Parashat Pinchas- Why I Am a Conservative Jew

U’Tz’lafchad ben Cheifer lo hayu lo banim ki im banot v’sheim banot Tz’lafchad Machlah, v’Noa, Choglah, Milkah, v’Tirtzah. (B’midbar 26:33)

Vvtikravna b’not Tz’lafchad…. Vata’amodnah lifnei Moshe v’lifnei Elazar Hakohein v’lifnei ha’n’si’im v’chol ha’eidah… leimor. Avinu meit bamidbar v’hu lo hayah b’toch ha’eidah hago’adim al A’donai… u’vanim lo hayu lo. Lamah yigara sheim avinu mitoch mishpachto ki ein lo bein t’nah lanu ahuzah b’toch ahei avinu. Vayikreiv Moshe et mishpatan lifnei  A’donai. Vayomer A’donai el Moshe leimor. Kein bnot Tz’lafchad dovrot naton titein lahem ahuzah nahalat… et nahalat avihen lahen. (27:1-7)

…V’haita livnei Yisrael l’hukat mishpat ka’asher tzivah A’donai et Moshe. (27:11)

And Tz’lafchad ben Cheifer had no sons, but he had daughters, and the names of the daughters of Tz’lafchad were Machlah, Noa, Choglah, Milkah, and Tirtzah.

And the daughters of Tz’lafchad approached…. And they stood before Moshe, and before Elazar the Kohein, and before the leadership and all of the community… saying. “Our father died in the wilderness and he was not among the community that gathered against God… and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be lost from within our family therefore give us a portion among our father’s brothers. And Moshe brought this judgment before God. And God said to Moshe. The daughters of Tz’lafchad speak correctly; you shall surely give to them a portion of inheritance… their father’s inheritance shall go to them.

And this shall be for the Children of Israel a statute of law that God commanded Moshe.

This is a fascinating piece of text. Already in the Torah comes a case when the law, so recently given, does not fit the situation. What is the response? Is the circumstance made to fit the law? No. The law evolves in order to adapt to the conditions of the moment. It is not a change in law. The previous law is not negated. It is an evolution building upon the precedent of the previous law. This is why I am a Conservative Jew, because I can point to this moment in the Torah and see that the halakhah is meant to evolve and adapt when circumstances require it to do so.

The Movements are often defined like this: The Orthodox do everything. The Conservatives do some things. The Reform do nothing, and the Reconstructionists are confused. Unfortunately this says nothing about the reality of what each movement professes. Reconstructionism is actually trans-denominational, viewing Jews as part of a shared legacy and culture. The values of the individual and the modern society come first, and a Reconstructionist Jew can be from anywhere along the movement spectrum. Belief is not the object; connection to the People is.

The Reform Movement believes that Torah and mitzvot were created by humans to help bring them closer to God. Mitzvot are not commanded, but created. They believe in educated choice, not a whole scale rejection of Jewish practice. It too focuses on the individual. Each person should study to discover which “mitzvot” will help bring him/her closer to God and to the Jewish people. “Mitzvot” that do not do this can be discarded.

The Orthodox Movement believes that both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, the codes of law from the Mishnah and the Talmud, are Divine in origin and given at Sinai. As such they are unchanging. The rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud were illuminating the teachings rather than speaking them themselves.

Conservative Judaism believes in Torah miSinai, but there is an understanding, dating from the Torah itself, that the halakhah evolves over time based on need and precedent. We do not reject the laws that came before, but we also view the law as living, vibrant, and ever evolving to meet the needs of an ever-evolving Jewish community.

As a student of Jewish history and halakhah, from the Torah to the modern day, I see Conservative Judaism as the most authentic movement, capturing both the letter and the spirit of the law in its ability to adapt to new circumstances based on past precedent. The Torah teaches us to act b’tzelem Ehlohim, in the image of God. The Talmud tells us lo bashamayim hi, that the law is not unchanging in heaven. Parashat Pinchas gives us precedent. Conservative/Masorti Judaism balances all these, acting in the image of God while understanding the law must be a living, evolving system of law on earth.