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Link to actual resource
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http://jrf.org/resources/files/Syd%20Nes...
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Resource type
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Speech/Sermon
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Description/Summary
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In this d’var Torah, Syd Nestel explores the differences between the Reconstructionist positions and the Conservative positions on LGBT issues. He outlines the ways in which halakah can be changed in the Conservative movement – a Takanah which requires at least 20 votes to pass the Law Committee and a psak din, which requires just 6 votes to pass. With the psak din, members are allowed to vote for multiple, and sometimes conflicting changes. This is how the Conservative Movement came to endorse three different teshuvah in 2006. He provides a basic summary of each. His summary also provides an evaluation of the arguments and the role of the Committee of Jewish Laws & Standards.
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Excerpt
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“Yes, the biblical text banning homosexual sex is quite clear, and furthermore we acknowledge that it is true that the majority of rabbinic opinion over the years has expanded this prohibition rather than relaxed it. But for Reconstructionists, the past has a “vote, not a veto”, and this is a case where we – with our modern sensibilities –consciously chose to overrule the past. The Reconstructionist method is about extracting from past practice, narrative and discussion, core values that we find positive and life fulfilling, and then using these values as a sieve and a kiln through which and by which we re-evaluate and re-form traditional practice, by either keeping a traditional practice as is, reinterpreting its meaning, modifying the practice, or sometimes simply throwing it out. The Reconstructionist method is not afraid – when necessary – to say “Yes, our ancestors believed so and so, but we do not. Our ancestors practiced such and such, but we do not.”
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Author
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Syd Nestel
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Publication date
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April 28, 2007
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Disseminating organization/ institution
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Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
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Movement affiliation
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Reconstructionist
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Publisher/ producer/ broadcaster
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JRF
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