Whenever Sean travels I have no time to blog, while he has evenings free. This always leaves me playing catch up. This past trip there was a lot Sean wrote, on which I also wanted to comment, but lacked the time to read his blog.
Since I was in my last year of university I have been fully shomer Shabbat, meaning I have fully observed the laws of Shabbat.
I first decided to begin being observant as a high school student. My family, and therefore home, was not. It was a wonderful learning experience. Everyone was supportive, and I would bend as far as I felt I could in order to be with my extended family and respect my parents and grandparents.
At university there was a new learning curve. Although at Brandeis University, my group was not observant. I questioned why I made the choice I had, and I often fell out of observance. Still, by my junior year (that's third year for my Canadian friends), I was fully observant. It was the place I belonged in Judaism, and I've never looked back.
My observance is solidly grounded in Conservative Judaism. I believe it to be the most authentic Judaism. Please note Conservative Judaism is not the Movement. It is a theology. A Movement is a group of people and, in this case, organizations, with all their strengths, weaknesses, conflicts, and compromises. Judaism is, and always has been, fluid, and its observance has evolved throughout the centuries for better or for worse. (We no longer do animal sacrifice, but we have an elaborate kashrut system that seems to challenge the sacrificial system in the sheer volume of law and interpretation, but I digress.)
One of the wonders of Shabbat is sharing the time with friends. Pre-children I (or Sean & I) would often spend Shabbat with others, either for a meal or the whole day. Often my visits took me into the company of Orthodox Jews. It is amazing how often people would say to me, "Wow, you're really frum." What they meant was for a Conservative Jew you seem really Orthodox.
Within the Jewish community there seem to be the following definitions of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews- Reform do nothing. Conservative do some. Orthodox do all. Reality is far from this. Add in Reconstructionists, and you've got a very confusing group that doesn't follow any real rules. In all the movements there are those who follow the theology and ideology, and those who don't. There are Orthodox Jews who drive to shul, and Reform Jews who walk. I have a cousin who joined a Reform shul just so she could walk. Is she Reform? I'm not sure. That's for her to say.
What I do know is Conservative Judaism requires that we follow the mitzvot- all of them. Of course there are some that require a Temple in Jerusalem, and others that are gender specific or dependent on the Land of Israel. Still, all those that are required of you- do! What Conservative Judaism does look at is how we observe. Does observance change as society and culture change? When halakhah tells me, a woman, not to wear a man's garment, what does that mean? Are my slacks, designed for women, a man's garment? Is a tallit or a set of tefillin, a mitzvah given to all the people from which women were exempted later, a man's garment? How do we define this? This is where Conservative Judaism seeks to understand and evolve.
Yes. I am frum. I am an observant Conservative Jew.
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