CJLS Reviews Papers at Semi-Annual Meeting

RA’s standards committee approved new papers at meetings this week

NEW YORKThe Committee on Jewish Law and Standards met Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss a number of papers.

  1. "Reciting Ma'ariv Early on Erev Shabbat" by Barry Leff, as well as a t'shuvah on early kiddush by Aaron Alexander: Both papers give guidance to Jewish communities as to how to set communal times for prayer in locations where Shabbat wouldn’t begin until very late in the day due to sunset not occurring until late during the summer months.
  2. The committee released detailed guidelines for supervising the preparation of pizza in locales with no kosher restaurants. The Committee affirmed that offering and consuming food produced at kosher facilities is the ideal for Conservative Jewish communities, but also recognized the challenge in keeping kosher in areas where no kosher alternatives exist. In circumstances where there are no kosher restaurants, the paper gives rabbis and Conservative Jews detailed guidance to oversee a non-supervised establishment in preparing pizza according to laws of kashrut so that it may be served at an event taking place in a Conservative institution. The paper provides detailed guidance of such things as ingredients, food coloring, flavoring, equipment used in manufacturing and transporting, temperature, oven size, and oven racks, among others.

    As Paul Plotkin’s t'shuvah (or ruling) on the issue explains:

    The t'shuvah "is not intended to be a carte blanche for eating in non-Kosher restaurants, nor is it even considered to be the first level of default, but rather only a way of dealing with a need to eat cooked food in a specific facility when no supervised kosher alternative is available."

    The examples provided offer a model to Conservative Jews, especially young people, as to how they can embrace kashrut for themselves and own their Jewish practice in the larger world.
  3. "The Status of 'Messianic Jews'" by Kassel Abelson and Reuven Hammer clarifies that Jews who have become Messianic Jews are Christians and by virtue of their own religious choices, do not participate in the obligations of Jewish communal life as members of synagogues, recipients of synagogue honors or participants in Jewish rituals, including burial in a Jewish cemetery. Should such an individual wish to return to Judaism, he or she is advised to meet with a rabbi and follow the course of study advised, followed by ritual immersion in the mikvah as well as, if necessary, circumcision, followed by a ceremony of welcome into the Jewish community.
  4. The committee also voted to approve an addendum by Joshua Heller, with thanks to Mr. Daniel Lydick, to Richard Eisenberg’s triennial system resolving a gap that would have otherwise occurred in the years 2071-2073.