My Problem with Conservative Judaism

By Noah Weingarten
Columbia University / JTS

People have told me that the Conservative Movement is in trouble and for a long time I have had trouble identifying why. Based on my personal experience, I believe I have identified a reason. Unlike the other denominations, Conservative Judaism starts by asking "why" do I believe in Torah and God, etc. Afterwards, one moves on to "how" do I exercise my beliefs. This type of process does not exist in other denominations because the other denominations have ideologies that bypass the "why" stage and jump directly to "how." Reform Jews have an overriding ideology where they do things that are relevant to themselves and make sense to do. Orthodox Judaism believes Torah is divinely written and thus every word makes sense even if it does not seem to at first glance. Because Conservative Judaism lacks this type of ideology, it has a problem of getting past the "why" to the "how."

In Conservative Judaism, education is required to get from "why" to "how." This very education has left me in a perpetual state of "why." Throughout my Jewish education, I have learned things that may appear difficult to reckon with my personal beliefs such as the Documentary Hypothesis (multiple authors of the Torah). Things like the Documentary Hypothesis initially shook my faith, but eventually I was able to reconcile them with my personal beliefs in the divine authenticity of the Torah.

However, in my more advanced education, I read ancient Sumerian texts which predate the Torah and expound stories that the Torah appears to copy. This is what has left me in this perpetual "why" stage. These texts demonstrate to me that even if the Torah is not divinely written, perhaps its stories, and the messages it conveys, are not either. It seems paradoxical that the Torah and Judaism want us to be different from other nations, and yet we copy their stories to form the core of our religion. Though this education can be destructive to Conservative Judaism, it is not lethal to Reform or Orthodox Judaism; those can both explain it away using their own ideologies.

I am using the Sumerian texts as an example to highlight the paradox of Conservative Judaism. "Anything that does not kill you makes you stronger" does not apply to education in Conservative Judaism because it eventually will be too virulent to overcome and can eventually kill one’s belief in Conservative Judaism. The thing that is supposed to bring us towards Conservative Judaism has also damaged it. Reform and Orthodox Judaism are more secure because they have stabilizing ideologies.

In order to combat this problem, the Conservative Movement must give authority to some other source. The best example I can think of is along the lines of family traditions and minhag. If we believe in Tradition, then we bypass the "why" stage and go directly to "how" like Orthodox and Reform Judaism. We need to see these things as divinely inspired. It is because of my family traditions that I still go to synagogue and say Kiddush on Friday nights. These traditions make me feel comfortable and I do them without asking myself "why" because I am comfortable. This comfort is my over-arching ideology that gets me past the "why" to "how."

Noah Weingarten is a sophomore in the Joint Program with Columbia/JTS where he is majoring in Political Theory and Talmud.

[Posted 2/13/10]