With the somewhat Orwellian title "RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON JEWISH LAW AND STANDARDS REAFFIRMS INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO GAYS IN CONSERVATIVE JEWISH LIFE," (emph mine), the Rabbinical assembly released a press release with their latest statement. It's very weakly worded, and I don't think it goes far enough in repudiating the language/ideas of ( Read more... )

This entry was inspired by two posts on Bloghead, and their comments, a previous entry on this blog, and a Jerusalem Post magazine feature (free registration required).

The feature, comments, etc. bring up a couple of ideas that I want to address:

• Post-denominationalism is a non-Orthodox phenomenon
• Post-denominationalism is the baby of the ( Read more... )

Inspired by conversations between DW and shirei_shibolim.

The priestly blessing is traditionally recited by kohanim (men only) during the repetition of the festival musaf amidah (with the exception of Simchat Torah, when it is recited during Shacharit; Sephardim have a different custom as to when it is recited). Following a hand-washing by Levites (I just had ( Read more... )

DW recently got a solicitation to participate in a womens' tefillah group, which made me wonder --

Orthodox groups have been arguing back and forth over the halachic legitamacy of womens' prayer groups. (Needless to say, I've never been to one, and would not be very welcome at one). In summary, they involve groups of women getting together to ( Read more... )

And now our gaze turns to a decidedly non-post-denominational Conservative synagogue in Queens, NY, (my parents' shul) where the battles fought three decades ago are alive and kicking. The shul is a result of the merger of three shuls, one of which had a building and an older congregation, another had a small, older congregation, and the third had ( Read more... )