Be prepared

Julian Landy Nothing stays the same. Even in Judaism. We are an orthodox community that from time to time has had to painfully adapt to changing times. Notwithstanding that the substantive base of orthodoxy is that change does not happen, we do gradually evolve. Nobody would now suggest that we should make physical sacrifices or even adhere entirely to the Torah criminal law. But change does happen. In the last year it has been more radical and bizarre than at any time in my lifetime. Remember last Pesach? Retailers were caught short of stock as holidaymakers had to cancel Yom Tov trips at short notice. Stores rapidly sold out of many basic supervised products for Pesach. Which directly led to the London Beth Din announcement that contrary to all previous advice, unsupervised tea, coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, could be used for Pesach.

This year? Well it is back to normal. Buy only products with a hechsher. There is no hypocrisy here. Last year the rabbis were simply being pragmatic. Doing what had to be done. Now we're back to normal service.

There are other potential applications of this more practical approach to orthodoxy which have yet to be adopted or perhaps even approached. If you want to marry under the auspices of the United Synagogue both parties have to demonstrate wholly Jewish antecedents. If one of your grandmothers was not Jewish you will be excluded and need to marry in a non-orthodox manner. And what if one parent converted in Israel? Where 'standards' are said to be less rigid. Or come from one of the 'new' groups of communities in Africa or Asia?

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Kashrut is potentially the most explosive of all these difficult issues. We have faced repeated campaigns in the UK against shechita. All rebuffed to date. But already some neighbouring countries have banned it, causing tough logistical problems for some communities . And we don't all want to be vegetarian or vegan. Even more inflammatory is the potential of Charedim to disturb our practices. Serious people have suggested that Charedim will outnumber all other Jews in this country by 2026. They will not necessarily want to adhere to or listen to the London Beth Din. Notwithstanding that there are presently Charedi rabbis serving on the Beth Din!

So where or how will the Beth Din show any flexibility on these issues? It is reasonable to assume that the Dayanim have talked about these problems. Sometime soon they may need to act, with the speed, decisiveness and pragmatism shown last Pesach. There may be no crisis now. But tomorrow or the next day, well who knows? Best to be prepared.

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