RABJMS

Most of the blog will contain thoughts on religion in general,and Judaism in particular. It will also contain travelogues.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Judaism in general, and some expressions of reform Judaism,

To begin with, there is no such thing as a religion called Judaism. Actually, Judaism is a civilization, in which religion is one of its many dimensions. Within its religious area we find a number of mutually exclusive belief systems that are institutionalized or entitled as follows: Orthodoxy, Conservatism, Reform, Reconstructionism, and Humanism.
Orthodoxy is based on the premise of a creator deity who has a will and has the capacity to communicate that will to humankind. That capacity was executed at a moment in time, namely Sinai, and its content is the Hebrew Scriptures. It is therefore perfect and immutable. Further, orthodoxy is committed to the belief that there is an authoritative body of interpreters of that revelation, namely the orthodox rabbinate.
Reform is based on the premise that The Hebrew Scriptures were developed over a period of time, and that they were shaped by human beings and therefore not authoritative. We see Scripture as the poetry of faith, and not its prose.
The conservative movement is actually the youngest of the three. Its position is that reform went too far, and it attempts to find a middle ground.
Reconstructionism is based on the premise that Judaism is a peoplehood, and that God is part of the natural order of things.
There is also secular Judaism, and many of its adherents belong to Jewish community centers, organizations such as B’nai B’rith, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, various Zionist organizations, Yiddish-ist organizations that are openly atheistic (like the Workman’s Circle, an atheist, Zionist, socialist group that was very active at the turn of the century, but still has a few members today), and I could go on for pages.

Some choose orthodoxy (in Judaism and elsewhere). Some choose polydoxy. The choice is determined by our epistemology. In other words, what we decide truth is will determine our theology.
One of the founders of quantum mechanics was said to have made the observation that the opposite of a shallow truth is false, but the opposite of a deep truth is also true. This leads me to believe that all we have is uncertainty, and that therefore, each of us must follow our own course.
I know that response is not satisfactory to my Orthodox Jewish friends, and to other orthodox religionists. Let us continue to disagree as members of a wonderful human family that has been the wellspring of so much intellectual debate in circles both religious and secular.
You see, I begin with the premise that rather than people being here to serve the needs of religion, religion is here to serve the needs of people. Reform Judaism meets my needs. It gives me the opportunity to shape my own Judaism, basing it on my own response to the Jewish past, my own interpretation in the present, and the excitement of being able to pass it on to the future of my children and grandchildren.
I am not limited by halachah. I see it as a wonderful creative process by which the rabbis of the Talmudic period were able to create an intellectual bloodless revolution, destroying the authority of the priesthood, and enabling Judaism to become a religion that was portable, and not merely one that was restricted to a limited geographic area. It is a part of the warp and woof of the tapestry of Jewish history, and enabled subsequent intellectual revolutions within Judaism to occur.

Why am I a Jew? Because I choose to attach myself to my birthright.

Why am I a Jew? Because I choose to a part of a people that has trod the long path of history, and given to the world the social values of the Hebrew prophets.

Why am I a Jew? Because I choose to pass those values on to my children and grandchildren.

Why am I a Jew? Because I want to make certain that the history of our people will not die.

Why am I a Reform Jew? Because I believe that the Jewish literary/historical continuum has values that are beneficial to all humanity.

Why am I a Reform Jew? Because I believe in the principle of philosophical/theological freedom of belief.

I am a Reform Jew because its intellectual voice calls me to be creative and imaginative in my practice, and its prophetic voice calls me to do battle for social justice.

I love being a Reform Jew because as a movement we are in favor of equal rights for women; we support a woman’s individual reproductive choice, we support equality, both social and legal, for our gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters (including officiating at commitment ceremonies for them); we helped to create child labor laws and trade unionism; we have opposed the Viet Nam war, capital punishment, and the proliferation of guns in our society. We have marched arm in arm with Martin Luther King, and have supported Israel even when we have disagreed with its government’s policies.

I love being a Reform Jew because as a movement we are in favor of equal rights for women; we support a woman’s individual reproductive choice, we support equality, both social and legal, for our gay and Lesbian brothers and sisters (including officiating at commitment ceremonies for them); we helped to create child labor laws and trade unionism; we have opposed the Viet Nam war, capital punishment, and the proliferation of guns in our society. We have marched arm in arm with Martin Luther King, and have supported Israel even when we have disagreed with its government’s policies.
I am a Reform Jew because its intellectual voice calls me to be creative and imaginative in my practice, and its prophetic voice calls me to do battle for social justice.