THE NOT SO GOLDEN MEAN

There is a certain complacency that arises from thinking of yourself as a moderate force in any field of human activity. Take politics for example. Apply a truth serum to a friend who fashions herself a political moderate, and you can’t help but hear their supreme self-confidence. Moderates equate their position with rationality, and contrast themselves to “extremists” on either side. Moderates assume that they and they alone are willing to entertain all valid arguments, whereas the others open their minds to but a single side of the issue. Moderates assure themselves that they will ultimately be vindicated, since compromise is the only alternative to a right-left tug of war resulting in divisiveness and resentment. In short, moderates view their position not only as being the most sensible but by far the most sane.

Now, let’s consider the domain of religion – and more specifically, Judaism. Here in America, we Jews have a veritable smorgasbord of alternatives from which to choose. On the right, we have Orthodoxy – Ultra-Orthodoxy, Modern-Orthodoxy … whatever you call it, it rests on the idea that God gave the Torah to Moses at Sinai and that we are bound to follow the commandments set forth in that book, as interpreted over the millennia by rabbis. On the left, we have what might be called “liberal” Judaism – Reform, Reconstructionist, Jewish Renewal, Jewish Humanism … what they have in common is the notion that the individual Jew chooses for herself which Jewish teachings to accept and which ones to ignore. In fact, they allow the individual Jew to ignore the source of the commandments, the Big Guy in the Sky. And indeed, many members of liberal Jewish congregations are, at bottom, atheists.

That brings me to that wonderful synthesis of liberal and Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism. When I was a child, I thought of Conservative Judaism as the golden mean. And, in fact, I wasn’t alone. It was the most popular of the American Jewish sects. But that has changed, and its demise was chronicled well in an article by New York Times writer Samantha Shapiro that was published on August 28, 2006 by Slate.com. Shapiro focuses on the despair of Ismar Schorsh, the departing chancellor of New York’s Jewish Theological Seminary, the great rabbinical school of the Conservative movement. Schorsh is bemoaning the fact that his beloved Conservativism has been losing ground to sects on both the left and the right. Apparently, those who want “modernity” have been opting for Reform or other liberal groups, and those who want “tradition” are increasingly becoming Orthodox. So where’s the mandate for Conservatism? What role does it fulfill? Where, Schorsh asks, is the nerve of Conservative Rabbis to captivate those of us who wish to maintain the fragile balance between “truth” and “faith”?

In that last question, Schorsh puts his finger on exactly why Conservative Judaism is digging its own grave. In a time when many, if not most educated people are turned off by religion, why should we view “truth” and “faith” as opposing forces? Why should we, in other words, accept less truth in order to develop our faith? Liberals won’t, that’s for sure. And as for those who yearn above all else for the beauty and community of a life devoted to tradition, I can’t imagine why they couldn’t find an Orthodox community that best serves their needs.

Well strike that – there is one type of Conservative community I understand. It’s commonly known as “Conservadox,” and it is indistinguishable from Modern Orthodox except that it might allow complete equal rights for women and/or permit congregants to drive to synagogue on the Sabbath. To me, however, those communities are essentially Orthodox, and they are hardly comparable to the mainstream Conservative communities that came to dominate much of American Judaism throughout most of the 20^th century. I’m more interested, for the moment, in that latter form of Judaism. Does it have a future?

One problem for the Conservatives is that certain communities on its left are becoming more and more observant. Reform Jews, for example, are increasingly incorporating Hebrew into their services, observing Jewish holidays, and avoiding unkosher food. As a result, mainstream Conservative synagogues are becoming virtually indistinguishable from today’s Reform in terms of Jewish practice, except there are no musical instruments in the sanctuary, the kiddies have to go to school an extra day during the week, and the adults may still spend marginally more time in synagogue during Jewish holidays. But Conservative Judaism as a movement continues to maintain that the Jewish laws arise from Sinai and God – and therein lies a distinction with a meaningful difference. In Reform Judaism, you see, congregants are taught that the reasons for Jewish rituals may or may not have anything to do with God’s will – that’s up to the individual to decide.

I’ll be honest. Even though I was raised with the Conservative prayer book, I see mainstream Conservative synagogues as merely a poor man’s alternative to modern Reform. Yes, my Conservative friends, you might get your grandfather’s aesthetics – no organ in the synagogue, damn it! – and yes you might get somewhat more Jewish training for children, but think what you lose? Your movement can’t decide whether to ordain gay rabbis. Your movement won’t accept the Judaism of children with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, even if these kids become a Bar Mitzvah or even a rabbi – so you see people who are surely more “Jewish” than you and your family in terms of learning, behavior, commitment, etc., and yet you’ve got to tell them that you’re the true Jew and they’re the fraud. Most importantly, your movement will ground you in cognitive dissonance: you’re told that the commandments in the Torah are divinely mandated, but you nevertheless find yourself and your community picking and choosing among them. In short, you have come to realize that the mainstream Conservative movement is neither fully committed to humanistic values nor intellectually honest about what is commanded, what is permitted and why. Ouch!

Seriously, if mainstream Conservatives truly believed that Jewish law came directly from God, as communicated to Moses on Sinai, don’t you think they’d be stricter in observing these laws as commandments, rather than guidelines to be balanced against the principle of convenience?

In her Slate article, Shapiro pines for a thriving Conservative Judaism that truly occupies the middle ground. She clearly recognizes the need for any moderate religious movement to have intellectual integrity. And yet, as she points out, “there is a sweetness, intensity and pleasure that comes from religious practice that isn’t wholly rational.”

Agreed. There is something beautiful about keeping kosher for its own sake, for example. But there is something ugly about picking and choosing which religious “commandments” to follow, while denying the Judaism of a Reform rabbi with a Jewish father simply because his mother is a gentile. And no religion worthy of its name can afford to be ugly.

In the end, mainstream Conservative Jews might recognize that the golden mean lies in joining a community that combines a commitment to Jewish ritualistic practices “for their own sake” with a philosophy that leaves it to the individual to decide whether supernatural forces exist or what, if any, role God has played in inspiring Jewish rituals. That seems to me to be an example of an approach that reconciles modernity and tradition. It also happens to be the cornerstone of Reconstructionist Judaism. And the Reform movement has finally realized that in such a path lies its own future as well.

Conservatives could have occupied that ground first, but they blew their chance. They were too busy looking to balance “truth” and “faith” that they forgot the real meaning of Judaism: truth is something that can never be sacrificed. Therein lies the supreme beauty of our faith.