debka_notion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
debka_notion) wrote2006-12-06 07:41 pm
debka_notion) wrote2006-12-06 07:41 pm
Finding Myself More Troubled Than I'd Expected
CJLS has made its decisions, and I'm finding myself more troubled than I had expected. I've read a draft of Rabbi Dorff's tshuvah, and it came across as well reasoned and pretty darn halakhically valid, as far as I, very much a student and not a rabbi, could tell. And it jives with what my heart and my conscience tell me is right- that homosexuality is not a disease, or an affliction or a sin. I simply cannot see it that way. And it passed, and the teshuvot that I had heard about that did not sound as halakhically solid did not pass, regardless of whatever procedural issues can be raised about that fact.
On the other hand, I respect Rabbi Roth a great deal, and in many ways, his positions are often, although not always, my benchmark: if he permits something, I find it hard to reject except l'chumra. The man has, from what I've seen, a huge sense of responsibility to halakha and is incredibly conscientious in his process and decisions. If he feels that something is not halakhic, and if he feels compelled to resign from the law committee because he feels that it is making the movement not a halakhic movement- I can't help but do some questioning of my own- and that raises the idea that my halakha and my morals might not mesh, and that troubles me immensely.
On a completely selfish note, I wonder if now, considering how unusual it still is for women around here to wear kippot all the time, I will need to not only keep going around having to correct people's assumptions about the status of my love life, I'll also have to start correcting people's assumptions about my sexuality. It probably won't be a problem- but somehow I have this fear that it will.
On a scholarly note- I'm going to be incredibly interested in watching the ritual development and further halakhic process that comes out of this.
On the other hand, I respect Rabbi Roth a great deal, and in many ways, his positions are often, although not always, my benchmark: if he permits something, I find it hard to reject except l'chumra. The man has, from what I've seen, a huge sense of responsibility to halakha and is incredibly conscientious in his process and decisions. If he feels that something is not halakhic, and if he feels compelled to resign from the law committee because he feels that it is making the movement not a halakhic movement- I can't help but do some questioning of my own- and that raises the idea that my halakha and my morals might not mesh, and that troubles me immensely.
On a completely selfish note, I wonder if now, considering how unusual it still is for women around here to wear kippot all the time, I will need to not only keep going around having to correct people's assumptions about the status of my love life, I'll also have to start correcting people's assumptions about my sexuality. It probably won't be a problem- but somehow I have this fear that it will.
On a scholarly note- I'm going to be incredibly interested in watching the ritual development and further halakhic process that comes out of this.
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The Vortex
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That's what I was referring to above.
Of course the reason I don't wear a kippah is exactly because of the political statements people would read into it.
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But would they read in such statements at JHU?
Alternately, why not wear something on your head for the same reason men do (in the US, anyway)? (Granted, I heard that you will be in a position to cover your head anyway in the not-too-distant future [mazal tov!!], but in the interim...)
Huzzah!
The Vortex
P.S. So if I wear my black suede kipa in Israel (which I wear because it matches my clothes), would it also present me as the political Conservative that I am? =P
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