Continuing with Professor Cherry's lecture:
BUT BY FAR THE MOST RADICAL INNOVATION OF THE EARLY REFORM JUDAISM, WERE ITS CLAIM THAT THE TRADITIONAL COMMANDMENTS WERE NO LONGER OBLIGATORY!
THIS CLAIM COMES OUT OF THE COMMITMENT TO SCHOLARSHIP, AND THE NEW IDEAS, RELATIVELY NEW IDEAS, OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM. THE IDEA THAT GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF THE PENTATEUCH, THE TORAH, THAT DIVINE DICTATION DOES NOT DESCRIBE HOW THE BOOKS THAT WE HAVE BEFORE US - GENESIS TO DEUTERONOMY, CAME INTO EXISTENCE; BUT RATHER, HUMAN BEINGS, INSPIRED BY GOD, TRYING TO PUT INTO WORDS THAT THEY UNDERSTOOD WHAT GOD'S WILL TO BE, WROTE THE 5 BOOKS OF MOSES. DIFFERENT HUMAN BEINGS, OVER HUNDREDS OF YEARS, AND HUMAN BEINGS ARE FALLIBLE; HUMAN BEINGS ARE HISTORICALLY ROOTED, AND THOSE BOOKS NEED TO BE VIEWED AGAINST HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, FROM WHICH THEY EMERGED. AND SO NONE OF THE LAWS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE ARE BINDING ON US BECAUSE SOME CLAIM THEY COME FROM GOD.
REFORMED JEWS ACCEPTED BIBLICAL CRITICISM, AND REJECTED THE IDEA THAT THE LAWS ARE BINDING.
THIS WAS THE FIRST REAL BREAK!
IT WAS OKAY TO MODIFY THIS AND TO CHANGE THAT, IN TERMS OF THE SYNAGOGUE SERVICE, BUT TO SAY THE TRADITIONAL JEWISH LAW IS NO LONGER BINDING, THAT REALLY WAS A QUANTUM LEAP, AND ESTABLISHES WHAT FOR TRADITIONAL JUDAISM IS, A HERESY!
THE IDEA THE TORAH IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD, AND THE IDEA THAT THE TRADITIONAL LAW WAS NOT BLINDING; THE REFORM JEWS THROUGH DOWN THE GAUNTLET AT THAT POINT IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY.
THEY JUSTIFIED THEIR CONCLUSIONS BY ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIP, BUT AS WE WILL SEE IN THE NEXT LECTURE, THE MORE TRADITIONAL SCHOLARS, AND THE MORE TRADITIONAL RABBIS, DID NOT ACCEPT THEIR CONCLUSIONS OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM AND THEIR SCHOLARS.
THIS REJECTION OF TRADITIONAL JEWISH LAW WAS ALSO A RESPONSE TO THE FAMOUS GERMAN SCHOLAR IMMANUEL KANT [1724-1804], WHO CRITICIZED JUDAISM AS HARMONIOUS - (THE IDEA OF INDIVIDUALS NOT MOTIVATED THEMSELVES OUT OF AUTONOMY, BUT WERE DOING WHAT CAME DOWN FROM GOD OR THE RABBIS). AND SO REFORMED JUDAISM REALLY EMPHASIZED THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE INDIVIDUALS AUTONOMY, TO ENGAGE IN THOSE TRADITIONAL FORMS AND MODES OF WORSHIP. THAT SPOKE TO THEM, THAT INCREASES THEIR PIETY, AND DEVOTIONAL POSTURE, THAT WAS SPIRITUALLY EDIFYING TO THEM.
THE EMPHASIS, LIKE WITH THE HASKILAH, AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT, WAS ALL ON THE INDIVIDUAL.
AMONGST THE COMMANDMENTS, THE TRADITIONAL COMMANDMENTS, THAT ALMOST ALL REFORMED JEWS COMPLETELY ABANDONED, WERE THE TRADITIONAL DRESS; THEY WANTED TO ACCULTURATE, TO LOOK LIKE OTHER GERMANS OR FRENCHMEN; THE LAWS OF THE FAMILY PURITY, WHEREBY CERTAIN TIMES OF THE MONTH, DURING A WOMAN'S MENSTRUAL PERIOD, BOTH A MAN AND HIS WIFE DO NOT ENGAGE IN SEXUAL RELATIONS; AND DIETARY RESTRICTIONS. SO THE JEWS NOT NECESSARILY EATING HAM, BUT THEY WOULD BE MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE EATING IN A GENTILES HOME, OR AT A RESTAURANT THAT WAS NOT RABBINIC SUPERVISION.
SO THESE KINDS OF RITUAL LAWS, WERE WIDELY REJECTED, WITHIN THE EARLY REFORM COMMUNITY, BUT CIRCUMCISION WAS ALMOST ALWAYS RESERVED, AS I'VE MENTIONED, FOR THE NEW BORN BOYS IN THEIR COMMUNITY. AND THAT SIGNALED EVEN TO THE MOST ACCULTURATED JEW, THAT JUDAISM WAS MORE THAN JUST A RELIGIOUS FAITH.
IN OUR NEXT LECTURE WE SHALL EXAMINE THE REACTION TO REFORM JUDAISM BY THE TRADITIONALISTS.
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TO BE CONTINUED
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