Denominations - Unit

Verbal Revelation

The belief articulated by Rabbi Norman Lamm that God willed for humanity to abide by His commandments and communicated that divine will directly through discrete words and letters.

Sadducees and Karaites

Two historical Jewish groups that caused major schisms in Jewish history by denying the binding force of the oral tradition.

Fence Around the Law

A permanent protective decree or enactment created by sages to safeguard the judgments of biblical law.

Great Sanhedrin

The supreme court of sages in every generation given authority to create protective decrees and temporarily suspend biblical prescriptions under exceptional circumstances.

Rabbi Judah Leib Maimon

A religious thinker who advocated for the reconstitution of the Sanhedrin following the rebirth of the State of Israel.

Rabbi Joshua ben Levi

A third-century teacher who taught that the Bible, Mishnah, Talmud, and Aggadah were all already stated to Moses at Sinai.

Homeostatic Development

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' term for halakhic development, describing adjustments undertaken to restore equilibrium rather than to transform or evolve the system.

Franz Rosenzweig

A 20th-century Jewish thinker who observed that while other nations live in cycles of revolutions, Jewish law is supreme and can be forsaken but never changed.

Reform Responsa

Learned answers to practical questions written by Reform rabbis that function as advisory arguments intended to persuade rather than binding rulings.

Halakhah as Discourse

The Reform Jewish perspective viewing halakhah as an ongoing conversation through which Jews arrive at an understanding of what God and Torah require, rather than a set of crystallized rules.

Emet Ve-emunah

The 1988 statement of principles issued by major Conservative Judaism institutions embodying the motto 'Tradition and change'.

Takkanah

A formal legislative procedure within Conservative Judaism used to amend existing law when normal halakhic development is insufficient.

Mara D'atra

The local congregational rabbi who holds local authority for religious practice in their Conservative congregation.

Committee on Jewish Law and Standards

A committee composed of representatives from the Rabbinical Assembly, JTS, and United Synagogue that issues rulings shaping practice for the Conservative movement.

The Past Has a Vote, Not a Veto

Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan's epigram asserting that ancestral tradition should guide and inform modern choices without overriding autonomous individual decision-making.

Transvaluation

Mordecai Kaplan's term for the historical practice of ancient and medieval innovators who claimed ancient divine authority for new insights.

Revaluation

Mordecai Kaplan's term for conscious modern innovation undertaken with full awareness of historical context and historical forces.

Post-halakhic Judaism

A contemporary framework associated with Reconstructionist Judaism that rejects viewing halakhah as a rigid or coercive body of binding law.