Rabbi is the term in Judaism for a religious teacher. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ‘great’ in many senses, including "revered." The word comes from the Semitic root R-B-B, and is cognate to Arabic ربّ rabb, meaning "lord" Rabbi ' onMouseout='HidePop("3957")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Halakha">halakhic
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
decision-making should be made by Talmud and
HalakhaHalakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
scholars following a process of legal reasoning.
While still a Conservative rabbi, Halivni had written a
responsumResponsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Catholic Church:...
supporting the ordination of women as rabbis, although by a more gradual process than the one approved by the Conservative movement. Halivni withdrew this responsum prior to leaving the Conservative movement and founding the UTJ. The UTJ issued a responsum opposing the ordination of women as part of its first volume of responsa.
The Union originally intended to form the elements of a separate denomination, including an association of rabbis, a rabbinical school, and an association of synagogues. The organization subsequently described itself as being trans-denominational in character.
Beliefs and practices
The Union for Traditional Judaism attempts to combine modern approaches to studying Judaism's sacred texts, including the use of critical methods and the study of approaches such as the
Documentary hypothesisThe documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...
, with what it regards as classical approaches to interpreting and making
decisionsPosek is the term in Jewish law for "decider"—a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
regarding
Jewish religious lawHalakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
. As such, it stands in between
Modern Orthodox JudaismModern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize traditional observance and values with the secular, modern world....
, which retains a belief that the current written
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
and
Oral TorahA term used to denote the legal and interpretative traditions which, according to traditon, were transmitted orally from Mount Sinai, and were not written in the Torah...
were transmitted in an unbroken tradition from what was received by
MosesMoses was, according to biblical texts, a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew Moses was, according to biblical texts, a...
on
Mount SinaiMount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in Saint Katherine city, in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt...
through Divine revelation, and Conservative Judaism, which in the UTJ's view has sometimes permitted personal views to override classical
halakhicHalakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
scholarship. The Union endorsed women's prayer groups
http://www.utj.org/faq.html#q9. The Metivta, its rabbinical school, does not ordain women as rabbis.
David Weiss HalivniRabbi David Weiss Halivni is an American Israeli world-acclaimed scholar in the domain of Jewish Sciences and professor of Talmud, born in Carpathian Ruthenia.-Biography:...
, one of the Union founders and the head of its rabbinical school, has written extensively on an approach to harmonizing the perspectives of contemporary
biblical criticismBiblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were...
(as well as critical study of the
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
) with traditional religious belief. In his books
Peshat and Derash and
Revelation Restored, he developed the concept he called
Chate'u Israel ("Israel sinned"), in which he argued that the biblical texts were originally given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but they subsequently became irretrievably corrupted and the texts we currently have were redacted by editors in an effort to restore them.
Relationship to Conservative Judaism
Major differences between UTJ and USCJ exist due to UTJ rabbis generally choosing halakhic options with regards to issues related to women, or in the use of siddurim. For instance UTJ synagogues follow the practice of having separate seating for men and women, and women not acting as a shaliach tzibbur, both positions still considered halakhically valid by Conservative rabbis.
In
Jewish Choices (Bernard Melvin Lazerwitz et al.) The Union for Traditional Judaism is viewed as a denomination within Conservative Judaism, p.8.
When describing the creation of the UTJ Stefan Reif refers to the founding members of the UTJ as "traditionalists" within the Conservative movement.
Many other sources, however, describe the Union for Traditional Judaism as a new religious movement positioned between Orthodoxy and the Conservative movement.
The Institute of Traditional Judaism/The Metivta
The
Institute of Traditional JudaismThe Institute of Traditional Judaism, also known as the Metivta or the ITJ, is the rabbinical school sponsored by the Union for Traditional Judaism. The Metivta trains men for the rabbinate, and also offer study programs for men and women which do not lead to ordination...
, also known as the Metivta, is the rabbinical school sponsored by the UTJ. The Metivta trains men for the rabbinate, and also offer study programs for men and women which do not lead to ordination.
Graduates of the rabbinical program have been hired by both Conservative and Orthodox synagogues.
Important figures
- David Weiss Halivni
Rabbi David Weiss Halivni is an American Israeli world-acclaimed scholar in the domain of Jewish Sciences and professor of Talmud, born in Carpathian Ruthenia.-Biography:...
- Rabbi, talmud scholar, and Reish MetivtaRosh yeshiva, , , is the title given to the dean of a Talmudical academy . It is made up of the Hebrew words rosh — meaning head, and yeshiva — a school of religious Jewish education...
of the UTJ's rabbinical school.
- David Novak
David Novak is a scholar of Jewish philosophy, law and ethics. He has Conservative rabbinical ordination and has trained with Catholic moral theologians...
- Rabbi and theologian. He currently teaches at the University of Toronto and the Institute of Traditional Judaism.
- Isaac S.D. Sassoon
Isaac S.D. Sassoon is a Sephardic Orthodox rabbi and educator. Hakham Sassoon was born into the Sassoon family of London. His initial education was under the tutelage of his father, the renowned scholar Rabbi Solomon David Sassoon, Hakham Yosef Doury, and others. Later studies were at the...
- Sephardic Rabbi and scholar. He currently teaches at the Institute of Traditional Judaism.
See also
- Conservadox Judaism
Conservadox is the term sometimes used to describe Jews whose beliefs and practices place them on the religious continuum somewhere between Conservative Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism...
- Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.The principles of Conservative Judaism include:* A deliberately non-fundamentalist teaching of Jewish...
- Modern Orthodox Judaism
Modern Orthodox Judaism is a movement within Orthodox Judaism that attempts to synthesize traditional observance and values with the secular, modern world....
- Biblical criticism
Biblical criticism is "the study and investigation of biblical writings that seeks to make discerning and discriminating judgments about these writings." It asks when and where a particular text originated; how, why, by whom, for whom, and in what circumstances it was produced; what influences were...
- Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho and Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
- Conservative Halakha
Conservative Judaism views Halakha as normative and binding. The Conservative movement applies Jewish law to the full range of Jewish belief and practice, including thrice-daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays, marital relations and family purity, conversion, dietary laws , and Jewish medical ethics...
- Role of women in Judaism
The role of women in Judaism is determined by the Hebrew Bible, the Oral Law , by custom, and by non-religious cultural factors...
External links
Synagogues
Further reading
- Ament, Jonathon. The Union for Traditional Judaism: A Case Study of Contemporary Challenges to a New Religious Movement. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies, Brandeis University, 2004. Reviewed in "Dissertations in Jewish Studies", Jewish Quarterly Review, Volume 95, Number 3, Summer 2005, pp. 601–608