Miss Buddha (105 page)

However, as it happened,
the Arab 7
^th
-century conquest of the Middle East did much to facilitate
the spread of a uniform rabbinic Judaism when the heads of the
Babylonian rabbinical academies—closely allied with the Abbasid
caliphate in Baghdad—attempted to standardize Jewish law, custom,
and liturgy in accordance with their own practices—which they set
forth in their replies (responsa) to inquiries from Diaspora
communities.

Thus, since the political power rested with
Baghdad, ultimate Jewish religion authority also passed from
Palestine to Babylonia, and the Babylonian Talmud ended up as the
most authoritative rabbinic document.

Medieval Judaism

Medieval Judaism was to develop two
distinctive cultures: Sephardic Judaism, which was centered in
Moorish Spain, and Ashkenazic Judaism, which was prominent in the
lands of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Sephardic branch concentrated on
philosophy and a systematic legal codification of the teachings,
whereas the Ashkenazim preferred intensive study of the Babylonian
Talmud.

What has since been dubbed
the great Rhineland school of Talmud commentary began with the
musings and commentary writings of 11
^th
-century scholar Solomon bar
Isaac of Troyes, a mantle which was subsequently donned by his
grandsons and students—later known as the tosaphists—who were to
produce the literature of tosaphoth, also known as the “additions”
to Rashi’s Talmud commentary.

Throughout the otherwise
dark medieval period, Judaism was revitalized again and again by
mystical and pietistic movements, the most important of which were
the 12
^th
-century German Hasidic movement and the
13
^th
-century Spanish Kabbalah, which produced Sefer ha-zohar
(
The Book of Splendor
) by Moses de León.

The
Kabbalah
is an esoteric theosophy
that contains elements of both Gnosticism and Neoplatonism, which
describes the dynamic nature of the God and which offers a
mystic-symbolic interpretation of the Torah and the
commandments.

The Kabbalah arose in small, elite scholarly
circles but was to become a major popular movement after the
calamitous expulsion of the Jews from Catholic Spain in 1492. The
further spread of the Kabbalah was fostered by the mythical,
messianic reinterpretation of the teachings made by Isaac Luria of
Safed.

This interpretation—now
known as Lurianic Kabbalah—explained to the exiles the cosmic
significance of their suffering and gave them a crucial role in the
cosmic drama of redemption. Thus, Luria’s ideas paved the way for a
major messianic upheaval, centered on the figure of Sabbatai Zevi,
which affected all Jewry in the 17
^th
century.

Luria’s ideas also
influenced the popular 18
^th
-century Polish revival
movement called Hasidism. Spawned by Israel Baal Shem Tov, Hasidism
proclaimed that through fervent, rapturous devotion, the poor,
unlearned Jew could serve God better even than the
Talmudist.

This view was, naturally, opposed by the
rabbinic branch, but this opposition was eventually mitigated in
the face of a more serious threat to both groups: the western
European Age of Enlightenment and the move to more modern thinking
within Judaism.

Modern Tendencies

The Age of Enlightenment saw the civil
emancipation of European Jewry—a process complicated by lingering
anti-Jewish sentiment—evoke several different reformulations of
Judaism in western and eastern Europe.

In the west, particularly in Germany,
Judaism was reformed as a religious movement much like modern
Protestantism. This German Reform movement abandoned all hope of a
return to Zion, the Jewish homeland, shortened and beautified the
worship service, emphasized sermons in the vernacular, and rejected
as antiquated much Jewish law and custom.

In fact, the Reform rabbi took on many of
the roles of the Protestant minister.

In eastern Europe, where Jews formed a large
and distinctive social group, this reformation of Judaism took the
form akin to cultural and ethnic nationalism. Like other resurgent
national movements in the east, the Jewish movement emphasized a
revival of the national language—Hebrew, later also Yiddish—and the
creation of a modern, secular literature and culture.

Zionism
, another movement that initially took hold in eastern Europe,
vowed to create a modern Jewish society in the ancient homeland.
Founded by Leo Pinsker in Russia and Theodor Herzl in Austria,
Zionism was a secular ideology rooted in traditional Judaic
messianism.

It was Zionism that led to the creation of
the state of Israel in 1948.

Judaism in America

The American Jewish community of today
descends largely from central European Jews who immigrated in the
mid-19th century and, particularly, those from eastern Europe who
arrived between 1881 and 1924, as well as many survivors of the
Holocaust.

American Judaism takes many forms: Reform,
Conservative, Orthodox. All, however, are the product of adaptation
by these Jewish immigrant groups to American life and their
accommodation to one another.

Institutionally, Judaism in America has
adopted the congregational structure of American Christianity, and
while affiliated with national movements, most congregations today
retain considerable autonomy.

Reform Judaism

As mentioned above, Reform Judaism, the
first movement to really define itself, was primarily German at the
outset. In America, however, it was informed by both liberal
Protestantism and, particularly, by the Social Gospel movement.

In the 1870s and 1880s Isaac M. Wise founded
its national institutions, all of which are vital to this day: The
Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), the Central
Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), and the Hebrew Union College,
the oldest surviving rabbinical school in the world—which merged in
1950 with the more Zionist-oriented Jewish Institute of
Religion.

Once the bastion of religious rationalism,
the Reform movement has, since the 1940s, while its orientation
remains liberal and non-authoritarian, placed more emphasis on
Jewish peoplehood and traditional religious culture.

As an example, the Hebrew Union
College—Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio, ordained
its first woman rabbi in 1972, and the Reform movement has
continued its work to increase the participation of women in
religious ritual.

As another example of reforming with the
times and trends of the American culture, in the year 2000 Reform
rabbis voted to affirm gay and lesbian unions.

While supporting same-sex unions, the CCAR,
which passed this resolution, left it to individual rabbis to
decide whether to perform such union ceremonies and what kind of
ritual to use.

Conservative Judaism

In its American form, Conservative Judaism
embodies the sense of community and folk piety of modernizing
eastern European Jews. While it respects traditional Jewish law and
practice, it also advocates a flexible approach to Halakhah.

The major Conservative
Judaism institutions, all founded at the turn of the
20
^th
century, are the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
(JTSA), the United Synagogue of America (USA), and the Rabbinical
Assembly (RA).

The Reconstructionist movement founded by
Mordecai M. Kaplan in the 1930s is seen an offshoot of the
Conservative movement. Reconstructionism advocates religious
naturalism while emphasizing Jewish peoplehood and culture.

Reconstructionists began to ordain women
rabbis in the 1970s, and in 1983 the JTSA voted to admit women to
its rabbinical program and ordain them as Conservative rabbis.

American Orthodoxy

American Orthodoxy is not so much a distinct
movement as it is a particular spectrum of existing traditionalist
groups, ranging from the modern Orthodox—who attempt to integrate
traditional observance with modern life—to some Hasidic sects who
aim to shut out the modern world altogether.

While the immigration to America of many
traditionalist and Hasidic survivors of the Holocaust has
strengthened the various factions of American Orthodoxy, no single
national institution represents these groups.

Significance of Israel

American Judaism has been profoundly
affected by the Nazi persecution and destruction of European Jewry
and the founding of the modern state of Israel.

The Holocaust and Israel are closely
associated by most contemporary Jews as symbols of collective death
and rebirth.

Israel is more than just a country, it has a
religious dimension that embodies Jewish self-respect and the
promise of messianic fulfillment, and all movements in American
Judaism—with the single exception of the ultra-Orthodox
sectarians—have become more Israel-oriented in the past
decades.

Both the Reform and Conservative movements
are still striving to achieve legal recognition and equal status
with Orthodoxy in the state of Israel, where marriage, divorce, and
conversion are controlled by the Orthodox rabbinate, backed in the
government by the important National Religious Party.

Judaism in Israel

The modern state of Israel was founded by the
Zionist movement as a secular democracy to reflect the national
spirit of the Jewish people.

The founders of the new Jewish state were
mainly immigrants of Eastern European Ashkenazic origins, with
decidedly secularist and socialist, rather than purely religions,
perspectives. However, as soon as the independent state was
established in 1948, it became the home of a much more diverse set
of Jewish immigrants.

Deeply pious traditionalist Jews from the
ravaged ghettoes of Eastern Europe arrived simultaneously with
equally pious Jews of Islamic lands from Morocco to Persia, whose
lives had become untenable in their homelands.

While most of Israel’s Jewish population has
always regarded itself as secular in orientation, today perhaps a
fifth of Jewish Israelis consider themselves to be devoted
practitioners of Judaism. In addition, Israel’s large non-Jewish
minorities—including Arabs and Armenians—practice various forms of
Islam and Christianity.

To accommodate this religious diversity,
Israel, since its beginnings, has recognized the legitimacy of not
only Judaism, but also Islam, and Christianity, and sees both as
established religious institutions.

The modern state of Israel also guarantees
the freedom for all its citizens to practice—or not to practice—any
religion they choose.

Official Orthodox Judaism

Even prior to the formation of the state of
Israel, the main brand of Judaism practiced in Palestine under
Ottoman and British rule were of Orthodox color. This was mainly
due to the fact that Palestine had for centuries been the home of
highly pious Jewish communities of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic
origins.

Additionally, ever since the 1890s, an
important minority of the Zionist immigration had been Eastern
European traditionalist Jews who saw in Zionism the beginnings of
the messianic restoration of the Israelites to its land.

Thus, when the Jewish state was created in
1948, these Orthodox Jews were poised to dictate terms on which
they would participate in the government of the state. Among the
concessions they won was the right to define Judaism in accord with
the halakhic norms preserved from medieval Jewish tradition.

While Reform and Conservative Jews are,
naturally, welcomed as Jews to the Jewish state, to this very day
their versions of Judaism are regarded as deviant. Accordingly,
official Conservative and Reform religious communities are denied
governmental support, and the rabbis of these movements may not
perform legally binding wedding ceremonies or conversions in the
state of Israel.

The Zionist Orthodox

As far as political orientation goes, most
Orthodox Jews in Israel have Zionist leanings, and, despite its
secular background, they accept Zionism as an authentic movement of
Jewish national expression.

The rabbinic leaders of this branch of
orthodoxy are usually those first looked to as candidates when
chief rabbinates are chosen; and the Zionist Orthodox—especially
those with a strongly messianic view of the rebirth of Jewish
statehood—have often played leading roles in establishing Jewish
settlements in the West Bank territories occupied by Israel as a
result of the Six-Day War of 1967.

The Anti-Zionist Orthodox

However, a small, but highly vocal (and
influential), minority of Orthodox Jews in Israel are bitter
opponents of Zionism. Their roots lie deep in the pre-Zionist
Orthodox population of Palestine, but they also include many new
voices of post-Holocaust immigrants, particularly those from
Eastern Europe.

This Orthodox faction generally regards
Zionism as a heretical attempt by Jews to force God to end his
decree of exile, and they regard their “exile in the Land of Israel
under the Zionists” as even more bitter than the exile under
medieval Christian or Islamic empires.

The Non-Zionist Orthodox

A third faction, the non-Zionist Orthodox,
has largely the same ethnic roots as their anti-Zionist Orthodox
brethren. However, they view Zionism as a religiously neutral fact,
and the state of Israel for them—in contrast to the claims of the
Zionist Orthodox—has no messianic meaning, but neither is it a
demonic force, as the anti-Zionist Orthodox hold.