Michael Kress: November 2006 Archives

In juxtaposing "blood and genetics," by which I presume he means those born of a Jewish mother, with those who "identify with the Jewish people and adopt a certain lifestyle," by which I presume he means those who self-identify as Jews by their feelings or actions, Rabbi Stern misses one critical component of Jewish identity: citizenship.

In the United States, citizenship is not the same as residency. People can live in this country for years and feel part of our culture, yet not be able to vote or hold office unless they go through the steps of becoming citizens. The same is true in Judaism.

I am sure Rabbi Stern would agree that, under Jewish law and history, a person can become a member of the Jewish people through two means: being born of a Jewish mother or converting to Judaism. Conversion is accomplished by study, commitment to the mitzvot (commandments), immersion in a mikveh (ritual pool), and for a male, brit milah (ritual circumcision), or tipat dam (taking a drop of blood if the male was already medically circumcised).

It is unfortunate that years ago the Reform Movement dropped these requirements for Jewish citizenship through their decision on patrilineal descent and the choice various Reform rabbis make to skip mikveh and milah as part of the conversion process. However, Reform Movement recently began to encourage conversions, as we have discussed here before. Perhaps that will also stimulate a further commitment to mikveh and milah as well.

As Rabbi Stern intimates, it is true that there is a move afoot in the organized Jewish community to broaden the definition of who is a Jew to include self-identity. This was a major issue around the National Jewish Population Survey. Such lack of distinctions does us no real good in the long term.

Throughout history, there have been many who truly loved Judaism and the Jewish people and lived their lives around the Jewish calendar. The Talmud refers to sabbatoi, Sabbath observers who clearly identified with the Jewish people, lived their lives as Jews, but had not yet officially converted. I have such people in my congregation. Some go on to convert; others do not for many diverse reasons. They are wonderful people who add much to my congregation. But they are not yet officially Jewish, even though they self-identify with our community, because they have chosen of their free will not to make the faith commitment to become officially Jewish.

There is nothing wrong with finding ways to welcome those who are not yet ready to embrace such a faith commitment while retaining our expectations for conversion (citizenship) and the distinctions between those who are citizens and those who are not. While citizenship is not a guarantee of Jewish continuity, i.e., having Jewish grandchildren, commitment certainly is one of many prerequisites.

Unlike Rabbi Stern, what I find so shocking about the decision of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar to limit Jewish identity to those born of a Jewish mother is not the rejection of Reform and Conservative conversions (nothing new there) but also of Orthodox conversions. It is true that there are Sephardic precedents to reject converts, probably born of a long and painful history with Christian and Islamic powers who severely punished the individuals and communities accused of proselytizing. However, such fears certainly have no grounds in the Jewish State.

On one hand, Rabbi Amar is flattening the playing field between all three movements. On the other, his decision points to the dangerous narrowing of the definition of acceptable Jewish life and community under the right wing rabbinate in Israel as they continue to tighten their boundaries of who they consider is Jewish.

Certainly in Israel, such actions and attitudes by the rabbinate serve only to distance Jewish citizens, those born of Jewish mothers who live in Israel, from their Judaism, which they see as coercive and discriminatory. This, perhaps more than anything else, threatens Jewish continuity and commitment in the Jewish State.

--Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

I agree wholeheartedly with Rabbi Waxman that clergy, of any faith, must be careful to see themselves, and allow themselves to be seen, as real human beings with human weaknesses and flaws. As Henri Nouwen so eloquently writes in his book, "The Wounded Healer," this ability to identify others’ suffering with the suffering in our own hearts, rather than maintain a role of aloofness, is a prerequisite for true ministering to the needy.

Judaism has always treated its clergy in this way to a degree, in the sense that a rabbi is supposed to marry and have children, be responsible to his or her parents, and is expected to be human enough to struggle with the same temptations that other people face. The difference, I would caution, is that as rabbis (or any clergy) we have a special obligation to strive for and surmount temptation and thereby model correct ethical behavior even in our most intimate and familial relations.

When we fail to follow even a basic modicum of morality, as did Ted Haggard, we should be held accountable for falling from a higher standard, as he has been. He does a disservice not only to those he personally hurt, but to the trust all people place in their clergy.

There is a debate in Judaism's Conservative movement about whether rabbis should be just like everyone else or whether we should strive to be symbolic exemplars, according to Rabbi Jack Bloom, author of "The Rabbi as Symbolic Exemplar." While I embrace Nouwen’s approach, I also embrace Bloom’s. For example, I can meet a congregant in the gym and share the challenges of sticking to our exercise routines, and then find that the next encounter with that congregant places me in a pastoral role, conferring on a problem.

For years, I tried to go incognito, particularly while on vacation. Invariably, we would meet someone high up on a trail in a national park, when I certainly did not look very rabbinic, who recognized me and wanted to talk. I realized that being a rabbi has less to do with what we are wearing and where we are standing and everything to do with having an open heart while living in the presence of God.

This is the burden and the blessing of the rabbinate. We are always rabbis, just like doctors are always doctors. It is a part of who we are, and to deny, or hide, or try to escape it does no one any good.

What we and our congregants need is our ability to synthesize everything we are as part of our rabbinic identity. That my rabbinate includes my ability to share my own wounds and challenges empowers my congregants and opens my own heart to them. I also share my efforts to strive to constantly walk in God’s ways and do God’s will, as our tradition understands it.

I agree with Rabbi Waxman: I hope my congregants know enough not to place me on a pedestal, but I also hope my actions in God’s service engender their respect not of me in particular but of Judaism as a way of life worthy of their allegiance.

--Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

After Passover and Hanukkah, Thanksgiving is perhaps the holiday most observed by American Jews. It makes sense for a number of reasons, and not only because we Jews can't pass up an excuse for a good meal.

Thanksgiving, as in giving thanks, is a very Jewish thing to do. According to tradition, Jews are to give thanks 100 times each day. We are to give thanks before we eat, for having food, and after we eat, for having been able to have food. Each morning the traditional liturgy includes thank-yous for such simple acts as standing up and having the strength to get through the day. One more Jewish link is found in our Scripture: The initial Thanksgiving feast was probably based upon our fall thanksgiving festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles)

But I think there is more to the American Jewish observance of Thanksgiving than our predilection to thankfulness. I think it has a lot to do specifically with our appreciation for and celebration of being part of life in America.

America has been good to the Jews. We have always lived here in relative safety. Our rights as a minority religion are protected by law and the Constitution's Bill of Rights. Though we may have experienced anti-Semitism at times here, it is nothing compared to the anti-Semitism our grandparents or great-grandparents escaped from elsewhere.

Celebrating Thanksgiving, then, is part of affirming the American dream, in which peoples of all races, ethnicities and religions can have enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is what real democracy, a democracy based on checks and balances and protection for minorities, is really about. While such a dream is not completely realized for all Americans, the potential for such a realization does exist.

As Jews, we know that such values cannot be realized or retained unless they are transmitted. Perhaps that is why the American Jewish Committee recently created a lovely Haggadah (a service of sorts) for Thanksgiving that includes the stories of many diverse peoples and a litany of thankfulness that includes being thankful we can express, and change our opinions (another place that Jewish and American values intersect).

Easily downloadable, the AJC Thanksgiving Haggadah can add meaning to a meal that all too often focuses either on the Turkey and fixings or on family tensions, thus redeeming the one holiday all Americans can truly share.

--Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

Life takes precedence under Jewish law, and the gay-rights advocates cannot be faulted for bowing to security concerns and canceling the gay rights parade slated for Jerusalem this weekend. But the State of Israel did wrong in letting it come to this and not cracking down on the violence sooner.

This is not the first time Orthodox violence has effectively curbed diversity in Jerusalem. For years, women who wanted to pray together at the Western Wall, the Kotel, were submitted to attacks while the police did little to protect them. They were not doing anything so very radical. They were following Jewish law, at least according to liberal Orthodox rabbis.

The canceling of the parade is so sad because the threat of violence has again won out. I worry what this caving in will do in the long run. Will the haredi feel empowered and resort to more violence over the next demand? This is exactly how radical religious fundamentalists took control in other countries. I thought Israel was different, holding its radical fringe in check.

What a shanda--a shameful thing--that it should come to this in the Jewish State. Have we already forgotten that Jews and gays shared the same fate in Nazi gas chambers? You'd think we, of all people, would have learned the necessity of tolerance.

The Associate Press reported that Rabbi Yosef Elnikaveh, a prominent religious leader, said allowing the parade to proceed was surrendering to "mental illness." The mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hussein, the top Muslim cleric in the Palestinian territories, said being gay is a crime and demanded police punish those involved in the parade. Christian evangelical groups in Jerusalem have called the parade "provocative" and demanded the venue be changed. It is nice to hear that three major religious leaders agree on something. Too bad it is about promoting bias against others.

--Posted by Rabbi Susan Grossman

Is Rabbi Stern saying that the gay-rights activists should have known better than to plan their march in Jerusalem, or is he saying that the gay-rights parade organizers should have shown more consideration to the ultra-Orthodox, by not planning their march anywhere in Jerusalem?

It seems as if Rabbi Stern is suggesting that the gay-rights parade activists deserve part of the blame for the violent nature of ultra-Orthodox protests. I couldn't disagree more.

If they were marching through Mea Shearim or another ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, I would agree the parade was being needlessly inconsiderate. But, as far as I understand, they are marching in the center of town, culminating (if they are following last year's route) at Liberty Bell Park, right in the heart of Jerusalem's tourist district.

I am sure Rabbi Stern and I would agree that Jerusalem is a holy city. As rabbis, we also would probably agree that it is a shame to see cafes open on Shabbat in Jerusalem. But it is precisely the kind of coercive and destructive behavior the ulra-Orthodox are taking around the parade that drives so many young Israelis from the beauty of our religious traditions.

What a different message could be given if haredi (the ultra-Orthodox) rabbinic leaders called upon their followers to show ahavat Yisrael (love of one's fellow Jews), perhaps by launching a campaign to invite a gay person to Shabbat dinner. That would do something productive in furthering the spread of religious observance throughout the Jewish state and open a dialogue to help each side see the human face, and pain, both sides are experiencing.

Jerusalem is a holy city. However, my idea of holiness is found not only in Shabbat and tzniut (modesty), which I observe very differently than do the haredim, but in respecting the image of God in people, especially those with whom I may disagree, even vehemently.

Jerusalem is the spiritual and political capital of the entire Jewish people, not just the haredim. To abandon our claim to this city would be tragic. That is precisely why the gay pride parade should take place in Jerusalem. We may disagree about whether or not Jewish law permits gay relationships, but that is no excuse for endangering life, as did the haredi violence this week. The Jewish law I study does not permit endangering others in this way.

This leads me to my next point. If Israel is to have any moral legitimacy in arguing against violence perpetrated by fundamentalist Muslims, then Israel needs to maintain the rule of law within its own borders. The ultra-Orthodox can march all they want in protest, peacefully. But the Israeli government should crack down swiftly and decisively against these violent protests.

There cannot be a place for this kind of activity in a state that models for the world how religion and democracy can live harmoniously together. The values of democracy and the equality of all people comes from our Torah. This message is one of the ways Israel can serve as a light unto the nations. But we do not serve that cause when Israel enables such dangerous and unethical behavior by allowing it to spread.

I totally disagree with Rabbi Stern. The gay parade has every right to be in Jerusalem. I say this not because I am liberal, but because I deeply believe in the values of our Torah and our covenant with God. We should remember that the Second Temple fell because of sinat hinam (hatred between Jews), which is precisely what the ultra-Orthodox are showing to the gay activitists.

--Rabbi Susan Grossman