Also read    "This is Not the Way"    by Rabbi Robert Seltzer

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INTERVIEW
Is It Time To Chart a New Course For Reform Judaism?

Rabbi Richard Levy Says Yes -- by Reclaiming
Once Rejected Practices In Pursuit of Holiness

Only three times over the last century and a half has the American Reform rabbinate issued official platforms to help guide the theology and practice of the Reform movement. In November 1885, in Pittsburgh, PA, eighteen Reform rabbis adopted and published a set of guidelines which defined Reform Judaism for half a century. A second Reform platform, the Columbus Platform, was adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) in Columbus, OH in 1937. On the occasion of the centenary of the CCAR, a third set of guidelines, the Centenary Perspective, appeared in 1976.

Next June, the CCAR will convene once again in Pittsburgh, where our rabbinate will consider the adoption of a new statement -- the "Ten Principles for Reform Judaism" -- drafted by CCAR President Rabbi Richard Levy, director of the Los Angeles Hillel Council, in consultation with the Executive Board and the membership of the Conference. In a radical departure from the earlier platforms, these guidelines call for the reclaiming of some traditional Jewish practices rejected by our Reform forefathers and for embracing new pathways to holiness and social justice.

In the following interview, conducted by RJ editor Aron Hirt-Manheimer, Rabbi Levy discusses his rationale for proposing a new Pittsburgh Platform for our times and presents a draft of the "Ten Principles," which has been submitted to all CCAR members for their comments. This is a work in progress; further drafts will be written and reviewed before the Pittsburgh convention. The interview is followed by a rebuttal by Reform Rabbi Robert Seltzer, professor of Jewish History at Hunter College in New York City, who contends that "we must guard against the pitfalls of turning Reform Judaism into Conservative Judaism Lite."

It is our hope that our publication of Rabbi Levy's "Principles" in draft form and Rabbi Seltzer's critique will stimulate a movement-wide discussion on what it means to be a Reform Jew at the dawn of a new century. Please discuss the draft principles with your rabbis and send us your comments for possible publication. Write to Reform Judaism magazine, 633 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-6778 or post your thoughts on our website: http://uahc.org/rjmag/1198.html

Q: It has been more than a hundred and ten years since the publication of the original Pittsburgh Platform. Since then, we've had two subsequent statements from the Reform rabbinate: the Columbus Platform and the Centenary Perspective. Why do you think the Reform movement needs to issue a new set of guiding principles now?

A: I believe next year's CCAR convention -- fittingly, also in Pittsburgh -- will be an appropriate time to chart a new course for our movement in the twenty-first century, just as the first Pittsburgh meeting defined Reform for much of the twentieth century. Strange as it might seem, despite the moderating influences of Columbus and the Centenary Perspective, the Pittsburgh Platform of the nineteenth century continues to influence how we Reform Jews relate to Jewish tradition.

Q: How so?

A: The Pittsburgh Platform argues that "the views and habits of modern civilization" should determine which Jewish "ceremonies" are appropriate, and it considers all the mitzvot dealing with "diet, dress, and priestly purity" to be "altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state." These attitudes still lead a majority of Reform Jews to feel that contemporary mores should determine the nature of our religious life, and that traditional dietary practices or religious dress are inappropriate -- this at a time when diversity of diet is perhaps at its height in our society, when more and more Jews of all ages wear identifying Jewish symbols, and when, at the last Biennial Shabbat morning service, more people wore kipot than went bareheaded.

Q: What has changed since the 1976 Centenary Perspective that warrants a new statement of principles?

A: I think there is now a much greater confluence of views, at least among rabbis, than was true twenty-two years ago. The Centenary Perspective would not use the Hebrew word "mitzvah" but only the English word "obligation," whereas most Reform rabbis and lay people are trying nowadays to build more and more mitzvot into their lives. The experience of a year in Israel, a growing comfort with traditional practice, an enhanced desire among congregants for a richer Jewish life, even an increasing number of college-age Reform Jews who become acquainted with the practices of the wider Jewish community by their involvement in Hillel -- this is very different from when the Centenary Perspective was written.

The new Principles, as currently drafted, encourage us to listen to the call of mitzvot, not only out of "our individual understanding of what is holy in our own time," which Reform has always done, but also "out of the ever-growing body of interpretations by Kenesset Yisrael, the eternal community of the Jewish people." Principle seven urges that we and all the other Jewish movements "work together in mutual respect, aware of our many serious differences, trying to understand the motivations that lead to our divergence...If we can only listen to each other, we can learn much."

The Ten Principles also encourage Reform Jews to explore a variety of active encounters with God. The first point says, "We pledge to create texts and worship environments that will enable us as individuals and communities to drink deeply from the Fountain from which our lives spring, and regularly to praise, thank, celebrate, petition, sing to, argue with, and cry out to the Ribono shel Olam, the Great One who presides over all time and all space."

In the new guidelines, Jewish lifecycle, ritual, and holiday observances are emphasized more than ever before. We are encouraged to observe Shabbat, for example, because doing so "liberates us from the obligations which our work places upon us so that we may focus on our obligations to God." The Principles advocate a disciplined commitment to lifelong Torah study "in the widest sense -- biblical, rabbinic, medieval, and modern texts, history, literature, philosophy, art, music, and dance." We are also enjoined to read, pray, study, and speak in Hebrew. "The more Hebrew we use in our prayer and our study, the more we shall share in the holiness of our people's heritage."

Our relationship to Israel has changed significantly since the Centenary Perspective. It is vital that we expand our Reform presence in the Jewish state; the stakes are much higher today than they were in 1976. The Centenary Perspective said only: "We demand that Reform Judaism be unconditionally legitimized in the State of Israel." Echoing the Reform Zionist platform passed by the CCAR in 1997, the Ten Principles "call upon Reform Jews everywhere to dedicate their energies and resources to strengthening an indigenous Progressive Judaism that can help transform Medinat Yisrael."

Finally, we need a new set of guiding principles that heralds our progress and encourages further growth in gender equality. In the mid-seventies, HUC-JIR had just begun ordaining women rabbis and investing women cantors. Since then, these dedicated colleagues have had a growing influence on our understandings of God, synagogue and communal life, and the language of prayer. The current draft of the Ten Principles includes a whole section on equality, which notes in part: "We all commit ourselves to honor the different contributions men and women can make to our movement and to ensure that the women and men who lead us, whether professionals or laypeople, are able to fulfill their calling with appropriate recognition and respect."

Q: A major thrust of the Ten Principles is a call to bring a greater sense of kedushah, or holiness, into our lives through the observance of dietary laws and other traditional Jewish practices. What exactly do you have in mind?

A: In Leviticus 19, which we Reform Jews read on Yom Kippur afternoon, God tells us: "kedoshim tihyu -- You shall be holy -- for I, Adonai your God, am holy." Lest we think God is setting before us an impossible task, the text then shows us the way to kedushah. The path lies through mitzvot, through responding to God's call in our day-to-day actions -- revering our parents, observing Shabbat, respecting the land, and much more. I believe our task as Reform Jews -- and as part of the Jewish people -- is to become as much like the God in whose image we were formed as we can.

We will begin to explore some of these issues this November at the President's Kallah, a retreat at the UAHC Kutz Camp in Warwick, NY which will be attended by two dozen or so Reform rabbis. We will focus on issues surrounding kashrut, understanding that a kosher diet can not only fulfill the mitzvot of forsaking forbidden foods in the Torah, but can also respond to ethical injunctions. Keeping kosher, I hope, will not be restricted to the separating of milk and meat, refraining from biblical treif, and accepting only traditional methods of shechita (slaughter). A Reform approach to kashrut should also encourage concern for tzar ba-alei chayim, the pain of living creatures cruelly penned in and fattened. Similarly, a Reform embrace of kashrut might well ban veal as well as biblical treif, and might prohibit fruits and vegetables grown with pesticides or harvested under inhuman conditions.

There are many ways we can re-form mitzvot into an ethical framework that responds to the challenges of contemporary life. I hope that Reform observance of kashrut will, in time, create such a model for associating spirituality with other life choices, such as the clothes we wear, the kind of homes we live in, the way we use money, and the nature of family intimacy.

Q: How do you propose we link ethical behaviors with ritual mitzvot in these arenas?

A: In the realm of clothing, the Torah requires us to examine garments to insure they do not include improper mixtures of threads. These days, in the spirit of oshek (a concern for oppressive working conditions), it is appropriate to examine garments to make sure they are not produced in sweatshops or by firms paying less than the minimum wage.

In terms of the kedushah of the home, we might ask how each room in our house, apartment, or dormitory reflects the holiness of the acts that go on there. Is there a tzedakah box to which we can contribute before Shabbat? Are there texts of songs and blessings on the table to be referred to before and after the meal? Are Jewish books and ceremonial objects displayed in our living rooms? Is there an accessible copy of the asher yatzar prayer (found in Gates of Prayer) praising God for the proper working of our body, to be said after we have finished in the bathroom? Does our ketubah (marriage contract) grace our bedroom walls? Do we have mezuzot not only on our front doors but also at the entrance to all the rooms of our houses -- perhaps, in a creative variant on tradition, including not only the expected texts but texts which reflect the holy purposes of each room? And are we ready to make a commitment to go out in the community and help homeless people build their own personal spaces?

Q: What you are suggesting is quite a departure from traditional Reform thinking. Your rabbinic forebears declared in Pittsburgh: "We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state." How do you respond to those who argue that your proposals are undermining the very foundation of Reform Judaism and leading us toward neo-Orthodoxy?

A: To restore some of the things that our forebears rejected is perfectly legitimate. As Reform Jews, we believe in ongoing revelation -- the idea that changing times reveal new, previously hidden, aspects of the Torah God gave us at Sinai. Part of that revelation is addressing the needs of the Jewish people right now.

We tend to forget three critical words inherent in the Pittsburgh Platform: "in our days." Kaufmann Kohler, the drafter of the original platform, declared that "in our days [observance of] diet, priestly purity, and dress...[is] apt to obstruct than to enhance and encourage our moral and spiritual elevation as children of God." "Our days" in 1998 are very different from an era when mail was delivered on horseback and newspapers and magazines (let alone nonexistent moving pictures and television) did not feature endless images of in-your-face sexuality and bloodshed. Today our people are crying out to elevate their lives in a society fraught with banality and violence. When food is increasingly seen as something to be picked up from the local fast-food joint and wolfed down before a television sitcom, our people need a vision of a higher way of life. When the television news inures us to atrocities, we may forget the preciousness of every single life created in the image of God. Wearing clothing that reflects the presence of God and justice for the unknown children of God who manufacture it; learning in a disciplined, ongoing way the transcendent texts of our tradition in the company of others also seeking to elevate their lives; and preparing food as our tradition believes God wants us to -- all these mitzvot can help us transform our own lives and model such transformations for others.

Q: Kashrut was abandoned, at least in part, because it was seen as a barrier separating Jews from other people. But you seem to be saying that separation should not be of concern to us.

A: That's right. I think there are positive aspects to separation. We separate ourselves from non-Jews in all sorts of ways. Our primary holy day is Saturday, not Sunday or Friday. Our liturgical language is Hebrew, not Latin or Arabic. These separations also make us more interesting to the larger world when we have the opportunity to share our different perspectives and experiences with people of different faiths.

In fact, in today's society, separation, or diversity, is becoming the norm, particularly in dietary preferences. These days the host will ask, "Are you a vegetarian? Is there anything you can't eat?" And, of course, you can dine out with friends and eat different foods.

Many of us know we need to be concerned with low fat and low cholesterol. Why shouldn't we pay at least equal attention to the spiritual dimension of what we consume? That is what kashrut is all about.

Q: You talk about Sinai as if God literally gave us the Torah. What do you say to Reform Jews who are convinced that the Torah is a human document, albeit divinely inspired?

A: I think authorship is less of an issue today than it was in the past. What matters is that the Jewish people considers the Torah holy. By using words such as "the story of the Jewish people tells," you dispense with the question of who wrote the Bible and regard it as received text. The Torah isn't Homer or Shakespeare; it's a document that the Jewish people holds as authoritative. People sometimes ask me, "How do we know God wants us to do this?" My answer is simple: if the Jewish people believes God wants us to do it, that's as close as we can get.

Q: You have said that individual autonomy in Reform religious observance has been taken too far. What is too far?

A: I think Reform Jews have tended to interpret "you have autonomy" as "you don't have to." We need to find a balance between the call of tradition and our own understanding of what Judaism requires of us. At Sinai we heard the Torah both as individuals and as a people. As Reform Jews we need to hear out of both ears, the individual ear, which Reform has emphasized, and the collective ear of Kenesset Yisrael, the greater Jewish community.

This tension between these two ways of hearing is reflected in Rabbi Akiba's paradox: All is part of God's plan, yet free will is given. To understand the will of God, we need to open ourselves to kedushah be-Yisrael, to the holiness of our membership in the Jewish people. As Reform Jews we have often resisted listening to Kenesset Yisrael, but "in our days" I believe we need to overcome this reticence. The individual ear cannot be the only one through which we hear Sinai's call. At the Central Conference of American Rabbis convention last June, some colleagues chose not to vote on same-gender officiation precisely because they were not ready to stand in opposition to Kenesset Yisrael, as we did when the CCAR affirmed patrilineal descent in 1983. We need to remind ourselves that Kenesset Yisrael is not some other group of Jews. We are part of Kenesset Yisrael; we, too, influence its direction. We need not always be in tension; we can sometimes be in harmony! The question of patrilineal descent was revisited at your CCAR convention last June. What was at issue?

Fifteen years ago, the Reform rabbinate officially recognized as Jewish the son or daughter of any one Jewish parent so long as the child's status was "established through appropriate and timely public and formal acts of identification with the Jewish faith and people." The problem has been that clear guidelines have not yet been established for what constitutes these "appropriate and timely public acts." We agreed at the convention to create a clear set of guidelines for the movement so that a family would know the steps involved in making sure that a child born of either Jewish parent is recognized as a Jew by our movement. Within the next year or two, the CCAR's Committee on Reform Jewish Practices will submit a set of recommendations to a vote.

Q: Where do you stand on this?

A: To my mind, the problem of patrilineality is that only one part of the Jewish community accepts it. If a child of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother wants to marry a Conservative or Orthodox Jew, the rabbi will most likely require him/her to undergo a conversion process. I may recognize such a person as a Jew, but, ultimately, the person will have to choose if he/she wants to be recognized only by the Reform community or by the whole community of Kenesset Yisrael.

Q: The question of ritual equality for gays and lesbians has generated much division within the CCAR.

A: That's true. We shouldn't be surprised that this discussion has fanned flames in the Jewish world. Issues surrounding sex and food are among the most sensitive and contentious because they are so basic to human life.

Q: Where does the CCAR stand on gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies?

A: The CCAR's Responsa Committee has argued that Reform rabbis should not officiate at same-gender ceremonies, desiring to maintain a strict distinction between same-gender ceremonies and the way in which halachah, Jewish law, understands kiddushin, the Hebrew term for marriage. The CCAR Ad Hoc Task Force on Jewish Sexuality disagreed, stating that same-gender unions between two committed Jews are "worthy of affirmation through appropriate Jewish ritual, and that each rabbi should decide about officiation according to his/her own informed rabbinic conscience." The Task Force believed doing so would assist the creation of "stable Jewish families, thus adding strength to the Jewish community."

At last June's CCAR Convention in Anaheim, CA, we announced a compromise with which not all our members were happy: we would consider the reports of the Responsa Committee and the Task Force as representing the spectrum of opinion of CCAR members, we would circulate a list of rabbis who would perform such ceremonies (over 500 have signed to date), and we would initiate an education program on different aspects of this issue.

Q: Where do you stand on the issue?

A: I agree with those who argue that taking an official stand on this issue would fly in the face of Kenesset Yisrael and widen the schism between us and other movements. Individual Reform rabbis can and do officiate at same-gender ceremonies, and do not need a public declaration to do so. There is an openness among a growing number of Reform rabbis to help same-gender couples celebrate the sanctity of their relationships. It is important that gay and lesbian couples wishing to marry can find the rabbis (of whom I am one) who are willing to officiate at certain kinds of same-gender ceremonies.

Q: How are we as a movement doing in fulfilling the mitzvah of tikkun olam, the repair of our world?

A: By the '60s, the Reform movement had made its name as a defender of social justice. The issues were clear then; we had championed the labor, civil rights, and anti-Vietnam war movements. In 1998 the issues are not as clear-cut. Even the issue of poverty is segmented. For years most Reform Jews opposed changes in the welfare bill, but recently we've been startled to see that some good things have been happening in communities with certain kinds of workfare programs.

One of the problems is that Reform Jews have been perceived as making politics the major focus of our religiosity. In fact, this has been less true than it has been perceived, but I do believe we need to make more of an effort to understand and articulate how spirituality and social justice go hand in hand. Expanding dietary concerns to include environmental issues and concern for farmworkers, broadening our attention to clothing and housing in order to act on our concern for garment workers and the homeless are some ways of integrating social justice as part of our daily religious lives.

Q: Some readers may find your positions to be right of center on the Reform spectrum of traditional observance. Where do you stand in relation to the majority of Reform rabbis?

A: My impression is that Reform Jews are much more willing today to rethink Jewish practices that have been taboo for a hundred years. This does not mean, however, that the Reform movement should lay down a list of required Reform beliefs and observances. Very few Reform rabbis or laypeople want to be told that they must do or believe x or y -- and I don't either.

Ultimately, the issue is not about forcing people to perform a practice they do not wish to observe. It is about giving them the knowledge and permission to experience more ways of living a holy life. The original Pittsburgh Platform essentially told Reform Jews: "you don't have permission to...." If more Reform rabbis discuss their beliefs and struggles regarding dietary practices, I think it will help congregants feel called by these mitzvot as well. When rabbis and cantors wear kipot on the bimah, it liberates lay people who might have been self-conscious about wearing one in the pew; and when some lay people wear kipot, it makes it easier for still others to do so. If the new prayerbook includes prayers during which it is the custom to kiss the tzitzit (fringes) on the tallit, I believe people who have started to wear a tallit will appreciate being able to do more with it than merely wear it on their shoulders.

Q: If the new guidelines are adopted in Pittsburgh, how do you envision that the Ten Principles will change Reform Jewish life in the next century?

A: As Rabbi Paul Menitoff, our executive vice president, has said, the Ten Principles won't change our lives at all if we don't work to integrate them into our Jewish communities. Therefore, if the Principles pass, the Commission on Religious Living is considering the creation of pamphlets on the new guidelines which could be used in synagogue study. The Principles could also be included in the new CCAR prayerbook, which should be ready in a few years, in order to encourage congregations to periodically discuss the document during services.

If we can do these things, and implement the Ten Principles in other ways as well, I foresee great changes. I foresee our being open to bringing God more creatively and forcefully into our lives; I foresee more and more sustained Torah learning -- particularly in the context of UAHC President Rabbi Eric Yoffie's farsighted initiatives in this area; I foresee being more accepting of the practices and sensitivities of Jews in other movements, and encouraging them to deal in their own ways with the problems to which we have found some solutions; I foresee our people filling their lives with more opportunities to actualize the kedushah which lies just below the surface of their daily activities; I foresee our renewing our commitment to social justice by uplifting all those who share our planet; I foresee using more Hebrew and working more effectively to support the Progressive movement in Israel.

If we act with earnestness, with enthusiasm, and with vision, the integration of the Ten Principles could help transform our lives, our movement, and our world.

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