Faithful and sane

Judaism, Summer-Fall, 2005 by Jeremy Kalmanofsky

Conservative Judaism--tradition without fundamentalism, faith with critical judgment, modernity with heart--is precisely what American Judaism needs to thrive as we move into this new century. In practice and theory, Conservative Judaism can convey a vigorous sense of mission and Mitzvah, pervaded by religious emotion and holiness. Reviewing my own spiritual path, I can imagine myself having taken the route of liberal Orthodoxy. But I feel proud, even blessed, to have chosen this path instead. Undoubtedly, twenty-first-century Conservative Judaism faces considerable obstacles. The challenges demand visionary responses and not a defensive holding of the line. If we can offer such leadership, I believe we can prevail as a major expression of Torah. Here are some thoughts on what we face, what we might do, and why we are worth saving.

First, in a post-denominational age, what is the Conservative movement? What about it makes me optimistic? Is it our constituent institutions? I can only offer a qualified yes. The Schechter school movement thrives, especially at the high school level. The expansion of rabbinical seminaries is healthy. (Think evolution: when a single species constitutes a genus, that line is at risk of extinction. In contrast, survival odds always favor beetles because with so many varieties, some are bound to be the right match for the ecosystem.) But our synagogues, on the whole, are weak. Shuls and those who lead them have a poor record of inspiring commitment to human-divine mitzvot or social mitzvot. Our movement has not articulated a religious message compellingly enough to persuade its members to make that message the story of their lives.

In our age, there is no hope that Jews will remain Jewish--really none at all--unless they find Am Yisrael's fate and destiny compelling enough to let it shape their lives. Don't expect people to be Jews because their great-grandparents were from Vilna, or because Hitler murdered 6 million, or even because they care about homelessness. Expect them to be Jews when they learn that Torah makes life holy, and that Am Yisrael is on a mission to live meaningfully in community. I believe that means we, as a Conservative movement, should be more religious. We should teach a Judaism in a language of shared meaning, holiness, faith, and commitment. When people find those things, they will be Jews. That's all. We have nothing else in the cupboard.

Fortunately, I believe Conservative Judaism offers a sane, moderate, and authentic traditionalism that can touch the hearts and minds of many American Jews in precisely this way. We model a life of mitzvot that is simultaneously faithful and critical. By faithful, I mean a disciplined devotion to the substance of our tradition. Judaism is not a nominal designation for whatever Jews happen to arrive at on their own. It is a normative tradition of law and lore by which we are ennobled and the world is improved. Communities and individuals are obliged to study its wisdom, live its practices, and find the sacred point within each. If we do not, what's Jewish about us?

By critical, I mean evaluating our tradition with moral reasoning and social analysis. Conservative Jews should bring those faculties to bear in understanding Torah. If we're honest, we know that Judaism is the product of finite human minds as they encounter the infinite divine mind. As such, it behooves us to examine how history shaped the Judaism we have inherited; and it should compel us to ask how history will shape the Judaism we transmit. If we fail at this critical task, we may simply be playing dress-up with the tradition--costumed as the medieval Jew at the Renaissance fair. To be authentically Jewish, we must be our modern, or post-modern, selves.

Given these premises, we must confront with courage those very few cases where received practices cannot work today. The most pronounced example is traditional Judaism's unequal distribution of power and roles among men and women. Gender egalitarianism is and should be a hallmark of Conservative Judaism. For some years, we "skipped on both sides" of that fence, affirming egalitarianism as an option but not necessarily an imperative. That view has faded. Currently, a non-egalitarian stance with regard to questions like women as minyan members means, de facto, that one is basically Orthodox.

Gender egalitarianism is a winning issue for Conservative Judaism. It is inconceivable to me that educated people, who accept gender discrimination in no other realm of society, will forever remain content with an incontestably sexist Orthodox Judaism. For now, some assert that Judaism's sexism is wise, taking into account the different spiritual make-ups of men and women, or simply normative, given the immutability of law. This apologetic cannot endure. I am optimistic that gender egalitarianism will sink deep roots throughout observant Judaism in the coming decades. (Espousing egalitarianism does not necessarily mean affiliating with the Conservative movement, of course. Examples in practice as well in philosophy suggest that liberal Orthodoxy grows more egalitarian all the time. And obviously the left-ward movements are fully egalitarian. But Conservative synagogues lead the way with an otherwise traditional practice combined with equal roles for men and women.)