T. Belman. Christians were excommunicated from the synagogue around 92 AD, not because they believed Jesus was the messiah, but because they rejected the Law. The Reform Movement today also rejects the Law. When founded almost 150 years ago it also rejected the notion of Jewish peoplehood and Zionism. It saw itself as a religion only.
Any Jew born to a Jewish mother is a Jew – period!
I would like to preface the following discussion of Reform Jewry with the following point: Any Jew born to a Jewish mother is a Jew – period!
As the battle over the acceptance of the Reform movement in Israel intensifies, the discussion must take a theological turn in search of the truth. The primary question is: Can we consider the Reform movement a Jewish sect, within the framework of the “70 faces to the Torah”? Or should we categorize the Reform movement as a distinct religion, separate from Judaism?
I want to stress I am not questioning the “Jewishness” of any Jew who might belong to the Reform movement. However, I would like to cast doubt on the legitimacy of that movement’s theology.
If a Jew were to “convert” to Christianity or Hare Krishna, the Torah would still view him/her as a Jew, albeit a bad one. That Jew is still obligated to keep all the commandments and can never escape his true identity. On the flip side of the coin, the “conversion” does not turn the adopted religion into Judaism by virtue of the “conversion.” The same holds true for the Reform movement.
What is Judaism?
If one were to try to encapsulate Judaism in a single sentence, one could choose the verse: “The Torah Moses commanded to us is the legacy of the congregation of Jacob” (Deuteronomy 33:4). This verse is traditionally sung to children from the youngest of ages, to instill within them that the Torah and all of its laws and ordinances are our sacred and eternal responsibility.
Throughout the ages, Jews have tried their best to uphold the Torah and the divine covenant, as we collectively declared at Mount Sinai: “All that God has spoken, we shall do” (Exodus 19:8). However, as I will document, the Reform movement completely denies both the validity and the divinity of the Torah.
What does Reform believe?
I would like to begin by quoting from the “Principles for Reform Judaism,” as they are stated on the website of the Reform rabbinical body, the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
During the 1885 Pittsburgh Conference, the Reform adopted the following stance on Torah observance: “Their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.” Well over 100 years later in 1999, the movement reconvened again in Pittsburgh, but this time adopting a more traditional tone: “[The commandments] demand renewed attention as the result of the unique context of our own times.”
While the Reform movement has certainly softened its language between 1885 and 1999, its essential message has stayed the same: We will pick the commandments that are relevant to our lives, while discarding those that do not find favor in our eyes.
The Torah’s Position
In stark contrast, however, the Torah states that holiness is derived from the eternal observance of all God’s commandments by the Jewish people.
For instance, the Torah commanded the tying of tzitzit (ritual fringes) “throughout their generations…. so that you shall remember and perform all My commandments, and you shall be holy to your God” (Numbers 15:38-40). The Torah also instituted Shabbat as “a sign between Me and you for your generations, to know that I, the Lord, make you holy” (Ex. 31:13-14).
The Torah constantly reminds us that our status as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” is contingent upon the preceding verse: “if you obey Me and keep My covenant” (Ex. 19:5-6). There is no time limit and the Torah is an eternal truth “throughout their generations.”
Reformism and Judaism – not the same thing
Upon further investigating the Reform belief system, its gap with Judaism grows ever wider. Contained within the “Rabbinic Commentary on the Principles for Reform Judaism” are statements that simply defy the Jewish imagination.
Shockingly, the Reform theologians deny even the first words of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord your God” (Ex. 20:2, Deut. 5:6) by stating: “Reform Judaism does not command common belief… including individuals who are not sure whether they believe in God or think that they do not believe in God.”
To make matters worse, after providing space for atheism within their belief system, the Reform clergy turn to undermine the authority of the Almighty. God is referred to as an authoritarian whose commands can be ignored because, “in terms of my present moral or communal understanding, it seems meaningless or even wrong.”
There is no doubt that considering these outrageous statements – among many others – the Reform movement cannot be categorized as a Jewish sect. The Reform could be best described as a non-Jewish movement, comprised and officiated by Jews. Just because Jews have banded together to create a new theology does not make that theology a Jewish one.
Reinvigorating a dying movement at Israel’s expense
It is for this reason that the Chief Rabbinate in Israel and the religious parties in the Knesset are fighting tooth and nail to keep the Reform movement away from the Kotel.
If Israel would give formal recognition to the Reform movement, then why couldn’t Jews for Jesus also demand recognition? After all, their members are Jewish as well, so perhaps their theology should also be seen as legitimate?
It would appear that as the Reform pews and coffers empty out due to mass intermarriage – which is also blatantly against the Torah – the Reform need a cause to stimulate their dying movement. Anat Hoffman, a Reform leader of the Women of the Wall group challenging the status at the Kotel, admitted during a BBC interview back in 2013 that the Kotel battle is really about provoking people to question traditional Judaism.
The Reform clergy would do well to find another cause and leave the Kotel and Israel alone. Furthermore, all of our Jewish brothers and sisters who are members of this new religion called Reform should find their way home and proudly declare: “All that God has spoken, we shall do…. The Torah Moses commanded for us is the legacy of the congregation of Jacob.”
The author made aliyah from the United States and today lives in Tel Aviv and serves as deputy-gabbai of the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv.
This thread seems to have been attacked by two trolls.
@ Felix Quigley:
Felix, you said,
“What gives America or Israel under Netanyahu the right to overthrow Assad.”
If you’re trying to equate the “Syrian people” with the “Jewish people” as the basis for your argument, your argument does not hold. Judaism is based, ultimately, on the Bible (though unlike the Christians, the Jews consider Jewish oral tradition to be part of the Bible). According to the Bible,
Deuteronomy 32:
[8] When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
RAMBAM interprets “according to the number of the children of Israel” as “according to the needs of the Jewish people”. The upshot of it all, is that the boundaries of the nations are ordained by God, in order to accomodate His chosen people. God also described the Jewish people as unlike other nations:
Numbers 23:
[8] How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?
[9] For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
If you want a rational justification for this, it is that the nation of Israel provides a service to the world: It reveals truth to the world, and connects it with the reality of the one true God. Without this connection, the people of the nations would wander aimlessly through life, following their animal instincts.
Every other state religion, up until the establishment of the Israeli people, had only vassalage to offer its citizens; but the Jewish people were ordained to be co-equal with one another before God. The idea that “all men are created equal” is NOT “self-evident”; the world learned it by contact with the Jews. Without knowledge of the God of Israel, mankind is reduced to a hierarchical order similar to that of dogs: It consists of alpha males, beta males, alpha females, etc.
Syria is a good example of a “dog-like” government, established and maintained by fear alone. Israel had a different foundation: It was formed in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people for 1900 years, before David ben Gurion’s declaration of independence; and the seed that planted that state in the Jewish heart was the Bible.
Syria was not founded that way; it was carved out of the Ottoman Empire by the victorious British and French, the way a lion shares the leftovers of a kill with the hyenas.
In direct answer to your question, however, the US and Israel do not have an inherent right to overthrow Assad.
@ Bear Klein: I agree with you, Bear. My remarks were directed only at the Reform leadership circles in the U.S. and Israel, not at the many patriotic Reform Jews in Israel and the many pro-Israel Reform Jews in America, Canada and elsewhere. I think that Israel should adopt the American system whereby any minister of an organized , genuinely existing religious community as well as many civil officials can officiate at a legal marriage ceremony, but only civil authorities can authorize a legal divorce. People should be free to obtain religious divorces according to the rules of their religious community, but these divorces should require civil approval to be valid under civil law. The American system, complete. Israel accords legal recognition to many different churches in Israel, so it should recognize all of the major Jewish religious streams as well. I do think, however, that government grants should be given only to pro-Zionist schools , colleges and other institution,under the auspices of any religious community. That would exclude many Orthodox schools and perhaps some Reform ones as well.
@ Cathy: Cathy–just to further clarify this point. The English-language Israeli press has claimed that at least in the recent past even some public buses that run through some haredi neighborhoods required separate seating areas for men and women–the women in the back of the bus, and men in the front. Some women riders objected to the obvious symbolism of male dominance. Or they simply opposed being limited as to where they could sit. There were also a number of cases reported in the Israeli press of haredi zealots manhandling women physical in order to remove them from the alleged male section in the front of the bus–thereby grossly violating their own rule of not touching unrelated females in an extremely gross manner.
But my main point was that there is no halachic authority whatsoever for segregation of public conveyances–not even those that are privately owned, as many bus and train lines are. At least, no one claim there was any such halichot until roughly twenty years ago. This backs up my view that “Orthodox” Judaism today has little in common with the laws proclaimed by Moses, and everything in common with the socially conservative views of contemporary rabbis who make up their “Torah” and “Halacha” as they go along, on an almost daily basis. So much for “mesora.”
Why does Judaism need to be reformed.?
@ adamdalgliesh:
The most anti-Jewish philosophy is Progressive Liberalism.
There are Jews of all denominations who live in Israel and are Zionists. Many Reform Jews in the USA & Elsewhere are Zionists and supporters of Israel. Yes many Reform Jewish Leaders are leftists and are similar to the far left in Israel where they support Israel but are for a two state solution and against settlements. Some are not friendly to Israel at all.
I hate these positions but I find when one quietly discusses the realities on the ground with some of these leftist Jewish they can be swayed in their positions.
Some Jews no matter how they are labeled practice the customs of Judaism in various degrees.
In Israel it has been found that the Orthodox and Traditional are getting less religious and the “Secular” (Helloni) are getting more religious.
57% Of Israelis want the Reform & Conservative Movement to be officially recognized in Israel and allowed their Rabbis to be able to conduct the same official duties that the Orthodox Rabbis do now in Israel. I concur with this majority viewpoint. In my mind a Jew is Jew no matter what denomination they belong to.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-israelis-increasingly-support-non-orthodox-jewry/
@ adamdalgliesh:
Just to clarify- there is no Israeli law that segregates men and women on buses. The buses and trains are not segregated, with the exception of the religious buses. Everyone has a choice to ride a segregated religious bus or a regular one. The religious buses only run to and from the religious neighborhoods, however, so many Israelis never even see them. About the only laws that are Orthodox are those religious rites and traditions under the authority of the Rabbinut, mostly having to do with marriage. Army service is a contentious issue being dealt with at present.
@ Felix Quigley:
I feel that Jews can fight against Antisemitism which is inevitable inside of the capitalist system of want and unfulfilment, which is obvious and undeniable, by means of giving the lead on this issue of nation. Jews are the pioneers of nation building. I include Syria and its elected leader Assad in this. I think you agree but do not fight for. What gives America or Israel under Netanyahu the right to overthrow Assad.
I have no use for the Reform movement because of its anti-Zionism and alliances with various groups who are hostile to Jews, and because of its indifference to Jewish religious, cultural and national traditions. Where I disagree with the author is in his assumption that Orthodox Jews follow the Torah as it was communicated to us by Moses. That is nonsense. As early as 200 C.E., the authors of the Mishnah admitted that some of their laws were ‘rabbinical ordinances,” not Biblical laws. The ‘orthodox” rabbis have continued to ad new rules and ordinances that they demand that other Jews observe, that have no Biblical basis whatsoever. Through the years, and continuing to this day, Orthodox Jews openly flout many of the Biblical laws that the scriptures say were communicated to us by Moses. They are no more ‘orthodox” than Reform if by Orthodoxy we mean the laws of Moses
The government of Israel should support all ancient Jewish customs and traditions, whether they are Biblical commandments, or just traditions that go back at least 1,500 years to the Talmudic age. It should refuse to impement “Orthodox” “laws” that are of very recent origin, such as the segregation of women on public transportation (goes back maybe 20 years). This “law” did not exist for hundreds of years when public transportation was already common, and Jews of both sexes sat together on stage coaches, trains, buses, and airplanes. And there are numerous other such “rabbinical ordinances”of very recent origin, including some that are not accepted by Orthodox rabbis in the diaspora.
The Israeli government should show a generalized respect for Jewish tradition, while limiting the secular powers of the Israeli rabbinate, defunding the anti-Zionist “haredi” Jewish religious institutions, insisting that all Jews of military age, religious or secular, serve in the armed forces, and cutting off lifetime pensions for religious students, or alleged students, who are able to work and hold down a paying job. Only religious Zionist institutions and schools should receive government support. And the government should steer clear of taking theological positions.
@ Ted Belman:
Felix said,
“(Aaronovich) …says that he as a Jew was an immigrant so support the immigrants that is Muslim Sharia takeover…what do you think of this?”
From what Felix said, this Aaronovich fellow supports the Muslim takeover of the UK, because he, having once been an immigrant himself, is duty-bound to do so for his Muslim immigrant “brother”. This narrative is being broadcast in the US as well, with Public Television specials about how we are a “country of immigrants” and therefore should bend over backwards to allow foreigners to take us over.
That’s how I understand what Felix is directly asking about. I don’t know WHY he asked it, seeing that you have been very clear that you do not support unlimited freedom of migration. Perhaps it was rhetorical, in which case, I also am a little befuddled.
Felix Quigley Said:
Well, the Commie Russkies and Islamic Iranian Jihadists are fighting for Syria. You are known for who and what your friends are Felix. 600K men women and children dead hundreds of thousands wounded and millions displaced…. This is a gov and country you want to support? You are one sick Commie puppy Felix.
@ Felix Quigley:
I do not understand what you said.
@ Felix Quigley:
The first part of this video shows an English working class man confronting the Establishment on a BBC programme. The part that interests me is David Aaronovich stepping in and telling the man something about perception is not the truth and says that he as a Jew was an immigrant so support the immigrants that is Muslim Sharia takeover…what do you think of this?
I want my country back!” Angry Man LOSES IT with BBC Host
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbVxr3IOFs
“Christians were excommunicated from the synagogue around 92 AD, not because they believed Jesus was the messiah, but because they rejected the Law. The Reform Movement today also rejects the Law. When founded almost 150 years ago it also rejected the notion of Jewish peoplehood and Zionism. It saw itself as a religion only.”
Very important. leads to nation surely. This leads into contemporary political situation where Trump defends nation.
What about Assad and nation of Syria Ted. You seem to break your own definition by not fighting for Syrian nation also.
@ yamit82:
That was well put.
The Jewish people is a religio-nation, meaning that it is a people that consists of two coexistent and intertwined components: Ethnicity and Religion. Consequently, the Jewish people constitutes both an ethnic nation and a faith community. However, the former component of Jewish peoplehood is involuntary and immutable, while the latter component thereof is voluntary and mutable.
It is a unique collective, in that it is the only religio-nation born in Antiquity that, despite being dispersed throughout much of the World for the greater part of its history, continues to exist Today.
The Jewish people is comprised of:
(1) the descendants of:
(a) the eponymous Hebrew tribe of Judah, and
(b) the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin — the descendants of the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin being the product of collective intermarriage between the surviving male members of the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin and some female members of the Hebrew tribes of Manasseh (from the City of Jabesh-Gilead) and Ephraim (from the City of Shiloh) (see Judges 21:1-23), and
(c) the Hebrew tribe of Levi, which (per the deathbed declaration of Jacob in Genesis 49:5-7, per God’s Declaration in Numbers 18:20-24 and per the lottery conducted by Joshua for that tribe in Joshua 21:1-40) was not allocated a separate tribal territory within the Land of Israel, but was instead allocated 48 cities located throughout the Land, including within the territory of the tribe of Judah (see Joshua 21:4 & 21:9-16), and
(d) the Hebrew tribe of Simeon, which (per the deathbed declaration of Jacob in Genesis 49:5-7 and per the lottery conducted by Joshua for that tribe in Joshua 19:1) was allocated a separate tribal territory completely enclosed with the territory of the tribe of Judah; and
(2) those Gentiles who have converted to Judaism and their Jewish progeny.
Although not an ethnic Jew, a Gentile nonetheless becomes part of the Jewish people by joining the latter’s faith community (i.e., acceptance of the God of Israel and the Truth of His Torah) and by simultaneously self-identifying as a Jew. This two-component formula for becoming part of the Jewish people was first uttered by Ruth, the Moabite ancestress of biblical Israel’s King David (and of the future Messiah):
“And [widowed] Ruth said [to her widowed mother-in-law Naomi], ‘Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back from following after you; for, where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people are my people, and your God is my God.’” (Ruth 1:16)
The ethnic-religious duality of Jewish identity means — uniquely — that an ethnic Jew who later repudiates Judaism (or even the Existence of God) nonetheless continues to be part of the Jewish people, as such an apostate nonetheless remains an ethnic Jew. This duality distinguishes Jews from Christians, Muslims and adherents of other religions, precisely because the latter lack a unifying ethnic component (i.e., the latter are merely followers of a religion, not members of a religio-nation). So, while the Jewish apostate may continue to be identified (and to self-identify) as a Jew, the Christian apostate and the Muslim apostate can no longer be identified (or self-identify), respectively, as a Christian and a Muslim.
Although intermarriage between members of the Hebrew tribes and Gentiles is prohibited by the Torah (see Deuteronomy 7:3-4) and, consequently, also by normative Judaism, when such a union does happen a question arises as to whether the offspring thereof is to be recognized as a Jew. In such a case, the Orthodox branch of Judaism (which, until several hundred years ago, constituted the entirety of Judaism) has traditionally recognized as a Jew the child of a Jewish mother (i.e., matrilineal descent), but not the child of a Jewish father (i.e., patrilineal descent).
There are essentially two kinds of Jews:
1. Those who think there are two kinds of Jews, and
2. Those who don’t.