The Evolving Jew

There’s been a lot of discussion lately of the unfortunate decision by the RCA to basically capitulate to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate on matters of conversion, as well as the even more controversial ruling to reverse conversions performed by the Israel Conversion Authority, headed by Rav Chaim Drukman. First of all, it is important to understand the motivations of the Chief Rabbinate, under charedi control. When the Chazon Ish ruled that it is appropriate to trust Jews who state their identity as such, there weren't large numbers of potential olim who came from mixed marriages where the mother converted under Reform auspices. There are now. These children are raised Jewish, but do not practice halacha. By traditional halachic standards, they are not Jewish. yet they come to Israel & claim to be. The Rabbanut, now under Charedi control, is desperate to keep it all straight and to identify Jews properly. I understand why they do it. But the ends do not justify the means a...

Bat-El Levi, 15, from Be'er Sheva is one of the 4 Israeli finalists in the Chidon HaTanach, the international Bible competition for Jewish teens sponsored by Israel. She is also a Messianic Jew who believes in Jesus. From The Jerusalem Post: The controversy surrounding the participation of 16-year-old Bat-El Levi, from Beersheba, began last week as a result of a campaign led by the haredi anti-missionary organization Yad Le'Achim. Yad Le'Achim discovered that Levi belonged to a messianic Jewish congregation. The organization immediately contacted rabbis and other spiritual leaders. Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, a leading religious Zionist halachic authority, called to boycott the quiz if the messianic Jew did not forfeit her participation. His call was joined by other rabbis aligned with religious Zionism, including Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu. Sources close to the Levi family, who did not deny their ties with a messianic Jewish congregation, said there had been attempt...

U.S. seeing worst food inflation in 17 years As if Pesach shopping wasn't expensive enough already! I paid almost $8 for a stick of Haolam cheddar cheese. I think I'll just eat vegetables.

I rarely get angry about politics, but I am getting angry now. Yesterday, Barack Obama made a speech about race in America that was nuanced, treated the listeners like thinking people, and made important distinctions. But many in the Jewish community focused only on what Obama had to say about his former Pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Admittedly, some of the sound clips of Wright’s that have come to light in recent days are disturbing. But Obama isn’t Wright. He made that abundantly clear in his speech yesterday: “…the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies...

On DovBear's blog , LadyKaye wrote a post on whether women can lain from the Torah in public and discussed the reason given in the Talmud against it, that of "Kavod HaTzibur" (respect to the congregation). She discusses the 2 explanations generally given for Kavod HaTzibur. One is that women were simply held in lower regard. The other was a convoluted apologetic that involved women's educational opportunities (see her post for a full explanation.) I thin there's no question that it's the lower regard for women that accounted for Kavod HaTzibur. Women were deemed inferior. That's OK, since most of the world deemed women inferior at the time the halachot were written & codified. (Mishna & Talmud.) Actually, Judaism was more respectful of women's rights and status than the surrounding society. They were deemed inferior, but not property. Since the episode of B'not Zelafchad in the Torah, Judaism has had a tradition of working within the hal...

Emes Ve_emunah on reporting of child abuse in the Orthodox community: http://haemtza.blogspot.com/2008/03/dropping-ball-on-child-sex-abuse.html Important reading. I can't agree with Harry M more.

Gil Student tries to pin down what Modern Orthodox people believe (though he mixes the terms “Modern Orthodox” and “Centrist Orthodox”.) The problem with that is that it's much easier to define people fairly accurately by a label the farther to the religious right they are. Charedim have specific hashkafot in place for the various groups, and complete adherence is expected of members. Centrist Orthodoxy is a little harder to pin down onto a range of individuals and by the time you get to "Left Wing Modern Orthodoxy" or "Open Orthodoxy", there's not much of a party line and the mass of individuals represent quite a spectrum of beliefs. Personally, I like it that way. It forces people to get to know one another as individuals instead of projecting a label on them.