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	Conservative Jews May Allow Gay Rabbis -- Beliefnet.com
		He and two religious law experts joining him at the meetings are trying to help congregations prepare for the confusion and discomfort to follow.
		Synagogues that believe Jewish law bars same-sex relationships still will be able to hire rabbis who share their view.
		The last major Law Committee vote on gay relationships came in 1992, when the panel decided overwhelmingly to maintain the ban on openly gay rabbis.
	www.beliefnet.com /story/199/story_19927_1.html (840 words)

	Conservative Judaism
		The name derives from the idea that the movement would be necessary to conserve Jewish traditions in the U.S., a culture in which Reform and Orthodoxy were not believed to be viable.
		An exception is made in the case of "standards." A "standard" requires an 80 percent (not unanimous) vote of the membership of the CJLS (not just those in attendance) and a majority vote by the plenum of the Rabbinical Assembly.
		Conservative Judaism holds that the laws of the Torah and Talmud are of divine origin, and thus mandates the following of halacha (Jewish law).
	www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org /jsource/Judaism/conservatives.html (574 words)

	jspot » Blog Archive » Press release from the Law Committee
		The discussions and teshuvot of the CJLS reflect a deeply shared commitment to halakhah, Jewish Law and the Torah principle of kvod habriot, the God-given dignity of all human beings.
		Founded in 1927, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is empowered to deal with, and rule on, halakhic issues within the Conservative movement.
		Parameters set by the committee guide all of the rabbis, synagogues and institutions of the Conservative movement, but within these bounds there are many variations of practice recognized as both legitimate and essential to the richness of Jewish life.
	jspot.org /?p=763 (857 words)

	Reference.com/Encyclopedia/Elliot N. Dorff
		Dorff was ordained as a rabbi from the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1970.
		On December 6th, 2006, the law committee accepted a paper by Rabbis Elliot Dorff, Daniel Nevins and Avram Reisner on homosexual marriage and ordination of homosexual rabbis, while it upheld the biblical prohibition on male intercourse.
		Responsa 1991-2000: The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, 2001, The Rabbinical Assembly
	www.reference.com /browse/wiki/Elliot_N._Dorff (517 words)

	NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Niddah
		These laws are strictly followed in the more traditional Orthodox Judaism, and are often reinterpreted in the progressive movements such as in Reform Judaism as a mechanism of rediscovering female spirituality.
		The Conservative movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards has not issued any formal position on this issue, but some individuals have ruled that the extra days are not mandatory, including Joel Roth, Michael Gold, Susan Grossman, Daniel Kohn and JTS Talmud Professor David C. Kraemer.
		Jewish law states that a women enters the state of "tameh" when she is "niddah" (menstruating).
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Niddah (5032 words)

	NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Minyan
		Bold textOvadia Yosef (born Abdullah Youssef in 1920) is an Israeli Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Talmud scholar and a recognized authority in halakha (Jewish Law).
		These responsa were accepted by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Rabbinical Assembly (though Orthodox Jews do not accept their validity).
		The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha (Jewish law and tradition) within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely know committees on the Conservative movements Rabbinical Assembly.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Minyan (3495 words)

	Committee on Jewish Law and Standards Details, Meaning Committee on Jewish Law and Standards Article and Explanation ...
		Conservative rabbis hold that the boundaries of Jewish law are determined through the halakhic process, a religious-ethical system of legal precedents.
		When a rabbi proposes a new interpretation of a law, that interpretation is not normative for the Jewish community until it becomes accepted by other committed and observant members in the community.
		New legal precedents are based on the standard codes of Jewish law, and the responsa literature.
	www.e-paranoids.com /c/co/committee_on_jewish_law_and_standards.html (727 words)

	USCJ: CJ/Formulating Jewish Law
		Many members of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards have written rabbinic rulings, or teshuvot, for the Committee, each with his or her own specific approach to Jewish law.
		That is tremendously important for me, for I, too, abide by Jewish law at any given time for one or more of a variety of reasons, and I am comforted in knowing that my tradition, from the Torah on, was aware that people might have many different reasons to live in accordance with Jewish law.
		Deciding matters in Jewish law, then, requires a honed sense of judgment about when to retain the law as is and when and how to change it --always with a much greater respect for what is already on the books than is common among secular lawmakers.
	www.uscj.org /CJFormulating_Jewish5454.html (1852 words)

	Shackling and Hoisting
		The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement.
		It was a method that was, from 1906 to 1958, a requirement of American law to insure sanitary conditions, but with the invention of the upright pens to restrain the animals, shackling and hoisting was no longer necessary to assure proper sanitation.
		Since stunning was understood at the time to violate Jewish dietary laws, and since pens that would keep the animals standing before slaughter and would yet fulfill the government's sanitary requirements were not yet available then, the Jewish community had to argue for an exemption from this rule.
	www.grandin.com /ritual/conservative.jewish.law.html (2115 words)

	[No title]
		The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which interprets religious law for the movement, adopted three starkly conflicting policies that nonetheless gave gays a wider role.
		The third policy supports the ban on gay sex in Jewish law and notes that some gays have successfully undergone therapy that changes their sexual orientation.
		The last major Law Committee vote on gay relationships came in 1992, when the panel voted 19-3, with one abstention, that Jewish law barred openly gay students from seminaries and prohibited rabbis from officiating at gay union ceremonies.
	www.kgw.com /sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/120706.27f3850.html (717 words)

	Committee on Jewish Law and Standards - Definition, explanation
		The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards is the central authority on halakha (Jewish law and tradition) within Conservative Judaism; it is one of the most active and widely know committees on the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly.
		Conservative rabbis hold that the boundaries of Jewish law are determined through the halakhic process, a religious-ethical system of legal precedents.
		New legal precedents are based on the standard codes of Jewish law, and the responsa literature.
	www.calsky.com /lexikon/en/txt/c/co/committee_on_jewish_law_and_standards.php (733 words)

	Conservative Jewish scholars ease ban on gay ordination, upending centuries of precedent -- Beliefnet.com
		The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, which interprets religious law for the North American movement, adopted three starkly conflicting policies that nonetheless gave gays the chance to serve as clergy.
		The third upholds the ban on gay sexual relationships in Jewish law and mentions the option for gays to undergo therapy aimed at changing their sexual orientation.
		The last major Law Committee vote on gay relationships came in 1992, when the panel voted 19-3, with one abstention, that Jewish law barred openly gay students from seminaries and prohibited the more than 1,000 rabbis in the movement from officiating at gay union ceremonies.
	www.beliefnet.com /story/205/story_20569_1.html (518 words)

	MyJewishLearning.com - Daily Life: Tattooing in Jewish Law
		But, however distasteful we may find the practice there is no basis for restricting burial to Jews who violate this prohibition or even limiting their participation in synagogue ritual.
		The fact that someone may have violated the laws of kashrut at some point in his or her life or violated the laws of Shabbat would not merit such sanctions; the prohibition against tattooing is certainly no worse.
		At such a time it might be appropriate for the [Conservative movement's] law committee to consider whether removal of tattoos should become a requirement of teshuvah [repentance, or reversion to behavior according to Jewish norms], conversion, or burial.
	www.myjewishlearning.com /daily_life/TheBody/Adorning_the_Body/Tattoo.htm (921 words)

	The Recent Decisions of the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Among those who oppose a modification or change of the halakhah with respect to same-sex relations are those who argue that while Talmudic law might be open to modification or change, this is not the case with respect to biblical law.
		But the fact is, biblical law has been changed, or at the very least, made inoperable: not for the purpose of undermining halakhah, but for purposes of maintaining the integrity of the halakhah as a whole.
		Torah law forbids marriage to a half-sister and to a sister.
	uscj.org /njersey/jerseycity/cjls.html (1570 words)

	Steven Feldman - San Diego Jewish Journal
		There are variety of rules to ensure a fair trial: rules that ensure the accused is not judged based on his education or social standing, rules that prevent judges from leading witnesses, rules that require the accused and accuser to wear clothes of similar value, rules that require interpreters for foreign language speakers.
		Jewish tradition, while idealistic in its aspirations, was realistic in its expectations, and envisioned the possibility that corrupt powers would coerce confessions.
		Jewish tradition places great value on the concept of kavod ha-met ("honoring the dead") and commands that bodies be buried as soon as possible after death.
	www.sdjewishjournal.com /stories/dec02_2.html (1057 words)

	Jewish and Israel News from New York - The Jewish Week (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		And a majority of professional and lay leaders admitted to being “confused” and “somewhat embarrassed” by a rabbinic law committee’s decision in December to both accept and reject gay ordination.
		The survey of more than 5,000 Conservative Jewish leaders, released this week, concluded that they are committed to halacha or Jewish law, as well as to supporting women in the clergy and in favor of same-sex commitment ceremonies.
		The survey found that slightly more than half of the professional and lay leaders admitted to being “confused” by the law committee’s split decision, and 67 percent of clergy and 58 percent of professional and lay leaders admitted to being “somewhat embarrassed” by it.
	www.thejewishweek.com /news/newscontent.php3?artid=13612 (1172 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		He and two religious law experts joining him at the meetings are trying to help congregations prepare for the confusion and discomfort to follow.
		Synagogues that believe Jewish law bans same-sex relationships still will be able to hire rabbis who share their view.
		Rabbi Elliot Dorff, vice chairman of the Law Committee and also a respected scholar, supports ordaining gays, saying "it is simply not natural" to demand that they remain celibate.
	www.ynetnews.com /articles/0,7340,L-3301589,00.html (617 words)

	JewishJournal.com
		Two of the papers reaffirmed the classical position of Jewish law forbidding such sexual activity and, therefore, forbade commitment ceremonies and the ordination of gays and lesbians.
		I was the author of one of the papers that reaffirmed the classic Jewish legal position, a position I had affirmed in 1992 when this subject was last on the law committee's agenda.
		Rabbi Joel Roth is a professor of Talmud and Jewish law at The Jewish Theological Seminary.
	www.jewishjournal.com /home/preview.php?id=16975 (729 words)

	Judaism FAQs (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		The central halakhic authority of the movement is the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS), which was founded by the Rabbinical Assembly (RA) in the 1920s.
		On rare occasions, an individual rabbi may ignore the committee and act in accordance with his or her own convictions regarding what is halakhically correct.
		Conservative Jews view the laws and customs from the various law codes, such as the Mishneh Torah and Shulkhan Arukh, as the basis for binding Jewish law, and allow for law to be modified by today's halakhic authorities.
	www.msnusers.com /judaismfaqs/halakhaandthecommiteeonjewishlawandstandardscjls.msnw (1227 words)

	Rabbi Kenneth Cohen - Haaretz - Israel News (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Last week, the "Committee on Jewish Law and Standards" decided to postpone its decision on whether to ordain gay rabbis and perform same-sex commitment ceremonies.
		The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Judaism movement decided to postpone until December the decision on the ordination of gay rabbis and the recognition of gay couples.
		Essentially, the role of the rabbi is not to decide what the law should be, but rather what the law is. Nevertheless, there are always new situations which were not clearly anticipated in the classical literature.
	www.haaretz.com /hasen/pages/rosnerGuest.jhtml?itemNo=692758 (2546 words)

	Jewish Light Online
		With advocates on both sides of the issue warning that the recent decisions by the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards could irreparably fracture the movement, the two-day meeting was closely monitored around the Jewish world.
		She said opponents of change no longer will be able to use the law committee's 1992 statement on homosexuality as an excuse to continue excluding gay men and lesbians from the movement.
		But by deciding that continuing the ban on gay ordination and commitment ceremonies also is a legitimate position, the committee has ensured that local rabbis who oppose a change in policy will have a halachic authority to cite in making their case.
	www.stljewishlight.com /Nation/310209208332133.php (2396 words)

	Decisions on the Status of Gays
		Within the past few hours, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards completed its deliberation on five responsa that considered whether Jewish law may allow the ordination of gay men and lesbians and same-sex commitment ceremonies.
		The result of the committee’s vote means that rabbis, synagogues, and other Conservative institutions may continue not to permit commitment ceremonies and not to hire openly gay or lesbian rabbis and cantors.
		Although we have the greatest respect for the Law Committee’s decisions, we do not agree with the recommendations of the third paper it accepted, which said that gay men and lesbians are best advised to find “restorative therapy” to change their sexual orientation.
	www.koach.org /uscj_homosexuality_press_release.html (856 words)

	.:: Welcome To The Jewish Ledger ::.
		It was one of the most closely watched decisions in the history of the law committee and capped months of often divisive debate within the movement over the proper approach to gays and lesbians.
		The law committee last took up the issue of homosexuality in 1992, when it released a consensus statement affirming its refusal to perform commitment ceremonies or admit “avowed” homosexuals into rabbinical or cantorial schools.
		At the committee’s last meeting in March, authors were asked to make further revisions to their papers, and December was set as the date for a final vote on the matter.
	www.jewishledger.com /articles/2006/12/16/west_mass/news/news16.txt (1184 words)

	Conservative Judaism and the Question of Homosexuality
		Posted: Monday, March 06, 2006 at 12:07 am ET The New York Times reported Sunday that the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of Conservative Judaism (one of American Judaism's three main branches) is to meet this week near Baltimore in order to consider a proposal to lift barriers to homosexual rabbis and same-sex unions.
		In 1992, this same group, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or cantorial schools.
		The tension between "adhering to Jewish law and tradition" and "bending to accommodate modern conditions" is the problem.
	www.albertmohler.com /blog_read.php?id=537 (480 words)

	Time for traditionalist Conservative Jews to move on (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		That movement's claim of fealty to Jewish religious law, or halacha, I contended, is dishonest.
		Fast-forward to December 6, 2006, when the Conservative movement's "Committee on Jewish Law and Standards" shamelessly endorsed a position permitting "commitment ceremonies" between people of the same gender and the ordination as Conservative rabbis of people living openly homosexual lives.
		The courage to recognize misjudgments is a laudable and inherently Jewish trait, one the Talmud sees in the very root of the name Judah (derived from the Hebrew "li'hodot," to admit), from which the word "Jew" derives.
	www.jewishworldreview.com /avi/shafran_gays.php3?printer_friendly (820 words)

	Conservative Jews to Consider Ending a Ban on Same-Sex Unions and Gay Rabbis - New York Times (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-02)
		Several members of the law committee said in interviews that while anything could happen at their meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, there were more than enough votes to pass a legal opinion (a teshuvah in Hebrew) that would support opening the door to gay clergy members and same-sex unions.
		The law committee has 25 members, but only six votes are required to validate a legal opinion.
		Committee members who oppose a change may try to argue that the decision is so momentous that it falls into a different category and requires many more than six votes to pass, even as many as 20, the members said.
	www.nytimes.com /2006/03/06/national/06rabbi.html?ei=5090&en=bb41478207b3c870&ex=1299301200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all (1332 words)

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