Israeli Conservative Movement approves ordination of gay rabbis

Haaretz ^ | 4/20/2012 | Revital Blumenfeld and Yair Ettinger

[Former Fetus]

Israel's Masorti (Conservative) Movement decided to approve the ordination of homosexual rabbis, in a dramatic vote on Thursday.

The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, affiliated with the movement, will admit gay and lesbian students for training as spiritual leaders as of the upcoming school year.

In doing so the Israeli Conservative Movement is joining the American branch of the movement, whose rabbinical seminaries have been admitting gay students for some years.

The question whether or not to ordain gay and lesbian rabbis has been rattling the Conservative Movement in Israel and the U.S. for the past decade. Unlike the Reform movement that took to the question with ease, deciding firmly on the acceptance of gay rabbis. The Conservative Movement, whose rabbis see themselves bound to Jewish law, has been caught up in heated debate over the subject.

[Former Fetus]

Usually I don't read this leftist rag, Haaretz, but someone brought to my attention this morning this article on the ordination of gay rabbis.

I understand that "conservative" has a different meaning in Judaism that it has for the rest of us. Still, I was shocked! I had never heard the term "masorti" so I googled it. Reading the masorti principles I found this: "Halakha, in its very essence, is dynamic and evolving; its principles take into consideration the changing circumstances in each generation". Ok, so they are like the people who call the Constitution a "living document". That's code word for liberal. Still, it is hard for me to comprehend treating God's law this way.

A conservative rabbi celebrating a same-sex marriage

[Former Fetus]

Eleutheria5, your input is appreciated, as usual!

[HangnJudge]

So they conveniently forget The Seven Laws of Noah?
http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/seven-laws-of-noah/

Sexual transgression
...All people originate from sexual relations, and so the laws which govern them are our most basic ‘constitution’, testifying to the Divine origin of humankind. Non-Jews are not commanded to marry, but they are encouraged to do so, and they are forbidden to have relations with the wife of another man. Male homosexuality, incest and bestial relations are also forbidden under the same heading...
Murder
Theft
Idolatry
Cursing the Name
Eating the limb of a living animal

[USMCPOP]

Grabbis?

[1010RD]

Trying to make the abnormal normal.

[Eleutheria5]

What is there to say about this. Of course Halacha evolves, based on well-established halachic principles. What “Masorti” Judaism does is evolve the Halacha to mean whatever it is they want it to, a la Humpty, in order to fit the ideological schic du jour. Naturally, they now want gay rabbis and same-sex marriages. It’s fashionable. In their view, Judaism has to adapt with the times. They would adapt it to death, if it were up to them.

[Former Fetus]

Excuse my ignorance, I am really curious.

Of course Halacha evolves

How so? I mean, isn't Halacha based on the Law as given by God to Moses? Who, other than God, would have the authority to change it? Yes, I know, I know, we don't stone children who curse their parents and timers keep a household running during the Shabbat. But from there to acknowledging that Halacha evolves... it seems to me like removing all restrictions and letting the children run the household!

They would adapt it to death, if it were up to them

Why not? I mean, if you start by saying that Halacha evolves, who sets the limits? How far can you go?

[Yadan]

“Halakha, in its very essence, is dynamic and evolving; its principles take into consideration the changing circumstances in each generation”.

This is nothing more than a cleverly worded paraphrase of ‘We shall do what’s convenient for us and not do what others think is embarrassing.’ It tends to treat the Torah like a Chinese restaurant menu: we’ll take this from column A and that from column B, but hold the eggroll.

Yahweh, the God of Israel, determined that homosexuality is an abomination, a crime against nature and humanity; and if anyone has taken a basic course in high school biology, he can well understand that homosexuality is unnatural in the human scheme of things. Otherwise, the human species would have been extinct perhaps thousand of years ago.

Putting aside political correctness, homosexuality can be scientifically, if not morally, understood as a human phychological/biological disorder. But rather than viewing it as such, modern liberal society wishes to see it as a perfectly normal condition which not only does not warrant treatment, but deserves to be labeled as perfectly normal.
This is the very same mentality which excuses criminals as the victims of society and the environment.

If one examines the way modern western societies relate to the Ten Commandments, one can easily discern what has been happening to humankind in the moral sphere: it is still acceptable to abhor murder,theft and (in some cases)lying, but it is also perfectly acceptable to deny G-d’s existance, take His name in vain, commit adultery and be envious of others. Pick and choose.

In the era of our forefathers, murder, adultery, kidnapping, cursing the Almighty and performing bestial and homosexual acts were, among others, capital crimes; nowadays, capital punishment itself is considered primitive and barbarian by those who would supplant the Torah with their own ‘higher sense of humaneness’ in legislating a new morality for all of us.

Truthfully, I prefer to live in a world in which being unfaithful, cursing one’s parents and committing unnatural acts warrant very serious attention.

[Eleutheria5]

Halacha evolves the same way law evolves. Jewish judges, known as rabbis, decide individual cases in accordance with the fixed principles of halacha. Those fixed principles do not evolve. But they are applied to new situations, and result in new rulings, all based on those principles. Saying that halacha evolves means that there is a fixed doctrine that is flexible enough to adjust to new technology and social changes, not in order capitulate to them, but in order to preserve the Torah way of life and, if possible, use them. Halacha evolves the way that city people adapt to the country life, not by wandering around hoping to be eaten by a cougar, which is one way of adapting, but by protecting oneself from cougars and learning how to plow and plant and hoe.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

It used to be the old joke that the other name for Reform Jews was “Christians”.

To update it to modern standards, however, it would be that the other name for Conservative Jews is “Congregationalists”, and Reform Jews as “atheists”.

[onedoug]

Torah means what it says, despite human means to change or cheapen it.

[aimhigh]

This raises the question: Is there any Jewish group which still stands for Old Testament biblical values?

[jjotto]

Moses taught the knowledge he had received directly from God for several periods of 40 days and nights. He taught this for FORTY YEARS before he left behind the written notes known as the Five Books of Moses.

All of orthodox Judaism follows the guidelines set down by Moses. Failure to follow them puts one outside of the definition of ‘orthodox’. Ten to 20 percent of Jews are considered ‘orthodox’.

http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/will-your-grandchild-be-jewish-chart-graph.htm

[Eleutheria5]

The Torah itself sets the limits, and it is as directed by the Rabbis empowered in the Torah. That is to say, there is a procedure outlined in the Torah for evolution, establishing and nullifying rabbinical decrees, interpreting the written law. It cannot just be changed willy nilly by anyone with an agenda.

Just like the US Constitution has rules for amending it, for judicial review and interpretation, checks and balances, precedents. So, too, Jewish law has its procedures and substantive limitations on change. For example, polygamy might be universally permitted again, instead of just for eastern congregations. For a time, it was permitted to hear Megillat Esther over the telephone, until the rabbis discovered that they had misunderstood the mechanism of the telephone, and learned that the voice heard on the second end was merely an electronic approximation of the voice broadcast from the first end. Or eating kitnyot (beans, rice, and other non-wheat staples) on Passover might become universally permitted to Ashkenazic congregations. This is the sort of evolution and change that has gone on in halacha from ancient times.

But never in a million years will the Torah permit gay marriages, because that is not just a borderline issue, but an outright prohibition in the Torah. Homosexual sex is in no way allowed, ever, let alone sanctioned. That doesn’t mean we should burn anyone who is attracted to other men at the stake. Desires can be resisted, not acted upon. But if he sticks his wiener up the hershy highway, and there are witnesses who saw them go at it, and there is a Sanhedrin with a quorum of 23 judges sitting empowered to pass judgment in capital cases, and a trial that ends in a guilty verdict and death sentence, it would be carried out. At present, no such judicial body has been seated, so we don’t ever burn homosexuals. But gay marriage cannot be allowed.