Entries posted under "Jewish Q&A"

Jewish Rituals in Reform Judaism

 

The Reform Movement started in Western Europe after the Enlightenment.  It's initial platform was basically "discarding" those elements of "Eastern European tribal" Judaism that it found "too ethnic", and stating clearly that they did not believe that the Torah was the "literal word of G-d" (they claimed--as I would--that it was divinely-inspired, but created by humans--therefore it can be changed).  Many many rituals were eliminated because the Reform Jews felt that these rituals (such as t'fillin and keeping kosher) were being observed without their ethical backgrounds and, in fact, were distracting Jews from the ethical basis of their tradition.  Orthodox Judaism then formed to oppose Reform.  Once Reform came to America and strongly took hold, Conservative Judaism formed from a group of Reform Jews who thought that Reform Judaism had "gone too far" and wanted to "conserve" some of the traditions.  World War II sent the vast majority of American Reform & Conservative Jews into "hiding from their ethnicity".  "Jewish in the home and American on the streets" became a mantra.  They went to synagogue on Friday nights or Saturday mornings just like their Protestant neighbors went to church on Sundays.  But things like wearing yamulkes, tallit, t'fillin, keeping kosher, etc were "off the radar screen"

This description really was the characterization of Reform Judaism until the 1960s.  In the 1950s and 60s, huge numbers of Reform Jews--because of their steadfast commitment to ethics and human rights--participated actively in the Civil Rights movement.  As a wonderful "byproduct", these Reform Jews learned from the African-American Civil Rights leaders that they--as Jews--could be proud of their ethnicity and heritage.  Since then, Jewish ritual traditions such as daily prayer, tallit, t'fillin, etc have been "reclaimed" and are becoming more and more widely used by Reform Jews--though not usually because they think of them as "G-d's law", but rather because they "find meaning in Jewish tradition".  Ultimately, all of this goes back to Judaism’s concept of a "bilateral covenant" where humans have authority and responsibility as well--it's not just a matter of us "doing G-d's will" literally--we have both the right and the obligation to interpret how "G-d's will" is manifest in us individually and each generation.