Essay On Jewish Reform

1 Id-According to the Old Testament, what massacre took place shortly after Moses received the 10 Commandments and why did it take place? Briefly list the main events in Moses’ life according to the Old Testament. Do any Egyptian sources confirm the events narrated in the Old Testament?

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.

Judaism is the monotheistic religion of the Jews. Judaism is said to be the religion of Abraham. Jews consider Judaism to be the covenant that God established with the children of Israel. There are some Variety of movements within the Judaism religion, which rose out of Rabbinic Judaism. They agree that God reveals his laws to Mosses on Mount Sinai along with the Commandments. These law and Commandments were in the form of the oral and written Torah. The Torah includes the first five books of the old testament. This is a part of the Tanakh, which is also known as the Hebrew Bible. The Judaism groups that are more popular today are Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, and Reform Judaism. The differences between these movements are in the way they interpret the scriptures and in how much they can change without breaking any laws.

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

Since the beginning of the Judaism, the Jewish people have been subject to hardships and discrimination. They have not been allowed to have a stabile place of worship and have also faced persecution and atrocities that most of us can not even imagine. Three events that have had a big impact on the Jewish faith were the building and destruction of the First Great Temple, the Second Great Temple and the events of the Holocaust. In this paper, I will discuss these three events and also explain and give examples as to why I feel that the Jewish people have always been discriminated against and not allowed the freedom of worship.

Orthodox Jews still practice many ancient traditions and rituals as important aspects of their faith through the strict interpretation of the Torah (Graber, 2013). Reform Jews are less concerned with rituals and put greater emphasis on moral and ethical conduct. Reformists also believe that rituals should be an enhancement to spirituality, so any rituals that create barriers to an individual participating in such rituals are excluded. This is why women have greater roles in Reform synagogues because traditional practices and rituals that exclude them in the Orthodox tradition are seen as a detriment to their spiritual life.

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

After the destruction of the temple, Judaism was forced to modify several of their traditions and rituals, specifically due to transitioning from a temple and ceremonial centric community into a bible centric religion. We now call this new form of the faith

Throughout the decades and centuries in American history, the Jews have undergone various events and experiences that have affected them positively and negatively. In the article of “The Periodization of American Jewish History”, Jacob Marcus goes to the roots of Jewish foundation. He says that American Jewish history is divided into four periods. The four periods are the Spanish-Portuguese, the German, the East European, and the American periods. The Spanish-Portuguese Jews moved into America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During these times, the Jews did not have full religious and economic rights, and as a result, the Sephardic Jewish community failed to thrive. The situation was like this until 1776, the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Jews received economic opportunities along with fair civil and religious rights. By this time, lots of German and Polish Jews immigrated to America, outnumbering the Sephardic Jews. The German and Polish Jews made their own communities and synagogues, and they became dominant between 1841 and 1920.

The study of history and historical writings is called historiography; American Jewish history is one form to study about the past of the American Jews. Jacob Rader Marcus and Hasia R. Diner are two historians who broke down American Jewish historiography according to their point of views. In “The Periodization of American Jewish History,” Marcus focuses on four periods of American Jewish history. On the other hand, in “The Study of American Jewish History: in the Academy, in the Community,” Diner discusses many dates celebrate and urge the study of American Jewish history. Marcus and Diner both approach with historical information; however, Marcus approaches historiography through specific, cultural eras while Diner briefly summarizes

Resistance is the refusal to accept or comply with something (“Dictionary”). The Holocaust occurred between 1939 and 1945 in Germany (history.com). It was a period of time during WWII where the jewish population were forced to follow and obey the Nazi’s which meant being sent to concentration camps and later extermination camps in order to achieve “racial purity”. This was called the “Final Solution”. Countless of Jews resisted during this time hoping to stop the cruelty and torture. During the Holocaust, Jews used armed and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity.

This redefining of the Reform Jewish family is problematic. The heart of G-d is reconciliation and transformation of His people. In order for that to happen, sin must be acknowledged. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the problem of sin in Isaiah 59:1-2, “Behold, Adonai’s hand is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your G-d. Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.” Relationship with the G-d of Israel requires holiness. Holiness is predicated on G-d’s definition, not man’s definition. The redefining of Torah interpretation to meet with the desires of the people is problematic since G-d has not changed. Holiness is still required. Redefining holiness to suit one’s needs does not change G-d’s definition of holiness. Even more important, once man does recognize the requirement, he is unable to meet the requirement of purity before Hashem. Only Hashem can transform man to remove the separation. However, Hashem does require that man admit that he needs to have the sin removed so that his relationship with Hashem may be restored. Therein lies the problem for Reform Judaism. You must first recognize that homosexuality is sin before people can have full reconciliation with Hashem. The Reform Judaism movement has successfully brought wayward Jews back into the synagogue, but they have not cared about these people enough to speak truth to them. If the leaders are unable to see the

Judaism is one of the world's oldest religious traditions. Pre-modern Judaism constituted (and traditional Judaism today constitutes) an integrated cultural system of Jewish law,

Throughout the history of Judaism, Jewish people have faced ongoing persecution and discrimination. Despite these conflicts, the faith remains alive, strong, and continuously growing. Like many religions faced with adversity, Judaism has had to assimilate its faith to survive in an ever-changing world. One significant moment of change in the Jewish history, the fall of the Second Temple, had the opportunity to destroy Judaism, but the Jewish people bonded together and reformulated their religion in order to save their faith. The falling of the Second Temple marks a distinct change in the Jewish faith through the modification of ritual practices to accommodate their new mobile lifestyle. This change would forever impact the Jewish

Moses Mendelssohn’s thoughts on Judaism, mainly laid out in Jerusalem, Or on Religious Authority and Judaism, were meant to show non-Jews that Judaism was already compatible with enlightenment ideas as is. He had no thoughts on changing how Jews practiced Judaism in any way. Mendelssohn himself remained an observant Jew and felt he could do so while still studying and contributing to secular subjects. However, early reformers believed that the practice of Judaism needed to be changed for Jews to fit into modern times.