Question:
What is the difference between Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and
Reform Judaism?
Answer:
I may be the wrong person to answer this question. Because,
personally, I don't believe there are any "isms" in being Jewish. There are just
Jews, our Torah, and our willingness to do it.
However, I'll try to give an objective description of what these "isms" mean in
practical terms:
All the way up until the 19th century, there were just Jews. We kept the
halachah -- which means the rabbinical interpretation of the rules and guidelines of the
Torah -- and kept a steady tradition for 3,000 years since Sinai. If some
individual or group went astray from halachah, they were generally estranged from the Jewish people.
Then came Reform. They said, "Things are changing. We are smarter now. We know
there is no need to keep kosher, Shabbat, circumcision or believe in a return to
Zion." In Germany, they said, "Berlin is our Jerusalem." In America, it was
Washington.
Then came Conservative. They said, "These Reform rabbis have gone too far. We
need to conserve some of the basic traditions of Judaism." So they revived a
form of kosher eating, Shabbat and circumcision. And they weren't so convinced
about the Washington thing.
The Jews who did not go along with any of this were labeled "Orthodox." They never
asked for it, but that's what they got called. Personally, I cannot see myself
as orthodox, since I think of my Jewishness as something very radical and, well,
unorthodox.
I also don't see the point in reforming my Jewishness. I would much rather my
Jewishness reform me. After all, all these things that the fathers of reform saw
as obsolete back then have now come back into fashion and are rising in
popularity every day. The number of kosher foods on the market, for example,
rose by about 2000% in the last ten years. As for Jerusalem, well that's pretty
obvious. The Reform movement had to make a sharp about-turn in 1948.
Now, I'll bet I've provoked more questions than I've answered. But that's okay. Because
that's part of what being Jewish is about -- thinking out of the box and asking
questions.
