A Conservative guide to Jewish law

Sources of information on Conservative Jewish forms of observance are difficult to find on the Internet. Here is a guide that may help.

Conservative Judaism: What Jewish traditions to keep and what to change

Source: “Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors to Our Descendants” by Elliott N. Dorff

Philosophically, Conservative Jews study Judaism historically. This means that Judaism is understood to be “influenced and changed by the various people and ideas with which Jews came into contact and the political, social, and economic conditions under which Jews lived.”

At the same time, “we still call our patterns of behavior and thought ‘Judaism’ because our form of Judaism has much in common with the various types of Judaism that existed before and that exist elsewhere and because we can trace the gradual process by which Judaism changed in form and even sometimes in content from Moses to our own day."

Conservative Jews believe that “Judaism should change from one time and place to another. The simple fact is that the world does not stand still, and consequently all living organisms must learn to live under new circumstances if they are going to survive.”

So how does Conservative Judaism decide what to keep and what to change?

In short, Conservative Jews turn to the community. “There is no guarantee that the community or its representatives will be any wiser than an individual, but at least then we will be drawing upon the collective wisdom of the people involved. Moreover, that method has preserved Judaism until now.”

Who constitutes the community? In short, the community equals an interaction between the rabbis, who are knowledgeable about the legal tradition, and the community of “Jews who try to observe Jewish law.” For “Those who are not observant may still be Jews, but their own choice to neglect the laws of Judaism excludes them from consideration when we want to know the minhag” (custom).

Modern Conservative Judaism is sensitive to the fact that there may not be one Judaism for the entire community – but that “there may well be several separate understandings of proper Jewish observance among the various communities of observant Jews.”

Dorff adds: "Deciding when such additions or modifications are necessary, and how they should be made, requires considerable judgment and risk, and consequently the Conservative Movement has made the decision a communal matter for both rabbis and laymen. Rabbis may refer questions to the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly. If that Committee rules unanimously on a given issue, the decision becomes a binding practice for the Conservative Movement....If the Committee splits in its vote, then a Conservative rabbi may follow either the majority or the minority opinion, depending upon which best fits the needs and circumstances of his own congregation and which coincides with his own understanding of Jewish law.

"This structure is a combination of the two traditional ways in which Jewish legal decisions were made - namely, by majority vote of a central body, when a given Jewish community was sufficiently organized to have a body, and/or by the decision of the local rabbi (the' 'mara d 'atra," or "teacher of the community"). This structure also explains why you probably have observed considerable differences in the practices of Conservative synagogues and rabbis. It is important to realize that these differences do not represent a lack of decisiveness or commitment on the part of the Movement; they rather reflect the fact that the Conservative Movement wants to deal with life as it actually is, and that requires that it be open to differences among people and communities. This plurality may make some of us uncomfortable at times, but life does not lend itself to a neat, unchanging structure, and so people must learn to accept changes in law without at the same time discarding it completely. This is the approach of Jewish law historically, and it is the approach of the Conservative Movement."

Torah observance - what is the best way?

Conservative Judaism used to be the most popular Jewish denomination in America. Now, it has waned significantly. According to the Jewish Journal, "The Conservative movement has been losing members in droves over the last two decades: It went from claiming 40 percent of American Jewish households in 1990 to 33 percent by 2000, according to the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01." (I don't have more recent numbers)

Now the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the Conservative rabbinical school, has a new chancellor (as of September 2007) who is setting out to renew Conservative Judaism. But as the Jewish Journal notes (OK this was 2005, maybe things have changed a bit since then), "Numerous Jewish startup communities...don’t even take the Conservative label, despite their similarities to the movement, namely, a focus on egalitarianism, an evolving halacha and an adherence to tradition."

There is a dichotomy between the stated beliefs of Conservative Judaism and its practice by actual people. Theoretically, Conservative Judaism argues for Jews to "conserve" the law -- to keep the Torah. As Dorff writes here:

"Conservative Judaism requires observance of the laws of classical Judaism, including the dietary laws (kashrut), the Sabbaths and Festivals, daily and Sabbath worship, and the moral norms of the Torah, Prophets, and Sages. It is not the case that you are "Orthodox" if you observe the dietary laws or Shabbat, as many American Jews think: Conservative Judaism requires that too! Following the mitzvot is the "Tradition" part of the motto "Tradition and Change," and it is the reason why the Movement is called "the Conservative Movement"; as we have seen, its founders wanted to conserve Jewish law. That must be the case because Conservative Judaism insists upon studying the tradition historically, and acting in accordance with the mitzvot has always been a key factor in what it means to be a Jew. No non-observant form of Judaism is historically authentic."

Yet in real life, Conservative Jews are "known" (perhaps this is only a reputation?) to be non-observant. Certainly their intermarriage rate is high: 32% according to the National Jewish Population Survey.

So what is the problem with Conservative Judaism? My take on it is that groups tend to go to the lowest common denominator -- and Conservative Judaism, though in theory it sounds good ("tradition + change"), created an opening for people to throw off observance and still call themselves religious.

Similarly, Orthodox Judaism has its own lowest common denominator--people who are technically observant but who are spiritually distant from a sense of achdut (brotherhood/sisterhood) with the Jewish community--judgmental and self-satisfied.

Then there is Reform Judaism, which has its own lowest common denominator--a sense that "anything goes" and can still be called Jewish. I don't think this is what Reform preaches, but it is what people practice.

What is the answer for those who want to be Jewish and still participate in the mainstream of secular life? There is "modern Orthodoxy," which seeks to blend the best of both worlds...integrating solid Jewish observance with participation in the "real world." I recall growing up in a "normal" modern Orthodox community, where there was no distinction between being a good Jew and a "regular" American. However, nowadays the Orthodox community has shifted rightward, and standard modern Orthodoxy is in short supply.

I think the answer is somewhere in between Conservative Judaism and modern Orthodoxy. I certainly would like to learn more about both practices; in fact I'd like to celebrate the best of Conservative, Orthodox, and Reform Judaism and synthesize them into one integrated whole that makes sense -- that could unify the Jewish community around true service to G-d.