American Judaism: Orthodox to Reform and Everything between Essay

The Orthodox Way addresses, just as the title suggest, the ways of Orthodoxy. In the Prologue we hear of Christianity being metaphorically compared to a journey. We live in tents instead of houses because, we are always on the move spiritually (Ware, 7). Chapter one is titled, “God as Mystery,” and begins by asking “What or who is God” (11). Ware develops an understanding of God as to something beyond humans, but also with humans. He said that man is made in God’s image but God is not made in man’s image (12). To the Orthodox, when one comes face to face with God, everything they have ever known is gone and one is left grabbing ahold of God and every part of his essence (13). Ware goes on to say, “we are to be converted not only in our will but in intellect” (15). So not only do we change what we have known but our whole self changes when we give ourselves to God. Upon wrapping up Chapter one, Ware brings to the reader’s attention that we will never be

As displayed by Revealing World Religions, Judaism contains many sects, and Hasidic and Reform Jews are perhaps the most contrasting. Reform Jews use their religion as a segway to adapt traditional beliefs to today’s world. Their form of Judaism serves as a middle ground between modernism and tradition. Hasidic Jews are entirely different in that they utilize their religion as a means by which to form a direct connection to God. This is done by the strict observance of Jewish laws which as a result segregate them from modern life.

On the other hand, Judaism is a monotheistic religion and it endorses the worship and belief of one sole deity, God. Jews speak Hebrew and their holy book is called the Torah. There are two main beliefs in Judaism, that the Sabbath is holy, and that you must follow the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath takes place from sunset on Friday sunset sunset on Saturday, it is basically a day of rest from work "Six days you shall do your work but on the seventh you shall rest" (Exodus 23:12). They usually light two candles, and attend an evening service in the Synagogue and begin with a special liturgy called kabbalat Shabbat "welcoming Shabbat"(Goldberg 341-343).

The Orthodox Jews are considered traditional, with strict adherence to the practices of Judaism as it began in its original state. Orthodox Jews believe that the Bible is God's word, and that the Torah, which is considered the sacred core of the Hebrew Bible, is the oral communication between God and Moses on Mount Sinai, that formed

Judaism is more than a religion, its a way of life. Judaism 's entire body of beliefs and teachings which form the foundations of the religion, are outlined in the Torah. Within the Torah, Jewish people find the many different texts and rules that prescribe to them on how to live properly as the chosen people of God. The tradition of Judaism has been alive for thousands of years, its origins tracing back to the Patriarchs Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. Subsequently, from this comes Judaism 's central beliefs: The belief in one God, the belief in moral law and the belief and trust in the covenant prescribed to Moses in Exodus 2.0. The Orthodox Judaism strand incorporates the Mitzvot quite literally and tries to take it on word for word. On the other hand Reform Judaism and Conservatio interpret it in different ways. These Sacred Texts form the Jewish religion and fundamentally make up the beliefs that the Jewish

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die…” (KJV, Ecclesiastes 3:2)

Throughout history, Jews have remained firmly stuck to Jewish tradition. Despite this, since the start of the Judaism Reformation, it has been found that Jewish people cannot coexist effectively with those who live in modern times. The reformations that were made included services no longer being conducted solely in Hebrew, but in a mixture of Hebrew and English and recognising the fact that for most Jews the vernacular was the main language of communication. As well as this, sections of the liturgy were omitted if they no longer corresponded to what Jews believed. The most dramatic of all has been the complete equality accorded to women. In Orthodox synagogues women are seated separately from men and do not lead any part of the service when men are present. In Reformed synagogues they sit together with men, participate actively in public worship and can now also be rabbis.

Across countries and continents, through the rise and fall of great empires, and in multiple civilizations and religions, the Jewish people have been exiled martyrs for reasons far beyond their fault or doing. The Jewish people have come to accept this mutual exile as a part of their faith and religion. They are the people of exile until the messiah comes and the Jews will come together and live in the promised holy land. Since every Jew is an exile to the rest of society, this brings them closer together and creates a bond among the communities that keeps them strong and has kept the religion alive through most every situation. A new situation, however, is questioning the strength of the Jewish religion and its ability to remain as its defined people of exile. The Christian world has begun to push back their biased and hateful opinions on the Jews and recognize them as people. England, along with other governments, will contemplate whether the Jews could be citizens and if that would benefit them or not. It is not as much so for how the Jews have and will affect England at the time, but what

The word ‘mitzvah’ means the divine commandment or rule from god, the purpose of these rules are to make life easier for people to live, make them purer and closer to god. These rules were made to insure people could become a better person and to make the world a better place to live in. The mitzvot are rules that God want us to do, all mitzvot are written down with in the torah, altogether they total to 613! There are many mitzvot some about: food, holidays, prayers, kindness, cleanliness, how to treat others and many more. According to the Orthodox Jews the Taryag mitzvot come from God and are therefore always relevant, they tend to use the mitzvot to deal with the problems of modern

All Jewish sects share the common belief that their teachings originated from the revelation Moses received on Mount Sinai from God, called the Torah (Graber, 2013). It is from here that the differences between the Orthodox and Reform Jews begin to take place. The two movements differ in the application of the Torah, particularly in how rigid the laws contained within should be followed. These differences can be broken down into three primary differences: God’s Revelation, services, and religious practice.

Judaism preaches that all things are under gods rule. God is the creator of the universe and still is in charge of it. The Torah is a list of commandments that reveals rules of how to live for his followers. although there are ten commandments, this religion also gives their followers the free will of choice. In Judaism, religion is not a part of life but it is life. For example this is why Jews pray three times a day. Like the Christians believe that god sent a human to the earth to teach us, the Jewish also have a similar belief, in a figure named Messiah. When asked about the essence of Judaism there is this story about a man that comes to mind. He was a rabbi named Hillel who summed up Judaism while balancing on one foot, he said, "...What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. The rest is commentary..." Basically Judaism is based on self choice, there are rules to live by, but it is entirely up to the person on how to live and apply these

Hasidic Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism established in Eastern Europe during the 1800’s that put spirituality and a connection with God through mysticism at the forefront of its beliefs. In order to understand Hasidic Judaism, one must understand that Judaism is not only a religion; it is also a philosophy and a way of life for the Jewish people. One of the oldest monotheistic religions, Judaism has evolved over the years since the time of the founding fathers. Like any culture or religion, however, Jews have never been without conflict or disagreement amongst its people. Schisms amongst Jews over long periods of time have led to a branching out of sects and Jewish institutions. What led to the separation of denominations within

Judaism is a religion that almost seems uncommon in today’s era. Currently, the United States is occupied with just two percent of individuals who believe in judaism; Globally, only .2 percent of the population is Jewish, which means this religion isn’t practiced heavily by many. The USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) indicates that World War II was responsible for the death of more than six million innocent jews; this still impacts the jewish community today. Jews

I learned a lot of facts about Judaism that I had previously been ignorant to. I had no idea that we (Christians & Jews) maintained the same bible (The Old Testament) but that we interpreted certain events differently, such as Adam and Eve. “In Judaism, each and every human being is free to choose good or evil because each person stands before God in the same relationship that Adam and Eve did” (Esposito 77). I was unaware that Judaism did not believe in “original sin.” I had no knowledge of the fact that Jews did not believe that Christ was resurrected from the dead. I found it interesting how Jews have split into separate groups – Reform Jews, who believe that Judaism is a cultural inheritance and that neither the laws nor beliefs are

Religious Jews today disagree on what Judaism is and what it should be. Orthodox Jews claim to hold the true religion of Judaism. In fact, Orthodoxy only began to organize and solidify its beliefs in the nineteenth century, in direct response to the Reform movement. To this day, there is less agreement among Orthodox Jews about what being Orthodox means——especially about how particular laws should be followed——than there is disagreement in any of the other modern movements. So, for example, the State of Israel has two ““chief”” rabbis to serve the Orthodox——one of