JTA reports that in his speech Monday to the Conservative Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly at its annual convention, the new chancellor Arnold Eisen directed the Conservative Movement to build community first, and stress less Jewish law as commands over individual behavior. Indeed, the effect of his speech was to wake Conservative members to the theory that community is necessary to give life to Jewish tradition first, and meaningful excitment about halakha will follow. Excerpt in part:

[Eisen] urged Conservative rabbis to build “tight communities” in which meaningful Jewish practice is part of the broader rhythms of life. He warned them against pursuing a top-down pedagogy that begins with asserting the requirements of Jewish law.

Eisen urged the rabbis to think more broadly about the concept of “mitzvah,” which he suggested means more than simply “commandment,” as it is normally defined.

Instead of the rabbi preaching about what everyone is obliged to do, he said, rabbis need to create strong bonds of community that make obligation to one another and to God much more appealing to a contemporary person.

Eisen also argued that Jewish life must be lived inside what he called a “plausibility structure” — the social and cultural context that makes religious claims meaningful and convincing.

“Jews are living in a time and space that is not Jewish,” he said. The claims of obligation “are not plausible unless they come in a situation of community.”

I think Eisen has struck on gold here: to me it’s apparent that more orthodox communities have strong continuity — multi-generational communities — not because halakhic lifestyles reinforce strong ties between members, but because meaningful relationships allow halakha to be relevant.

Community-Supported Agriculture projects, like Hazon’s Tuv Ha’Aretz, are ostensibly community building. A gathering of like-minds doing similar labor for a cause might very well be enough to satisfy participants, except that repeatedly the reason people remain in CSAs is, unsurprisingly, the friendship and unity. For the synagogues and JCCs in Tuv Ha’Aretz at least, being involved in a project like feeding their families together and sharing a relationship with their farmer acts to layer tighter webs of connection — and thus strengthening community. Which enables everyone to enjoy their experiment in reframing Jewish tradition.

Indeed, it’s argued that kashrut’s purpose has been to bond Jews tighter together. In this respect, Hazon’s work around bikes, CSAs, the food conference, this here blog, and a soon-to-be-announced day school curriculum are fulfilling the same need that Eisen is addressing. Community, in the end, causes meaningful Jewish tradition and only secondly the other way around.