Question

Orthodox Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Briefly define these two terms, then explain their relationship to one another. How are they similar, and how are they different? What lead to their development?

Answer 1

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. It encompasses the religion, philosophy, and culture of the Jewish people. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Israel. Judaism encompasses a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. Judaism is the tenth largest religion in the world. Today, the largest Jewish religious movements are Orthodox Judaism (Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism), Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. Major sources of difference between these groups are their approaches to Jewish law, the authority of the Rabbinic tradition, and the significance of the State of Israel. Orthodox Judaism maintains that the Torah ("Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") and Jewish law (halakha) are divine in origin, eternal and unalterable, and that they should be strictly followed. Conservative and Reform Judaism are more liberal, with Conservative Judaism generally promoting a more traditionalist interpretation of Judaism's requirements than Reform Judaism. A typical Reform position is that Jewish law should be viewed as a set of general guidelines rather than as a set of restrictions and obligations whose observance is required of all Jews. Orthodox Judaism holds that both Conservative and Reform Judaism have made major and unjustifiable breaks with historic Judaism - both by their skepticism of the verbal revelation of the Written and the Oral Torah, and by their rejection of halakha (Jewish law) as binding (although to varying degrees). It views religious pluralism as a construct of the liberal movements, and does not see their ideology as rooted in historic Jewish norms. While not recognizing Reform and Conservative as valid expressions of Judaism, it recognizes most who are affiliated with these movements as full-fledged Jews, aside from those whose Judaism is of patrilineal descent or who were converted under Conservative or Reform auspices.

Conservative Judaism holds that Orthodox Judaism is a valid and legitimate form of normative rabbinic Judaism; it respects the validity of its rabbis. Conservative Judaism holds that both Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism have made major and unjustifiable breaks with historic Judaism, both by their rejection of Jewish law and tradition as normative, and by their unilateral acts in creating a separate definition of Jewishness (i. e., the latter movement's acceptance of patrilineal descent as an additional way of defining Jewishness). Despite this disagreement, Conservative Judaism respects the right of Reform and Reconstructionist Jews to interpret Judaism in their own way. Thus, the Conservative movement recognizes the right of Jews to form such denominations, and recognizes their clergy as rabbis, but does not generally accept their decisions as valid. Thus, for example, the Conservative movement typically does not accept Reform converts to Judaism whose conversions did not meet the requirements of Jewish law as being Jews.

Reform Judaism espouses the notion of religious pluralism; it believes that most Jewish denominations (including Orthodoxy and the Conservative movement) are valid expressions of Judaism. Historically, however, the Reform view of Orthodox Judaism had been negative. Early battles between Reform and Orthodox groups in Germany for control of communal leadership were fierce. Reform viewed Orthodoxy as overly focused on tradition and a literal interpretation of scripture that conflicted with modern science. Relations with the Conservative movement are much more cordial (although the two split due to such affairs as the Trefa Banquet), and Conservative and Reform leaders co-operate on many areas of mutual concern.