TFTW Archive 2025 May

What is The Limit of Our Liberalism?

I remember reading a responsum to a fascinating question. A Progressive Rabbi shared a dilemma and asked the committee of Rabbinic scholars for a piece of advice.  A congregant asked the Rabbi to hold an Orthodox prayer service parallel to the main service. The Rabbi first said no, since the community's custom was egalitarian services. However, the Rabbi is wondering if the Jewish value of pluralism should change that decision, especially if the group wants to meet regularly and choose a Liberal synagogue to do so. (Mark Washofsky, Reading Reform Responsa: Jewish Tradition, Reform Rabbis, and Today's Issues, p. 56-71)

Would you allow such practice at The LJS? If you say no, then what is the limit of your liberalism? Isn’t the liberal way to accept differences? However, if you say yes to a gender segregated prayer with only male leaders, then what message does it send to the community where men and women are meant to be treated equally?

At first, the conclusion to this puzzling question surprised me. The responsum encouraged Reform Jews to allow an Orthodox prayer in their space, not because Orthodox Jews would do the same, but because Progressive Judaism stresses the importance of pluralism and tolerance. However, to preserve the sense of integrity and dignity of the synagogue, the Orthodox group must remain separate from the Progressive congregation and not include them in the official list of synagogue programmes.

In other words, as a Progressive Jew, I must respect the right of others to have different views and ways of practice, even if they do not respect me or my ways.

I would like to argue that it is not only Progressive Judaism that is pluralistic at its core, but Judaism in general. Mishnah has this teaching: "A human being mints many coins from the same mould, and they are all identical. But the God strikes us all from the mould of the first human and each one of us is unique." (Sanhedrin 4:5)

Talmud, the foundational text of modern Judaism, has a unique principle – whenever it describes an argument between Rabbis, it preserves all minority opinions alongside the winning position. In my view, this is the essence of Judaism. We do not try to have a unity of consensus. We know that disagreements are an essential part of life. Respectful debate and mutual scrutiny will lead to a better outcome for all.

This week, we marked Yom Ha-Zikkaron (the Memorial Day of IDF Soldiers and Victims of Terror) and Yom Ha-Atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day). These days, so close together and yet so emotionally opposed, teach us something profoundly Jewish: the ability to hold complexity, to honour different truths, and to remain one people even when we do not feel like one.

This is not easy. In Israel and across the Jewish world, we are increasingly challenged not by disagreement itself, but by the way we treat each other when we disagree. We are witnessing a rise in polarisation and online cruelty—even within communities committed to tolerance. But Judaism does not fear disagreement. Our sages welcomed it. “These and those are the words of the living God,” the Talmud says of the House of Hillel and the House of Shammai (Eruvin 13b), precisely because they disagreed respectfully, and with humility.

The limit of our liberalism is not in ideas but in how we treat each other when we disagree. When debate becomes a weapon, when ideology is used to dehumanise, when frustration turns to verbal or physical abuse, that is where our liberalism must draw the line. Any call to attack, remove, or punish people for their views must be stopped and turned back to being rational and intellectual.

I hope we can build a future in which our diversity is not a threat, but our greatest strength. Let us be, in the words of Pirkei Avot, “disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving all people and drawing them close to Torah.”  All people, not only those you agree with. I hope the LJS, the British Jewish community, and Israeli society can be a place for passionate debate and principled difference, but never at the expense of kindness and personal safety.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Igor Zinkov