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CHAPTER IX CRITIQUE OF THE REFORMIST VERSION OF JUDAISM A serious attempt to save Judaism by reckoning with the realities-Reformism incapable of holding the Jews or eliciting spiritual creativity-The attempt to reduce Judaism to a religious philosophy a mi~take---The attributes Judaism ascribes to GodThe ethical implications of the God-idea too vague to constitute a basis for a mission -The claim that the Jews possess a hereditary genius for religion highly questionable ---Reformism's repudiation of Israel's nationhood unwarranted-A handful of ceremonies and moral precepts a poor substitute for Torah. No fair-minded opponent of Reformism would venture to assert that it has been a complete failure. Judging the movement objectively , one must admit that it has prevented thousands of Jews in western Europe and America from severing all connections with their people. Many, who would otherwise have found Judaism entirely incompatible with modern thought and superfluous in a world which teems with opportunities for idealistic self-expression, have been enabled to discover in it an unsuspected plasticity which rendered it capable of meeting the requirements of the complex age in which we live. Reformism has, no doubt, offered a practical alternative to many honest but distraught Jews who otherwise would have been forced to choose between an anomalous adherence to the past and a complete abandonment of Judaism. It has eased the well-nigh fatal pressure of the forces released by the enlightenment and the emancipation. For this relief alone, it deserves the gratitude of those who, wishing to see Judaism live, realize that the first step must be to prevent Jewish life from being stampeded. This Reformism has done. Nor is it fair to assert that Reformism is governed mainly by expediency 1 and motivated solely by the desire to occidentalize the Jew. We must judge a movement not by its camp followers but by its leaders. The first sponsors of the Reformist movement undoubtedly proceeded from deep conviction, true courage, and a fine sense of spiritual values when they recognized and acknowledged in the intellectual and moral aspirations of the age a more depend108 CRITIQUE OF REFORMIST VERSION 109 able revelation of God than in the uninterpreted teachings of tradition . Whether that attitude to modern intellectual and social tendencies be warranted or not, such at least are the traits one expects of those upon whom devolves spiritual leadership in times of rapid social and cultural change. To subject Judaism to a process of unsparing revision in the light of the modern ideology required on the part of the pioneers of the movement a more than ordinary faith in its worth. We must remember that they were no longer upheld by the sustaining conviction of the Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages, that Judaism was of supernatural origin and, therefore, could not possibly be superseded by any truth that man might discover. In accordance with this conviction, the medieval philosophers had only to read into Judaism any newly discovered truth. But such procedure was impossible for the pioneers of Reformism. Reform;sts like Holdheim , Geiger, and Samuel Hirsch had to feel convinced of the permanent worth of Judaism, independently of the belief in its supernatural origin. This means that they had to reformulate the traditional values in terms of contemporary needs. The chief significance of the Reformist movement lies in the fact that it represents a deliberate and purposeful effort in social and spiritual adjustment . While natural selection may be depended upon to operate in the world of nature, it is man's prerogative to speed improvement by the use of his intelligence. Yet in the field of human and cosmic relationships man seldom avails himself of that prerogative. This is all the more reason why Jews should feel indebted to the Reformist movement for having substituted in Judaism the method of intelligent direction for that of aimless drifting. Another important contribution is the renewal of the prophetic emphasis upon the ethical aspect of Judaism. In the struggle for existence waged by the Jewish people throughout the centuries, no opportunity for translating the prophetic ideals into a program of Jewish life ever presented itself. Ritualism, purified, to be sure, of its pagan connotations, continued to possess a degree of importance far beyond its intrinsic value. From the traditional or rabbinic point of view, the ethical values are regarded as indispensable, but are not granted the primacy accorded them by the prophets. Regardless of theory, ritualism acquired a dominant place in practice by...

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