In Israel, there is a great deal of controversy concerning how the conversion courts currently operate and there are rumors that the Prime Minister is about to dissolve the current conversion court bureaucracy and replace it with another.
Currently, conversions from Conservative or Reform Judaism are not recognized as valid for the purposes of conversions, and for a conversion to be recognized by the state; it must be an Orthodox conversion. Some object to the monopoly the Orthodox branch of Judaism has on the conversion process but let me digress for a minute and just add my two cents here. I once met an individual who converted from the United Church of Canada (protestant Christian) to Reform Judaism. This person floored me with the suggestion that they had found very little difference between being a Reform Jew or a Christian. Enough said on Reform Judaism.
Here’s the other penny. If you are going to go 'whole hog' and convert to a specific religion; why wouldn’t you convert to orthodoxy? Cherry picking which beliefs or tenants that will govern your spiritual/religious life by seems like a pretty lax and cheap conversion process to me. Let me write plainly - why bother? Furthermore, not ever Orthodox Jew is a Chassidic Jew. Orthodoxy has far more nuance and diversity than that.
One of the issues facing Israel is a large Russian immigrant population who has very little ties or loyalties to Israel as a Jewish state. Under the Law of Return anyone is eligible for Israeli citizenship who can prove at least one grandparent was a Jew. This lead to a huge influx of Russians in the 90’s when the former Soviet Union was breaking down who have minimal knowledge of Judaism, little desire to be religious and little loyalty to the idea of a Jewish state. Conversion is seen as a way to bring about a bond to the Jewish state though it does seem to be a tad self-defeating since the State currently appears to have real issues with religious Jews.
Here’s the money quote from the Jerusalem Post article.
Very few immigrants from the FSU are trying to convert, due to the perceived difficulties of the process and the fear that conversion is meant to change their lifestyles. Many Russian immigrants are particularly upset about certain conversion court rabbis who follow up on recent converts to check if they are observing the mandates of Orthodoxy. According to a survey conducted by the Absorption Ministry, 70% of new immigrants who are not halachicly Jewish believe that the current conversion process is designed to make them "more religious," and not to turn them into Jews according to Halacha.
How does one convert to a religion and not change one’s lifestyle? How does a an individual convert under Jewish law and not become “more religious”? I just don’t get this. Something has to be lost in translation or maybe its just another front of the Israeli state's war against religious Jews?
7 comments:
Your underlying assumption is that Orthodox Judaism is the only correct tradition. Why is it that "orthodoxy" is the "whole hog?"
And which form of Orthodoxy? Lubavitch? some other chassidim? Modern Orthodox? What about the FFB and the BT/ Ben Niddah issues? Which traditions define it? Mechitza? Driving on Shabbat? Kashrut? Carrying (pushing a stroller) outside the eruv? Nidda? All of the above? Any of the above? Or is it something else?
What IS the essence of being a Jew?
I would argue a fairly broad and inclusive definition... it's what held the Jewish people together through a 2000 year diaspora... Were 19the Century Jews so sectarian and judgmental about Jews from distant places or were they welcoming and tolerant? I think probably the latter. Was that good? I think so.
We have a lot of work to do to unify Jews whether secular, reform, reconstructionist, conservative, conservadox, orthodox, Chassidic... that it seems not as important to worry about what flavor conversion.
I think it only hurts Jews everywhere to have no central halachic authority yet one group is given secular authority to make secular decisions using religious criteria. It hurts all Jews to have a small group use their authority granted by a secular government to dominate scholars and followers who disagree with their interpretations.
A secular woman born of an observant Jewish mother who marries a Christian and educates her children as Catholics, and a woman raised a Catholic but converted via a Reform Bet Din... One who wants to be a Jew the other who turned their back on Jewishness... Who's the Jew?
Must a convert be perfectly observant to be accepted? How many born Jews would stand up to the standard expected of Converts? Again, do we Jews want to limit our members to followers of a certain Rabbi or line of Rabbis? Or do we want to find the common ground to include as many Jews as we can? How do we draw the line?
Ocean Guy, I guess it’s probably a safe assumption that you are not either Hassidic or modern Orthodox… so that makes it a choice between Conservative or Reform…and if I had to bet I think I would put my money down on Conservative rather than Reform….but if I am wrong - it wouldn’t be the first time I lost money on a bet either.
And good for you - on being the only one who will publicly criticize me on this post. I have gotten a number of private emails but no one has had the nerve to take a stand publicly. So you’ll be the only one I answer.
Anyhoo, I am not so much suggesting that “Orthodoxy” is the only “correct” or “valid” tradition per say in Judaism - certainly Karaitism has as much as a claim as a valid historical tradition as rabbinical orthodox Judaism does, but in the end, Orthodoxy comes down as the most stringent form of observance of the halakha. The "whole hog" as it were.
And as you pointed out Orthodoxy comes in a wide variety of forms but there is a bare minimum level of observance/belief which must be met in order to be considered an successful “orthodox” convert…. If one converted to any form of orthodoxy would the other Jewish religious traditions of Reform, Reconstructionist or Conservative branches have any issues or trouble recognizing the orthodox level of conversion? I’d say no, and therefore, there would be no question marks hanging over the head of a potential convert but the same cannot be said for the other newer traditions of Judaism.
While I agree with you that arguing over the correct level of observance/worship between the different groups is like a family dinner table squabble among siblings - and does anyone really need poor digestion? Conversion is entirely different matter.
You ask the age old question – what is the essence of a Jew? I suppose there are as many ways to answer that as there are men to ask it. Now my knowledge of Judaism comes from Lubavitch/Breslov traditions – so my answer is no doubt influenced by those very traditions but I would say its the “neshama”. The Neshama of a Jew separates him/her from a gentile.
Which brings me to the issue of converts and the unique nature of conversion in Judaism – just believing in one indivisible G-d and the revelation at the Sinai does not make one a Jew. One can believe that and still not be a Jew. One does not even have to be a Jew to merit a place in the world to come or to be called righteous. Agreeing to take on the yoke of the Torah is not enough to make one a convert to Judaism.
The easiest way for me to define/explain the conversion process is by a marked belief in all the above as well as agreeing to be the bride in a kind of uber-marriage between the potential convert and the entire Jewish people as the groom. Divorce, while metaphysically impossible still leaves room for a separation to occur, and if it does occur - it has some utterly horrendous implications/consequences for the groom. So given that - what level of commitment or depth of love do you want in a Bride?
Look its easy to love people whose traditions and ways are close to what one was brought up with– (hence the preference for mates who are FFB among “some” Charedi) but the real test of a conversion comes when they can still feel that same level of love/committment for the most unbending and unyielding members.
I agree that much more is expected of the convert but I don’t see it as a particular hardship for someone who deliberately choses this way. There are Kabbalists who say that the soul of the convert was present at the Sinai and at the giving of the law but lost their “Jewish” neshama through sin. Conversion is - earning the right to possessing it again. Personally, I rather like that idea.
I think it only hurts Jews everywhere to have no central halachic authority yet one group is given secular authority to make secular decisions using religious criteria. It hurts all Jews to have a small group use their authority granted by a secular government to dominate scholars and followers who disagree with their interpretations.
I am not sure what you mean by this – in terms of this article the religious court is making decisions on religious issues (conversions) and the secular state is unhappy with the strict level of religious observance required by the religious court.
A secular woman born of an observant Jewish mother who marries a Christian and educates her children as Catholics, and a woman raised a Catholic but converted via a Reform Bet Din... One who wants to be a Jew the other who turned their back on Jewishness... Who's the Jew?
A secular woman born of an observant Jewish mother who marries a Christian and educates her children as Catholics is the best case I have heard for early childhood Torah education. It reminds me of something the Last Amazon said to me after we walked by a “Jews for Jesus” group for the first time. She asked me why any Jew would join that group…she thought the concept was a absurd…kind of like working actively for a demotion. Anyway, watch her children rebel by becoming baal teshuvah’s when they grow up.
A Catholic woman who converted via a Reform Bet Din…I would say her flesh was willing but the spirit was weak. This reminds me of the argument two famous followers of Jesus got into. Paul has this big debate with Peter (who became the first “pope”) on who can be a Christian. Peter insists that all Christians have to convert to Judaism first and then can take on “Jesus” studies to be considered “Christians” but Paul (who becomes head of the christian orthodox church) insists that is a terrible idea to make everyone convert to Judaism first as Paul says people will find it far too hard and it will put everyone off from wanting to be a Christian. My point is, Judaism is not a popularity contest nor is it in competition with other religions for members. Where should the line be drawn… at the halakha.
oceanguy said:
How many born Jews would stand up to the standard expected of Converts?
Very few. I say this, as a Jew in Israel, with friends who are converts or the children of converts.
In fact, I have a friend who made aliyah shortly before I did, and as part of her process she had to convert. She was born and raised Jewish, is committed, modern religious, and vigorously Zionist: all of the things that Israel needs. But her mother had a Reform conversion. She chose to roll with it, rather than fight it, but I can see how it would be, er, off-putting, to say the least.
Honestly, I don't know the answer. I'd like to say, be welcoming and open, but there are a lot of people from the FSU who are digging up some Jewish ancestry just to get out of there. They aren't Jewish, don't want to be, and don't even want to live in Israel, but Israeli law gives them preference in benefits. (Don't get me wrong; I don't think all the Russians are like this, but the phenomenon is real.)
Kate, on the other hand, takes the stricter approach:Where should the line be drawn… at the halakha.
I would tend to agree with this, except that I know some mighty religious, committed Jews who are Reform. They are strong in their committment to the Jewish people, etc, but they do not follow Halakha exactly, and so Israel's Orthodox establishment doesn't see them as Jewish.
And I know people who are part of the Israeli Orthodox establishment (religious Zionist stripe) who are open and welcoming, and will even join in events with a Masorti Congregation (not the davening, because there's no mehitza, but they never ask questions about the kashrut, and are always willing to join in study sessions).
Again, I have no idea where the "happy medium" is. Part of the answer, I think, would be enactment of civil marriage legislation, but I also think that the Rabbinate, as an arm of the gov't needs some changing.
I think I agree the line should be drawn at halacha. But halacha's "books" were essentially closed at the compilation of Shulchan Aruch. Since then, we have had no Temple, no Sanhedrin, no central authority and the local Rabbi's have been left to interpret questions of law not specifically in the Mishna or Talmud. So in the centuries since the last authoritative, centrally recognized codification of the law, which Halacha is "the whole hog?"
Kateland, surely you aren't advocating that we should look for the strictest or most extreme "observance" of halacha and pronounce that the standard for all Jews.
My point is that the Orthodox, and really the Ashkenazic Orthodox, rabbinate was given the power to set the standard used by the secular government. After all it IS a Jewish state. I think that decision is divisive, although those in power seem to be saying, many of the rest of us are the divisive ones because we don't follow their rulings.
I certainly see the FSU olim raising a ruckus, but I don't think the answer is to say that all converts must convert via an Orthodox process as defined by a handful of men in Jerusalem.
Maybe it's time, with modern communications being as instant and reliable as they are, to find a representative central halachic authority that encompasses the entire diaspora.
By the way, you are correct.... I'm a Conservative Jew... we do think, and many of us still do, that we are an halachic movement. As tortured as the decision was to allow driving to Shul on shabbat was, it was still a decision based on halacha... Whether you agree or not with the decision it was an halachic debate... the point being is that today there is no central halachic authority to make universal decisions. That de facto authority resides in whomever the secular government of Israel invests with the power. That process is hardly free of corruption, and it certainly appears that much is done to hold on to that power above making sound decisions to the benefit of all Jews everywhere.
I'm not Israeli, so I don't have a say. Still I have an opinion... I AM a Jew! I agree with Michael the rabbinate's union with government needs some changing. I happen to think a bit of Masorti thinking would be healthy for us all.
As a movement Conservatives formed in response to the too drastic reforms in the Reform movement. The belief was, and is, that halacha has always meant to evolve with the times, and it is right and correct to use all the tools we have available to study and make rulings. Mankind did not stop growing and changing in the 16th Century when the Shulchan Aruch was finished. Why should we ignore science and modern technology which can enhance and enrich our Jewishness simply because 16th Century scholars could not foresee the advances?
Again Halacha is the line... Yes, our Conservative movement has gone too far in some areas to accommodate and attract members... Yes, the reform movement has gone way too far. But the Orthodox... maybe they have not come far enough... Maybe the Masorti view is the correct one... the "whole hog," as you said. For now the ones with the political power decide. I just believe that power ought to be more welcoming and inclusive and less divisive.
Including a wider selection of scholars to make religious rulings and decisions, just might have the effect of creating a larger and more committed number of observant Jews. That's my two cents anyway.
oceanguy:
I happen to think a bit of Masorti thinking would be healthy for us all.
I'd agree with that (as a Conservative Jew, who affiliates with Masorti here in Israel), but how to convince the Rabbinate?
Between the two of you, who would have thought I would end up being the hardliner? If that isn't ironic and seriously twisted - what is? You both are obviously much kinder and gentler than I.
Oceanguy:
Kateland, surely you aren't advocating that we should look for the strictest or most extreme "observance" of the halakha and pronounce that the standard for all Jews."
No, what I was advocating is my agreement for the Jewish homeland to keep the most orthodox (meaning traditionalist) approach to conversion. The strictest or extreme version of orthodoxy could potentially turn out a Karaite on the one hand or as Neturei Karteh on the other – all which I doubt will do for the larger Jewish community. After all - Orthodoxy is a very wide tradition and my rationale for this lies in the fact that a conversion in this tradition will allow no one to cast doubt on the status of the converted. In this way, we save people and their children from a great deal of potential pain and humiliation down the road.
But what we are really talking about - is what tradition should the Israeli rabbinate practice/observe. Outside of Israeli state and in the Galut no one cares whether you are Orthodox, Reform, Conservative - except maybe your mother. And since Michael brought it up - I am all for a civil process for the non-religious/observant Israeli citizen but for the purposes of conversion I am still in favour of a more orthodox approach….now are there problems within the rabbinate as it stands today? Absolutely.
There is a great deal of "orthodoxy" which I admit to being personally uncomfortable with….Niddah - even the concept of family purity is a particularly hard and bitter pill for a woman raised in a 20th secular environment to swallow but ultimately it becomes a question of belief and emuna.
Thirty years ago, I would have found the concept of mehitza insulting and demeaning to both women and men but now I take a somewhat different view. Twenty years ago, I would have seen a man wearing a tallles katan with tzitzit, beard and payoth and though how positively medieval and freakish – even off-putting - if you will. Now when I see a man dressed thus; I see the beauty which was hidden from my eyes before.
Twenty years ago, I thought the laws governing Shomer Negiah too restrictive and humiliating for both women and men. And now? I am only surprised that my shoulders are not permanently doubled over from all the rivers of tears my various women friends have shed on my shoulders which were brought on by faithlessness of their husbands/boyfriends/lovers. Let me say this, none of these men started off trying to be unfaithful, but in the casual and easy way of the wider world - one thing leads to another.
Eleven years ago I dressed as flashy and as immodestly as I did before I had children. My husband didn’t mind, and he even enjoyed the fact he had a wife that made men’s heads turn - even after three children. It was my children who taught me the value of modesty. It was my daughter who asked me not to dress in this fashion because both her and her brothers felt unsafe walking with me in the street and the other children made remarks about my alleged “appeal” which embarrassed and made them angry. I was so floored that my children felt so uncomfortable and unsafe with me in the streets that I made the changes I needed to make. Now the dresses are long, the clothes are relatively loose and the hair is rarely unbound.
My point being that I perceived a great deal of the halakha as restrictive, narrow and decidedly outdated and should be of no consequence. I could not believe my grandfather actually wanted me to live this way nor could I believe my happiness lay in this path. I believed there should be change to reflect a more modern reality. Now, I am not so sure.
But Ocean Guy you raise an interesting point. There is no temple, there is no Sanhedrin, or central authority but there could be. All is required is the will and what then? Where would you draw the line around the halakha? Look, every year there are orthodox who are criticized by practicing kaparot with a chicken so can you imagine the outcry if the temple was re-established and the temple rituals are suddenly back on the table. How much of the halakha are you prepared to implement with a standing temple? Maybe the question we should be asking is not - what is the essence of a Jew but what is the purpose of a Jew.
Kateland, EXACTLY... what is the essence of a Jew? what is it to be a Jew?
To mention one nit-picking example, Is one more Jewish because he/she unscrews the bulb in the fridge for Shabbat? Or just maybe is the relaxation and 're-creation' of the day more spiritually rewarding, even meaningful? Ovens on timed start are okay but pushing a button is not... At some point while struggling to know, keep up, and comply with the countless interpretations of the law, many lose the spirit of the law.
Another issue is that if the "law" is inconvenient there is a very long history of Rabbi's finding work-arounds. Carrying on Shabbat, for instance... can't "carry unless you're inside the eruv... and there are some pretty generous eruvim to get around the prohibition. The law isn't absolute, although some modern Jews act as if it is and always has been.
Again, since the completion of the Shulchan Aruch there has been no recognized central halachic authority. But you seem to be assuming there is... the Orthodox. I'm just questioning your assumption that:
conversion in this tradition will allow no one to cast doubt on the status of the converted
That's an easy assumption to make when the Orthodox Rabbis have the political power. Because they are the ones casting the doubt. One group casting doubt on conversions, on Rabbi ordination, on Kosher supervision, because they assume their interpretations are correct, are the most stringent, are the most small 'o' orthodox, the most "traditionalist."
I question those assumptions. Until we have a central authority we'll have countless unsettled and differing interpretations, different minhagim, different traditions... all of which can be correct. Yes, even opposing decisions by different Rabbis can be correct and still comply with halacha, but the Orthodox Rabbinate apparently don't acknowledge that.
Now we've come full circle to my first statement that I disagree with your assumption that the Orthodox tradition is the "correct" one. The "whole hog" as you put it.
But it is what it is whether I like it or not. I just wish we could have an 'intra-movement' council on halacha to broaden and enhance observance for the maximum number of Jews.
Thanks for putting up with the long answers.
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