Masorti Judaism is the Israeli branch of what is known in the diaspora as Conservative Judaism. Each of the countries in which this stream of Judaism has taken root has produced its own 'blend' of Conservative Judaism. Not only is Conservative Judaism slightly different in England compared with America, but also in all countries there will be slight differences between the member congregations. Hopefully, the brief outline given below of Israeli Masorti Judaism will give a fair general picture of our organization, beliefs and activities. The Masorti Movement is the umbrella under which all our congregations and institutions in Israel muster. The offices are in 13 Ben-Yehuda Street, Jerusalem; the telephone number is 02-624-6510. Masorti Judaism is different in its beliefs from both Reform Judaism and Orthodox Judaism. We are different from Reform Judaism in that we love and respect halakhah [Jewish religious law and its regulations] and we live our communal life according to its dictatates. But we are also different from Orthodox Judaism in that we hold dear a living and developing halakhah. For us the Torah is not a frozen and fossilized creation from the distant past, but a living Torah, Torat Ĥayyim, a Torah that develops together with those that observe it and which shows sensitivity towards the needs and changing values of the Jewish person. A result of our attachment to a dynamic and developing "living Torah" is our vision which, on the one hand, embraces the values of tolerance and humanism, and on the other hand sees us as an inseperable part of the age-old Jewish spiritual tradition. Our children are educated in secular schools and our young men and women serve in the Israel Defence Forces as a matter of course. Our attachment is to the true halakhah - that which is not a frozen and fossilized relic from the past, but that which directs our lives at this time and belongs to the present and the future. It is this attachment which urges us to seek halakhic solutions which relate to our experience at this time and in this place. We do not claim that we have all the answers, but we do claim that we recognize and respect the right questions! Perhaps the following can serve to describe the "unity within diversity" of essential Masorti beliefs and opinions. It was written by our rabbi and published in a Masorti Movement magazine more than a decade ago. Wisdom has built her house; she has carved out her seven pillars. [Proverbs 9:1] * The Masorti Jew believes in God - but it could well be that no two people agree as to the meaning of the word! There are those who believe in a manlike deity and there are those who believe in a deity lacking all personality. For the former God is "the King of the Universe" quite literally. For the latter God is the Eyn-Sof [Boundlessness] of the Kabbalists, "the Life of all Worlds". What unites them both is that God is. * He believes in Torah from Heaven - regardless of whether for him this Torah was given word-for-word at Divine dictation on Sinai, or God's law has reached us via anonymous prophets over many generations, as in each generation God's will becomes clearer than it was for the previous generation. What unites them both is the acceptance of Torah as the expression of God's will and in the acceptance of the binding interpretation of the sages of all generations. * He believes in a living Torah - a Torah that develops together with those that observe it, and which shows sensitivity to the changing needs of the Jew; a Torah which is the source of his tolerant values; a Torah which is not fossilized and frozen, belonging to the past, but one which guides our lives today and tomorrow. It is this adherence to a Living Torah which spurs him on to find for himself and for his children halakhic answers which relate to his way of life in the modern Israel of today and tomorrow, but which also suck at the breasts of the tradition of the sages in all generations. * He believes that "male and female did He create them" - and that the Judaism of the future will not recognise differences between the privileges and duties of the manservant of God and the privileges and duties of the maidservant of God. There is one Masorti Jew who will lovingly embrace this future already, and there is another who makes his slow way towards it. What unites them both is the belief that this future day will come speedily and in our time. * He believes in the vision of the end of time - regardless of whether he daily yearns for the arrival of King Messiah or just hopes for an amorphous messianic age. There will be one Masorti Jew who awaits the rebuilding of a third Temple without sacrifices and there will be another who awaits neither the Temple nor the its sacrifices. What unites them is the yearning for a future of spiritual and material prosperity, peace and brotherhood for the whole human race, and a recognition of his duty to bring that day about speedily and in our time. * He believes in "teach them diligently to your children" - in a deeply-rooted and entrenched education for his children and for himself. He is searching for a framework of original Jewish education for his children, which will educate them to a love of our Torah, People and Land and which will stay with them throughout their lives. He also strives to revitalize his own knowledge of Torah daily, throughout his life, to fulfill "study them day and night". * He believes in the actual observance of the commandments - as far as his understanding permits: kashrut at home and away, the sanctity of Shabbat, the rejoicing of the festivals, sharing the sadness of the unhappy days of the calendar, rejoicing with the bride and groom "according to the law of Moses and Israel", circumcision, redemption and Torah for his children when they arrive, defending the homeland, civil duties with honour, worship with the congregation as often as possible. This is the fabric of the life of the Masorti Jew. What unites them all: the Jew who works honestly from within the true tradition is entitled to his own understanding of Torah no less than the next person, as a right and not as a favour, even when those two views are different from each other and even when they contradict each other - for "both are the words of the Living God".