Why “Conservative?”

by Rabbi Bruce L. Cohen

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In respect to Jewish theology, the word “conservative” has a particular meaning beautifully expressive of how Beth El of Manhattan adheres to Judaism, mindful of the 1st-Century directive of the New Testament’s writers, that Jewish adherents never abandon “circumcision of sons, the Torah of Moses, and the customs of our ancestors.” (Acts 21:18-24). It is important to note, it does not mean politically or philosophically “conservative.”

Judaism is categorized in public thinking in two different ways in Israel and in The Diaspora.

In Israel, there are three primary divisions of Judaism (the faith of the Jewish People):

1. “Dati” (religious), meaning ‘Orthodox’ Judaism, rooted in binding fealty to Talmudic rulings.

2. “Masor’ti” (traditional), which equates to everything in Diaspora from observantly ‘Conservative’ to somewhat tradition-inclusive Reform.

3. Chiloni (secular), encompassing everything from agnostic Reformism to Jewish quasi-religious social groups as defined by Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan, the founder of “Reconstructionist” Reform Judaism, who said, “Judaism (has become) a civilization which (now) transcends its mythological origins.” Such groups treat Jewish religious writ and lore as clustering-points for blood-line Jews or converts - with the writ or lore having no other actual endemic value.

In The Diaspora, the major categories exist as follows:

“Orthodox” Judaism subscribes entirely to the authority of an “Oral Law” (Talmud and its attendant literature) as spiritually binding to the same degree as the Scriptures.

The fact the written Torah says there is no ‘oral’ Torah (Deuteronomy 31:24) has not prevented this doctrine from taking hold, especially as it bears on human authority to create religious practice.

“Reform” Judaism – at the polar opposite end of the faith spectrum – basically entirely rejects the existence of “revelation,” (הִתְגַלוּת heet-gal-óot) as do the Reform ssubsets of “Reconstructionism” and “Humanist Judaism.”

These forms of Judaism reject the idea of a personal God as the Scriptures describe Deity, and thus, also reject the idea a non-existent Deity would have anything to “say” – so, no “revelation” such as the Torah or Prophetic Writing is what the “revelation from on-high” it claims to be. Practices like fasting on Yom Kippur or not eating leaven on Passover have established the language and context of our nation’s existence – and so we keep them as a kind of center pinion around which our national existence revolves.

Nestled squarely between these two polar expressions or Orthodox and Reform is “Conservative” Judaism.

It came to birth as a reaction to the mass rejections of Reformism, and the ossified strictures of Orthodoxy.
Conservative Judaism’s defining characteristics are:

belief in the existence of “revelation” as expressed in the Torah and Scriptures, and
belief in תקנה Takkanáh – revision of, or influence upon the understanding of, entrenched policies or practices (called halakháh in Hebrew) with such revisions resulting from spiritually and/or scholastically sound processes. This also known as a “Maimonidesian” or “Rambamian” view of Judaism, after the medieval Jewish Rabbi Moshe Ben-Maimun, who in addition to being a rabbi was a degreed scientist (medical doctor). He enfranchised in Judaism the idea that religious and empirical truths were not entirely separate, nor always determined by entirely different means. Healthy academic practices can inform our understanding of Scripture and Spiritual truths - and vice-versa.

Thus, Beth El of Manhattan’s “Judaism” is well and accurately defined by the phrase, “Conservative Judaism” – which seems to our rabbi and leaders the only ethically and scholastically valid choice as to core-values of anything calling itself a “Judaism.” (See Isaiah 8:20)

Our Conservative Judaism is “Two-Testament” or “Messianic” because of our belief in the validity of the New Testament, and the Messiahship of Yeshua of Nazareth. We have steadily been de-emphasizing Messianic as a label, because in many Jewish spheres - especially in Israel – the adjectival phrase, “Messianic Jews” means crazy, end-of-the-world focused, or personality-cultic groups: it is not understood to mean, “accepting of Yeshua of Nazareth as the Messiah, ‘Son of Joseph’ who would be slain.” (TB Sukkah 52a)

“Conservative” was formerly understood as connection with “The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism” and Jewish Theological Seminary – two conservative institutions not currently formally affiliating with Messianic Judaism: but over the last decades, many “unaffiliated Conservative” synagogues have come to exist in Manhattan and around the world. The label “Conservative” no longer belongs exclusively to the USCJ and JTS.

Along with our commitment to perpetuity of valid historic Jewish doctrine and practice, as a synagogue of Two-Testament Judaism, we bring something for which our founding Rabbi Bruce Cohen coined the name, “Takkanat Mashiach“™ (“Messiah’s Revision™”).

The word “takkanah” in Hebrew refers to changes or revisions in doctrine or policy resulting from a valid process of study and discernment. The New Testament accounts of Yeshua of Nazareth’s teachings are full of His takkanot. Instances of Messiah’s Revisions often read in the New Testament this way:

“You have heard it taught (in regard to some issue),
but now I say to you …“
and then Yeshua would give His improvement of understanding on the matter.

We consider study and application of Messiah Yeshua’s takkanot to be one of the most important and beautiful things Two Testament Judaism offers to the ongoing Jewish and global conversations about faith.