Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, i noticed i was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
Somebody spoke and i went into a dream
Ah!!!
-A Day in the Life by The Beatles
Well only part of the song describes my day this morning. I got up and got out of bed and certainly dragged the comb across my head. I then put on my Kippah and got dressed and brushed my teeth to quickly head to davening. After davening I went and took a quick shower before I had to be at class at 9. I knew today was going to be a good day because I had my Advanced Tanach class with Vered this morning. We started our newest prophet, Amos. What could be bad about a guy named Amos? He is the Amos from Famous Amos Cookies isn't he? Regardless of his baked goods he was a confusing man and one that I am sure to blog more about when we get farther into our study of him.
After a great discussion I headed into my break for lunch. I had a lunch meeting with Rabbi Paul, Avi Marcovitz a former teacher of mine from The Academy, and a man named Avraham who is an Eithiopian Jew who came to Israel and now works to get the reamining Eithopian Jews to Israel. Our meeting was about ways that we can help advocate and get the remaining Jews to Israel. We were told that there are about 8,700 remaining in Africa trying to get to Israel. Their is supposed to be a plane full of them arriving to Israel on October 27th, and I had suggested to the members of the meeting that I would be happy to greet them at the airport or at the absorbtion center. Everyone loved the idea and it was even approved by the Aliyah Department of the Jewish Agency. If it ends up working it will be very exciting to welcome to immigrants to Israel.
We ended the lunch meeting and I headed back to the Yeshiva for my Modern Jewish Thought class. I have come to a conclusion about this class. I think it is an extremely fasinating class and their is a lot to learn and share from our brilliant teacher. However, the class is all over the place. I am the kind of student who enjoys learning the subjects of Zionism and the History of Israel, however my only complaint is that our teacher, Aryeh, jumps around from topic to topic and it is difficult for me along with others to follow. I was always taught if you have an issue with someone you should always go directly to the source of the issue and I plan to do just that.... in two weeks when we meet next.
As Thought class ended we left the Yeshiva to go outside to a beautiful evening in Jerusalem with the sun setting about an hour before we had finished. I ran up to my room and put my stuff down, grabbed a jackets cause it is getting cool at night in Jerusalem and headed for dinner at Beit Nativ. After dinner we had Erev Nativ seeing that is was Tuesday. Tonights session was the first of many lectures on the topic of Conservative Judaism. Tonight we heard from Rabbi Joel Roth who is a professor at JTS in New York as well as one of the most respectable Halachic Authorities in the Conservative Movement.
Rabbi Roth has been known to be a controversial speaker with his views on Conservative Judaism, and tonight was no exception. I am going to share several points that Rabbi Roth spoke about that were very interesting to me and that stuck out. For the most part, I agreed with what Rabbi Roth had to say about Conservative Judaism and specifcally agreed with what he said are the faults and weaknesses of the movement.
Most authentic Jewish religious movement in the world today. The problem is that its members don’t know why that is the case”
*It is a halachic movement – committed to Jewish law: has done some ‘radical things’ but did so because thought it to be halachically defensible to do so.
*Greatest success stories of the Conservative Movement begin to feel uncomfortable in average Conservative shuls, so they begin to daven at Orthodox shuls. Greatest success stories feel like go Orthodox or go to Rabbinical school. CAN’T HAVE A MOVEMENT WHERE THE GAP/CHASM BETWEEN THE LEADERSHIP AND THE CONSTITUENTS.
*BIGGEST FAILURE OF THE CM: Inability/unwillingness to convey to our constituency to our commitment and obedience to Jewish Law.
Rabbi Roth then went on to give his 4 underpinnings of the Conservative Movement.
1.The Mitzvot of the Torah are COMMANDS.
2.The particulars of the fulfillment of the mitzvot can be determined only by authorities of Jewish law.
3.Jewish Law is not monolithic, but is subject to legitimate controversy by among its authorities. PLURALISTIC.
4.Jewish law is evolutionary and needn’t look today the way it did 50 or 500 years ago.
Rabbi Roth ended with an amazing explaination about the differences between Reform Judaism and Conservatives as well as the differences between Conservative Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. If you look at the title of this blog post it says, "Check Mate." The reason for this title is because Rabbi Roth relates the three sects of Judaism to a game of chess. There are rules. Certain moves you can make, as long as you do so while following the rules. This is how the game of interpreting Halacha was played until Josef Karo completed the Shulchan Aruch. When that occurred, a DOME was placed over the board and now decisions cannot be made by moving the chess piece. The Reform Movement illegally moves their pieces and that is that. The Conservative Movement moves their pieces legally and is constantly doing it which is a integral part of the Halachic process according to Rabbi Roth. The Orthodox Movement still has their dome over their Halachic process from the time of R. Karo.
Rabbi Roth certainly left everyone thinking about what he had said. I was am still thinking about what he had to say and I will continue to think about it because it is a constant struggle that I deal with and it is a constant topic of discussion on Nativ as well as within my family. I am excited to hear the different views of Rabbi Brad Artson of AJULA as well as Chancellor Arnold Eisen of JTS when they come to speak about the Conservative Movement.
All I have to say to this entire thing is... Check Mate!
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