American Reform Judaism: An Introduction

Chapter 2: An Introduction to Reform Jewish Belief

27 Chapter 2 The prophetic declaration of Ethical Monotheism bound Judaism to the doctrine of responsible human freedom. So long as there were many gods, conflict was inevitable and order in human events was unthinkable. Zeus could, and often did, upset the plans of other deities. A unique God, the Creator of heaven and earth, substituted cosmos for chaos, and made possible the free moral relationship between Himself and man. God and man are voluntarily covenanted, each possessed of freedom and responsibility. —levi a. olan, 1965 From all over the world and with many different backgrounds, most Jews—at least until recently—believed and believe in Judaism as a religion .1 So while Judaism is not the religion of a single ethnic or racial group, the Jews are a people who have one religion, and that is Judaism. Until the dawn of the modern era, that Judaism was defined in rigid terms that corresponded to the medieval attitudes of the dominant Christians or Muslims, depending on where a Jew lived. Medieval Judaism accepted Jewish law as binding because God had given both the written and oral Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Jewish thinkers explained that Judaism believed in God, Torah, and Israel and that these three categories formed the native categories of the religion. God gave the Torah through Moses to Israel, that is, to the Jewish people. As the chosen people, Israel accepted special obligations incorporated into the corpus of halacha, Jewish law. This law included regulations An Introduction to Reform Jewish Belief 28 american reform judaism governing all aspects of daily life, not only aspects that we would see as “religious” but also activities ranging from how one should wake up in the morning to what one could eat at dinner. This relatively homogenous medieval Judaic world began to fall apart as Jews were emancipated in European countries and as Enlightenment philosophy influenced more and more people. Reform Judaism differs from the other streams of Judaism in its view of the Torah’s authority, its approach to legal reasoning, its strategies for promoting Judaism, and its view of the world. On a theological level, traditionalists believe that the Torah is God’s will, that the commandments in the five books of Moses are binding on all Jews; this belief in divine authority imposes narrow parameters on legitimate legal reasoning.. In contrast, Reform Jewish thinkers accept a wide variety of interpretations concerning how revelation occurred and what it means in today’s world. In terms of legal reasoning, Reform Judaism rejects Jewish law as binding. Elements of that law may be practiced, but only if the particular ceremony provides spiritual meaning . The Reform movement believes that the Torah should be interpreted and reinterpreted to meet the needs of the contemporary Jew. The traditionalist vigorously rejects this relativistic approach: The religious structure of Judaism is not simply a modern social construct, but literally the word of God. Reform Judaism sees the Jewish religion as a theological system that can help modern Jews understand the world. Most Reform Jews interpret the essential myths of Judaism as elaborate metaphors designed to help us create and transmit a sense of “cosmos.”2 God, Torah, and Israel Judaism, like other Western monotheistic faiths, believes in the existence of one God. According to the tradition, an eternal covenant was made between God and the people of Israel. The Torah, the Hebrew Bible, is the cornerstone of the religious wisdom of the Jewish people. This emphasis on Torah led to a focus on learning that has dominated the Jewish faith for at least two thousand years. God is the transcendent divine being who exists beyond the limits of human knowledge. God is the most powerful force in the universe and the creator of all life. Genesis describes the process of creation and while traditional Jews Reform Jewish Belief 29 may not necessarily believe that the world was created in six days, they do believe that God created the world and continues to guide everything that happens on earth. Reform Jews pride themselves on their commitment to rational thought and therefore accept that science explains how the universe was born. Nevertheless, most Reform Jews believe that God created the world and continues to be involved in an ongoing process of creation. This is not seen as a contradiction, since they believe that the laws of science carry out God...