The sacred center

in what way should Conservative Judaism face the challenges of the twenty-first century? The answer is to articulate the movement's principles, embrace its inherent pluralism, and inspire its constituency.

Articulating the Ideology of the Movement

It has not been easy to define the ideology of the Conservative change as is evidenced by the fact that its statement of principles, Emet Ve-Emunah, appeared to the full seventy years after the establishment of the United Synagogue. a certain number of have argued that the decision not to articulate clearly where the change stood during those years was a source of its nerve for it allowed people who might otherwise (if alone they realized it) more appropriately situate themselves in the Reform or the Orthodox camps to find a place of abode within the Conservative Movement.

Now, however, one as well as the other Orthodoxy, on the one side, and Reform, upon the other, are strong, confident--even triumphalist--movements. (Reconstructionism, granting numerically much smaller, is also growing, and is justifiably confident.) In this environment, inertia is not likely to draw single toward Conservative Judaism. On the contrary, it is necessary to articulate muscular reasons why Jews should resist the pluck to the right--the sense of authenticity, as well as the seriousness, piety, and sturdy communal spirit within Orthodoxy-or for others, the equally compelling shake to the left: the value accorded personal autonomy, the depressed entry-level threshold, the openness to those upon the margins (both Jewish and gentile) seeking to engage, and the ruach (spirit), enthusiasm, and self-confidence that characterize Reform today.

What are of the like kind reasons? Notwithstanding its strong emotional appeal, Orthodoxy requires intellectual compartmentalization for those whose hashkafah (religious outlook) has been enlightened by the agency of critical historical scholarship. Reform, upon the other hand, grants too abundant authority to personal autonomy and is just not loyal enough to the chain of Jewish law and tradition. Reconstructionism, notwithstanding that its theology is not necessarily incompatible with one's identity as an observant israelite has similarly firmly diverged from traditional Jewish practice.

There will always be israelites who are, on the individual hand, committed to the continuity of Jewish tradition, however who have minds fully render free of access to the intellectual insights to be gleaned from recent historical scholarship, as well as the moral insights (such as feminism and egalitarianism) that are the productions of modernity. Such Jews will not, I believe, have feeling fully at home anywhere other than in the Conservative movement

single major reason it is difficult to explain Conservative Judaism, as Chancellor Ismar Schorsch has argued, is that it is difficult to explain Judaism. Judaism is an intellectually demanding, text-center cultural combination of parts to form a whole that can't be condensed into "sound bites." As Abraham Joshua Heschel pointed without fifty years ago, Judaism embraces polarities--e.g., halakha and aggadah (law and lore); notions of the deity as both transcendent (wholly other) and immanent (present in the world); Jewish existence in the one and the other the Land of Israel and the diaspora, to take a small in number examples. To define Judaism's focus too narrowly (as, for example, "law" or "faith") is to distort its core as an evolving religious civilization-to busy Mordecai Kaplan's term. Moreover, from the beginning Conservative Judaism has defined itself as the two loyal to tradition and render free of access to change, a position far more difficult to bring than the stances of other motions But the effort to define and explain the move is vital, for its values and principles are the basis of its appeal; not knowing what they are, it is difficult to generate a great deal of support or enthusiasm for the movement

Fortunately, we now posses several lucky statements that articulate where the change stands. Chancellor Schorsch has provided us with The Sacred Cluster, a short pamphlet itemizing seven values at the core of Conservative Jewish identity. In my have a title to words, these are: (1) devotion to torah, broadly defined, as our national literary and cultural legacy; (2) commitment to talmud torah, the close attention of our sacred texts; (3) responsibility for and be fond of of klal yisrael (the totality of the Jewish community); (4) the what one ought to do to support and to remain joined with the people and the state of Israel, with whom we are covenantal partners and with whom we share a for the use of all fate; (5) reverence for Hebrew, our l'shon ha-kodesh (holy language; diocese b.Sanhedrin 21b), the language in which our classical body s were written and the premier language of Jewish expression in Israel today; (6) the recognition of halakha as the guide to a Jewish way of life; and (7) yirat shamayim, adoration for the sacred.

The Sacred Cluster is a powerful and sophisticated statement that requires reflection and interpretation for a community to claim it as its have We within the movement should be distributing it and promoting it. We should be preaching and teaching about it. We ne more of that kind statements to clarify our ultimate be of importance tos and to remind ourselves and others what we are committed to and what inspires our commitments.