by Rabbi Ronald Price
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are that of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the Union for Traditional Judaism, unless otherwise indicated.
In his Jewish Week Op-Ed, Rabbi Ronald Price, Executive Vice President Emeritus of the UTJ and founding rabbi of Congregation Netivot Shalom, responds to the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County (RCBC) declaring that Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot will no longer be eligible for RCBC membership as of September if it continues to hire female rabbinical interns or clergy.
“Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised that, for the moment, she quite forgot how to speak good English). Those famous words of Lewis Carroll’s heroine in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” rang out loud as I read of the current brouhaha in Teaneck, N.J. The rabbi of an Orthodox (full mechitzah) synagogue, originally founded by the Union for Traditional Judaism and once its flagship shul, determined to bring on staff a female intern who will receive semicha from the Yeshivat Maharat, founded by Rabbi Avi Weiss. …
The Union for Traditional Judaism, for the entirety of its 34-year history, has eschewed labels. The motto of the UTJ — “emunah tzerufah v’yosher da’at” (Genuine Faith with Intellectual Integrity) — should be that of the entire observant world. Movement labels drag us into unnecessary struggles like the one in Teaneck. For example: While I personally oppose the ordination of women as unhealthy for the halachic community, which is besieged by the feminist and LGBT values of the secular world, I cannot honestly say that the halachic sources forbid it. Those who claim to hang their hats on “mesorah” or tradition, would have to, on that basis, forbid many things taken for granted in the Orthodox community today, such as the teaching of Torah to women, period. If there is a community of committed observant Jews who wish to have a woman scholar as their halachic decisor, let it be so. As long as the community lives within the four cubits of Jewish law, they are halachic regardless of the gender of their leader. …
Would that we could, as a Jewish community, live with only two labels: halachic and liberal. …
Read more at https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/drop-the-labels-in-the-observant-world/
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Rabbi Ronald D. Price is the executive vice president emeritus of the UTJ. He served as executive vice president for 26 years, beginning with the founding of the UTJ in 1985 and as the founding dean of the Institute of Traditional Judaism, the Metivta, from 1990 until his retirement in 2011.
A native of Washington, D.C., Rabbi Price graduated from the University of Maryland in 1971 with a BA in Political Science. He received an MA in Hebrew literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1975 and was ordained there in 1977. From 1977 until moving to Israel in 1980, Rabbi Price was Assistant Dean of the Rabbinical School of JTS. Following the break with the Conservative movement, Rabbi Price took his advanced ordination in 1992 under Rav David Weiss Halivni, reish metivta of the Institute of Traditional Judaism.
A highpoint in Rabbi Price’s career came early in his tenure with the UTJ. In 1988, when the “Who is a Jew?” crisis arose and threatened the relationship of Israel to the North American Jewish community, Rabbi Price, on behalf of the UTJ, authored a proposal for a halakhic as well as political solution to the “Who is a Jew?” issue which gained much support in all segments of the community and was praised publicly by the government of Israel as “a bright light at a dark time”.
Rabbi Price also authored the first halakhic living will which continues to be used by individuals and hospitals around North America and is part of the Elder Care Law Library, housed in Washington, D.C. He has lectured extensively and published many articles on subjects such as pluralism in the Jewish community; the right to die and Jewish tradition; creating traditional communities; the realignment of religious Judaism; and the risks and benefits of outreach to the intermarried.
Rabbi Price has dedicated his life to developing ways of making traditional Judaism accessible to the lay community and is the creator of the video education curriculum, “Taking the MTV Challenge: Media and Torah Values,” a Jewish response to media which has been taught in more than 300 institutions across the denominational spectrum around the world.
Rabbi Price lives in Ashqelon, Israel with his wife Tziporah.