Religion - Conservative Denomination
Conservative Judaism (or Masorti Judaism)
is a denomination of Judaism characterized by:
* A positive attitude toward modern culture
* The belief that traditional rabbinic modes of study, and modern
scholarship and critical text study, are both valid ways to learn about
and from Jewish religious texts.
* A commitment to following traditional Jewish laws and customs
* A deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching and acceptance of Jewish
principles of faith.
"Conservative Judaism believes that scholarly study of Jewish texts
indicates that Judaism has constantly been evolving to meet the needs of
the Jewish people in varying circumstances, and that a central halakhic
authority can continue the halakhic evolution today." (Soc.Culture.Jewish
Usenet Newsgroup FAQ)
The term conservative does not imply that the movement's adherents are
politically conservative; rather, the term was meant to signify that
Jews should attempt to conserve Jewish tradition, rather than reform or
abandon it. However, many political parties follow conservative
political agendas, or even have the word as part of their name. Due to
this, a number of Conservative rabbis have proposed renaming the
movement. Outside the USA it is now known as Masorti Judaism. Adherents
of Conservative Judaism may be on the political left, center or right.
Movement organization
Conservative Judaism is a unified movement; the international body of
Conservative rabbis is the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), the organization of
synagogues is the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ), and
the primary seminary and cantorial school is the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America (JTS) in New York City.
Conservative Judaism outside the USA is often called Masorti Judaism;
Masorti rabbis belong to the Rabbinical Assembly.
Other seminaries include the University of Judaism in Los Angeles,
California; the Marshall Meyer Seminario Rabbinico Latinoamericano in
Argentina; and Machon Schechter (in Jerusalem.)
History
Like Reform Judaism, the Conservative movement developed in Europe and
the United States in the 1800s, as Jews reacted to the changes brought
about by the Enlightenment and emancipation. In Europe the movement was
known as Positive-Historical Judaism, and it is still known as "the
historical school" today. In the USA it became known as Conservative
Judaism; later it became known as Masorti (traditional) Judaism outside
of the USA.
Positive-Historical Judaism, the intellectual forerunner to Conservative
Judaism, was developed as a school of thought in 1850s Germany by a
number of thinkers, including Rabbi Zecharias Frankel. Frankel rejected
the positions taken by Reform Judaism as a deviation from traditional
Judaism. Frankel became the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
Breslau, Germany. The seminary taught that Jewish law was not static,
but rather has always developed in response to changing conditions. He
called his approach towards Judaism "Positive-Historical," which meant
that one should have a positive attitude towards accepting Jewish law
and tradition as normative, yet one should be open to developing the law
in the same fashion that it has always historically developed.
Frankel did not attempt to establish a separate movement; he was
interested in promoting a school of thought. To those to his left, he
was perceived as not very different from the neo-Orthodox (later: Modern
Orthodox) Jews at the time. However to many in Orthodoxy, Frankel's
openness to modern methods of historical scholarship put him beyond the
pale of Orthodoxy, and he was thus associated with the more radical
Reform movement.
In 1902, Solomon Schechter reorganized the Jewish Theological Seminary
in New York City and made it into the flagship institution of
Conservative Judaism.
A number of studies have shown that there is a large gap between what
the Conservative movement teaches and what most of its laypeople have
incorporated into their daily lives. Conservative Judaism holds that
halakha (Jewish law) is normative, i.e. that it is something that Jewish
people must strive to actually live by in their daily lives. This would
include the laws of Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath); the laws of kashrut
(keeping kosher); the practice of thrice daily prayer; observance of the
Jewish holidays and life-cycle events. In practice, the majority of
people who have come to join Conservative synagogues only follow all
these laws rarely. Most do follow most of the laws some of the time, but
only a minority follow most or all of the laws all of time. There is a
substantial committed core, consisting of the lay leadership, rabbis,
cantors, educators, and those who have graduated from the movement's
religious day schools and summer camps, that do take Jewish law very
seriously. Recent studies have shown an increase in the observance of
members of the movement.
Beliefs
Conservative Jews believe that movements to its left, such as Reform and
Reconstructionist Judaism, have erred by rejecting the traditional
authority of Jewish law and tradition. They believe that the Orthodox
Jewish movements, on the theological right, have erred by slowing down,
or stopping, the historical development of Jewish law.
However, Conservative Judaism holds that Orthodox Judaism is a valid and
legitimate form of rabbinic Judaism and respects the validity of its
rabbis. Conservative Judaism holds that both Reform and
Reconstructionist Judaism have made major breaks with the historic
definition of Judaism, both by their rejection of Jewish law as
normative, and by their unilateral acts in creating a separate
definition of Jewishness (i.e. the latter movement's acceptance of
patrilineal descent as an additional way of defining Jewishness). Depite
the Conservative movement's disagreement with the more liberal
movements, it does respect the right of Reform and Reconstructionist
Jews to interpret Judaism in their own way. Thus the Conservative
movement recognizes the right of Jews to form such denominations, and
recognizes their clergy as rabbis, but often does not accept their
specific decisions as valid.
Mordecai Waxman, a leading figure in the Rabbinical Assembly, writes
that "Reform has asserted the right of interpretation but it rejected
the authority of legal tradition. Orthodoxy has clung fast to the
principle of authority, but has in our own and recent generations
rejected the right to any but minor interpretations. The Conservative
view is that both are necessary for a living Judaism. Accordingly,
Conservative Judaism holds itself bound by the Jewish legal tradition,
but asserts the right of its rabbinical body, acting as a whole, to
interpret and to apply Jewish law." (Mordecai Waxman Tradition and
Change: The Development of Conservative Judaism)
The Conservative position is that Orthodoxy had deviated from historical
Judaism through an excessive concern with recent codifications of Jewish
law. The Conservative movement consciously rejects the Orthodox
understanding of Jewish history, which entails near-total deference to
seemingly infallible rabbis, and instead holds that a more fluid model
is both necessary, and theologically and historically justifiable. The
Conservative movement makes a conscious effort to use historical sources
to determine what kind of changes to Jewish tradition have occurred, how
and why they occurred, and in what historical context. With this
information they believe that can better understand the proper way for
rabbis to interpret and apply Jewish law to our conditions today.
God
Conservative Judaism affirms theism. Its members have varied beliefs
about the nature of God, and no one understanding of God is mandated.
Among the beliefs affirmed are: Maimonidean rationalism; Kabbalistic
mysticism; Hasidic panentheism (neo-Hasidism, Jewish Renewal); limited
theism (as in Harold Kushner's "When Bad Things Happen to Good People");
organic thinking in the fashion of Whitehead and Hartshorne, a.k.a.
process theology (such as Rabbis Max Kaddushin and William E. Kaufman).
Mordecai Kaplan's religious naturalism (Reconstructionist Judaism) used
to have an influential place in the movement, but since
Reconstructionism developed as an independent movement, this influence
has waned. Papers from a recent Rabbinical Assembly conference on
theology were recently printed in a special issue of the journal
Conservative Judaism (Winter 1999); the editors note that Kaplan's
naturalism seems to have dropped from the movement's radar screen.
Revelation
In agreement with traditional Judaism, Conservative Judaism holds that
God inspired prophets to write the Torah (five books of Moses) and the
Hebrew Bible. However, for theological reasons most Conservative Jews
reject the traditional Jewish idea that God dictated the words of the
Torah to Moses at Mount Sinai in a verbal revelation. Divine revelation,
however, while held to be real, is generally believed to be non-verbal
-- that is, the revelation did not include the particular words of the
divine texts. Conservative Judaism allows its adherents to hold to a
wide array of views on the subject of revelation.
Conservative Jews are comfortable with the findings of higher criticism,
including the documentary hypothesis, the idea that the current text of
the Torah was redacted together from several earlier sources. They go
further, and the movement's rabbinic authorities and official Torah
commentary (Etz Hayim: A Torah Commentary) affirm that Jews should make
use of modern critical literary and historical analysis to understand
how the Bible developed. These views are rejected as heretical by most
of Orthodox Judaism, but are accepted as valid by all non-Orthodox
Jewish movements.
Conservative Jews reconcile these beliefs by holding that God, in some
way, did reveal his will to Moses and later prophets. However, records
of revelation may have been passed down through the centuries in many
ways, including written documents, folklores, epic poems, etc. These
records were eventually redacted together to form the Torah, and later
on, the other books of the Tanakh [Hebrew Bible].
Jewish principles of faith
In the charter of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1902) and
in the preamble to the Constitution of the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism (1913), Conservative Jews briefly outlined their
beliefs, which included the call "to assert and establish loyalty to the
Torah and its historical exposition". However, the movement deliberately
avoided publishing systematic explications of theology and belief, as
part of a conscious attempt to hold together a wide coalition. This
concern became a non-issue after the left wing of the movement seceded
in 1968 to form the Reconstructionist movement and the right wing
seceded in 1985 to form the Union for Traditional Judaism. In 1988, the
leadership council of Conservative Judaism finally issued an official
statement of belief, "Emet Ve-Emunah: Statement of Principles of
Conservative Judaism."
An accessible work on the practices and ideology of the movement is
"Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors To Our Descendants", by Elliot N.
Dorff. Other explications of Conservative Jewish beliefs are online:
Jewish law
Conservative Jews view the laws and customs from the various law codes
as the basis for Jewish law. However it holds that "however great the
literary value of a code may be, it does not invest it with
infallibility, nor does it exempt it from the student or the Rabbi who
makes use of it from the duty of examining each paragraph on its own
merits, and subjecting it to the same rules of interpretation that were
always applied to Tradition". (Solomon Schechter.)
Conservative Judaism affirms that halakha (Jewish law and tradition) is
not just a good idea, it is the law. At the same time, Conservative Jews
find it repugnant to suggest that anyone should be coerced into
following religious practices. Thus, like Modern Orthodoxy, Conservative
Judaism holds that Jewish law is normative, but not enforced. That is,
Jewish law encompasses actions that Jews actually ought to be following
in their daily lives, even though there is no enforcement of these
rules. (See also, the various positions within contemporary Judaism as
regards Halakha and the Talmud.)
There is a separate article which has details on Conservative responsa,
the legal opinions and rulings of Conservative and Masorti Judaism.
Conservative responsa are written by the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee
on Jewish Law and Standards.
Important figures
Elliot N. Dorff Professor of philosophy at the Univ. of Judaism
professor, theologian, member of the Committee on Jewish Law and
Standards
Louis Finkelstein Talmud scholar
Zecharias Frankel - founder of positive-historical Judaism.
Neil Gillman Theologian, JTS Philosophy Professor
Louis Ginzberg Talmud scholar and halakhic expert, early member of the
Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
Robert Gordis Rabbi, Theologian, Educator
Judith Hauptman JTS Talmud scholar
Jules Harlow - Primary liturgist of the Conservative movement
Abraham Joshua Heschel Theologian and social activist
Louis Jacobs - Founder of Masorti Judaism in the United Kingdom
Isaac Klein Rabbi, expert in Jewish law, early member of the Committee
on Jewish Law and Standards
Saul Lieberman Talmud scholar at JTS
Joel Roth JTS Talmud scholar, member of the Committee on Jewish Law and
Standards
Solomon Schechter - Researcher, early leader of JTS, creator of the
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Mathilde Roth Schechter - Founder of the Women's League of Conservative
Judaism and of Hadassah
Ismar Schorsch - Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America
Jewish identity
Conservative Judaism maintains the Rabbinic understanding of Jewish
identity: A Jew is someone who was born to a Jewish mother, or who
converts to Judaism in accordance with Jewish law and tradition.
Conservatism thus rejects patrilineal descent, which is accepted by the
Reform movement. Conservative Rabbis are not allowed to perform
intermarriages (marriages between Jews and non-Jews). However, the
Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism has a more nuanced
understanding of this issue than does Orthodoxy. In a press release it
has stated:
"In the past, intermarriage...was viewed as an act of rebellion, a
rejection of Judaism. Jews who intermarried were essentially
excommunicated. But now, intermarriage is often the result of living in
an open society....If our children end up marrying non-Jews, we should
not reject them. We should continue to give our love and by that retain
a measure of influence in their lives, Jewishly and otherwise. Life
consists of constant growth and our adult children may yet reach a stage
when Judaism has new meaning for them. However, the marriage between a
Jew and non-Jew is not a celebration for the Jewish community. We
therefore reach out to the couple with the hope that the non-Jewish
partner will move closer to Judaism and ultimately choose to convert.
Since we know that over 70 percent of children of intermarried couples
are not being raised as Jews...we want to encourage the Jewish partner
to maintain his/her Jewish identity, and raise their children as Jews."
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Judaism
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