Also read    "Is It Time..." an interview    with Rabbi Richard Levy

Follow the Study Guide   and Give US Your Feedback   RJ Website Added Values

THIS IS NOT THE WAY
The present draft of Rabbi Levy's "Ten Principles"
fails to convey the distinctive, ongoing mission of our movement.

By Robert Seltzer

I admire Rabbi Richard Levy's integrity, religiousness, idealism, and courage. His draft document is permeated with a thoughtful and heartfelt Jewish piety that I have witnessed in him ever since we were students together in the sixties at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and later at Columbia University Graduate School. His lifestyle shows that the Jewish tradition, the creative freedom espoused by the Reform movement, and a responsiveness to the religious yearnings of our time can be fused into a genuine spirituality.

The formulation of a new platform can be a positive exercise, if it strengthens our appreciation of what it means to be a Reform Jew in our day. Regrettably, I find that the present draft of Rabbi Levy's "Ten Principles for Reform Judaism" fails to convey the distinctive, ongoing mission of our movement.

Rabbi Levy argues that Reform Jews should place much greater emphasis on ritual. Encouraging Jews to expand Jewish ritual practices is useful if the observances have meaning to us. But we must guard against turning Reform Judaism into Conservative Judaism Lite. Rabbi Levy's proposal encourages Jews to be as traditional as possible without actually being Orthodox. Although his draft does not call on us to follow the halachah (Jewish law), Levy places far more emphasis on the observance of mitzvot than does any previous Reform platform. What is of most concern, however, is his elimination of the greatest contribution of Reform to modern Judaism: a conscious sifting through the tradition, choosing practices that are consistent with the canons of rational thought, the best of modern knowledge, and the hard-won place of Jews and Judaism at the center of modern Western society.

Rabbi Levy's position reflects a noticeable trend among many committed Reform Jews to observe more Jewish rituals. The atmosphere of emotionality, the enthusiastic singing, the growing usage of Hebrew in worship, and the widespread use of the tallit (prayer shawl) and kipah (skull cap) stand in startling opposition to the standards of Classical Reform Judaism, which has championed the image of modern Jews as dignified, respectable, and mainstream. In declaring that "all such Mosaic and rabbinic laws as regulate diet, priestly purity and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state," the authors of the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform placed the tallit and kipah, along with the arba kanfot (the fringed undergarment) and peyot (side curls), in the category of obsolete practices that no longer serve to "elevate and sanctify our lives." This was a valid concern for a group seeking to rid itself of an image as alien, backward, and oriental -- a group determined to cast aside the culture of the ghetto.

Admittedly, the current revival among many Reform Jews of previously rejected practices and the desire for active participation in congregational worship and home observances testifies to a longing for a religious experience that the classical style may no longer satisfy. But if by increasing the level of piety and traditionalism we are obscuring the essence of Reform Judaism, then we may be undermining the very foundations upon which our movement stands. One of the pillars of Reform is that a living Judaism is thoroughly compatible with contemporary science, historical understanding, and ethical sensibilities. Unfortunately, Rabbi Levy's draft platform concerns itself much more with inward, day-to-day symbolic actions than with the central tasks of clarifying the compelling Jewish values to which we should adhere and articulating an outward-looking vision of Judaism's public role.

The point of any new platform is to explain Reform's guiding principles to highly educated and acculturated congregants who are seeking not only spiritual warmth but moral and theological enlightenment on such issues as sexual ethics, building a decent society that honors its duties to the underprivileged, the fulfillment of our human potential, and the existence of undue suffering and evil in God's world. While deciding what ritual practices to encourage, we must also determine which Jewish values we hold to be indispensable, so that our rituals reinforce the values we espouse. Moreover, a new platform for the Reform movement should not be a sermonic exhortation but a straightforward agenda crafted and implemented jointly by rabbis and lay leaders.

It is all too easy to employ religious terms without specifying their appropriate meanings. I have in mind Rabbi Levy's uncritical use of the term mitzvah, which he applies to traditional customs without distinguishing eternal divine commandments from those of temporal human expedience. As the framers of the first Pittsburgh Platform realized, there is no avoiding an evaluative process of sorting through the bounty of our heritage, consciously and critically, to separate the kernel from the husk. Modern historical scholarship has irrevocably transformed our understanding of Judaism. All the texts of our tradition, including the Written Torah, are umbilically tied to the circumstances of their origin. Judaism, like all religions, has evolved. Practices originated in a certain time and place may no longer be applicable or meaningful. Our guiding principles, therefore, need to articulate the process by which Reform Jews can determine which observances are to be included and which may be excluded.

The first step in this process is to recognize that past Jewish beliefs and practices do not automatically warrant our allegiance. As much as humanly possible, our beliefs and actions ought to be rationally consistent, intellectually coherent, and subject to critical inquiry. Above all, we view Jewish history as the product of human beings, even as we endow it with a transcendental dimension. We believe that God has been present in our history, but the implications of this belief raises serious theological questions that we need to address over and over again in every generation. It also raises questions about many venerable Jewish practices that reflect values we no longer can accept, such as the separation of women at worship and the laws of mamzerut (bastardy), which were rightly abandoned by Reform Judaism long ago.

Of course, there are many awe-inspiring traditional Jewish prayers and observances that still overwhelm us today with their spiritual meaning and beauty. A friend who almost died in an accident told me that, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, he found himself reciting the Shema. He did this not to ask God to intercede personally on his behalf but to reaffirm his Jewishness as he glimpsed the end of his life. Ultimately, the purpose of Jewish practice is to make us better Jews, and thereby better people. Some rites can make us better persons because they are a persistent reminder of our responsibilities to others. For many Reform Jews, the weekly study of Jewish texts has become a form of worship that binds them to the Jewish people, the Jewish past, and God.

The 1885 Pittsburgh Platform is not as outdated as Rabbi Levy contends. Many of its principles remain contemporary. Understanding that religious observances give structure and meaning to our lives, the platform insists that we should maintain "such ceremonies as elevate and sanctify our lives." In the modern spirit of tolerance, it acknowledges the legitimacy of all religions and especially the "providential mission" of Christianity and Islam. In the Jewish philosophical spirit, it insists on the purity of the Jewish "God-idea" and the progressive nature of a Judaism "ever striving to be in accord with the postulates of reason." In the spirit of prophetic Judaism, it reiterates the "divine nature of the human spirit" and "the need to solve, on the basis of justice and righteousness, the problems presented by the contrasts and evils of the present organization of society." To be sure, the nineteenth-century platform clings to a faith in the essential goodness of human beings and inexorable progress, which appears naive in light of the horrors of the twentieth century. Rabbi Levy's draft document, however, errs in the opposite direction, expressing a certain cultural pessimism. He seems to suggest that we should wall ourselves off from a society corrupted by images of "in-your-face sexuality and bloodshed." The "Ten Principles" seem to ignore the reality that our contributions to Western civilization are widely admired. We should be building on our inclusion and acceptance to extend the insights and values of Reform Judaism not only to Jews but to open-minded people everywhere.

Any new statement of principles must resist current politics and fashions. In his call for increased observance, Rabbi Levy's proposal may be part of the global trend toward a right-wing, conservative religiosity -- even fundamentalism.

We must guard against any tendency to turn the hands of the clock backward instead of forward. Rabbi Levy's endorsement of kashrut is evidence of this regressive inclination. Yes, biblical and rabbinic food regulations are dear to our Orthodox and Conservative co-religionists, and respecting Jewish sensibilities is an aspect of affirming our belonging to Kenesset Yisrael. But there are many other ways of showing our identification and solidarity with the Jewish people. For most Reform Jews, observance of kashrut is no litmus test of Jewish identity or spirituality. The procedures of kashrut may no longer be a humane way of slaughtering animals. And, apart perhaps from honoring the prohibition against eating pork and shellfish, many ethically and spiritually sensitive Reform Jews do not find kashrut especially meaningful, and this does not make them any less faithful to the Jewish people.

I doubt if one can produce a Reform platform for a new century without the hard work of analyzing, synthesizing, and integrating what we hold to be true. Instead of the CCAR's voting on Rabbi Levy's "Ten Principles," I recommend that we set in motion a movement-wide process of Reform self-clarification that addresses the question: How can Reform Judaism help elevate our lives in a manner that combines the best values of our ancient Jewish heritage with the best insights of modernity? The very future of our movement may rest on what we do at this juncture in our history.

Rabbi Robert M. Seltzer is professor of Jewish History at Hunter College of The City University of New York and the CUNY Graduate School, director of Hunter's Jewish Social Studies Program, and the author of Jewish People, Jewish Thought.

Back to Winter 1998

Back to UAHC home page