The announcement yesterday that the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly (the international organization of conservative rabbis) adopted three position papers (technically “answers” or “teshuvot“) on gay ordination and same-sex unions has been widely reported and I do not intend to recycle the news in a general sense.  In presbyterian teams the rabbis adopted what in PC(USA) jargon has become known as a “middle way” or “local option.”  The three statements are at odds with each other and one of the three permits gay ordination while prohibiting the sexual act of sodomy.  Which, if any, position to adopt is left up to the local rabbi or seminary.  If you want to read some of the coverage I have found detailed articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and the Jerusalem Post.

Now then, some comments from a presbyterian perspective:

First, if you are not familiar with the branches of Judaism, the “Conservative” branch is actually moderate as opposed to the traditional (and what would normally be thought of as conservative) “Orthodox” branch as opposed to the liberal “Reformed” branch.  Unlike presbyterians where orthodox is conservative and we are all reformed.  (I see a “Who’s On First” routine in here somewhere.)

Second, the Conservative branch has been losing members and whether they admit it or not there is a lot of buzz in the news stories and the blogs that this decision was influenced by that.

Third, the old “two jews three opinions” situation.  On this committee of 25 it only takes 6 affirmative votes to adopt an answer which is advisory to seminaries and congregations.  Two of the interpretations were adopted by 13 votes and the third by the six vote minimum.  You want something binding?  That would be a takanah, or an amendment to Jewish Law, as opposed to the teshuva, or interpretation.  If it takes six members to adopt an interpretation it takes the rest of the committee plus one, that is twenty, to adopt takanah.

Finally, after the meeting four rabbis opposed to gay ordination resigned from the committee and there is talk about this splitting that branch of Judaism.  There have also been interviews with prospective seminary students who are waiting for the new standards to pass and the seminaries to then adopt them so they can apply.

Reading through some of this the similarities to the situation in the PC(USA) is striking.  Did he have the PC(USA) and the Episcopals in mind when one of the pro-gay ordination members, Rabbi Elliot Dorff, president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, said:
“We would hope that this would be a model for other
religions to learn how to deal with this topic seriously and be able to
agree to be one and yet have disagreements”
(Quoted in the Jerusalem Post article)

Updates on December 8
The Rabbinical Assembly has issued a press release on the meeting.  (Be warned, it is an MS Word file.)

The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh has posted a news article which includes comments by Rabbi Alvin Berkun, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement, who was present for the discussion but not a voting member of the committee.