From Ideology to Liturgy: Reconstructionist Worship and American Liberal Judaism (review)

Eric Caplan's exploration of the development of Reconstructionist worship offers the reader some interesting 'behind the scenes' glimpses of process. In fact, those glimpses, rendered through interviews and retrospective insights, tease the reader. The personal tone of the interviews and retrospectives invites the reader to engage in the dilemmas of the formation of a movement. However, Caplan does not explore them well enough to satisfy the tease.

The majority of the book is spent comparing the latest Reconstructionist liturgical text (Kol Haneshamah) with former Reconstructionist liturgy as well as current liturgy from other non-Orthodox Jewish movements. There are many factual errors that permeate the comparison, and though none of these errors are serious enough to negate Caplan's points, they add up to the conclusion that Caplan is not as well versed as a scholar needs to be to make these comparisons.

Stylistically, given the tremendous amount of space devoted to comparative information, Caplan would have greatly benefited from the use of charts and tables. As a resource document, the book would serve its reader better if much of the information were accessible at a glance.

When the book raises the more abstract, philosophical questions surrounding Mordecai Kaplan, the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism and the Reconstructionist philosophy, the reader is struck by Caplan's avoidance of key issues. Caplan's presentation of the concept, or 'process,' of God is never contextualized within a larger Jewish theological discourse. While discussing the concept of praying to a God that is a process rather than an entity, Caplan points out that communal prayer is key because it 'leads to the realization that one can count on others, who have similar strivings.' Caplan never raises a distinction between group therapy and communal prayer.

Generally, the book indulges in far too much elevating of Kaplan and far too little serious critique. Chapter 1 portrays Kaplan as a two-dimensional hero while avoiding some of the complex issues. Caplan brings an example of the removal of the word 'satan' from Kaplan's liturgy in order to avoid confusion. Kaplan feared that the average worshipper, uneducated in the rabbinic concept of 'satan,' might confuse it with the popular culture's concept, and therefore mention of it was removed. Caplan does not raise the complex issue of choosing to edit an ancient text rather than educate your community. The entire section that discusses Kaplan replacing words within Psalms and prayers avoids the question of inserting modern phrases into ancient pieces without properly informing the worshipper.

One of the most glaring statements made by Caplan concerns his assessment of the rabbinic approach. 'Since modern Jews possess historical consciousness and question the supernatural origin of the Torah, the Rabbinic approach is no longer feasible. Continuity must not be based on intellectual deception.' If anything, this statement informs the reader that Caplan is not able to penetrate the complex literary structures and intertextual framework of rabbinic liturgy. To label the entire rabbinic approach as intellectually deceptive is far too dismissive to be informative.

As a general statement of the direction of Reconstructionist liturgy as compared with other movements within Judaism, this book could serve as an overview. It raises interesting questions of translation and presentation of materials. There is also an interesting segment on the comparison of Reconstructionism with Aleph, the Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Caplan raises good observations of commonality as well as social merging that occur between these two schools of thought.

Overall, Caplan's book gives nice moments of personal recollections through the interviews presented but frustrates the reader with too one-sided a presentation of Kaplan and his philosophy. Caution is needed when using the technical chapters to catch the errors, but the final section on Jewish Renewal is a nice projection into future possibilities between Renewal and Reconstructionism.