"Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come", - Sir Victor Hugo 1852
At one time there was a viable "Traditional Wing" of Conservative Judaism. Since about 1980+ the C movement has moved sharply left-ward.
My late Rabbi, William Cohen A"H used to frequently repeat: "nature abhors a vacuum"
There is a new vacuum in the spectrum. There are powerful forces at work here forcing the issue [no pun intended] Those forces are not internal to Orthodoxy, the gap that needs to be filled is indeed external.
The idea or movement that seems irresistible now is what I call "neo-Con" a new Traditional Conservatism.
Not that I am personally endorsing this movement. Far from it. I just see that the nature of this gap is making the Neo-Cons a virtual physical necessity in order to plug this missing hole.
This movement somewhat reminds me of how Z. Frankel resisted Radical Reform with his counter-weight of Positive-Historical Judaism.
It is interesting to see that the Neo-Cons are mostly dominated by Left-Wing Modern Orthodox types as opposed to Right-Wing Conservative types. I'm not clear as to why that is.
My guess is that there may be more "dynamism" or charisma in the LW Ortho circles, composed of those who are still exploring the new parameters of making a break.
Shalom,
RRW
3 comments:
The reason for any Conservative movement rightward is because there is no interest amongst them for such a thing. Don't forget that UTJ is essentially rightwing Conservatism and look how popular they are.
The nice thing about the middle ages was that a person could not say something intelligent without an intelligent critique being mounted against it. This is relevant to todays topic because the problem with both conservative and Orthodox Judaism is there was no one around smart enough to evaluate modern progressive trends. Psychology was embraced by the orthodox world as a way of dehumanizing baali teshuva and gerim and otherwise people they do not like. existentialism a and other progressive noise was embraced by the conservative. In Jewish though you just don't have smart people. In gemara learning sure there were great thinkers like the chazon ish and chayim solevatich. but in Jewish though nothing. Even the Musar movement could not come with much of quality.
(modern) Orthodoxy accepts the sinner but not the institutionalisation of sin. Old word conservatism had learning which justified the institutionalisation of certain practices deemed outside the mesora or acceptable psak. Driving on shabbos or eating swordfish is no longer the major issue on the agenda for which conservatives seek a textual justification. The neo demand is for egalitarianism (almost exclusively). As such, since there is a vacuum in learning amongst the conservatives, one can expect them to find more affinity by clinging to those on the left wing fringe who also seem somewhat driven to address the issues of egalitarianism, albeit from a more textual approach. Examples are the emergence of Shira Chadasha style groups. In essence, why should the conservative who craves some quasi halachic justification NOT move to such institutions? Certainly in Melbourne, it's almost a single issue movement. Rov Minyan and Rov Binyan of those who attend these prayer services are not seemingly concerned about practicing the so called more mainstream elements of halachic practice.
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