chazak chazak v'nitchazeik
As most of the Jewish and much of the non-Jewish world now knows, the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is meeting today and tomorrow to revisit the movement’s policies on homosexuality. One of three possibilities is likely to result:
- The committee reaffirms its miserable and confused 1992 consensus statement,
- the committee votes to pass one or more of the four teshuvot currently under consideration, two of which would permit gay ordination and sanction same-sex relationships, or
- the committee delays its decision yet again, claiming it needs more time to work through the issues.
No one, including the CJLS members themselves, seems to be certain about how this is all going to play out.
Today all CJLS members received a copy of the following letter from Keshet, the independent organization of JTS community members who are advocating for the full equality of Jews of all sexual orientations in the Conservative Movement (Keshet having oh-so-cleverly discerned the committee’s so-called “undisclosed location” in Maryland. The CJLS’s process has shamefully been less transparent than the Papal Conclave). The letter focuses on the human dimensions of what the Conservative Movement seems to persist in discussing as an abstract halakhic issue, removed from the lives of the thousands of Jews both gay and straight who have been harmed by the Movement’s current policies. (And please don’t shriek about how halakha is, was, or should be independent of current social trends, morality, and human concerns. Try telling that to Rabbeinu Gershom.)
From Keshet’s mouth to God’s ears.
March 7, 2006
Dear CJLS Member:
As you know, the deliberations you are about to enter are historic and potentially transformative for the Conservative Movement. As you discuss and decide the issues, we respectfully offer you a kavanah for your consideration, expressed through the words of Jews from across America. We offer you the following stories, each one representative of hundreds more like them, to illustrate your power to effect positive change in the Conservative community and the wider Jewish world. We recognize your need to work thoughtfully in private, but as you work we also encourage you to remember the real people whose lives inform the halakhic questions.
- Jordan Solomon grew up as a member of the Conservative synagogue Temple Sinai in Marblehead, MA and graduated from the Cohen Hillel Academy. He is currently completing an MBA at Dartmouth and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School. Despite his active Conservative upbringing, Jordan is no longer a member of a Conservative shul and is not drawn to the Movement for several reasons, including our stance on homosexuality. While Jordan is heterosexual, he writes, “In my view, gay and lesbian Jews are no less holy than other Jews. They were born Jewish like me, daven like me, and feel a connection to Judaism like me, and thus should have equal rights as a member of the Jewish community, like me. Until the Conservative Movement considers and treats gay and lesbian Jews as equals, I will be skeptical of its morality and leadership and choose not to affiliate myself with it.”
- ChasyaUriel Steinbauer is an openly lesbian Jew who is “egalitarian, halakhic” and “trained as a Jew by a Conservative community.” She is currently studying full time at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education because she cannot apply to the JTS Rabbinical School. Chasya says, “Homosexual… Jews are souls just like you on the Law Committee, trying to serve God and do the right thing… May you embrace courage and extend… chesed.”
- Seth W. Goren grew up in a Conservative family that was active in its shul, Beth Tikvah-B’nei Jeshurun in Erdenheim, PA. Seth was an active member of USY and attended Camp Ramah in the Poconos. Until this past summer, he regularly attended services at a Conservative synagogue in New York since “[t]he fact that I am gay appeared to make little difference to members with whom I spoke.” However, Seth recently learned that same-sex families may not join the synagogue as a family, that no honors can be awarded to gay Jews as a couple, and that the congregation will not rent out space to Jews celebrating a same-sex ceremony or lifecycle event. “Faced with the second-class status awarded to gay relationships at the synagogue,” Seth declares, “I felt I had no choice but to stop attending.” Seth is currently training to be a rabbi at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.
- Jay Michaelson is an author, teacher, and editor in chief of Zeek: a Jewish Journal of Thought and Culture. Jay grew up attending a Conservative shul weekly, went to Camp Ramah, and served as a USY regional officer. Jay is also gay. Sadly, he has written that “What I learned from my rabbis and teachers was that something was essentially evil about myself… No equivocations of halakhic reasoning disguised the heart of Conservative Judaism’s message for me [and it] made me want to die… I experienced, for about ten years, a self-loathing… a wish to disappear and destroy myself…” This pain is why I am now ‘lost to the Movement,’ for ultimately, thank God, I chose life over death. Choosing life meant leaving the Conservative Movement.”
We know these stories and words are deeply challenging. We bring them to you now because we believe it is critical that they enter the room with you. They are the voices of the people, both gay and straight, who are affected by your decisions. Throughout Jewish history, halakha has responded to the issues of real people and real lives. We have faith in you as you guide our Movement on this issue. May your learning, integrity, and compassion inform these deliberations l’shem shamayim.
Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazeik.
L’shalom,
Keshet Co-Chairs:
Sarah Freidson, Rabbinical School 2010
Daniel Klein, Rabbinical School 2010
Joshua Rabin, Rabbinical School 2011
Elizabeth Richman, Rabbinical School 2009
Rah-rah, change from within. Just step outside the lines and live your life, folks. Why anyone would attend/associate with a school representing legal/moral positions that are deplorable is beyond me. And trust me, I’ve got friends there. Mind-blowing.
Maybe legislating homosexuals in will get a handful more of Jews active in Conservative Jewish life. But for the masses it won’t mean dime. It won’t do anything to make a substansial amount of people interested in keeping Kosher or Shabbat or gaining more synagogue skills or believing that Olam Haba matters. So maybe there will be a few minutes more dancing at Bnai Jeshurun on Friday night – even though they no longer consider themselves a Conservative shul. And maybe there will be an extra wonderful shir at a Hadar event – oh yeah they don’t consider themselves Conservative either. But for most people West of the Hudson where the Conservative shul is the only theologically-sane venue in town, we could only wish that some of these disenfranchised souls would come help out at the next shiva minyan. But everyone knows, that won’t be happening.
The point of halacha is that we conform to it, and not vice versa. The ordinance of Rabbenu Gershom strengthened halacha. This merely would weaken it, by telling a group of people who don’t live according to halacha that it doesn’t really matter. Do we tell adulterous husbands and wives that their behavior doesn’t really matter. If you want to be both an active Jew and an active gay, then go to Reform, where halacha does not matter.
Me? I’m gay, and celibate, in part because I think halacha does matter. And it gives me no tempests of the soul to do so.
the reason to associate with the school is because the distinct possibility for change exists… plus: it offers something that no other rabbinical school can offer- a critical examination of jewish tradition and literature with a commitment to the religious life.
and another thing, not to be so ornery, but why does JTS keep on getting a horrible treatment on this site, when in an entry a few above, y’all say how proud you are to be mainly orthodox or from said background, which (by the way) is not exactly welcoming to homosexuals either. i attend JTS, and i whole heartedly do not agree with the policy to exclude gay jews from the rabbinate or the religious life… but i do recognize and am proud of the fact that we are struggling with the issue, something our friends uptown (or in the columbia hillel, ie YCT) are not doing. if the decision happens, and please God i hope it does, it will not be for the reason of getting a few more members in schul. i am sure some people will leave conservative shuls cuz of this. the decision will be made on the basis of moral convictions. disagree with them if you will, because i can see nothing but God in this holy deliberation.
Invisible_hand –
Concerning your comment, “the reason to associate with the school is because the distinct possibility for change exists… plus: it offers something that no other rabbinical school can offer- a critical examination of jewish tradition and literature with a commitment to the religious life,” I admit I agree.
I have two serious problems with the letter:
1. None of the respondents, at least in the quotes used by the Keshet leaders, provides any halakhic grounds for change. “It’s immoral and therefore let’s change it” is not universally accepted reasons for change and is a weak case to make (albeit the C movement has used it before hence it would probably be homophobia if Rabbis Tucker (and Dorff)’s teshuvot don’t get enough votes, but I am sure they will). The KESHET letter does not provide any reason beyond “people are suffering” which is not good enough because:
2. I firmly believe that all members of the CJLS understand that. Do they really think that my rav and teacher Rabbi Joel Roth, or other members of the Law Committee, do not feel the pain of homosexual Jews? Do you really think they don’t cry over their pain? I am sure they do.
At the same time, if their language was framed in a more halakhic context, I think they would make their case much better … especially to those who need convincing.
I have two serious problems with the letter:
1. None of the respondents, at least in the quotes used by the Keshet leaders, provides any halakhic grounds for change. “It’s immoral and therefore let’s change it” is not universally accepted reasons for change and is a weak case to make (albeit the C movement has used it before hence it would probably be homophobia if Rabbis Tucker (and Dorff)’s teshuvot don’t get enough votes, but I am sure they will). The KESHET letter does not provide any reason beyond “people are suffering” which is not good enough because:
2. I firmly believe that all members of the CJLS understand that. Do they really think that my rav and teacher Rabbi Joel Roth, or other members of the Law Committee, do not feel the pain of homosexual Jews? Do you really think they don’t cry over their pain? I am sure they do.
At the same time, if their language was framed in a more halakhic context, I think they would make their case much better … especially to those who need convincing.
BTW, if Rabbi Roth’s teshuva was truly accepted in 1992, it would have opened the doors to celibate gays and lesbians and JTS and Ziegler (granted Ziegler already admits gays and lesbians, albeit quietly, and is not halakhic) would have been ordained/in rabbinical school for the past 13 years, in full accordance with halakha.
While I agree that Rabbeinu Gershom’s decree was misguided (though it has, thank goodness, expired) it is still different. The Torah never says you HAVE to marry 2 wives.
It does, however, explicity forbid lying with another man in that not-just-before-central-heat sort of way. It expressly forbids it three times.
While I am in no position and have no interest in complaining about or condemning those who do, saying that such behavior is acceptable according to Judaism doesn’t work for me or many others, even if we are not particularly devout ourselves, because we don’t actually believe you can eliminate Mitzvahs and still call it Judaism. And don’t bring the weird stuff like the kid who eats too much and drinks too much so you kill him. We don’t have that sort of Bais Din power in the Diaspora or Israel, and it is almost impossible to eat and drink that much in the time constraints — no one except my roommate could do that.
Homosexual behaior is not a gazera like that whole ‘only one wife from now’ on memo; it is not a Rabbinic injuction. It is Torah Law. If people don’t like it, I understand that, but you can’t change the Torah. It’s not ours to change, and if you do, it’s not Judaism any longer. It’s something else, loosely based on something that was Judaism.
So good luck with that. I understand doing that. But it ain’t Judaism.
“And please don’t shriek about how halakha is, was, or should be independent of current social trends, morality, and human concerns. Try telling that to Rabbeinu Gershom”
Well… not quite a good analogy. Rabbeinu Gershom added restrictions so that “current social trends” wouldn’t get in the way of one’s commitment to halakha. If the issue at hand were whether to forbid men to walk around naked together out of fear that it may lead to homosexual acts and you were arguing for that new edict, then this analogy would be somewhat accurate (not that you can realistically compare yourself to Rabbeinu Gershom, but don’t feel bad, neither can I).
A brief summation to prove my point (from the page you linked his name to):
1) A man is forbidden to marry more than one woman (restriction — more wives can cause difficulties I suppose, though don’t know from experience)
2) A man could not obtain a divorce without his wife’s consent (restriction to keep sanity, or something I suppose)
3) It is forbidden for one to read the mail or personal messages of one’s neighbor without the latter’s permission (restriction on privacy)
4) A Jewish community must accept with compassion a Jew returning to the faith after being forcibly converted to another religion. (not really a halachic addition as this was ALLOWED all along. now it’s necessary, however)
It is not about what has become acceptable in a deplorable society, but what the Torah teaches. It clearly teaches that homosexuality is unacceptable and against the Creator Elohim’s plan. The Torah is what should decide, not you or me; and the Torah has already spoken on this issue. Todah!
Oh, dammit, Ovadyah,
You wrote all of god’s name in your comment. Now every time this site crashes, we’ll have to retire your homophobic comment to a virtual online genizah.
Way to go, dumbass.