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Conservative Judaism
Rabbi David Wolpe

In exploring the meaning of being a Conservative Jew, we have seen that the difference
between Conservative Judaism and Reform or Orthodox Judaism is not just a matter of
degree, but one of substance as well. It is incorrect to say that we are less observant than
the Orthodox and more observant than Reform. We are more than just a point in between
these two poles. Conservative Judaism stands for community, History and intellectual
honesty. We do not hide from difficult passages but we confront all the problems of life
and seek to find an answer in the deep traditions of Judaism.

There is one final area that we must explore, and in some ways it is the most difficult to explain. Conservative
Judaism takes the Torah and Jewish Law very seriously. One of the biggest criticisms that Conservative Jewish
practice faces is that we permit ourselves to do whatever we want in Jewish Law and have no real ties to either the
Torah nor to the long history of Jewish Law. It is a most serious charge. Without Jewish Law, we can not be
attached to Jewish History, but with it, we risk fossilizing our faith and our religious practices. How can we remain a
movement committed to Halacha, Jewish Law, and still practice a faith that enables us to live in the real world?

The question is difficult to answer because the question is, by its nature, flawed. It is based on the assumptions of
both the Orthodox movement and the Reform movement. The Orthodox maintain that to be a Halachic movement,
we have to at all times, be committed to preserving Halacha. The Reform movement says that to change the law is
to admit it is flawed and thus the law should be rejected and reformed to fit the new circumstances.

But the law does not need to be either restrictive or excessively liberal. In Conservative Judaism, we say that
Halacha is "Organic" in its nature. What this means is just like human beings are constantly growing and changing,
so too the law can grow and change. But, just as a person does not do all their growing and changing in one night,
so too, the law changes gradually, over time, growing as we grow and changing as we change.

My teacher Rabbi Elliot Dorff used to explain it to us by telling us to go and find a picture of ourselves from the time
in our lives when we were babies. As we look at our baby pictures we can see that we look quite a bit different
today than we did when the picture was taken. We have grown and changed so that almost every cell in our body
is no longer the same as it once was. In fact, if someone did not know it was our baby picture, they may have
trouble figuring out whose picture it is. The reason we know that the picture we hold is an image of ourselves is
that we did not make the changes all at once. There were years of growing and changing that have made us look
like we do today. We can relate to our baby picture because we have the history that fills in the gap between what
was and what is today.

We can say the same thing about Jewish Law as well. We did not get from the Torah with its prohibition against
work on Shabbat and the many details of Shabbat ritual we have today in just the blink of an eye. The Judaism we
practice today has grown and changed over time just as any organic entity grows and changes. Not all at once.
Not reformed to meet whatever modern problem it has to face. Rather each law is built on all that has come before
it. Laws concerning riding on Shabbat move from horse, to carriage, to automobile. Laws concerning using
electricity on Shabbat are compared to laws relating to fire and cooking. Each new matter is tied to something that
already is part of Jewish Law and thus we learn how to live our lives in a quest for holiness just as our ancestors
did in past generations.

What makes this system difficult, is not the changes in the system over time. What makes it difficult to understand
is that in many cases, over time, there have been many answers as to what is acceptable and what is not
acceptable under Jewish Law. From time to time there have been many discussions as to how Judaism should be
practiced. Some Jews thought that the prohibition against fire on Shabbat meant that one had to sit in the cold
dark night after sunset on Friday. Other said that the prohibition was only on starting a fire on Shabbat, but if one
started the fire before Shabbat one could read and relax by that fire after the sun went down. In modern times we
have up-dated discussions on the principles of the earlier argument. Should one sit in the dark, or can one use a
timer to turn off and on a light, a heater, an air conditioner or even a television? As long as the timer is set in
advance, is it is no different than starting a fire before Shabbat?

It is this concept that there is no one answer to many of Judaism's questions about the law, that form the most
noticeable difference between Conservative Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. Orthodox Judaism usually makes its
choice between conflicting opinions based on the strictest approach, using the understanding that if it is stricter, it
is more authentic. Conservative Judaism maintains that every opinion has an important role to play in Judaism and
each one may have something important to teach us in our generation.

Why did the ancient Sages prohibit women from participating in many rituals of Judaism? Some say that because
of the monthly cycle of Purity and impurity that a woman endures, she can not take upon herself the rituals of
prayer and study. Others say that women were too busy with duties of marriage and child rearing that they could
not perform the prayer and study during the time mandated for their completion. In fact, both of these reasons are
not legally valid. There is no law that forbids an impure person from prayer or study. And for every ritual that a
woman is exempt from because of the mandated time, there are many others that also have a mandated time, like
lighting Shabbat candles, that they are required to perform. Many of the rituals that a woman is exempt from are
rituals that take up very little time. To shake a Lulav and hear the Shofar are not big time commitments.

When we study the law, we find that the real reason that women are exempt from much of Jewish Law is "mipnay
darkay Shalom" for the purpose of keeping peace in the community. If a woman is called upon to lead a service,
have an Aliyah or wave a Lulav, she might embarrass a man who is also required to do it but does not know how. I
think that it is quite safe to say that such issues of embarrassment are no longer valid in an egalitarian society
such as the one in which we live. This is the biggest reason that long ago, Conservative Judaism offered opinions
of Jewish Law that permitted woman to participate in prayer and study.

What we need to remember, however, is that just because there are some changes in Jewish Law that
Conservative Judaism holds, that does not mean that we have torn apart the whole system of law. Rabbi Joel Roth,
the former Chairman of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, the committee that explores how laws need
to be preserved or changed, once taught, "Just because there is a minority opinion in Conservative Judaism that
permits Jews to ride to Synagogue on Shabbat rather than stay home and apart from the community, this does not
mean that Conservative Judaism permits one to ride to the mall to buy food or clothing on Shabbat. Just because
there is an opinion that Conservative Jews can eat swordfish and sturgeon within the laws of Kashrut, this does not
give permission to eat an Burger King or McDonalds." The fact that there is no one opinion as to how to do some
rituals in Judaism, does not mean that there are no rules at all!

Conservative Judaism is committed to Pluralism in understanding the law. This means we take every legitimate
opinion regarding Jewish Law and apply it to how we live our lives. What is important is how we connect what we do
to the long history of Judaism and how Judaism has been practiced by those who care in every generation. Jewish
law is not arbitrary nor rigid. It has always had the capacity to grow and change. It is up to those who care about
Jewish law to keep it growing and changing. It is the responsibility of all of us who wish to live by Jewish law to learn
why it is that some authorities forbid an action while others permit it. Only if we understand the reasons can we
make Jewish rituals meaningful in our lives.

Until today, Conservative Judaism was just a way of seeing the world, a way of being Jewish that was true to our
history, community and our intellect. But Judaism is nothing if it does not challenge us to do something. What is
important is not just what we believe, but what we do. It is in how we bring Jewish Law into our life that is the
essence of living as a Conservative Jew. The process we use, the commitment to grow in observance as well as
dedicating ourselves to a lifetime of learning make up the business end of being a Conservative Jew. It is our duty
here at Temple Sinai than, to provide for each of us, a safe place to learn and practice how to grow and change
into a serious and more committed Jew.

May God help us grow religiously as well as intellectually, and may we find every day another opportunity to grow
in our Judaism and to change our lives for the sake of Torah.