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Relationships between Jewish religious movements
The relationships between the various denominations of Judaism are complex and include a range of trends from the conciliatory and welcoming to hostile and antagonistic.
The essential position of Orthodox Judaism is the view that Conservative and Reform Judaism made major and unjustifiable breaks with historic Judaism—both by their skepticism of the verbal revelation of the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, and by their rejection of Halakha (Jewish law) as binding (although to varying degrees). It views religious pluralism as a construct of the liberal movements, and does not see their ideology as rooted in historic Jewish norms. While not recognizing Reform and Conservative as valid expressions of Judaism, it recognizes most who are affiliated with these movements as full-fledged Jews, aside from those whose Judaism is of patrilineal descent or who were converted under Conservative or Reform auspices. When dealing with the individual, Moshe Feinstein is famously quoted as characterizing all current-day non-Orthodox Jews as tinok shenishba—literally, "captured children"—in a category analogous to Jewish children captured by non-Jews who were never taught Judaism, meaning that they do not act out of wrong intent or motives, but out of ignorance and poor upbringing (Iggeroth Moshe).[citation needed]
However, when dealing with the movement/philosophy, they perceive the generation of other denominations to have historically been engendered by heretical intent and the 1800s widespread denigration of religion. They view Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, and Conservative Judaism as heretical, less observant Jewish movements. As such, Orthodox authorities have strongly fought attempts by the Reform and Conservative movements to gain official recognition and denominational legitimacy in Israel. Haredi groups and authorities will not work with non-Orthodox religious movements in any way, as they view this as lending legitimacy to those movements. The members of those movements who have been born of a Jewish mother are, however, still regarded as Jews.
In his 1964 responsum on relations with non-Orthodox Judaism, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik developed the intellectual foundations for the way Modern Orthodox Judaism was to approach the issue in subsequent decades. Soloveitchik developed the idea that Jews have historically been linked together by two distinct covenants. One is the brit yi'ud (covenant of destiny), the covenant by which Jews are bound together through their adherence to Halakha. The second is the brit goral (covenant of fate), which is the desire and willingness to be part of a people chosen by God to live a sacred mission in the world, and the fact that all those who live in this covenant share the same fate of persecution and oppression, even if they do not live by Halakha. Soloveitchik held that non-Orthodox Jews were in violation of the covenant of destiny; yet, they are still bound together with Orthodox Jews in the covenant of fate. This approach permitted cooperation in matters involving the covenant of fate, while recognizing differences and limits based on the covenant of destiny.
Following this lead, until the 1970s, the Modern Orthodox and the non-Orthodox movements worked together in the now-defunct Synagogue Council of America. However, the relationship between Modern Orthodoxy and the non-Orthodox movements has worsened over the last few decades. The movements have seen a polarization of views. Haredi Judaism has seen a great resurgence in its popularity, and many formerly Modern Orthodox rabbis have been swayed to some degree by their views.[citation needed] Non-Orthodox movements have progressively moved to the left theologically and halakhically. Reform Judaism rejected the traditional definition of a Jew via matrilineal descent, effectively severing the conventional view of Jewish peoplehood that had linked Reform and non-Reform movements. For practically all Orthodox Jews (and many Conservative Jews), this was seen as splitting the Jewish people into two mutually incompatible groups.[citation needed] The confluence of these two phenomena helped drive most of Modern Orthodoxy further to the right, and effectively ended all official cooperation between Modern Orthodoxy and all of the non-Orthodox denominations.
Some within the Orthodox world advocate that while non-Orthodox forms of Judaism are incorrect, they nonetheless have functional validity and spiritual dignity. Rabbi Norman Lamm writes:
...Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist communities are not only more numerous in their official memberships than the Orthodox community, but they are also vital, powerful, and dynamic; they are committed to Jewish survival, each according to its own lights; they are a part of Klal Yisrael; and they consider their rabbis their leaders. From a functional point of view, therefore, non-Orthodox rabbis are valid leaders of Jewish religious communities, and it is both fatuous and self-defeating not to acknowledge this openly and draw the necessary consequences - for example, establishing friendly and harmonious and respectful relationships and working together, all of us, towards those Jewish communal and global goals that we share and that unite us inextricably and indissolubly.... ...non-Orthodox rabbis and laypeople may possess spiritual dignity. If they are sincere, if they believe in God, if they are motivated by principle, and not by convenience or trendiness, if they endeavor to carry out the consequences of their faith in a consistent manner—then they are religious people.... But neither functional validity nor spiritual dignity are identical with Jewish legitimacy. "Validity" derives from the Latin validus, strong. It is a factual, descriptive term. "Legitimacy" derives from the Latin lex, law. It is a normative and evaluative term.
A number of Modern Orthodox rabbis advocate good relations with their non-Orthodox peers. In 1982, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought published a symposium on the state of Orthodox Judaism that included contributions by many leading Orthodox rabbis. The first question the editor asked the rabbis was: "Do you believe that recent developments warrant the triumphalism exhibited by segments of Orthodoxy which predict the total disappearance of non-Orthodox movements?" Rabbi Marc D. Angel replied, "We should be frightened by the possibility. With all our theological differences, yet we are part of one Jewish people and work together in so many ways for the benefit of the Jewish community... It is not a happy prospect that the overwhelming majority of American Jews will lose their Jewishness. It is also unlikely that the vast numbers of the non-Orthodox community will move into Orthodoxy in the relatively near future." Rabbi David Berger replied, "I confess that I would not look forward to such a disappearance.... The Jewish loyalties and observances of non-Orthodox Jews are decidedly better than nothing.... The only weakening of Conservatism and Reform for which Orthodoxy can legitimately hope would come through conversion to Orthodoxy. No such development appears imminent in statistically significant numbers." The message of other rabbis rings a similar note; no rabbis profiled in the symposium believed that most non-Orthodox Jews would ever convert to Orthodoxy. Thus, Orthodoxy should work together on some issues with non-Orthodox Judaism, and it is far better for Jews to be members of non-Orthodox Judaism than to assimilate and not be religious Jews at all.
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Relationships between Jewish religious movements
The relationships between the various denominations of Judaism are complex and include a range of trends from the conciliatory and welcoming to hostile and antagonistic.
The essential position of Orthodox Judaism is the view that Conservative and Reform Judaism made major and unjustifiable breaks with historic Judaism—both by their skepticism of the verbal revelation of the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, and by their rejection of Halakha (Jewish law) as binding (although to varying degrees). It views religious pluralism as a construct of the liberal movements, and does not see their ideology as rooted in historic Jewish norms. While not recognizing Reform and Conservative as valid expressions of Judaism, it recognizes most who are affiliated with these movements as full-fledged Jews, aside from those whose Judaism is of patrilineal descent or who were converted under Conservative or Reform auspices. When dealing with the individual, Moshe Feinstein is famously quoted as characterizing all current-day non-Orthodox Jews as tinok shenishba—literally, "captured children"—in a category analogous to Jewish children captured by non-Jews who were never taught Judaism, meaning that they do not act out of wrong intent or motives, but out of ignorance and poor upbringing (Iggeroth Moshe).[citation needed]
However, when dealing with the movement/philosophy, they perceive the generation of other denominations to have historically been engendered by heretical intent and the 1800s widespread denigration of religion. They view Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, and Conservative Judaism as heretical, less observant Jewish movements. As such, Orthodox authorities have strongly fought attempts by the Reform and Conservative movements to gain official recognition and denominational legitimacy in Israel. Haredi groups and authorities will not work with non-Orthodox religious movements in any way, as they view this as lending legitimacy to those movements. The members of those movements who have been born of a Jewish mother are, however, still regarded as Jews.
In his 1964 responsum on relations with non-Orthodox Judaism, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik developed the intellectual foundations for the way Modern Orthodox Judaism was to approach the issue in subsequent decades. Soloveitchik developed the idea that Jews have historically been linked together by two distinct covenants. One is the brit yi'ud (covenant of destiny), the covenant by which Jews are bound together through their adherence to Halakha. The second is the brit goral (covenant of fate), which is the desire and willingness to be part of a people chosen by God to live a sacred mission in the world, and the fact that all those who live in this covenant share the same fate of persecution and oppression, even if they do not live by Halakha. Soloveitchik held that non-Orthodox Jews were in violation of the covenant of destiny; yet, they are still bound together with Orthodox Jews in the covenant of fate. This approach permitted cooperation in matters involving the covenant of fate, while recognizing differences and limits based on the covenant of destiny.
Following this lead, until the 1970s, the Modern Orthodox and the non-Orthodox movements worked together in the now-defunct Synagogue Council of America. However, the relationship between Modern Orthodoxy and the non-Orthodox movements has worsened over the last few decades. The movements have seen a polarization of views. Haredi Judaism has seen a great resurgence in its popularity, and many formerly Modern Orthodox rabbis have been swayed to some degree by their views.[citation needed] Non-Orthodox movements have progressively moved to the left theologically and halakhically. Reform Judaism rejected the traditional definition of a Jew via matrilineal descent, effectively severing the conventional view of Jewish peoplehood that had linked Reform and non-Reform movements. For practically all Orthodox Jews (and many Conservative Jews), this was seen as splitting the Jewish people into two mutually incompatible groups.[citation needed] The confluence of these two phenomena helped drive most of Modern Orthodoxy further to the right, and effectively ended all official cooperation between Modern Orthodoxy and all of the non-Orthodox denominations.
Some within the Orthodox world advocate that while non-Orthodox forms of Judaism are incorrect, they nonetheless have functional validity and spiritual dignity. Rabbi Norman Lamm writes:
...Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist communities are not only more numerous in their official memberships than the Orthodox community, but they are also vital, powerful, and dynamic; they are committed to Jewish survival, each according to its own lights; they are a part of Klal Yisrael; and they consider their rabbis their leaders. From a functional point of view, therefore, non-Orthodox rabbis are valid leaders of Jewish religious communities, and it is both fatuous and self-defeating not to acknowledge this openly and draw the necessary consequences - for example, establishing friendly and harmonious and respectful relationships and working together, all of us, towards those Jewish communal and global goals that we share and that unite us inextricably and indissolubly.... ...non-Orthodox rabbis and laypeople may possess spiritual dignity. If they are sincere, if they believe in God, if they are motivated by principle, and not by convenience or trendiness, if they endeavor to carry out the consequences of their faith in a consistent manner—then they are religious people.... But neither functional validity nor spiritual dignity are identical with Jewish legitimacy. "Validity" derives from the Latin validus, strong. It is a factual, descriptive term. "Legitimacy" derives from the Latin lex, law. It is a normative and evaluative term.
A number of Modern Orthodox rabbis advocate good relations with their non-Orthodox peers. In 1982, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought published a symposium on the state of Orthodox Judaism that included contributions by many leading Orthodox rabbis. The first question the editor asked the rabbis was: "Do you believe that recent developments warrant the triumphalism exhibited by segments of Orthodoxy which predict the total disappearance of non-Orthodox movements?" Rabbi Marc D. Angel replied, "We should be frightened by the possibility. With all our theological differences, yet we are part of one Jewish people and work together in so many ways for the benefit of the Jewish community... It is not a happy prospect that the overwhelming majority of American Jews will lose their Jewishness. It is also unlikely that the vast numbers of the non-Orthodox community will move into Orthodoxy in the relatively near future." Rabbi David Berger replied, "I confess that I would not look forward to such a disappearance.... The Jewish loyalties and observances of non-Orthodox Jews are decidedly better than nothing.... The only weakening of Conservatism and Reform for which Orthodoxy can legitimately hope would come through conversion to Orthodoxy. No such development appears imminent in statistically significant numbers." The message of other rabbis rings a similar note; no rabbis profiled in the symposium believed that most non-Orthodox Jews would ever convert to Orthodoxy. Thus, Orthodoxy should work together on some issues with non-Orthodox Judaism, and it is far better for Jews to be members of non-Orthodox Judaism than to assimilate and not be religious Jews at all.