my laptop and notepad reading the teshuvot and the survey, I realized in essence the CJLS was saying “Yes, no, and maybe” all at the same time.
After reading all of the hoopla in the press about how the Conservative movement had embraced its homosexual membership and moving toward more tolerance and diversity, I was now finding out not much had really changed. By the same number of votes the CJLS had passed a teshuvah upholding the traditional prohibitions against homosexual acts. I was a little confused and decided I needed to learn a little more about the CJLS.
The Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly (RA) founded the CJLS in 1927. Currently the Committee is composed of 25 rabbis and 5 lay members. Only the rabbis act as voting members, while the lay members participate only participate in deliberations.
When any six or more members vote in favor of a position that position becomes the Committee’s official position. As you math lovers out there may have noticed, six is not a majority out of twenty-five. So the Committee can end up with multiple positions, sometimes up to four, and sometimes almost opposing positions (and in some cases members will vote for multiple positions.
During my online readings and research I was able to find several lists of these Responsa produced by the CJLS, but I was unable to discover a comprehensive list. Apparently there isn’t a big book (or collection of books) that contains all of the Responsa.
I came across one Responsa from February of 1993 titled, “ A Principled Defense of the Current Structure and Status of the CJLS” which basically addresses the issue of whether the CJLS should even exist or exist in its current form. I, for one, agree that there should be a central Law Committee that serves to handle Halakhic questions for the Rabbinical Assembly, but I’m not entirely sure that I agree with the current method of making decisions. And I am more concerned that it seems some of the teshuvot seem to be influenced by public opinion.
It seems that, according to the Cohen Report, a large percentage of respondents to the JTS Survey agree with me on that point. On page 34 we see the results of the question, “Do you feel the decisions were an accommodation to political correctness?” 41% of Clergy, 43% of Professional Leaders and 49% of Lay Leaders agree.
This is not how Halakha works. Halakha is not decided by public opinion or political correctness, it is decided by Torah. Believing that, however, seems to put me in the minority of Conservative Jews. Some days it starts to feel like I was “sold a bill of goods” in regards to joining a Conservative synagogue.
When I read from “Emet Ve-Emunah”, which supposedly puts to print the principles of Judaism for the Conservative Movement I felt that I had found where I should be. From the Wikipedia article on Conservative Judaism (taken from Emet Ve-Emunah):
I was in agreement. I read Maimonides Thirteen Principles of Faith and I agreed with what he said. Now I wonder if we should present the above principles and the Thirteen Principles in survey form and see what the clergy and membership agree and disagree with. I’m afraid I would be more saddened than surprised with the results.
I will address Halakha and observance in the Conservative Movement on Sunday and then I promise I’ll stop beating this dead horse (at least for now).
After reading all of the hoopla in the press about how the Conservative movement had embraced its homosexual membership and moving toward more tolerance and diversity, I was now finding out not much had really changed. By the same number of votes the CJLS had passed a teshuvah upholding the traditional prohibitions against homosexual acts. I was a little confused and decided I needed to learn a little more about the CJLS.
The Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly (RA) founded the CJLS in 1927. Currently the Committee is composed of 25 rabbis and 5 lay members. Only the rabbis act as voting members, while the lay members participate only participate in deliberations.
When any six or more members vote in favor of a position that position becomes the Committee’s official position. As you math lovers out there may have noticed, six is not a majority out of twenty-five. So the Committee can end up with multiple positions, sometimes up to four, and sometimes almost opposing positions (and in some cases members will vote for multiple positions.
During my online readings and research I was able to find several lists of these Responsa produced by the CJLS, but I was unable to discover a comprehensive list. Apparently there isn’t a big book (or collection of books) that contains all of the Responsa.
I came across one Responsa from February of 1993 titled, “ A Principled Defense of the Current Structure and Status of the CJLS” which basically addresses the issue of whether the CJLS should even exist or exist in its current form. I, for one, agree that there should be a central Law Committee that serves to handle Halakhic questions for the Rabbinical Assembly, but I’m not entirely sure that I agree with the current method of making decisions. And I am more concerned that it seems some of the teshuvot seem to be influenced by public opinion.
It seems that, according to the Cohen Report, a large percentage of respondents to the JTS Survey agree with me on that point. On page 34 we see the results of the question, “Do you feel the decisions were an accommodation to political correctness?” 41% of Clergy, 43% of Professional Leaders and 49% of Lay Leaders agree.
This is not how Halakha works. Halakha is not decided by public opinion or political correctness, it is decided by Torah. Believing that, however, seems to put me in the minority of Conservative Jews. Some days it starts to feel like I was “sold a bill of goods” in regards to joining a Conservative synagogue.
When I read from “Emet Ve-Emunah”, which supposedly puts to print the principles of Judaism for the Conservative Movement I felt that I had found where I should be. From the Wikipedia article on Conservative Judaism (taken from Emet Ve-Emunah):
“The principles of Conservative Judaism include:
- A “dedication to Halakha… [as a] guide for our lives”;
- A deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish principles of faith;
- A positive attitude toward modern culture; and,
- An acceptance of both traditional rabbinic modes of study and modern scholarship and critical text study when considering Jewish religious texts.”
I was in agreement. I read Maimonides Thirteen Principles of Faith and I agreed with what he said. Now I wonder if we should present the above principles and the Thirteen Principles in survey form and see what the clergy and membership agree and disagree with. I’m afraid I would be more saddened than surprised with the results.
I will address Halakha and observance in the Conservative Movement on Sunday and then I promise I’ll stop beating this dead horse (at least for now).
No comments:
Post a Comment