Why I Am a Conservative Jew

(I've put definitions of several technical terms at the bottom of this post, so if there is a word you don't understand, check there)

Of all the things I have learned so far at the Conservative Yeshiva, I think the most important thing I have gained is a greater understanding of and appreciation for Conservative Judaism. Before this summer, I had never spent that much time thinking about why I choose to be a Conservative Jew. The Conservative movement was simply where I fit. I believe that Jews are obligated to observe the mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah, so being a Reform Jew wouldn't work for me; and Orthodox Judaism just seemed too static, besides the fact that I am too socially liberal to accept a lot of Orthodox customs. As for Reconstructionist Judaism, Renewal Judaism, Humanistic Judaism...well, I barely even knew what those were until the past couple years, so even considering one of those denominations was not on my mind. I guess you could say that I wasn't a Conservative Jew because I thought Conservative Judaism was right, I was a Conservative Jew because everything else was not right for me. Don't get me wrong, it's not that there weren't dozens of things about Conservative Judaism that made perfect sense to me - there were! It's just that I never had really articulated for myself why Conservative Judaism makes sense and is right for me.

Thankfully, all this began to change several weeks ago when Rabbi Joel Roth gave a lunch time shiur (lesson/lecture) entitled "Why I Am a Conservative Jew." Rabbi Roth said so many incredible things, and I found myself wishing that I had a perfect memory or that everyone I knew was there to hear him speak. For fear of getting his message wrong, I won't even try to relay everything he said. All I can say is, if you ever find out that he is giving the speech again (which he often does), go and hear what he has to say for yourself.

What I will tell you, however, is the message I took away from his shiur. Conservative Judaism is not "Judaism lite." It is not the denomination of Judaism you join when you don't want to commit yourself to Orthodox observance, but you still want to hear services in Hebrew. Conservative Judaism and the Conservative way of understanding Torah is a way of understanding Torah that goes back thousands of years. I remember Rabbi Roth saying that he believes if the rabbis of the Mishna and Talmud were alive today, many of them would be Conservative Jews!

This idea really blew my mind. I have grown up hearing (from Orthodox Jews) that Orthodox Judaism is the right way - the only right way - to observe Judaism, and any other way of understanding or practicing Judaism is missing most of the point. I had never heard anyone get up and say why Conservative Judaism is right. Although I hate to say it, I think I may have heard this statement about Orthodoxy so many times that I started on some level to believe it. It certainly had never crossed my mind that what we do as Conservative Jews is a tradition from several thousand years ago that we are simply continuing.

However, the more I think about it, and the more I learn at the Yeshiva, I think Rabbi Roth is right. Throughout the Talmud, you can see the rabbis trying to make Jewish law fit their worldview and what they think is right! This worldview is different for the tannaim, the amoraim, and the later commentators, and the decisions that these different groups of people make on what the Torah itself means also changes over time. I was able to see this for myself in the Introduction to Talmud and Rabbinics class that I took during the first summer session, where we studied Berachot Chapter 9. The chapter discusses under what circumstances you should say certain blessings, many of which have to do with natural phenomena. Throughout the chapter, we were able to see shifts in what the rabbis were concerned with and how they viewed the world, shifts from blessing communal miracles to individual miracles; from understanding the word "בראשית" ("creation") as meaning any permanent natural phenomenon (as opposed to temporary), to understanding "בראשית" as meaning anything not man-made (a Talmudic response to modernity!). As subtle and unimportant as these shifts may seem, to me they make a great statement: part of the Jewish tradition is to understand and even adapt halacha (Jewish law) to fit your worldview. This is huge! Understanding this means that it is inherently part of the Jewish tradition to understand Torah through your understanding of the world, and to work within the halachic system (system of Jewish law) to make Jewish law fit with your current worldview. It means that Judaism has always been a dynamic, changing religion. It means that Conservative Jews are simply continuing the age-old Jewish tradition.

A Disclaimer:
I hope that this post does not offend anyone. I don't know what the right way to practice Judaism is. Gd is the only one who knows. I do what I believe is right, but that doesn't mean that I believe other approaches to Judaism are necessarily wrong. We all do what we believe to be the right thing, and we all have reasons why we have chosen our approaches to religion. I am simply presenting my new-found reasons for why I am a Conservative Jew.

Definitions:
Amoraim Rabbis from the time of the Talmud (approximately 220 CE to the 400s)

Berachot Literally, berachot means blessings. Berachot is a tractate of the Mishna and Talmud that discusses blessings.

Mishna A document compiled around 200 CE that, among other things, expands upon/defines Jewish law as found in the written Torah. One part of what is called the "Oral Torah" or "Oral Law"

Talmud The other part of the Oral Torah/Oral Law that, among other things, expands upon/defines/comments on/reinterprets the Mishna, compiled around 500 CE. Talmud is also sometimes called Gemara. Note, though, that "Talmud" can also refer to the Mishna and Gemara together. This is usually the meaning of "Talmud" when someone speaks of a book of Talmud, or of reading Talmud, since the traditional layout is to present a paragraph of Mishna, immediately followed by the corresponding Gemara.

Tannaim Rabbis from the time of the Mishna (from approximately 70 CE to 200 CE)