Posted on 12/16/2007 7:00:06 AM PST by goldstategop
Reform Judaism in the 19th century rejected the Orthodox observance of the Sabbath as a 24-hour day of rest, but the demands of living in the 21st century are compelling reasons to once more embrace the Sabbath, a leading Reform rabbi said Saturday.
The message came as nearly 6,000 Jews, wearing yarmulkes and bluejeans, prayer shawls and Ugg boots, gathered for a five-day convention of the Union for Reform Judaism.
The Jewish denomination, which claims the most adherents of any in the United States today, is characterized by a belief that each generation seeks to bring contemporary expression to the Jewish religious tradition.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, in a Saturday morning sermon called on the community to once again adjust to the times
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I remember the fight my brother had with my parents because they would not allow music at his Saturday Bar Mitzvah...and they would not allow me even have a Bat Mitzvah..because THERE'S NOT SUCH THING AS A BAT MITZVAH...God, I miss my parents.
I have little respect for Yoffie. I doubt that he would want any part of the "club" you have in mind. I've attended two Bar Mitzvahs that Yoffie has presided over. Both times he gave political sermons. One I remember was that of a leftist gun-grabber. Both times I wanted to discuss his remarks with him but he apparently has some secret escape route from his shul. I sent him a letter about the gun-grabber remarks pointing out that there are guns everywhere in Israel and they have none of the problems he suggests that come with an armed citizenry. I received a "Thank you for your comments" reply. Like I said, I have little respect for Yoffie.
ML/NJ
“Let us strive therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Hebrews 4:10 This buttresses my point that Christians need JEWS, in order to be perfected. (sorry Ann, but its the other way around)
???? All shuls are not constructed with women in the back. Usually, it’s split in halfish with woman on one side and men on the other.
After the WCG blew up over the leadership taking the same path as liberal Jews took, which was in effect to nullify the Sabbath, the people who fled formed several other groups, the largest of which are the United Church of God (www.ucg.org) and the Living Church of God (www.livingcog.org).
I’m not Jewish but I did grow up in a very liberal,heavily Jewish town (which is represented today by Barney Frank).My experience in this matter suggests to me that “reform” Jews are the least observant of Jews...the ones most likely to embrace left wing garbage ideas.Could someone with more knowledge on this subject either confirm or refute the suspicion that I have that a substantial percentage of “reform” Jews are,in fact,atheists in disguise (or not in disguise)?
The real purpose of Reform Judaism should be “error correction”, that is, to spread the word among Jews that many practices are “cultural”, not religious, and as such are just detritus of ages past, and foreign lands, and misinterpretations that can be discarded at will.
In fact, it is an insult to the religion that such practices and superstitions are observed. Should Jews still be performing rituals started by Sabbatai Zevi? And yet some still are, not knowing they are false, their origins, or even why they are performed. Just tradition.
It is true that “errors are usually copied perfectly.” So how to eliminate mistakes embraced over time?
There are perhaps dozens or hundreds of errors in the Talmud. And just because Jews have been performing ritual acts that are wrong for a thousand years does not mean that they are any the less wrong, or at least unnecessary.
It takes a brave scholar to point out that a beloved and respected Rabbi made a blatant error, but nobody is perfect, and does it really honor such a respected person that his mistakes continue to besmirch his reputation?
Jews who continue to follow such error once it is known cannot truly pretend to be more religious, because what they practice is not religion, but superstition. In a way, it is much like having an idol of a golden calf in the living room, because a golden calf is mentioned in the Pentateuch.
Reform is more important than tradition, at times.
Dennis Prager defends orthodoxy in the sense that if it comes to attention to God or a woman's leg, the latter will win every time.
The least observant, and probably largest, group of Jews are the unaffiliated. My own experience is that they are also sometimes the most self-righteous in proclaiming their Jewishness, and usually their left political leaning.
There is a joke that Reform Judaism is like the Democratic Party with prayers. Like all good jokes, there is some truth to it. But Reform Judaism can be a decent path for someone to return to Judaism. It was for me. For a long time I used to describe myself a Reform leaning toward Orthodox. But I leaned so hard that now I belong to a "Conservadox" shul. Yes, I'm much happier there now than I was a my Reform place, but I think that if I had tried to start back at the Conservadox place with its three hour plus Saturday morning services conducted almost entirely in Hebrew, my return wouldn't have lasted very long. Now it is unlikely to end, and "Reform" deserves some of the credit.
As for whether any or many Reform Jews are really atheists, the answer is undoubtedly yes. (In fact I once attended a Saturday morning service in a Jerusalem synagogue which left out a line from the Torah service liturgy which I consider to be the central statement of Jewish faith: "This is the Torah from the mouth of G-d to the hand of Moses to the children of Israel" When I expressed my astonishment that they left it out one of the members of the congregation told me that they cut out the parts they didn't believe in!) But so what, if some of them are atheists? Many of them are not, and find Reform to be the right balance for them between the religious and the secular worlds in which they dwell.
ML/NJ
I’ve attended Orthodox and Conservative shuls, and outside differences in style I’m not sure what you mean by “errors”. Could you elaborate?
ML/NJ
I often go to a small Chabad center just down the street. 'A lot of Hebrew, but as satisfying to me as I am attentive. Sometimes I just drift through other, unrelated parts of the Siddur and Torah.
(Kiddush is may favorite part. Though, ssshhh.)
That’s pretty much my point. Judaism isn’t just about degrees of participation, though to most Jews it might appear to be, a great sliding scale of orthodoxy. It is in need of having its doctrines clarified and purged of non-religious practices long embraced as doctrine.
Say for example, in the 6th Century, a highly respected scholar with bad eyesight misinterpreted a word in a judgment to mean that all good Jewish women had to dye their feet blue. Since that time, the orthodox Jewish women whose ancestors came from that part of the world still dye their feet blue. Why should a modern reform Jew, whose ancestors didn’t come from that part of the world, think?
Should he see such women as being more orthodox, because their feet are blue? Many would, even there is no reason for it. Though a highly respected 6th Century scholar reached that conclusion, even an ordinary scholar today could see that he misread a word. Does his reputation overwhelm common sense?
Far too often, scholars today take at face value obviously non-religious practices. In such an example, they would ignore the need for reform, and argue over what shade of blue women should dye their feet. They would contribute to their error by enriching and magnifying it.
Just look at an ultra-orthodox Jew. You have to wonder how much of what he does actually matters in Judaism, and how much is just silliness picked up over dozens of generations.
It is not an impossible task to assume that what people said and did in the distant past was literal, that they were honest enough to say and do what they meant. And so wildly interpreting what they said to assume that they were speaking in allegory and metaphor may be assuming too much.
There is an honest and real core to Judaism. But Jews need to ask themselves if it is in danger of being swamped by vast amounts of dreck accumulated over thousands of years.
And this should be the real purpose of reform Judaism.
That's the way it is (women in balcony) in the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. The first time I was there, they asked me to take the Torah out of the ark. What a great honor that was for me! And I got to see all the women too, because they obviously have to be able to see the ark. If you know there's ritual, there's probably no other time where one would have such a lengthy opportunity to survey the balcony.
ML/NJ
Say for example, in the 6th Century, a flying saucer from Outer Space landed in front of Popocatapetl's ancestor's hut and impregnated Popocatapetl's great-great-...grandmother.
Would this be the cause of Popocatapetl making up absurd, irrelevant "what-if" scenarios?
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Religion as planned obsolescence.
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