Holiday Grab Bag

First of all, a big chag sameach to everyone. Maybe because I work in such a Jewed up environment, I don't resent Hanukkah this year the way I often do. (It's NOT the Jewish Christmas, and please stop asking me--that kind of thing.) I got to teach someone how to make latkes, but it's been lower-key than usual, and I am profoundly grateful. Let's keep it that way. Some interesting other things:

1) Big ups to de little yout'
I saw Matisyahu in concert last night (with my parents!). Quite a different crowd than three years ago, in a basement at Sarah Lawrence. The experience was a bit diluted by the unruly crowd in my area, and the fact that a lot of people didn't seem to bring the same Jewish connection. Still, there's nothing like doing the bracha for the candles in alt-shul Yeshivish with a Lubovitcher reggae star and four hundred other people. Ditto the calling of Moshiach. Maybe because his sound has gotten so (over) souped-up, there have been moments when I've doubted his sincerity, but seeing Matisyahu live pretty much wipes such doubts from your mind. I don't ascribe to his particular beliefs about a lot of things, but it's beautiful stuff, and he helped spark the JewMusic movement that has meant so much to me. Vos ir lebt hundert-tsvontzik yorn un makt muzik di ganse zeit, Matis.

2) I know this is old news, but I was thinking about Dennis Prager and his ridiculous rant about Keith Ellison recently (check out Jewschool or pretty much any J-blog for many vitrolic commentaries). All I have to say is Article Six, Section Three, you dumb mofo. Try reading the handbook next time, or James Madison and I will come by and kick your ass. End of rant.

3)I was musing on Hannukah this week and the relative levels of importance that it plays in American Jewish and Israeli culture. By now the fervor has, I'm told, dropped down in Israel, but a certain Zionism professor once explained that because this is a holiday that focuses on Jewish military victory, it was one of the few recognized by the early vatikim. I guess it doesn't hurt that you can get through a big chunk of the story without mentioning God. Quite a contrast to America, where it's capitalism and not raging idealism that has elevated the status. But hey, at least we get a lot of fried potatoes. Who doesn't love fried potatoes?

Kol tov...

When a Faygele Becomes a Rabbi

I cannot believe it's taken me so long to get to mentioning this, but's it's been an insane week. The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement has voted to ordain openly gay and lesbian rabbis! It's very exciting, although I'll temper the news in just a bit. Wednesday, when it happened, there was a suddenly flurry of activity--I was getting emails, work and personal, from all sorts of people who seemed to crawl out of the woodwork to get me the news. I spoke to Idit Klein of Keshet, who seemed exceedingly cool, and Rabbi Menachem Creditor, easily one of my favorite people on the planet since I was about sixteen, in order to clarify for myself exactly what the accepted teshuvot permit and do not permit.

I'd like to call this one a win. Not a full win, maybe, but an amazing win. Although the status quo is still an acceptable pose for an individual congregational rabbi (or movement seminary, although let's just not go there for now) to take, the C movement has also accepted a new halakhic interpretation that says Leviticus bans only male anal sex, and thus postulating that gays can be rabbis and can officiate at committment ceremonies.

If you're up for it, check out the links and commentary provided here, because this will prove much more useful than any attempted explanations I could provide. However, two things os special note:

1) Please, do not use the term "gay marriage". It is factually unsound, as I informed the JTA on Thursday when they sent out an email (shockingly, a request for money) that said that the CJLS had approved gay marriage. The next email they sent had different wording. Whoops!

1a) What's the difference? you may ask. Gay marriage would include a whole set of ceremonies that are, to my extremely limited understanding, halakhically traif for non-heteronormative couplings. So, like, no kiddushin, etc.

1b) Why don't I sound more enraged about this technicality? you may ask. After all, I get thoroughly self-righteous when the question of "gay marriage" comes up in a US legal context. Well, that's because I don't think laws, at least in a country that includes the separation of Church and State among its highest civil values, ought to decide things based on religious understandings of situations. Religion, likewise, shouldn't decide things based on political understandings of things. This is religion sticking to religion, and I like that. Plus, I've been learning more about truly Jewish, halakhically-respectful, committment ceremonies, and I'm starting to be okay with them--how beautiful!

2) I learned from the amazing Danya Ruttenberg about a very interesting mathematical situation: the CJLS has twenty-five members and needs a majority vote to pass such a teshuvah. Both the original policy (no gays) and the new paper (yay gays!) got thirteen votes--just a majority. It means somebody overlapped. Intrigue!

So, while this doesn't mean that I'm going to rabbinical school at all/any earlier than my forties, it is SO NICE to be able to look at the Conservative Movement and say, "Damn! I am so proud to count myself among their numbers." It doesn't happen often enough, so let's just leave it with a big ole mazal tov to us all, today.

Kol tov...