So what do you propose? You want to start a new religion? Fine - don't associate it with Judaism.
Not a new religion, no. My problem is with the political structure of the denominationsl system. I think most people are much more interested in how a shul conducts its services and what kinds of divrei Torah they're going to hear than anything else. The theological boundaries which separate us are often so slight and unimportant, especially since unlike some of our Christian brothers and sisters, praying together as brothers and sisters as long as the service meets our halachic standards isn't a problem. The theology really isn't such an issue.
For me it's easier to talk about a mechitzah minyan and an egal minyan, and if both are needed to satisfy a small town, I think they should both happen in the same building, and everybody should make kiddush together afterward. We're family. Although one of my favorite solutions for this kind of situation is the triangle mechitzah. Men on the right, women on the left, egal in the middle, each with its own baal tefilah and all three coordinating with each other. That for me is a taste of olam haba.
How does striving to create communities with gay's, lesbian's, and single life-paths go along with the Torah? Or does this exciting new branch of Judaism ignore the Torah? If so, why call it Judaism?
Ignore Torah? No. But the page you're on answers your question for you.
5. In the sacred texts of the Jewish people and the writings of Jewish spiritual teachers of previous generations we find enormous wisdom and insight that draw on Eternal truth and continue to have great potential to aid human beings in their quest for personal growth, empowerment, and healing -- as well as those elements that are historically limited and need to be transcended. We will study, teach, and make accessible these texts and writings with all those who wish to encounter them, wrestle with their content and meaning, and decide what to draw on and what to leave behind.
http://www.aleph.org/principles.html
There is no reason that Torah, or more specifically the Torah as understood by Hazal, then understood through the codes, then teshuvot, (although I would say the same for the text of the Torah itself) should be accepted as Gospel, to borrow a phrase from another religion. That's my opinion and you of course are welcome to your own. Our sages knew in wrestling with Torah that there were things that needed to be transcended, and that's why we can't identify Amalek any longer, and why we light candles before Shabbos. So what's the difference between their authority and that of every Jew as he poskins for himself, in these times increasingly utilizing the psychohalachic process for some on the growing edge of the beautiful Jewish tree?
If all is God, as the experiential evidence of our mystics tells us -- and the texts of hasidism sometimes validate -- can we really then go on and say that there is some text that is particularly more Divine than anything else, in its source or its essence? Nevermind the fact that the statement is so rife with triumphalism.
Now everybody's going to draw a line when it comes to their Judaism, and that's important. Organismically, Judaism needs people saying, "Hey, wait. We shouldn't be coming up with all this new stuff. We've got to do it by The Book." as much as it needs people saying, "Let's look at how Judaism can continue to evolve, like it did for Rambam, like it did for Hazal, and for all of the iconoclasts before them." A body needs all of its organs to functions, and it needs there to be some blood flow too, some communication between organs.
So your issue at present seems really to be with homosexuality and single life-paths I'll tell you, even in some of the more progressive parts of the MO community there are Jews trying to understand homosexuality in new ways while still somewhere under the halachic umbrella. I have an essay in front of me from the collection The Fifty-Eighth Century: A Jewish Renewal Sourcebook. It's by Reb Harold M. Schulweiz. After presenting the actual feedback from homosexuals and their families relating to their feelings and compulsions, he refers to a statement found in Bava Kamma 28b and Nedarim 27a "Anus Rachmanah patreiah." "The Holy One exempts those who act under duress." He also points to how Hazal did not interpret "eye for an eye" literally, about the way halachah changed in the case of deaf-mutes who had originally been seen as mentally incompetent. He makes the case that to'evah refers to cultic prostitution.
He ends by noting that Deut 23 forbids Eunuchs from entering the House of the Lord, and yet Isaiah 56:3-7 states:
"[N]either let the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; And to them I will give my house and within my walls a memorial better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the children of the strangers, that join themselves to the Lord... even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer."
And that IMO seems also to reflect on the issue of people choosing a single life-path.
Now you also ask if Jewish Renewal, which I must clarify is not a branch of Judaism but rather a transdenominational movement
for Jewish Renewal (in other words a Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, or Orthodox Jew can identify with some or all of what Renewal does while being a part of their movement, or like me they could be unaffiliated) ignores Torah and my answer to that is a loud and resounding no. Liberal Jews involved with Renewal tend to be more dedicated to Torah and mitzvot, as they understand them, than other Jews. In fact, it is because of Renewal that there is a resurgence of interest in the mikveh among liberal Jews, both for niddah, preparing for shabbos, and now for important lifecycle events or getting through traumatic experiences, things of that nature. There's a liberal mikveh near me. This is their website.
http://www.mayyimhayyim.org/
When I was an intern last summer at Elat Chayyim, the Jewish retreat center in upstate new york (which is merging with another retreat center after this summer) we would use the mikveh every week before Shabbos, in a separate men's and women's mikveh. Sometimes we'd go out into this beautiful water in the woods, and sometimes we'd use the pool or the hot tub. And even though that wasn't kosher, it was still very spiritually nourishing.
Dauer
