Your statements in this section have suggested that an Orthodox Jew who doesn t strictly follow Orthodox halakha is a Conservative Jew and that a Conservative Jew who doesn t strictly follow Conservative halakha is a Reform Jew That s simply not the case Every religion has a normative set of rules and some people don t follow them Conservative Judaism isn t a movement for lapsed Orthodox Jews and Reform Judaism isn t a movement for lapsed Conservative Jews These movements are not distinguished by different degrees of observance of Orthodox law they each have their own philosophy of Judaism and how it should be practiced Conservative Judaism has a strict halakha that it believes is a continuation of the rabbinic tradition It expects Conservative Jews to follow that law The fact that many Conservative Jews don t follow the movement s halakha may be notable but it doesn t mean that Conservative Judaism has no halakha You ask if all facets of CJ today claim to be working in the continuation of Rabbinic proccess or not I don t know what you mean by all facets are you referring to members of the Rabbinical Assembly or individual Conservative Jews I don t know that every member of the Rabbinical Assembly is in agreement but the Conservative movement s view is that it is continuing the historical process of rabbinic interpretation and halakhic evolution that has been going on for more than 2000 years Are there some elements within the Conservative rabbinate who don t strictly follow the decisions of the RA Absolutely I m sure that there were Conservative rabbis who were officiating at civil unions before the movement said it was okay I was too young to know but I imagine that some Conservative synagogues may have included women in a minyan before the RA said it was alright And there may be Conservative synagogues that won t include women even if the RA says that they must I don t know but I think that they believe that they are acting within the rabbinic tradition I doubt that any of them is saying Halakha be damned I m going to do whatever I want Yes the Conservative movement by its nature expands the boundaries of their interpetation of the law It calls it evolution and it makes no secret of it Its viewpoint is that Akiva and Hillel and Rambam and every other rabbi in Jewish history has done the same thing until the reactionary Orthodox movement slowed the process to a snail s pace Anyway I think this discussion is going way off track I m sorry for the tone of my earlier comments but saying that Conservative Jews are lapsed Orthodox is offensive Talk contribs PS Regarding Wolpe and his views of the Exodus that s so far afield that I hope you don t mind if I leave my comments on your Talk page