Conservative responsa: Encyclopedia II - Conservative responsa - Methodology

Conservative responsa - Methodology

A prominent Conservative spokesman has written that "Reform Judaism has asserted the right of interpretation but it rejected the authority of legal tradition. Orthodoxy has clung fast to the principle of authority, but has in our own and recent generations rejected the right to any but minor interpretations. The Conservative view is that both are necessary for a living Judaism. Accordingly, Conservative Judaism holds itself bound by the Jewish legal tradition, but asserts the right of its rabbinical body, acting as a whole, to interpret and to apply Jewish law." Source: Rabbi Mordecai Waxman Tradition and Change: The Development of Conservative Judaism

Conservative Jews believe that Orthodoxy had deviated from historical Judaism through an excessive concern with recent codifications of Jewish law. The Conservative movement consciously rejects the Orthodox mythology of Jewish history, which entails near total deference to seemingly infallible rabbis, and instead holds that a more fluid model is both necessary and theologically and historically justifiable. The Conservative movement makes a conscious effort to use historical sources to determine what kind of changes occurred, how and why they occurred, and in what historical context. With this information they believe that can better understand the proper way for rabbis to interpret and apply Jewish law to our conditions today.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Methodology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki