I have a long standing reason that I provide for people when they ask me why I do not move to Israel: there is no job for me there. To be more accurate, the Conservative Movement in Israel has very little money and as a result many rabbis are not able to make it there. You might ask why the Orthodox are able to do so much better. Part of the answer is that they are funded by the government. Their clergy receive part of their income from the government of Israel. And this has been forbidden for the non-Orthodox world for many years. But just this week it was announced that the barrier is beginning to fall, and that non-Orthodox rabbis are beginning to receive rights. This is not a 100% victory, but it is a step in the right direction. It is interesting to me that the opposition to this from the Orthodox is filled with words about how this will harm Judaism, and how the non-Orthodox world has created their own religion. I have long believed that one of the greatest aspects of the Talmud is that it preserves the disputes and does not hide them. I have long defended the Orthodox philosophy and mode of Judaism as a valid expression of Judaism. I have done so because I do not believe in a world where only one way can be the right way. I do not believe that only one stream of Judaism can hold the path to God. It is entirely plausible for us to be right side by side with people of opposing views and they are correct as well.
The second great accomplishment of the week was a Massachusetts based Federal Court struck down components of the Defense of Marriage Act which denied the rights and privileges of marriage to people of the same gender. Watching homosexuals and lesbians being denied the same rights as me and my wife has long been a moral stain that I am too aware of in our country. The basic idea of calling a law, the "Defense Of Marriage Act," should make us question what is being done. A claim that two men creating a lifetime commitment to one another is somehow threatening heterosexual marriage is absurd. In what way is your marriage threatened? In what form are you afraid of your way of life? To deny a segment of the population the equal rights of all other people because of the way they are wired, the way they were born, because of their chemistry is discriminatory and does nothing to move our world forward, and everything to move us back.
The last thing is something that will not be as well known, this week The Conservative Movement approved the ceremonies for marriage/commitment and divorce for homosexuals and lesbians. This brings to a close the process that began in 2007 when our movement began to recognize gay and lesbian rabbis, and to in theory recognize their lifelong commitments to their partners. We were left without a standard way in which to make and dissolve these unions. Now we have it.
So what is all of this about. Last week we began to read the book of במדבר/Numbers. It begins with a very important census that is divided into all of the tribes which make up the people of Israel. The people of Israel would not have been the people of Israel without the Danites, without the Benjaminites... They would have been something else. As Jews we can never allow ourselves to believe that elements of the Jewish community are not in it. That there are outsiders in our midst. We cannot discriminate because we are all there, we all are puzzle pieces in the puzzle of Judaism. The same is true of the United States. We are not a melting pot of assimilation, we are fruit salad of acculturation and that fruit salad tastes better because all of the flavors put together. America is not only for heterosexuals, only for men, only for Christians, only for whites... America is for Americans and visitors and immigrants and anybody who loves freedom and values equality for all. This is not just some lofty goal, it is in a nutshell what makes us exceptional and makes us unique. I understand that this sounds so idealistic, and a bit ridiculous patriotism, but I truly believe that this is the purpose and the mission of our country and of Judaism and we have lost our ways many times. This week we took some giant steps back on the path to where we belong.
Shabbat Shalom
