From: faigin@aero.org (Daniel P. Faigin)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Orthodox Monopoly
Date: 9 Sep 92 13:03:30
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: soldan.aero.org
In-reply-to: mannj@acf9.nyu.edu's message of 9 Sep 92 17:49:27 GMT

On 9 Sep 92 17:49:27 GMT, mannj@acf9.nyu.edu (Jordan Mann) said:
> Daniel Faigin writes:

>>Fine. I'll speak for Reform. Reform does not reject or make irrelevant the
>>written law either. Instead, it is base from which the various responsim
>>derive, in combination with the reflection of our historic development
>>contained in the Oral Law and later Judaic writings.

> Really, this is preposterous.  I will simply quote from the famous
> "Pittsburgh Platform" of 1885, which has never really been repudiated 
> by the Reform movement:
>    
>    We recognize in the Mosaic legislation a system of training the
>    Jewish people for its mission during its national life in
>    Palestine, and today we accept as binding only its moral laws,
>    and maintain only such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our 
>    lives, but reject all such as are not adapted to the views and 
>    habits of modern civilization ... We hold that all such Mosaic
>    and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress
>    originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely 
>    foreign to our present mental and spiritual state ... Their
>    observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further
>    modern spiritual elevation ...

Yep. 1885. Other statements have been adopted since then, which have
superceeded the Pittsburgh Platform, which no longer reflects the current
view. In 1935, the Reform Movement adopted the statement:

  "Torah results from the relationship between God and the Jewish people. The
  records of our earliest confrontations are uniquely important to us.
  Lawgivers and prophets, historians and poets gave us a heritage whose study
  is a religious imperative and whose practice is our chief means to holiness.
  Rabbis and teachers, philosophers and mystics, gifted Jews in every age
  amplified the Torah tradition. For millennia, the creation of the Torah has
  not ceased and Jewish creativity in our time is adding to the chain of
  tradition.

  "God reveals Himself not only in the majesty, beauty and orderliness of
  nature, but also in the vision and moral striving of the human spirit.
  Revelation is a continuous process, confined to no one group and to no one
  age. Yet, the people of Israel, through its prophets and sages, achieved
  unique insight in the realm of religious truth. The Torah, both written and
  oral, enshrines Israel's ever-growing consciousness of God and of the moral
  law. It preserves the historical precedents, sanctions and norms of Jewish
  life, and seeks to mold it in the patterns of goodness and of holiness.
  Being products of historical processes, certain of its laws have lost their
  binding force with the passing of the conditions that called them forth.
  But as a repository of permanent spiritual ideals, the Torah remains the
  dynamic source of life of Israel. Each age has the obligation to adapt the
  teachings of the Torah to its basic needs in consonance with the genius of
  Judaism.

  "Judaism as a way of life requires in addition to its moral and spiritual
  demands, the preservation of the Sabbath, festivals and Holy Days, the
  retention and development of such customs, symbols and the ceremonies as
  possess inspirational value, the cultivation of distinctive forms of
  religious art and music and the use of Hebrew, together with the vernacular,
  in our worship and instruction."

  The Centenary Statement adopted in 1976 stated:

  "Judaism emphasizes action rather than creed as the primary expression of a
  religious life, the means by which we strive to achieve universal justice
  and peace. Reform Judaism shares this emphasis on duty and obligation. Our
  founders stressed that the Jew's ethical responsibilities, personal and
  social, are enjoined by God. The past century has taught us that the claims
  made upon us may begin with our ethical obligations but they extend to many
  other aspects of Jewish living, including: creating a Jewish home centered
  on family devotion; life-long study; private prayer and public worship;
  daily religious observance; keeping the Sabbath and the holy days;
  celebrating the major events of life; involvement with the synagogue and
  community; and other activities which promote the survival of the Jewish
  people and enhance its existence. Within each area of Jewish observance
  Reform Jews are called upon to confront the claims of Jewish tradition,
  however, differently perceived, and to exercise their individual autonomy,
  choosing and creating on the basis of commitment and knowledge."

Use the recent stuff, son. Reform has changed in the 1880s.

> I'd also like to point out that noone in the Reform movement, and almost
> noone in the Conservative movement, believes that the entire Written Law
> is the "word of God", to borrow a convenient phrase from a more popular
> religion.  

Yup. This is something I alluded to in my postings a while ago. One of the
basic assumptions differ--the authorship of the Written and Oral Laws--and
this leads to different conclusions, that all logically follow from the
premise. We have absolutely no way of knowing which assumption is right.

> And what difference does it make
> how carefully you justify your actions in the light of the Written Law
> if you don't believe that it's God's Law anyway?  

There is divine inspiration written by man, written in the terminology of the
time in which it was written, reflecting societal norms of those times so as
to be understandable to the people then. The writings can be studied for their
essential truth distilled out of the influence of the societal norms under
which they were written.

Daniel
--
[W]:The Aerospace Corp. M1/055 * POB 92957 * LA, CA 90009-2957 * 310/336-8228
[Email]:faigin@aerospace.aero.org              [Vmail]:310/336-5454 Box#13149
   "You can't be a rationalist in an irrational world. It isn't rational!"
	       Dr. Rance, in Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw"