Transcript Modern Judaism

Modern Judaism
Citizenship and Nations
Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86)
Judaism is a religion
grounded in reason
combined with revealed
law; Jews can absorb
the positive elements of
culture.
French Revolution
Declaration: "1) Men are born and remain free and equal in rights... 10.
No one should be disturbed for his opinions, even in religion.”
•40,000 Jews in France in 1789
•Restricted from some professions, Jewish communities constitute
another form of corporate body, denied some rights, but in control of
others within Jewish communities
•Some Jews from central Europe, others from Spain, distinguished by
language and culture from other residents of France
•27 September 1791, National Assembly says that everyone is a citizen
"who swears the civic oath... Jewish individuals who will swear the
civic oath which will be regarded as a renunciation of all the
privileges and exceptions introduced previously in their favor." (i.e.,
by swearing the citizen oath they lost their privileges to govern their own
community.)
•Does equality erase difference? Does inclusion mean assimilation?
What does it mean to be a French individual?
Dreyfus Affair
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Alfred Dreyfus, Captain in French Army
In 1894 he was falsely accused of selling
secrets to the Germans, he was convicted and
sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s
Island.
Anti-Semitic French press used the case to
suggest that he was a prime example of Jewish
disloyalty.
In 1898 Emile Zola wrote an open letter
supporting Dreyfus; France as divided over the
issue.
1899 Confessions, suicides, etc. make it clear
that Dreyfus was innocent.
Finally cleared in 1906.
Zionism
• Theodor Herzl (18601904): After covering
the Dreyfus Affair, he
became a committed
supporter of a national
state for Israel.
• Revival of Hebrew as a
national language.
• Jewish homeland as a
national center.
• (After WWII Israel finally
becomes a modern
nation state in 1948)
Modern Religious Forms of Judaism
Reform Judaism
• Embrace Enlightenment idea of
religion within the “limits of reason”Judaism as a rational-ethical
system rooted in prophetic ideal of
justice.
• Use of vernacular in synagogue
prayers and sermons.
• Rejected belief in literal coming of
Messiah--look to coming Messianic
Age.
• Emphasize “religious community”
over against need for specific land.
Philadelphia Platform (1869)
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The Messianic aim of Israel is not the restoration of the old Jewish state under a descendant of David, involving a
second separation from the nations of the earth, but the union of all the children of God in the confession of the
unity of God, so as to realize the unity of all rational creatures and their call to moral sanctification.
We look upon the destruction of the second Jewish commonwealth not as a punishment for the sinfulness of Israel,
but as a result of the divine purpose revealed to Abraham, which, as has become ever clearer in the course of the
world's history, consists in the dispersion of the Jews to all parts of the earth, for the realization of their high-priestly
mission, to lead the nations to the true knowledge and worship of God.
The Aaronic priesthood and the Mosaic sacrificial cult were preparatory steps to the real priesthood of the whole
people, which began with the dispersion of the Jews, and to the sacrifices of sincere devotion and moral
sanctification, which alone are pleasing and acceptable to the Most Holy. These institutions, preparatory to higher
religiosity, were consigned to thepast, once for all, with the destruction of the Second Temple, and only in this
senseﾑas educational influences in the pastﾑare they to be mentioned in our prayers.
Every distinction between Aaronides and non-Aaronides, as far as religious rites and duties are concerned, is
consequently inadmissible, both in the religious cult and in social life.
The selection of Israel as the people of religion, as the bearer of the highest idea of humanity, is still, as ever, to be
strongly emphasized, and for this very reason, whenever this is mentioned, it shall be done with full emphasis laid
on the worldembracing mission of Israel and the love of God for all His children.
The belief in the bodily resurrection has no religious foundation, and the doctrine of immortality refers to the afterexistence of the soul only.
Urgently as the cultivation of the Hebrew language, in which the treasures of divine revelation were given and the
immortal remains of a literature that influences all civilized nations are preserved, must be always desired by us in
fulfilment of a sacred duty, yet it has become unintelligible to the vast majority of our coreligionists; therefore, as is
advisable under existing circumstances, it must give way in prayer to intelligible language, which prayer, if not
understood, is a soulless form.
Orthodox
• Reform: being true to
the law of constant
change; Orthodox:
resisting change
• Stick to the unchanging
revelation of Sinai
• Still, Orthodox Jews
recognize the need to
live in the modern
world.
Conservative
• Seeks a compromise
between Reform and
Orthodox positions.
• “Think whatever you
like, do what the law
requires.”
Reconstructionism
• Founded in America in
the 1930’s by Mordecai
Kaplan.
• Judaism as the religion of
the Jewish civilization
(without supernatural
overtones)
Post-Shoa Theology
Post-Shoa Theology
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Emil Fackenheim: Holocaust challenges the Exodus and Exile
traditions because it was the most orthodox and observant Jews who
suffered the most, yet, God still acts in history giving the Jews a 614th
commandment: the people must survive.
Richard Rubenstein: God died at Auschwitz; the Jews must go on, but
without God.
Elie Wiesel: Only Jews have the chutzpah to argue with God; they have
a right to be angry with God, but “Jews, do not despair.” God has
broken the covenant, but Jews may still choose to keep it.
Irving Greenberg: “Momentary faith;” accept Jewish pluralism; Jews are
free to accept or reject the covenant.
Marc Ellis: Jews cannot use the Holocaust as an excuse to oppress
their Palestinian neighbors.
Orthodox (and ultra-Orthodox) theologies insist on the covenant.