{"id":2207,"date":"2019-09-22T11:19:39","date_gmt":"2019-09-22T15:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2019-09-22T12:52:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-22T16:52:06","slug":"do-i-belong-in-utj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/2019\/09\/do-i-belong-in-utj\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I Belong in UTJ?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do I Belong in UTJ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

QUESTION:<\/p>\n

I don’t feel I fit in to the Conservative movement, but I am searching for something more doable for my family than modern day Orthodoxy. Do I belong as part of UTJ?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ANSWER:<\/p>\n

As a Vice President of UTJ who was ordained through its Institute of Traditional Judaism, I say yes.\u00a0[I\u2019m speaking for myself but with input from several other UTJ members.]\u00a0 I feel that UTJ has a lot to offer Jews across the denominational spectrum who are interested in a down-to-earth approach to Torah and halakhah.<\/p>\n

One of the advantages of being small and transdenominational is that there is room for lots of people even if one doesn\u2019t agree with every stance our organization might take.\u00a0 Our position is that halakhah defines what God expects of us, but being an amalgamation of old-school Conservative folks and left-wing\/Modern Orthodox folks, we have a healthy respect for people who are not (or are not yet) observant and believe it is important to speak to and with such people and seek to draw such people toward halakhic observance.<\/p>\n

Note that I think UTJ takes a specific view of how halakhah functions. We view halakhah as the result of reasoned analysis of the rabbinic sources (while different members of UTJ have different views of what such reasoned analysis might be), taking both history and modernity into account but giving neither veto power over halakhah.\u00a0 This sometimes distinguishes us from others who, at least in my view, have a greater tendency to either assume the validity and authority of contemporary thought on the one side or to insist on maintaining the status quo on the other side.<\/p>\n

I believe our organizational structure allows us to respond to questions in a way that is less constricted by denominational labels and also to be more open to a diverse range of views within our halakhic approach.<\/p>\n

In a way, your question reminds me of another question of whether a convert must be fully halakhically observant for the conversion to be valid.\u00a0 On this subject, see my drasha at https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/parashat\/yom-kippur-committing-to-torah\/<\/a> which relies heavily on thoughts from UTJ President Rabbi David Novak.\u00a0 In truth, that question is inherently flawed, as none of us is 100% observant (thank God for teshuva, repentance). The question really is whether the convert accepts that s\/he is expected to observe halakhah.\u00a0 If you believe that halakhah expresses God\u2019s will, that it takes modernity into account but is not beholden to it (nor allergic to it), then you have a place in UTJ.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To join UTJ visit https:\/\/utj.org\/join-us\/.<\/a>\u00a0 You can also donate at https:\/\/utj.org\/donate\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QUESTION:<\/p>\n

I don’t feel I fit in to the Conservative movement, but I am searching for something more doable for my family than modern day Orthodoxy. Do I belong as part of UTJ?<\/p>\n

ANSWER:<\/p>\n

As a Vice President of UTJ who was ordained through its Institute of Traditional Judaism, I say yes. [I\u2019m speaking for myself but with input from several other UTJ members.] I feel that UTJ has a lot to offer Jews across the denominational spectrum who are interested in a down-to-earth approach to Torah and halakhah. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,82,78],"tags":[],"coauthors":[89],"class_list":["post-2207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-denominations","category-halakhah","category-modern-judaism"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2212,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions\/2212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utj.org\/viewpoints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}