A mass Jewish religion is non-existent in our time. Orthodox, and especially ultra-Orthodox Judaism long crossed the border into absurdity. A religion which seriously requires its followers to tear toilet paper in advance of religious holiday and expects the twenty-first century women to wear headscarves, lost touch with reality.
Conservative Judaism never evolved into a religious teaching. Since its inception in mid-nineteenth century, it was a social movement designed to prevent Orthodox Jews from sliding into Reformism. While Conservative Judaism asserts the Torah was revealed to Jews non-verbally, Reformists believe that Jews were inspired to write down the Torah; that difference is trifle. Conservative Judaism held originally a sound potential: it postulated that Jewish religious interpretation (halacha) must evolve as it always did; Orthodox rabbis insisted that a thousand-year old interpretations apply today, even though the rabbis of the old continuously adapted Jewish law to changing circumstances. Conservative Judaism, however, sold itself out to atheist Jews. In return for acceptance and donations by middle-class American Jews, Conservative Judaism pandered to their wishes; they wished, of course, an unobtrusive religion. Consequently, Conservative Judaism followed Reform Judaism in abandoning the entire halacha and wholesale review of the Torah. Competing with Reform Judaism, Conservative Movement practically abandoned demands for kosher food and Sabbath observance, ordained lesbian rabbis, and conducts same-sex marriage (“commitment”) ceremonies. For the end user, Conservative synagogues differ from Reform temples only by more traditional liturgy. New generation of atheist Jews opt for the authentic thing and abandon Conservative Movement for Reformism.
Reformist Judaism tries to whitewash itself of its ultra-left political roots and become a respectable religion for middle-class atheists. But the only hard-wired concept of Reform Judaism is tikkun olam (repairing the world); everything else is voluntary. Typically for leftists, Reform Judaism redefined the term, giving it a very different meaning; its ignorant adherents swallowed the swindle. In Talmud, tikkun olam applies only to Jewish communities. In kabbalah, tikkun olam means observing commandments and the Oral Law. For Reform leftists, tikkun olam denotes social justice or, more bluntly, welfare. The world in shards (the Jewish concept behind tikkun olam) can be repaired into the temple or a welfare state; guess the Reform’s direction.
The original Reform Judaism in Germany was consciously modeled to assimilate the Jews. Reform rabbis introduced Christian customs, such as music and the priests’ dress, formally abandoned Jewish law and circumcision, and accepted only commonsense moral commandments not specific to Judaism. After doing away with Jewish religion, Reformists pronounced Jewishness a matter of religion rather than nationality. The people of non-existent religion automatically assimilated. Their new allegiance was not to Jerusalem, but to Germany – “Zion” in the original Reform parlance.
In the Pittsburgh Platform, Reform Judaism praises Christianity and Islam for “spreading providential truths” and rejects all peculiarly Jewish laws, derogatory labeling them “rites.” The Reformers originally reduced Judaism to morality (as if the Christians or Buddhists are immoral!) but eventually compromised on that, too. Contemporary Judaism has no religious or even moral imperatives whatsoever; anyone is a good Jew for Reform rabbis. Given their concern for animal rights, a dog who attends a Reform temple has no small chance of being declared an observant Jew. Reform temples are upscale venues for partying Jews with no religious connotation.
Reform Judaism sensibly announces religious observance a matter of free choice. Indeed, a Jew should be able to choose a sect for himself or interprets the commandments as he sees fit. But Reformists make a fundamental logical error by accepting all personal choices. Murder is also a matter of free will and personal choice, yet punished. Moral deviation is a matter of free choice, yet frowned upon. Groups are bound by common principles; religious schools, too. Jews who honestly interpret (rather than abandon) commandments can form religious groups which share substantially similar interpretations. Desiring to incorporate infinite number of Jews, Reform Judaism necessarily reduces their common denominator to zero: anything goes in Reform temples, non-observance and atheism including.
Though superficially modeled on Christian Protestantism, Reform Judaism vastly differs from it. Protestantism rejected impediments to faith; Protestants are Christians with strong core beliefs who reject much of theological trivia. Reform Judaism abandoned everything Jewish so that the Jews become people like others. The Jews who reject “equal but different” treatment for Blacks, rejected it also for themselves; they wanted to be equal to and no different from Christians. The Reform Movement assisted them while conveniently calling that assimilation “Judaism.” Nineteenth-century Germans recognized this trend of Reform Judaism and staunchly opposed Reformists for the fear of Jewish assimilation into German society. The assimilatory power of Reformism was unleashed in the American melting pot.
The religion of Torah is very unobtrusive, sufficiently unobtrusive that primitive Hebrews practiced it in Sinai. Modern rational Jews resent not the Torah (which most of them don’t know, in any case) but its rabbinical interpretation: Talmud and, to much greater extent, the body of halacha dating from the last millennium. Christians had a similar problem centuries ago; they responded with Protestantism, cleansing their original teaching from the layers of Catholic interpretation. Closed Jewish communities controlled by rabbis underwent similar religious pangs four centuries later. Like Protestantism and unlike Reformism, Jewish re-awakening must accept the Bible wholeheartedly, Talmud – as a codex of respectable legal opinion, abandon the subsequent halacha, and leave interpretation to individuals. In practice, such an approach won’t introduce too much variance among Jews: abstaining from exhausting work on Sabbath is a defining feature of Jewish way of life, and whether one uses phone on Sabbath or not is not significant.
A solo scriptura protestant movement aroused within Judaism centuries before Luther: the Readers (of Torah), Karaim. Karaites sought to prevent Jews, overwhelmed by rabbinism, from converting to a much simpler monotheistic Islam. Unlike Orthodox Jews, Karaites shied communal administration and confined their activities to religious issues; Orthodoxy, consequently, prevailed by administrative measures. Faced with a similar problem, Christian Protestants quickly moved to develop their own communal administration; Karaites didn’t and were forced to the fringe of Jewish milieu. Though the number of white Karaites is now negligible, in the 30,000 range, there are over a hundred thousand Ethiopian Karaites who didn’t hear somehow during their millennia as Jews that Moses received the Oral Law along with the written Torah. Many Reform Jews also stay on Karaite positions without knowing that.
Orthodox rabbis positioned themselves as a priestly class, intermediaries between Jews and God. That’s in the direct violation to the function of all Jews as chosen people. Even Christian Protestants elaborated a concept of the priesthood of believers, mistakenly appropriating Peter and Paul’s pronouncements intended for Jews. Karaites reserve the priesthood for all Jews; every Jews is entitled to interpret the commandments – but not to reject them, as in Reform Judaism.
Between the hammer of Reformist assimilation and the anvil of Orthodox absurdities, Karaites have a chance to pass through.
