Committee on Jewish Law and Standards
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The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha (Jewish law and tradition) within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely know committees on the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly. Within the movement it is known as the CJLS.
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History
It was founded by the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) in the 1920s as the Committee on Jewish Law. (more needs to be added)
Process
Conservative rabbis hold that the boundaries of Jewish law are determined through the halakhic process, a religious-ethical system of legal precedents. In this system, one may re-interpret or change the law through a formal argument. These arguments are effectively peer-reviewed. When a rabbi proposes a new interpretation of a law, that interpretation is not normative for the Jewish community until it becomes accepted by other committed and observant members in the community. New legal precedents are based on the standard codes of Jewish law, and the responsa literature. The Hebrew term for the responsa is '"Sheelot U-Teshuvot"', literally "Questions and Answers".
There is no formal peer-review process for the entire Jewish community in general, since the Jewish community has no one central body that speaks for all of Judaism. However, within certain Jewish communities formal organized bodies exist: Each sect of Orthodox Hasidic Judaism has their own rebbe, who is their ultimate decisor of Jewish law. Within Modern Orthodox Judaism, there is no one committee or leader, but Modern Orthodox rabbis generally agree with the views set by consensus by the leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America. Within Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly has the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards.
Conservative Judaism teaches that one can make use of literary and historical analysis to understand how Jewish law has developed, and to help them understand how such laws should be understood in our own day. It generally view the laws and customs from the various law codes as the basis for normative Jewish law. Solomon Schechter writes "however great the literary value of a code may be, it does not invest it with infallibility, nor does it exempt it from the student or the Rabbi who makes use of it from the duty of examining each paragraph on its own merits, and subjecting it to the same rules of interpretation that were always applied to Tradition".
In some ways Orthodox Judaism has a significantly different understanding of how halakha is determined; thus Orthodox rabbis generally do not respect the decisions of the CJLS as valid or normative. However, the understandings of halakha by Conservative and Modern Orthodox Jews is in most cases identical; see for instance A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice by Rabbi Isaac Klein.
The CJLS is composed of 25 rabbis (voting members), and five laypeople, who participate in deliberations but whom do not have a vote. When any six (or more) members vote in favor of a position, that position becomes an official position of the committee. Any particular issue can generate from one to four official positions. When multiple positions are validated, they usually have much common ground.
When more than one position is validated, a congregation's rabbi functions as its mara de-atra (local authority), adopting for their congregation the position he or she considers most compelling.
Responsa are generally not enforceable on rabbis, except regarding standards of rabbinic practice. Willful violations of these standards have led to resignations or expulsions from membership of the Rabbinical Assembly (RA). At present, three standards of rabbinic practice have been issued, containing four rules:
- 1) A complete prohibition on rabbis and cantors to officiate in any way at intermarriages.
- 2) A complete prohibition against officiating at the remarriage of a Jew whose previous marriage has not been halakhically terminated, whether by a halakhic divorce [get], hafka'at Kiddushin [annulment], or death.
- 3a) A complete prohibition against taking any action that would intimate that native Jewishness can be confirmed in any way but matrilineal descent.
- 3b) A complete prohibition against supervising a conversion to Judaism that does not include circumcision for males, and immersion in a Mikvah for both males and females.
Responsa
A separate article exists on Conservative responsa, the body of responsa created by Conservative rabbis (primarily by the CJLS.)
See also
Conservative Judaism, Rabbinical Assembly, Halakha
External references
- Some current CJLS responsa (http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/diduknow/responsa/)
- Formulating Jewish Law for Our Time, The United Synagogue Review, Dr. Elliot N. Dorff (http://www.uscj.org/CJFormulating_Jewish5454.html)
- How Conservative Judaism Makes decisions in Jewish Law (http://www.adath-shalom.ca/dorff158.htm)