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Revalidate Conservative Halacha Howard Morrison

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Revalidate Conservative Halacha Howard Morrison from you—and maybe even the authority that says, Revalidate conservative halacha "Yoreh, yoreh, yadin, yadin" (the ordination for- Howard Morrison mula). Then, where will you be? So blinding is the lust for rabbinic power that it necessarily closes I was surprised that Sh 'ma's recent symposium the mind and heart to the needs of our women and (15/295) on women's ordination and hiyyuv (legal the future of our Jewish people. obligation) did not include perspectives from male rabbinical students at J. T. S., particularly from There's a need out there for Jewish women to use those who initially had opposed the ordination of their God-given brains, spirituality, and human re- women as rabbis. Since the Conservative Move- [ lations skills (where are yours?) in service to their ment is committed to pluralism, I think it incum- 1 synagogue and public Jewish community. For a bent that other views be represented here. .< growing number of women, the private world of home and hearth is too narrow to meet this need. The question of whether or not to ordain women | was never the crux of the matter for me. The ) "Do not separate yourself from the public," we halachic treatment of issues, namely, the process are told. So, where does women's forced separa- of legal development, was. The only halachic tion from the public come in? How tragic and responsum which advocated women's ordination : wasteful for rabbis—in dogmatic bursts of hostility that was considered seriously by the Seminary's 1 —to deny individual women their right to exercise administration, was that of Rabbi Joel Roth, who j leadership in their own prayer groups (they're not suggested that women could voluntarily accept hiy- t messing around with yours); to deny our Jewish yuv and thus carry out all rabbinic functions. It ap- people the benefits of this leadership! Surely, our peared to make sense halachically and it illustrated people needs leadership talent from both sexes. It that the barometer for having halachic development t makes no sense to throw away potential leadership, must come from the sources which contain the just because it happens to reside in a female body. corpus of Jewish law and legal decisions, not from It's not just "subjectivity;" the attitude which de- a subjective definition of what one deems to be nies women their merited place in Jewish society is morally imperative. raw—if not primitive—emotion. All the elaborate halachic arguments and proof texts in the world Although I find some inherent weaknesses and cannot disguise that fact. limitations in the responsum, the following proce- dural problems are more consequential: first, the Agreed—your turf is your turf. Women don't want responsum was never voted on by the Rabbinical j it—and the baggage of oppression that comes with Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Stan- > it. We want our own— separate but equal. Sounds dards (CJLS); so there is no standard whatsoever j familiar, eh? Give us a break—at least, permit us concerning hiyyuv on the books of the CJLS. In re- , the "separate but equal" status that blacks held on gard to women counting in a Minyan, Rabbi Roth j the books before the turmoil of the sixties. states that only women who voluntarily take upon As for projection of male insecurity onto women, themselves the obligation to pray three times daily | we have an obligation to ourselves, our people, may count in the quorum. However, in 1973, the j and God, to refuse the scapegoating of women. CJLS had already passed a resolution enabling No, boys, we cannot take the monkey off your women to be counted in a Minyan without any backs and put it on ours. You must take respon- self-imposed hiyyuv. (Incidentally, this decision sibilty for your own "licentious" and "self- reflected a majority opinion of the CJLS and was centered" motives. Yes, women seek to obliterate coupled by a minority opinion which prohibited gender differentiation, because it's used to club us women from counting in the Minyan.) into submission. If you were the side held in sub- mission, you'd do the same thing. Second, in his responsum, Rabbi Roth feels that women should refrain from serving as witnesses Try to imagine yourselves as women. If you could, for the time being; yet the CJLS had already ruled then you would really follow the dictum, "Treat in 1974 via a minority opinion that women could your fellow human beings with love, as you would serve as witnesses. I would surmise, therefore that j want to be treated." The question is: Do you the whole talk about hiyyuv is pointless since the I rabbis out there love yourselves? If you did, then Movement never took a united stand on any of the I. the hostility toward women and their leadership in issues anyway. j the Jewish community would vanish. Trudy Helene Ettelson HOWARD MORRISON is a fifth year rabbinical p Aiea, Hawaii student at The Jewish Theological Seminary. 150 Respect for Law but not for Expertise? September of 1979 indicated that the more ritually i I observant Jews in the Conservative Movement ; i Had the Roth responsum been officially accepted leaned towards opposing women as rabbis. "In i ' by the Seminary, the Rabbinical Assembly and the summary, those opposed to ordination are more gj ; United Synagogue, I could have been more com- observant Jews than those who favor ordination, ij|e fortable in defending the notion of women rabbis are more committed to Conservative Judaism, and m from a halachic perspective. However, the Semi- their children are more likely to be synagogue of nary's Faculty Senate itself rejected the Roth members in general and Conservative synagogue responsum by a vote of 25-15 and still endorsed members in particular." iq. ; t the admission of female rabbinical students by a i vote of 34-8. It appears to me that the barometer of Catholic Is- rael was not utilized strongly, if at all, when the eq To this day, I fail to understand how an academic Seminary finally made its decision. Unfortunately, \ faculty, consisting of non-halachists and a number 1 we in the Conservative Movement have tran- ss of non-rabbis, could have been actively involved scended the rules for interpreting our tradition and -, with such a delicate issue. How could they be al- legislated new rules based on our contemporary In lowed to vote yes on admission and at the same egalitarian definition of morality. I would suggest 1 s i time vote no on the Roth responsum? If the faculty that since the original halachic premise for ordain- ^ I had voted merely on the administrative issue of ad- ing women was the Roth responsum, we must re- g mission, then it should have been made clear from turn to the merit of its contents and deal construc- . the outset that the Roth responsum would be im- tively with its limitations if we wish to salvage J plemented in its totality. Furthermore, if pluralistic halachic legitimacy in the eyes of our own constit- interests were being considered at all, why were uent members. • " the responsa of the more senior Talmud faculty ; : members dismissed so quickly? .. .but others say about conservatism... : As it stands now, there is no responsum to refer to Shall we not Encourage Doing More if not All? I, for halachically justifying women's ordination in j i the Conservative Movement. All that exists is a Some previous responses to Leon B. Fink, "May I hodge-podge of some majority/minority decisions Conservative Jews observe shabbat?" (Sh'ma from the CJLS, which were decided long before 15/290) seem to imply that Jews who are inconsis- i the admission of women into rabbinical school. In tent in Shabbat observance do not merit commu- i the end result, given the way in which the faculty nity support for their efforts until after they are I was involved and with the way the Roth respon- more perfect. Do those of us who struggle with >ei i, sum was handled, at most, a very ambiguous lip Shabbat observance deserve support only if we are service was paid to the halacha. genuinely a pride and joy to some rabbi? For oth : shame! Not many of us would qualify! We should w.n • The Halachic Work must now be Done help our fellow seeker rather than discourse upon ail) the stumbling blocks in his way. to For me, jurisdictional procedures are at least as important as the judicial decisions themselves. The Lee Irwin i process itself arbitrates whether or not the final de- Severna Park, MD. cision is a halachic one. In the case of women's £ ordination in the Conservative Movement, a more Accommodating Modernity I proper jurisdictional procedure would have insisted is not Assimilation on ironing out the problems of hiyyuv, legal tes- t timony, the status of the Roth responsum, past Charles L. Arian 1 CJLS decisions, and the role of the Seminary I was dismayed by Rabbi Alan Yuter's rejoinder to •j faculty. Instead, there is now massive confusion Rabbi Fink. Rabbi Yuter says that Conservative jjj which, for the time being, is unsolvable. Jews may not engage in "professional activity" on illi The Conservative Movement has always believed Shabbat. Rabbi Isaac Klein z 7, the closest thing le that Catholic Israel, the body of men and women Conservative Judaism has had to an official posek, the who accept the authority of Jewish Law and are states unequivocally that "all medical treatment is concerned with Jewish observance as a genuine is- permitted on the Sabbath" (Guide to Jewish Reli- sue, have a part to play in the development of gious Practice, p.
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