judaism
« Previous EntriesYU Chancellor: Reform and Conservative Judaism Dead — Con-versing with YU Chancellor Rabbi Lamm
Saturday, May 16th, 2009In a recent interview, Yeshiva University Chancellor Rabbi Norman Lamm expressed some pessimistic thoughts about the future of Reform and Conservative Judaism. According to the article, “With a heavy heart we will soon say kaddish on the Reform and Conservative Movements,” said Lamm, head of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.”The Conservatives are in a mood of despondency and pessimism. They are closing schools and in general shrinking,” he said.
“The Reform Movement may show a rise, because if you add goyim to Jews then you will do OK,” added Lamm, referring to the Reform Movement’s policy, starting in 1983, of recognizing patrilineal descent.
The National Jewish Population Survey of 2001 found that of the 46 percent of US Jewish households belonging to a synagogue, 33% were affiliated with a Conservative synagogue, a 10% fall from the 1990 survey. In contrast, the Reform Movement was up from 35% to 38% and Orthodox Jews rose from 16% to 22%. Two percent were affiliated with the Reconstructionist Movement and 5% with “other types” of synagogues.
This writer does not take such a dim view of Conservative or Reform Judaism’s future. I believe there are many reasons for this: since their inception, both these movements have always attracted Jews who were raised Orthodox; even if Orthodox Judaism will eventually become the dominant denomination of Jews living in the United States, there will always be a considerable number of young people who will revolt against their parents’ orthodox lifestyle. Young people do what they do best—they reinvent their identities.
While the Conservative movement struggles with certain issues, it continues to show a resiliency that will not weaken. Lamm’s remarks remind of something Mark Twain once said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” If I were Rabbi Lamm, I would be more concerned about the Haredization of Modern Orthodoxy, which is moving closer and closer to the ultra-right of the Orthodox spectrum.
Chancellor Rabbi Norman Lamm dismisses the growing presence of Ortho-feminism, remarking:
Change has to come to religion when feasible, but it should not be rushed. Women have just come into their own from an educational perspective. I would prefer not to have this innovation right now. It is simply too early. What will happen later… I am not a prophet.”
I must differ; already there are more and more scholarly Orthodox women who are fighting for semicha in Israel and in the United States. If Modern Orthodoxy denies them this historical opportunity, the women will fight until the change occurs. In addition, the agunah issue, where women cannot remarry without a get (religious divorce) threatens to undermine Orthodoxy in all of its sundry forms. Artscroll may produce many fine books, but these works will have little practical effect unless Orthodoxy strives to keep its women happy, for if they aren’t—they will end up as the next generation of Conservative Jews.
Actually, the more the Haredi marginalize and disown rabbis within the Orthodox fold who champion greater participation, the more likely the entire feminist wing of Orthodoxy may ultimately end up in the Conservative camp. If anything, I seriously believe that Conservative Judaism is already inching more closely toward a more Orthodox-style; the Reform Siddur has raised all sorts of cackles within the movement that they are becoming increasingly more religiously traditional than they were before. Yes, change is necessary as it is inevitable; the lines separating Jewish denominations may not be as fixed as Rabbi Lamm envisions it.
The issue of homosexual rabbis is going to eventually prove problematical for Orthodox gays, who incidentally have a visible presence in the Yeshiva University campus! Once again, should Modern Orthodoxy prove to be too Haredi in its attitude toward the frum homosexual, guess where they will eventually end up?
Journey through the Looking-glass: Pope Benedict XVI’s Interfaith Encounter in the Holy Land
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009One of the most interesting aspects of the Pope’s recent visit to Israel was the interfaith group that met with the Pope to discuss important issues and challenges that Jews, Christians and Muslims face as a faith community. Despite the good intentions of the forum’s organizers, the Pope’s desire to act as a facilitator for religious tolerance found some explosive road-blocks along the way, as they met at the holy site Norte Dame.
Following the pope’s visit to Yad Vashem, Palestinian leader Sheik Taysir Tamimi forced his way to the pulpit at an inter-religious event demanding that the pope to fight for “a just peace for a Palestinian state and for Israel to stop killing women and children and destroying mosques as she did in Gaza”; he asked the pope to “pressure the Israeli government to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people.”
Of course not a word was said about how these mosques were being used as military bases to attack Israeli citizens. Evidently, Tamimi doesn’t get what “Never Again” really means. Context is everything. But let us return back to our discussion.
Rather than confronting Sheik Taysir Tamimi, the Pope quietly listened and left the room. As one friend of mine wrote in his blog, “The biggest shame of it all is that the entire Muslim community he represented was not even embarrassed by or ashamed of this verbal explosion.”
Yet, this was not the only place where Pope Benedict XVI found some difficulties. After he spoke at the Yad Vashem, the Pope proclaimed that he had come: “to stand in silence before this monument, erected to honor the memory of the millions of Jews killed in the horrific tragedy of the Shoah … ‘May the names of these victims never perish! May their suffering never be denied, belittled or forgotten!”
What was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice?
Friday, May 1st, 2009A reader may wonder: What was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice?
Professor Robert Alter writes that the biblical narrator used several techniques to convey meaning, e.g., statements by the anonymous narrator, by God, by heroes or heroines, by verbal clues, by juxtaposition of material, by characterization, and by effects of actions. Applying [...]
An Email from God concerning the Holocaust
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Here is a letter from my friend Rachel, who wrote the following piece of creative Midrash, which I call: A Letter to Humankind from God Concerning the Holocaust. The theological message is priceless and this is a letter any Sunday School class can easily benefit from.
Hi Linda,
God here. I got your email. [...]
The Sins of Swiss Neutrality
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009During the week of Yom HaShoah, while Holocaust services were being observed all over the world, the United Nations reconvened its Durban Conference to discuss human rights issues and violations that are taking place throughout the world. Traditionally, the onus of blame has always been directed at Israel, as if all the other human rights issues of the world seem to pale, in comparison e.g., the genocide in Darfur, Jihadist terrorism, or the recent Russian invasion of Georgia and the theft of their land does not seem to matter.
Curiously, on Sunday April 19th, on the day that Adolf Hitler was born, the Swiss President Hans Rudolf-Merz decided to meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran.
As all of you probably know, the Iranian leader is an avowed Holocaust denier; he was slated to give the keynote address before the United Nations forum known as “Durban II”, which was being held in Geneva.
Questioning the Limits of Rabbinic Authority
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009One of the most important issues being debated today is the matter of rabbinical authority; nearly every conflict between the Haredi/Hassidic rabbis and the non-Ultra-Orthodox rabbis revolves around one issue: Who has the right to speak for the Jewish people? Historically, every rabbi spoke for his own community; an attitude of polydoxy prevailed and each community respected the decisions of the other neighboring city. Dissent always was and will forever remain an essential feature of rabbinic debate. However, there are rules of etiquette where each opinion must respect the viewpoint of the Other; we must agree to sometimes disagree with one another.
Historically, Jewish law has long recognized the importance for new generations of rabbinical thinkers must occasionally take issue with the decrees established by the earlier rabbinical authorities. This is one of the main reasons why the first generations of Talmudic scholars deliberately left certain critical case studies in the remain unresolved, so that the future generations might come to their own conclusions. Minority viewpoints are always important because sometimes the circumstances of the future may require that a minority view become the appropriate law for its time. Rabbinical law is not inherently static, it is flexidox and not purely “orthodox.”
“Seduced by a demon?”
Thursday, April 16th, 2009Rabbinic material isn’t always dull reading; in fact, more often than not, it contains some very fascinating and entertaining cases about life in the medieval era. Jewish folklore continues to enchant many Hassidic and Sephardic Jews, many of whom, still believe in the stories about demons in rabbinical tradition. Keep in mind that Maimonides wrote his Mishnah Torah and “Guide for the Perplexed” to help wean the Jews of his time away from believing in such superstitions. Such a position did not make Maimonides very popular among the mystics of the Kabbalah.
R. Joshua Tractenburg writes in his “Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion”:
“Was a man or woman who had been seduced by a demon to be regarded as an adulterer? And if so, was such a woman to be “forbidden” to her husband? If, today, the issue strikes us as grotesque it is only because we have lost faith in the realities of the medieval world. Isaac b. Moses of Vienna, in the thirteenth century, considered this question at length and solemnly concluded that a person who had been seduced by a spirit was not to be held guilty of fornication.
Emailing as a Moral Challenge
Thursday, April 16th, 2009How did our ancestors regard the spoken word? What does the Torah say about the word and its power and its possibilities?
Biblical writers regarded the Divine Word as a cosmic force reverberating throughout the created order. According to Psalms 33:6, the Word of God animates the cosmos: בִּדְבַר יְהוָה שָׁמַיִם נַעֲשׂוּ “By the Word of the LORD the heavens were made.” To the Hebraic (as well as the Semitic) imagination, words are powerful—it is the stuff reality is made of. In Biblical Hebrew, among its various nuances, דָּבַר (dabhar) connotes a “thing” (Exod. 35:1); or a “promise” (Deut. 15:6); and a “decree” (Jer. 51:12) or “affair” or “history” (1 Kgs. 14:12). [1] In each of these examples, the term connotes something substantive and real. Everything that exists in the world is viewed as a manifestation of the Word of God that animates it.
The intuitions of primal cultures never cease to fascinate and intrigue me. The spoken word was often used as a supernatural weapon; the curse of a soothsayer was believed to be powerful enough to invoke the forces of death itself. One of the most well known biblical stories found, the book of Numbers relates how King Balak of Moab, hires the mighty soothsayer Balaam to curse the approaching Israelite people (Num. 22:6). From a modern perspective, one could describe Balaam as a motivational speaker; he is skilled in the art of inflaming the masses. Anti-Semites in the Middle East perform television documentaries on how Jews use Muslim and Christian blood to make their Passover matzas (see Memri.org for hundreds of examples).
The real meaning of “Chosenness”
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009The Reconstructionist theologian Mordechai Kaplan tried very hard to dismiss the notion of “Chosen people” because he felt it was an antiquated idea thatis “morally untenable”, because anyone who has such beliefs “implies the superiority of the elect community and the rejection of others” (Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot, [...]
Bk. Reviews on: The Lord is My Shepherd: The Theology of the Caring God
Saturday, March 28th, 2009From Amazon.com
You can buy this book for practically pennies of the original price!!
Challenging, spiritually healing work!,
January 21, 2009
By
loves life (NC
Using the shepherd imagery of Psalm 23, Michael Samuel powerfully depicts God as a shepherd who constantly cares for His sheep. The Lord Is My Shepherd: The Theology of A Caring God awoke in me afresh [...]
« Previous Entries