Reform
"It’s a modern age. We just cannot continue to live according to the antiquated laws of the Tora. It’s time to leave the old way and to take a step forward into the Present."
Rabbi Dude says:
Why? For years the Tora was fine; why change it now? Before the Reform movement was founded in the early 1800's, there was simply no such thing as a Jew who was not observant. It was a given: Jews kept the Tora. Jews did not eat food that was not kashér. Jews did not work on Shabat. Jews prayed thrice daily. Jews did not marry goyim and kept to the restrictions regarding marital relations. Jews observed the Jewish holidays and did not observe the Christian or Muslim holidays. Sure, there was the odd one out--the one who went astray--but, as a whole, the nation of Yisraél were resolute in our observance of the Tora and its commandments.
So what changed? Why is it that until the 1800's no-one saw a need to drop the Tora’s "antiquated laws" but now you do? How is anything different today than it was yesterday? What happened that made the Tora acceptable for thousands of years but unacceptable now? Why was it that keeping the Tora was fine through the forty years in the desert, through the Kena’anite skirmishes, through the Assyrian wars, through the Babylonian expulsion, through the Persian exile, through the Greek occupation, through the Roman subjugation, through the Crusades, through the spread of Islam, through the forced dialogues, through the Spanish Inquisition, through the pogroms and the blood libels, but now it’s "the old way"? Why is today the dividing line between the old time and the new? What changed?
Nothing changed. If the Tora lasted three thousand years, then it’s just as good today, too. If it’s not working today, then it wasn’t so great for those three thousand years, either. But no-one complained or found fault with the Tora then. Three thousand years and no one complains: that seems to me to be proof positive that the Tora is good enough for us. If, over all those years, no-one thought it unacceptable, but you do now, then the fault isn’t with the Tora.
It’s with you.
Rabbi Dude says:
Why? For years the Tora was fine; why change it now? Before the Reform movement was founded in the early 1800's, there was simply no such thing as a Jew who was not observant. It was a given: Jews kept the Tora. Jews did not eat food that was not kashér. Jews did not work on Shabat. Jews prayed thrice daily. Jews did not marry goyim and kept to the restrictions regarding marital relations. Jews observed the Jewish holidays and did not observe the Christian or Muslim holidays. Sure, there was the odd one out--the one who went astray--but, as a whole, the nation of Yisraél were resolute in our observance of the Tora and its commandments.
So what changed? Why is it that until the 1800's no-one saw a need to drop the Tora’s "antiquated laws" but now you do? How is anything different today than it was yesterday? What happened that made the Tora acceptable for thousands of years but unacceptable now? Why was it that keeping the Tora was fine through the forty years in the desert, through the Kena’anite skirmishes, through the Assyrian wars, through the Babylonian expulsion, through the Persian exile, through the Greek occupation, through the Roman subjugation, through the Crusades, through the spread of Islam, through the forced dialogues, through the Spanish Inquisition, through the pogroms and the blood libels, but now it’s "the old way"? Why is today the dividing line between the old time and the new? What changed?
Nothing changed. If the Tora lasted three thousand years, then it’s just as good today, too. If it’s not working today, then it wasn’t so great for those three thousand years, either. But no-one complained or found fault with the Tora then. Three thousand years and no one complains: that seems to me to be proof positive that the Tora is good enough for us. If, over all those years, no-one thought it unacceptable, but you do now, then the fault isn’t with the Tora.
It’s with you.
posted by Rabbi Dude at 8/02/2006 02:11:00 pm
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