"This is likely because they do not have people asking those sorts of questions as Golinkin does."
Perhaps, but I think mostly it's just because of the process of CJLS--it's very time-consuming to approve to t'shuvah, so there's significantly less incentive to have CJLS t'shuvot on everyday issues, even though conservative rabbis are addressing these issues with their congregants (esp. kashrut).
In any case, excellent overview here of Golimkin's method in approaching halakhah!
Thanks for this Steven. We had Rabbi Golinken as a guest rabbi at our synagogue a few years ago and he made a lasting impression on me. I also davened once at Kehillat Moreshet Avraham, his home synagogue in Jerusalem.
As it happens Jonathan and I once ran into him at a cafe on Emek Refaim the year Jonathan was in Israel at Yeshivah in Ramat Bet Shemesh, and had an interesting discussion.
He certainly represents my vision of where Conservative Judaism should be going, regardless of whether you call it Masorti or Conservative.
Such works represent what CJ has always been about namely a jettisoning of Halachic norms that they find inconvenient What Masoeti and CJ is today started with allowing members to be driven to davening
We spent much of two visits in Ramot Bet Every day I walked by a Masorti congregation for Shacharis Mincha and Maariv .As opposed to the Charedi and RZ shuls, the Masorti building was empty
Ah chevra, listen sweet holy friends… I mamash want to say something here, with so much love, with so much brokenness, and also with so much hope.
You know, it’s a beautiful thing to want to bring Torah into the world. And it’s beautiful to find the places where we can be lenient, where we can be open, where we can make room for every Yid. That’s real. That’s precious. And it’s good to want to be pluralistic. That’s also a holy word. But sweethearts — there’s something deeper.
You can’t be mesorati if you don’t hold on to the mesorah. That word — mesorah — it’s not just a slogan. It’s not something we put on a brochure. It’s a river, gevalt, it’s a fire — it’s a chain that started with Moshe Rabbeinu and went all the way down to the Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov, Reb Chaim Ozer, the Chazon Ish, Rav Kook, Rav Soloveitchik — I mean real Yidden who cried their eyes out to receive Torah straight from Heaven.
You can’t just say “I follow the tradition” and then build your base in a place like JTS, where the tradition was, rachmana litzlan, torn apart — not out of hatred, but out of forgetting what it means to receive, to surrender, to be humble before the Ribono Shel Olam. You can’t pick and choose what you like from the Shulchan Aruch, then say it’s not “the ultimate authority.” If Torah becomes something I study with a microscope but never cry over, never break over, never tremble from — then it’s not Torah anymore. It’s anthropology.
You don’t fit Torah into the world — that’s backwards, chevra. You fit the world into Torah. That’s our holy task! That’s our secret! We don’t rewrite Sinai. We bring ourselves to it, again and again, with broken hearts and shining eyes.
And I want you to know, I’m not putting anyone down. Rabbi Golinkin is clearly a thoughtful, committed Jew. But being a thoughtful Jew doesn’t mean we get to invent our own Judaism. Being a halachic Jew, a mesorah Jew, means we carry something bigger than ourselves — even when it hurts, even when it doesn’t feel modern enough, even when the world thinks we’re crazy.
So yes, chevra, be loving. Be inclusive. Be gentle with each other. But don’t trade in the truth of our tradition for the comfort of innovation. That’s not mesorati — that’s just confused.
The Torah is a tree of life, not a science project.
"This is likely because they do not have people asking those sorts of questions as Golinkin does."
Perhaps, but I think mostly it's just because of the process of CJLS--it's very time-consuming to approve to t'shuvah, so there's significantly less incentive to have CJLS t'shuvot on everyday issues, even though conservative rabbis are addressing these issues with their congregants (esp. kashrut).
In any case, excellent overview here of Golimkin's method in approaching halakhah!
Thanks for this Steven. We had Rabbi Golinken as a guest rabbi at our synagogue a few years ago and he made a lasting impression on me. I also davened once at Kehillat Moreshet Avraham, his home synagogue in Jerusalem.
As it happens Jonathan and I once ran into him at a cafe on Emek Refaim the year Jonathan was in Israel at Yeshivah in Ramat Bet Shemesh, and had an interesting discussion.
He certainly represents my vision of where Conservative Judaism should be going, regardless of whether you call it Masorti or Conservative.
Such works represent what CJ has always been about namely a jettisoning of Halachic norms that they find inconvenient What Masoeti and CJ is today started with allowing members to be driven to davening
We spent much of two visits in Ramot Bet Every day I walked by a Masorti congregation for Shacharis Mincha and Maariv .As opposed to the Charedi and RZ shuls, the Masorti building was empty
Ah chevra, listen sweet holy friends… I mamash want to say something here, with so much love, with so much brokenness, and also with so much hope.
You know, it’s a beautiful thing to want to bring Torah into the world. And it’s beautiful to find the places where we can be lenient, where we can be open, where we can make room for every Yid. That’s real. That’s precious. And it’s good to want to be pluralistic. That’s also a holy word. But sweethearts — there’s something deeper.
You can’t be mesorati if you don’t hold on to the mesorah. That word — mesorah — it’s not just a slogan. It’s not something we put on a brochure. It’s a river, gevalt, it’s a fire — it’s a chain that started with Moshe Rabbeinu and went all the way down to the Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov, Reb Chaim Ozer, the Chazon Ish, Rav Kook, Rav Soloveitchik — I mean real Yidden who cried their eyes out to receive Torah straight from Heaven.
You can’t just say “I follow the tradition” and then build your base in a place like JTS, where the tradition was, rachmana litzlan, torn apart — not out of hatred, but out of forgetting what it means to receive, to surrender, to be humble before the Ribono Shel Olam. You can’t pick and choose what you like from the Shulchan Aruch, then say it’s not “the ultimate authority.” If Torah becomes something I study with a microscope but never cry over, never break over, never tremble from — then it’s not Torah anymore. It’s anthropology.
You don’t fit Torah into the world — that’s backwards, chevra. You fit the world into Torah. That’s our holy task! That’s our secret! We don’t rewrite Sinai. We bring ourselves to it, again and again, with broken hearts and shining eyes.
And I want you to know, I’m not putting anyone down. Rabbi Golinkin is clearly a thoughtful, committed Jew. But being a thoughtful Jew doesn’t mean we get to invent our own Judaism. Being a halachic Jew, a mesorah Jew, means we carry something bigger than ourselves — even when it hurts, even when it doesn’t feel modern enough, even when the world thinks we’re crazy.
So yes, chevra, be loving. Be inclusive. Be gentle with each other. But don’t trade in the truth of our tradition for the comfort of innovation. That’s not mesorati — that’s just confused.
The Torah is a tree of life, not a science project.
Let’s stay rooted.
With so much love,
Shlomo