(___) Judaism is essentially an attempt to reconstruct a "Golden Age" of Judaism. The problem is that this Golden Age never really existed in the romanticized form that (___) Jews like to think it did. The world was always a lot more complex. What's worse is that many of the practices and ideas of the past that (___) Judaism wishes to recreate, even the ones that are historically accurate, were only functions of a particular time and place and not essential components of Judaism.

Lamedzayin suggests over at Maven Yavin that the blanks in this simple statement can be filled in with both "charedi" and Conservative". I would say that they can also be easily filled in with "Messianic". While the vast majority of the Messianic community hopes to "get back to the Scriptures", or "get back to the way it was in the first century", Lamedzayin points out correctly that "attempts to recreate the past must do so at the expense of dealing with the present."

I am convinced that the best approach to our journey is to embrace where we are now, not to attempt a return to the Golden Age. What is the main issue I am talking about here? Rabbinic authority. Fighting with the idea of rabbinic authority and trying to push the issue aside is only detrimental to us and to the larger Jewish commmunity. If we claim to be a valid form of Judaism then we must engage the rabbinic writings and the halachah that stems from them. It is not enough to say that basar b'chalav "isn't found in the Torah". We have to find out why that is the normative practice in Judaism (even in Reform Judaism) and engage the sources in the development of our own halachah on the issue. That is how every other Jewish movement has developed, and we should be no different.

The biggest obstacle (besides our pride and our fear) is the fact that we have few scholars who are qualified to actually engage the texts. We need to encourage the new leaders coming up (my generation) to develop the necessary skills and learn the necessary information to be useful in this journey. That will require some other changes, as well—like developing frum environments where our children can grow up observing and engaging the Torah. That will take hard work for the current generation, but the rewards will be seen in the many generations to follow.

That is what I am doing in my home. My goal is to create an environment where my children will engage the Torah and observance not only as part of Messianic Judaism but as part of greater Israel. I fall short of this goal in many ways, partly from just not having enough observant examples to follow. But I am willing to work hard at it for the good of my family.

When thinking about the issue of Rabbinic authority never forget that G-d gave this thing to the Jews, and with it he gave the right and the responsibility to interpret and develop it wisely. I personally think that they have done a great job.

Labels: Messianic Judaism