42 Friday, April 11, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
RELIGION
Middle Course
•
Continued from preceding page
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synagogue. Each step was
taken "amid bitter controver-
sy," he noted, adding: "The
ordination question was
simply the final step in the
equalization of religious op-
portunity for men and women
in Jewish life."
But he praised the new
splinter group, the Union of
Traditional Conservative
Jews, as "playing a construc-
tive role in forcing us to con-
front the fact that the level of
religious observance among
most Conservative Jews is
dismally low." He said one of
his highest priorities will be
to raise the level of obser-.
vance among the Conserva-
tive laity and he will follow
the Union's lead. "Their
agenda is a correct one," he
believes, and • he sees the
Union staying within the
Conservative movement.
One practical means of in-
creasing the observance level,
he says, is to make available
Rabbi Isaac Klein's Guide to
Jewish Practice, which Dr.
Schorsch called a Jewish code
for the 20th century and "the
most important book pub-
lished by the Conservative
movement." He would like to
see the book, which discusses
what and why is expected of
a Conservative Jew, given to
every Bar Mitzvah boy and
studied as a text in adult
education classes.
Another major priority will
be to help create a climate of
moderation in the Jewish
world among thevarious reli-
gious ideologies. Dr. Schorsch
• said that "any effort to bring
the various branches to-
gether is laudatory," and he
noted that this calls for each
group to curb its individual
freedoms for the sake of the
community as a whole. A
model, he said, can be found
in the European concept of a
kehilla, or central communal
body, that can impose a
degree of moderation on
radicals.
Dr. Schorsch is convinced
that there will be a re-
surgence of centrist Ortho-
doxy to counter the powerful
right-wing Orthodoxy so pre-
valent today because the
Orthodox community is be-
coming increasingly "disillu-
sioned with the sectarianism
of the extreme right who de-
fine standards for their im-
mediate followers rathe•than
for the whole community."
Asserting that Conserva-
tive Jews are not post-
Halachic Jews but are indeed
Halachic Jews, Dr. Schorsch
explained that "we may
modify that Halacha with
more flexibility than some
people might like, but we're
grappling with that Halacha.
•
took us 10 years to make
that ordination . decision.
That's a sign that the
Halacha plays a big role in
our lives. We could have
decision in six
.
•
.
. •
months and we didn't."
As to how to decide which
Halachic codes need modify-
ing and which do not, Dr.
Schorsch has a practical
answer: "You grapple with
Halacha where communal
"Every generation
is entitled to write
its own midrash
(interpretation."
pressure exists," he says, ad-
vocating a kind of if-it-ain't-
broke-don't-fix-it viewpoint.
Dr. Schorsch hopes to see
a continued growth of the
Conservative movement in
Israel, asserting that "we are
the only Diaspora form of
Judaism that has anything to
say to Israel." He feels
Reform Judaism is "too alien,
too far out" to appeal to
Israeli Jews. •
Finally, Dr. Schorsch sug-
gests that "every generation
is entitled to write its own
midrash (interpretation).
What makes us Jews," he
says, "is that we write that
midrash on the same text.
It's not that we parrot the
midrash of earlier genera-
tions." The tragedy of the
right-wing Orthodox today,
he believes, is that "every-
thing is p'shot (text, or law)
and there's no midrash.
That's intellectual suicide.
"Every generation has to
be permitted the freedom of
p'shot and midrash, continui-
ty and discontinuity. If you
don't have midrash, then you
can't exercise any inven-
tiveness. You can't address
the problems of your own
age. There's no freedom. Mid-
rash is an instrument of
liberation without breaking
continuity. That's the great-
ness of Judaism. And our cri-
tical scholarship is the mid-
rash of the modern Jew." 0
Israeli Planes
•Hit Targets
In Lebanon
•
Tel Aviv (JTA)— Israel Air
Force planes bombed terrorist
targets in the Sidon area of
south Lebanon list Monday and
returned safely to their bases, a
military spokesman announced.
He said the targets were train-
ing bases and. headquarters
buildings of El Fatah, the ter-
rorist arm of the Palestine
Liberation Organization and of
George Habash's Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine,
a group that broke away from
the PLO years ago.
Beirut radio reported five sor-
ties by the Israeli bombers on
targets in the Miamia and Ein
Hilwe refugee camps near
S don. r
• i