The Conversion Crisis part 3

I have used the term "heresy" in these essays on a number of occasions. If we are to take the tenets and practices of any religion seriously, major deviations must be seen as a threat. In Christianity, for example, there were many wars in Medieval Europe over the "right way" to celebrate Mass. To one who takes things dispassionately, this seems both bizarre and tragic For the believer, the very foundations of his faith, or even the connection between Man and G-d, may be at risk.What is or isn't a major deviation is not always easy to determine, and may itself be a casus belli. A deviation in custom may have little or no theological import, but may be a political, or even a personal, issue. Let us remember that the Anglican Church was founded for the express purpose of Henry VIII marrying Anne Boleyn. The split between the Roman and Orthodox Churches, was primarily over the issue of what type of bread was appropriate for Communion. These sorts of issues have long been a reality in Judaism as well. The first major case of this was the Samaritans. During the Assyrian conquest of Northern Israel, they exiled most of the Jewish inhabitants, and put in their place a mixture of pagan peoples.For fear of mountain lions, they adopted a form of Judaism, in order to appease the "local Deity". Mount Gerizim took the place of Jerusalem. Their Torah scrolls contain, in the Ten Commandments, a command to build the Temple there. Eventually, they developed an entire conspiracy theory, that David, Samuel, and Eli the Priest, changed the Torah for political purposes. For the next thousand years, the Samaritans became the sworn enemies of the Jews. They attempted to stop the rebuilding of th Temple by Nehemia, and later urged Alexander to destroy it.To this day, they cling to the claim that only THEY have the true Torah. For most of those thousand years,Judaism took the attitude that they were indeed Jews, and would be fully accepted into the community, as soon as they recognized the primacy of Jerusalem. At the end if this period, however, there was a decision made to consider them fully non-Jewish. If a Samaritan wants to join us, he/she would be required to convert. A similar situation exists regarding the Karaites. (I am not speaking of the online variety). Since the seventh century, they have largely rejected the Oral Torah. Although they claim to follow Talmud "95%", in reality, little they do is in accordance with the halachah. The have no tefllin, they affix a metal plate containing the Ten Commandments over their door in lieu of a mezzuzah, Hanukkah simply doesn't exist.Their laws of Kashrut are vastly different. Their calendar is different, Passover can be as much as a month away from ours, and Shavuot is kept on a different date. There are some 30,000 Karaites living in Israel. Every few years, a new ruling is issued by the Chief Rabbinate as to whether or not they are to be considered as Jews. (Is it enough for them to renounce their heresy, or must they convert?) The current Chief Rabbis have ruled that they are not Jews. These issues have come to the Israeli secular courts. (Can a Karaite butcher shop be designated as "kosher" when it follows THEIR rules?) Although these disputes seem very distant to us, a great deal of the conversion crisis is based on how we regard non-Orthodox Jews. Are the differences minor? Do they constitute a heresy? Are they our brothers and sisters, or must we brand them as the "other"? Is it applicable to see them in the light of the Samaritan and Karaite heresies? Once someone converts, can a later rabbinic court declare their conversion to be invalid, even if done centuries earlier? Much of this is basic Jewsih theology. Much is also politics. I will attempt to explore these issues in my next post.