This article examines the varying ways religious devotees utilize, negotiate, embrace, and reject religious authorities in their everyday lives. Ethnographically exploring the ways that Orthodox Jews share reproductive decisions with rabbinic authorities, I demonstrate how some sanctify rabbinic rulings, while others dismiss them, or continue to “shop around” until they find a rabbinic opinion that resonates with their personal desires. These negotiations of religious authority and ethical freedom are worked out across a biographical trajectory, opening new possibilities to explore how religious authority fluctuates and changes over the life course. I argue that analysis of engagement with rabbis without attention to the inner diversity of interpretations and practices perpetuates a hegemonic and overly harmonious picture of religious authority. Highlighting these variations, I show how the process of consultation was more significant than mere submission to religious rulings. Religious consultation, in itself, then constitutes a significant node for making an ethical Jewish life. Attending to these aspects of religious authority has great potential to further develop and contextualize the field of ethical freedom while complicating binary models of submission versus resistance. My approach demonstrates the need to broaden our anthropological tools to better understand the ways individuals share everyday decisions with mediators of authoritative knowledge. [religious authority, ethics, reproduction, gender, Judaism]

中文翻译：

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自己的拉比？在日常犹太教中驾驭宗教权威和道德自由

本文探讨了宗教信徒在日常生活中利用、谈判、接受和拒绝宗教权威的不同方式。从民族志上探索东正教犹太人与拉比当局分享生育决定的方式，我展示了一些人如何使拉比的裁决神圣化，而另一些人则不理会它们，或者继续“货比三家”，直到他们找到与他们个人愿望产生共鸣的拉比意见。这些关于宗教权威和伦理自由的谈判是在一个传记轨迹中进行的，为探索宗教权威如何在生命过程中波动和变化开辟了新的可能性。我认为，在不关注解释和实践的内在多样性的情况下分析与拉比的接触，会使宗教权威的霸权和过度和谐的画面永久化。强调这些差异，我展示了协商过程如何比仅仅服从宗教裁决更重要。宗教咨询本身就构成了建立道德犹太人生活的重要节点。关注宗教权威的这些方面具有很大的潜力，可以进一步发展伦理自由领域并将其背景化，同时使服从与抵抗的二元模型复杂化。我的方法表明有必要扩大我们的人类学工具，以更好地理解个人与权威知识中介分享日常决策的方式。[ 然后构成了建立道德犹太人生活的重要节点。关注宗教权威的这些方面具有很大的潜力，可以进一步发展伦理自由领域并将其背景化，同时使服从与抵抗的二元模型复杂化。我的方法表明有必要扩大我们的人类学工具，以更好地理解个人与权威知识中介分享日常决策的方式。[ 然后构成了建立道德犹太人生活的重要节点。关注宗教权威的这些方面具有很大的潜力，可以进一步发展伦理自由领域并将其背景化，同时使服从与抵抗的二元模型复杂化。我的方法表明有必要扩大我们的人类学工具，以更好地理解个人与权威知识中介分享日常决策的方式。[宗教权威、伦理、生殖、性别、犹太教]