Talk:Criticism of Judaism/criticism of traditional Judaism

Introduction

This sub-page is a compilation of sources that cover proposed content. The proposed content documents criticisms aimed at traditional Judaism (which, in this context, generally means Judaism as it existed in 19th century Europe). The criticisms were made primarily (but not exclusively) by members of the Reform Movement in Judaism (sometimes called the "Emancipation movement").

Background of conflict between movements / cultures

Many of the criticisms arose during the 19th century when the reform movement first started to diverge from traditional Judaism. Criticisms went both ways.

• "The polemics between Orthodox, as the traditionalists came to be called, and the Reformers were fierce. The Orthodox treated Reform as rank heresy, as no more than a religion of convenience which, if followed, would lead Jews altogether out of Judaism. The Reformers retorted that, on the contrary, the danger to Jewish survivial was occasioned by the Orthodox who, through their obsurantism, failed to see that the new challenges facing Judaism had to be faced consciously in the present as Judaism had faced, albeit unconsciously, similar challenges in the past." - The Jewish religion: a companion Louis Jacobs, p. 4

• "A number of noteworthy features distinguish this [Reform movement] from preceding cultures [traditional Judaism], features which are directed with polemical trenchancy against these predecessors.... A ferment of revolt against the established order of Jewish tradition ..." Seven Jewish Cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 167.

• "[The reform movement] divided the Rabbinic world into adversary camps which fought each other with extraordinary zeal by means of endless mutual bans and anathemas, acrimonious polemics, and bitter abuse...." Seven Jewish Cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 172

• "The 'Judaism' that so antagonized the [Reform movement] was not of the Biblical variety ... but Talmudism, Rabbinism, Kabbalah, and Hassidism... In the beginning, a wide chasm separated the Orthodox and Liberals." Seven Jewish Cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 177

• "As the Geiger-Tiktin conflict resulted in establishing intracommunal institutional lines between Reform and Orthodox, so did it lead to a clarification of the theoretical differences between the two factions. In the first volumes of his scholarly periodical Geiger had begun to lay down the philosophy of Judaism ... It was attacked by the champions of tradition and defended by Geiger's supporters. " Response to modernity: a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism Michael A. Meyer p. 112

• "Orthodox polemics against Reform in Germany displayed a remarkable consistency throughout the nineteenth century.... Orthodox opposition to Liberal Judaism addressed and vehemently denounced Reform departures from traditional Jewish practices and the perceived deviance of Liberal ideologues in matters of doctrine and belief as well." After emancipation: Jewish religious responses to modernity by David Harry Ellenson p. 182

• "Hillel Halkin ... argued in Letters to an American Friend: A Zionist's Polemic that ... the Judaism of the Conservative and Reform movements was a 'pathetic charade', an 'insipid seven-layer substitute' for traditional Judaism". - A Time for Healing: American Jewry Since World War II Edward S. Shapiro p. 164

• "The disagreements between Hirsch and Geiger and their respective followers found expression in polemics as bitter as those between modernists and traditionalists. From the literature it is clear that underlying the debate about observance and ceremonies is a genuine theological difference and, for once, an issue of belief. " An introduction to Judaism Nicholas Robert p. 73

• "There is at present a rent in Judaism which affects its very life, and which no covering, however glittering, can repair. The evil which threatens to corrode gradually all the healthy bone and marrow must be completely eradicated, and this can be done only if, in the name and in the interest of the religion, we remove from the sphere of our religious life all that is corrupt and untenable, and solemnly absolve ourselves from all obligations toward it in the future; thus we may achieve the liberation of Judaism for ourselves and for our children, so as to prevent the estrangement from Judaism. " - The Reform Movement in Judaism-David Philipson (quoting David Einhorn) p. 481

Criticisms

The criticisms tend to fall into a few groups:

• 1) Criticisms asserting that the Torah's laws are not strictly binding
• 2) Criticisms asserting that many ceremonies and rituals were not necessary
• 3) Criticisms asserting that Rabbincal leadership is too authoritarian
• 4) Criticisms asserting that there was too much superstition
• 5) Criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism led to isolation from other communities
• 6) Criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism over-emphasized the exile

Sources that discuss those six categories of criticisms are discussed in more detail in the numbered sections below

(1) Criticisms asserting that the Torah's laws are not strictly binding

• "Abraham Geiger ... stressed the belief in progress: the Bible and Talmud represent an early, primitive stage in a revelation that is still continuing. Many traditional ceremonies (such as circumcision) are distressing to modern sensibility or incompatible with modern life... Geiger become increasingly convinced of the need to 'dethrone the Talmud'... " An introduction to Judaism Nicholas Robert, p. 73

• "According to [Mordecai] Kaplan, the Jewish heritage, including the belief in God, must be reinterpreted so that it will be consistent with the intellectual outlook of the twentieth century. The Torah, which is Jewish civilization in practice, must be given a new functional interpretation." Judaism faces the twentieth century: a biography of Mordecai M. Kaplan, Mel Scult, p. 341

• "Liberation from the yoke of exile was connate with the notion of liberation from the yoke of Torah and Jewish communal unity. Hence the call for ... separation between church and state, and authority for minimal organized religion." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 173

• "Many perferred the 'religion of the heart', private worship, or the 'natural truths', ethics based on reason over the observance of practical precepts and community laws." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 174

• "... Spinoza committed the heresy of advocating the abrogation of the Torah. Subsequently, in the 19th century, Reform ideologists held that the abrogation of parts of the traditional Torah was not a heresy at all but was necessary for the progress of the Jewish religion. Similarly, many intellectuals and nationalists held that it was necessary for the progress of the Jewish nation. Ahad Ha-Am called for the Torah of the Heart to replace the Torah of Moses and of the rabbis, which having been written down, had, in his opinion, become rigid and ossified in the process of time." The Blackwell reader in Judaism, chapter 12 "The Doctrine of Torah" by Jacob Neuser, p. 172

• "The secularization of life [by the reform movement] stemmed from the view that Holy Scriptures were no longer .. where eternal salvation were to be sought. The Enlightment [i.e. the Reform movement] marks the beginning of textual criticism., and the end of faith in .. miracles, providence, and the traditional reward and punishment..." Seven Jewish cultures p. 173

• "Liberal rationalism [of the Reform movement] critically questioned the reasons for the commandments... Judaism's practical precepts (the 'ritus') were increasingly discarded in favor of its moral code ('the ethos'). The ramparts protecting traditional Judaism were dismantled..." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 175

• "Israel drew within herself, shunned the world, and lived apart. In her seclusion her religion became her all. The interpretation of the Law and the constuction put upon the commandments tended toward the upholding of the letter rather than the spirit. ... Reform was born to protect the spirit of the Law, to place the spirit above the letter, to make the latter subservieint to the former.... The abolition of those forms and ceremonies that were not conducive to proper living, or that had, by reason of altered environment, become meaningless, was of the highest importance to the spiritual welfare of Israel." The rise and progress of reform Judaism: , Myer Stern, p. 5.

(2) Criticisms asserting that many ceremonies and rituals are not necessary

• "Many perferred the 'religion of the heart', private worship, or the 'natural truths', ethics based on reason over the observance of practical precepts and community laws. They attacked the community' leadership and power strucutre. In vain the Rabbis protested that the Torah forbade innovation. ... Even the Rabbinic homiletic literature of the time depticted Rabis with unprecedented harshness: as rapacious and dishonest, toadying to the rich, and immersed in vanities... Judaism, many felt, was trapped in a dark impasse, while 'Europe' was a spacious and luminous world." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 174

• "Reform Judaism rejected the concept of Divine revelation, and ... the law is considered instructional and inspirational but not binding, ... and by eliminating many ritual practices..." - Living Judaism: the complete guide to Jewish belief, tradition, and practice By Wayne D. Dosick p. 62

• "Reform Judaism first took hold in Germany in the early nineteenth century. This tradition asserts that many of the ritualistic practices and dogmas of the past are outmoded..... Reform Jews assumed a prerogative to choose which Biblical laws were worthy of their allegiance and which were not.... Orthodox Jews adhere to a literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and continue to observe all the traditional Jewish laws... Conservative Jews ... were ... less likely than the Orthodox to accept the infallibilty of sacred texts asserting that 'the divine origin of Jewish law ... [was subject] to human development and application'". - Fathoming the Holocaust: a social problems approach Ronald J. Berger, p. 179-180

• "4. We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation." - Pittsburgh Platform

• "from this viewpoint [Reform viewpoint] there followed the idea that the dietary laws, for example, had played an important role in assuring Jewish survival in the past but could now be a hindrance in that they frustrated social relations between Jews and Gentiles." - The Jewish religion: a companion by Louis Jacobs, p. 4

• "... B. Felsenthal, afterwards the first rabbi of the newly formed congregation, addressed the company on the object of the society. In the course of his remarks he said : "How can the abuses which have crept into our religion be corrected? We must separate the eternal and indestructible kernel of Judaism from its tattered encasings, must remove the antiquated notions, and make the service fruitful and intelligible by the use of a language understood by alL Not two per cent of the members of any Jewish congregation are sufficiently conversant with the Hebrew language to invest the service with dignity or to clothe it with intelligibility; the whole service has been degraded to the level of a dead formula. . ." - The Reform Movement in Judiasm David Philipson, p. 471-472

• " the Judaism of the synagogue had degenerated into a lifeless formalism ; the forms, customs, and ceremonies had usurped the place of the essentials; the public service consisted of an endless recitation of frequently unintelligible liturgical pieces, and was marked by such noise and indecorum as consorted ill with the spirit of devotion ; there was nothing to attract one to whom religion meant something more than the slavish observance of traditional forms which however religiously significant they may once have been, had lost much of their former power to impress. He felt that there must be some middle way between the contemptuous attitude of the so-called enlightened class towards Judaism and the official expression of the faith from which the living breath had departed, leaving only the dry bones. " - The Reform Movement in Judaism David Phillipson (describing Israel Jacobson), p. 19-20.

• "...in the view of rabbinical Judaism every command of the written law in the Pentateuch (Torah sh'bikthab), and of the oral law (Torah sh'b'al peh), as codified in the Shulchan Aruk, is equally binding. The ceremonial law has equal potency with the religious and moral commands. Reform Judaism, on the other hand, claims that a distinction must be made between the universal precepts of religion and morality and the enactments arising from the circumstances and conditions of special times and places. Customs and ceremonies must change with the varying needs of different generations. Successive ages have their individual requirements for the satisfaction of the religious nature. No ceremonial law can be eternally binding. " - The Reform Movement in Judaism David Phillipson, p. 5-6.

(3) Criticisms asserting that Rabbincal leadership is too authoritarian

• "A ferment of revolt against the established order of Jewish tradition had existed ever since the expulsion from Spain.... The move toward worldliness, toward abolition of the Rabbinic stranglehold, became even stronger after Sabbatai Zvi failed to vanquish Satan with his esoteric wisdom." Seven Jewish cultures: a reinterpretation of Jewish history and thought Ephraim Shmueli, p. 168

• ".. the immense authoritarian power of the orthodox Rabbis and Hasidic Zadikkim in the traditionalist communities ... As a result, there was open conflict between the rebellious youth .. and the religious establishment.... This was the context in which a virulent 'anti-clericalism' developed among progressive Jewish intellectuals, leaving countless evidence in the shape of polemical articles, autobiographical works, and imaginative literature." - Redemption and utopia: Jewish libertarian thought in Central Europe : a study in elective affinity, Michael Löwy, p. 45

• "[Reform Judaism was] originally founded as a response by Jewish laity to the percieved authoritarian rigidity of traditional or Orthodox Judaism and its rabbis." - The encyclopedia of religion and war, Gabriel Palmer-Fernández, p. 253

• "The 'Judaism' that so antagonized the Emancipation [reform] culture was ... Talmudism and Rabbinism.... Both [ Isaak Markus Jost and Heinrich Graetz ] condemned the Rabbinic rule and reviled Kabbalah and Hassidism." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 177

• "Liberation from the yoke of exile was connate with the notion of liberation from the yoke of Torah and Jewish communal unity. Hence the call for ... separation between church and state, and authority for minimal organized religion." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 173

• "The Emancipation culture challenged two still very influential antecident cultures, the Rabbinic and Mystic cultures... Its adheretents sought liberation from the Torah's yoke, from the entire legal and spiritual "particularism" of the ghetto. The Talmud was cast aside and the Prophets and the Psalms came into gerat favor. The community's jurisdiction was equated with that of a sectarian church., consequently unfit to adminsister the authority that was the rightful charge . The suppression of that autonomous individuation, which the Rabbinic culture had so cherished, would effect the free and happy spiritual unveiling of the Jews' singular qualities ...." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 174

• "They [reformers] attacked the community' leadership and power structure. In vain the Rabbis protested that the Torah forbade innovation. ... Even the Rabbinic homiletic literature of the time depticted Rabis with unprecedented harshness: as rapacious and dishonest, toadying to the rich, and immersed in vanities..." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 174

• " Rabbis were no longer entitled to their traditional rold as judges and definitive interpreters of Halachah [in reform communites], but functioned merely as preachers, teachers, and dayanim in ritual matters..." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 172

• "Mosaism and rabbinic Judaism were appropriate for earlier ages, [Kohler] argued. But the age of man's maturity called for freedom from the letter, from blind authority, 'from all restriction which curb the minds and encroach upon the hearts'. The contemporary Jew had 'outgrown the guiding strings ... of infancy'; he was ready to walk on his own. What he required was not law, but a 'living Judaism', both enlightened and pious, appealling to reason and emotion." Response to modernity: a history of the Reform Movement in Judaism by Michael A. Meyer p. 267

• "There is a fatal split among Jews, first, because religious tenets and institutions have been kept forcibly on a level of a vanished era, and not permeated with the divine breath of refreshing life, while life itself hurried forward stormily; and secondly, because the religious leaders, lacking all knowledge of the world and of men, dreamed of other times and conditions, and held themselves aloof from the life of the new generation - hence resulted a superficial rationalism, inimical to all positive and historical faith, side by side with a rigid, unreasoning formalism". - The Reform Movement in Judiasm, David Philipson (quoting Abraham Kohn, rabbi of Hohemems in Tirol); p. 93-95

(4) Criticisms asserting that there was too much superstition

• "The Emancipation culture reverberates with caustic polemics against Rabbis and Kabbalists immersed in a world of visions, miracles, and idle superstition." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 174

• "The belief in Messianic redemption through miracles is shunted beyond the bounds of expectation, and is even derided [by the Reform movement]...." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 169

(5) Criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism leads to isolation from other communities

• "Emancipation implied the breakdown of the Jews' millennial social and cultural isolation ... It was said for the first time in European history the Jews could participate in non-Jewish culture without the stigma of apostacy".

• "Sociologically, the way of life of halakhic Judaism vouchsafed Jewry to an unambiguously distinct ... identity - an identity that was the source of a profound discomfort to those Jews who sought cultural, social, and political integration in the Gentile community in which they lived." - The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history Paul R. Mendes-Flohr (Ed.), p. 156

• " Judaism, many felt, was trapped in a dark impasse, while 'Europe' was a spacious and luminous world." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 174

• "A ferment of revolt against the established order of Jewish tradition had existed ever since the expulsion from Spain. Former Marranos, in particular, were eager to achieve integration in their host countries; .... [D]riven by the despair of oppression, these movements wished to tear down the barriers separating Israel from other nations."

(6) Criticisms asserting that traditional Judaism over-emphasized the exile

• " We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israels great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state." - Pittsburgh Platform

• [For reference only] "In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, Reform Judaism rejected the idea that Jews would re-create a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland. They rejected the idea that there would be a messiah, and that the Temple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt, or that one day animal sacrifices would be re-established in a rebuilt Temple, in accord with a traditional, literal interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. Reform Judaism rejected the classical rabbinic teaching that the Jews were in exile (galut). Instead, they suggested that dispersion of Jews among the nations was a necessary experience in the realization and execution of the people's duty. Instead, the people Israel was viewed as the Messianic people, appointed to spread by its fortitude and loyalty the monotheistic truth and morality over all the earth, to be an example of rectitude to all others. For Reform Jews, all forms of Jewish law and custom were seen as bound up with the national political conception of Israel's destiny, and thus they were dispensable. Reform Jews ceased to declare Jews to be in exile; the modern Jews in United States or Europe had no cause to feel that the countries in which they lived were "a strange land." Many Reform Jews went so far as to agree that prayers for the resumption of a Jewish homeland were incompatible with desiring to be a citizen of a nation. Thus, the Reformers implied that for a German, French, or American Jew to pray from the original siddur was tantamount to dual loyalty, if not outright treason. In the U.S., Reform intellectuals argued that their commitment to the principles of equal rights and the separation of religion and state precluded them from supporting the nineteenth century Zionism movement." - From the Wikipedia article Reform Judaism (North America)#View of Zionism

• "A ferment of revolt against the established order of Jewish tradition had existed ever since the expulsion from Spain. Former Marranos, in particular, were eager to achieve integration in their host countries; the desire to negate the exile prompted a corollary desire to wipe out the entire exilic tradition...."

• "[Reformers wanted to] end the exile and the mentality associated with exile" Seven Jewish Cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 168

• "Liberation from the yoke of exile was connate with the notion of liberation from the yoke of Torah and Jewish communal unity. Hence the call for ... separation between church and state, and authority for minimal organized religion." Seven Jewish cultures Efraim Shmueli, p. 173

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