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Rabbinic Insights: Judaisms
San Diego Jewish Times,
July 14, 2006
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This column by Rabbi Wayne Dosick prompted a reaction from Rabbi Yeruchem
Eilfort of Chabad of La Costa. See Rabbi
Eilfort's reaction
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By Rabbi Wayne Dosick
Despite
all the current external threats to Jews and Judaism, particularly the attacks
coming out of Gaza, and the rise of anti-Semitism throughout Europe,
we Jews just cannot get along with each other.
Item: The Israeli Supreme Court has been asked to uphold the ban that excludes
Conservative and Reform rabbis from using the
state-Rabbinate-controlled mikvaot
(pools of collected ritual waters) for purpose of conversions.
Item: The Israeli state-Rabbinate continues to refuse to recognize as Jews those
who came from the political oppression of the former Soviet
Union even though their Judaism kept up their hopes and, eventually, got
them released without formal conversions.
Item: Israeli president Moshe Katsav recently refused to call Rabbi Eric Yoffie,
president of the Union of Reform Judaism, by his title "Rabbi,"
insisting
that because he, Katsav, is an Orthodox Jew and his rabbis refuse to
recognize Reform and Conservative rabbis as rabbis, he would follow their
ruling.
When he was reminded that he is president of all of Israel, and, thus, the
titular leader of all Jews, Katsav insisted that his religious obligations
outweigh his
state obligations. After a lengthy meeting with Rabbi Jerome Epstein,
executive director of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judalsm, Katsav
reluctantly agreed to call Conservative rabbis by the title "Rabbi,"
but still refuses to call Reform rabbis by their title.
Item: The Israeli state-Rabbinate, which has always rejected conversions
supervised by Conservative and Reform rabbis both inside and outside Israel,
has recently decided to reject conversions overseen by Orthodox rabbis
outside Israel. Now, even the Orthodoxy of members of the Orthodox
Rabbinical Council of America is not Orthodox enough.
And,
here at home, right in our own community:
Item: a leading Orthodox rabbi refuses to "set foot" in Conservative
and Reform synagogues even when he is invited there to teach because
it
might "signal the legitimacy of non-Orthodox Judaism, which is, of course,
illegitimate."
Item: And that same rabbi was overheard to say, "We will destroy
them." The listener assumed that this distinguished rabbi was speaking of
the Arabs.
But, no. He was speaking of Reform and Conservative Judaism.
The
old Federation phrase We are One is a sad jest. The schism between
Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jewry is growing deeper and wider, and there
seems to be little that can heal the breach.
The
truth is that there have always been wide differences in Jewish thought and
practice. There was the strict school of Shammai and the more liberal
school of Hillel. There were Rav and Shmuel. There were the Rambam and the
Kabbalists. There were the Chasidim and Misnagdim. And, who amongst
us would dare to declare who was greater the Baal Shem Tov or the Vilna Gaon?
Still, today, even in the Orthodox world, there is 770 Eastern
Parkway, home of the Lubavitch, and the Lakewood Yeshiva, home of the
Talmudists. There have always been the strict interpreters and the liberal
interpreters, the legalists and the spirituals.
Yet,
in our time, when there is so much at stake the threats from the outside,
and the assimilation, and the acculturation, and the ennui on the
inside we have to put our differences aside and stop fighting with each
other. Or, hard to say, even harder to imagine, we will separate
from each other.
Now
go ahead, get those pens and pencils ready to write scathing letters of
protest to the editor what my Orthodox brothers and sisters must
learn is that fundamentalism even, as they claim, L'shem
Shamayim, for God's sake does not work. Never, anywhere, has it worked
to tell others
that "my way is the only way." Human beings reject that kind of
thinking. Human beings reject another's thinking imposed on them. And worse,
trying to
control human actions will not work. And, fundamentalism of any kind
political or religious inevitably leads to terrorism. "You have to have
my
kind of conversion. You have to have my
kind of marriage. You have to have my
kind of divorce. You have to eat my
kind of kashrut." Not only think
my way; do it my way. And, since I am in power, I am in control, I will make you
do it my way. But, history's lesson is clear: Bodies can be controlled
for a while. Minds can never be controlled for long.
In
addition, rather than being mired in ancient law that is frozen in place, the
Orthodox community must begin to acknowledge that there is evolving
morality that Jewish law must reflect. We would all agree that Jewish law that
accepts slavery is no longer valid. Equally, we must all agree that Jewish law
that relegates women to anything else than full and equal status not a
status granted by men, but full and equal status is no longer valid. We must
all
agree that Jewish law that keeps a woman "chained" to a husband is no
longer valid. We must all agree that kosher slaughterhouses that exploit
the
workers who render the meat no matter how meticulously slaughtered according
to Jewish law treif.
My
Orthodox friends must learn that there must be Jewish pluralism, there must be
acceptance. If not, there will be continuing Jewish chaos. And,
since there are many more liberal Jews than there are Orthodox Jews, eventually,
the liberal Jews will no longer accept the fundamentalism of the
minority imposed upon the majority.
It will not be easy all right, my Conservative and Reform friends and
colleagues, get your pencils of protest ready because Reform Judaism, for
the
most part, is little concerned with binding Jewish law, and because too many
Conservative rabbis and Jews ke
"Zayde was the real Jew."
But,
before long it will come to this. If the Orthodox continue to reject Reform and
Conservative conversions, and marriages and divorces, Conservative
and Reform rabbis will begin to reject Orthodox conversions, marriages, and
divorces. Right now, come to an Orthodox rabbi with a conversion from
the Conservative Beit Din, and in almost every instance, the conversion is
rejected as not valid. Soon, it will be that if you come to a Conservative
or
Reform rabbi with a conversion from an Orthodox Beit Din, we will reject it as
not valid.
And,
then, we will have two Judaisms.
Actually, we have already have two Judaisms. It is just that no one has been
ready to recognize the reality, or to say it out loud.
I
just have. We have two Judaisms Orthodox and liberal. For a very long time,
liberal Judaism has acceded to the fundamentalism of Orthodoxy, and
been unwilling to take the proactive steps to clearly delineate the differences
not only in theory but in the results of communal and, particularly,
life-cycle practice. Believing and saying one thing, we have accepted
the consequences of another's practice. Not for much longer.
So, to my Orthodox friends here and especially in Israel, we say you have led us
to the brink of schism. It is time to change your behavior before you
split an already fragile contemporary Judaism into two parts. We honor and
respect you and your choices for you. No longer try to impose your choices
on us. We call on you to honor and respect our choices. And we call on you to
remember the teaching of the Talmud, "These and these are the
words of the living God."
Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D., the spiritual guide of the Elijah
Minyan, an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego and the Director of
the 17: Spiritually Healing Children's Emotional Wounds. He is the
award-winning author of six critically acclaimed books, including Golden
Rules; Living Judaism; and Soul Judaism: Dancing with God into a New Era.