This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plaut’s classic volume on the beginnings of the Jewish Reform Movement is updated with a new introduction by Howard A. Berman. The Rise of Reform Judaism covers the first one hundred years of the movement, from the time of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment leader Moses Mendelssohn to the conclusion of the Augsburg synod in 1871.
In these pages the founders who established liberal Judaism speak for themselves through their journals and pamphlets, books and sermons, petitions and resolutions, and public arguments and disputations. Each selection includes Plaut’s brief introduction and sketch of the reformer. Important topics within Judaism are addressed in these writings: philosophy and theology, religious practice, synagogue services, and personal life, as well as controversies on the permissibility of organ music, the introduction of the sermon, the nature of circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath, the rights of women, and the authenticity of the Bible.
This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plaut’s classic volume on the beginnings of the Jewish Reform Movement is updated with a new introduction by Howard A. Berman. The Rise of Reform Judaism covers the first one hundred years of the movement, from the time of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment leader Moses Mendelssohn to the conclusion of the Augsburg synod in 1871.
In these pages the founders who established liberal Judaism speak for themselves through their journals and pamphlets, books and sermons, petitions and resolutions, and public arguments and disputations. Each selection includes Plaut’s brief introduction and sketch of the reformer. Important topics within Judaism are addressed in these writings: philosophy and theology, religious practice, synagogue services, and personal life, as well as controversies on the permissibility of organ music, the introduction of the sermon, the nature of circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath, the rights of women, and the authenticity of the Bible.
The Rise of Reform Judaism: A Sourcebook of Its European Origins
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The Rise of Reform Judaism: A Sourcebook of Its European Origins
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Overview
This fiftieth anniversary edition of W. Gunther Plaut’s classic volume on the beginnings of the Jewish Reform Movement is updated with a new introduction by Howard A. Berman. The Rise of Reform Judaism covers the first one hundred years of the movement, from the time of the eighteenth-century Jewish Enlightenment leader Moses Mendelssohn to the conclusion of the Augsburg synod in 1871.
In these pages the founders who established liberal Judaism speak for themselves through their journals and pamphlets, books and sermons, petitions and resolutions, and public arguments and disputations. Each selection includes Plaut’s brief introduction and sketch of the reformer. Important topics within Judaism are addressed in these writings: philosophy and theology, religious practice, synagogue services, and personal life, as well as controversies on the permissibility of organ music, the introduction of the sermon, the nature of circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath, the rights of women, and the authenticity of the Bible.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780827612792 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | The Jewish Publication Society |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2015 |
| Series: | JPS Anthologies of Jewish Thought |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 320 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut (1912–2012) was a longtime rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. The author of more than twenty books on Jewish theology, history, and culture, he is best known for The Torah: A Modern Commentary. Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof (1892–1990) was a leader of the Reform Jewish Movement and a world-renowned interpreter of Jewish law. Rabbi Howard A. Berman is the executive director of the Society for Classical Reform Judaism. He lectures at congregations throughout the United States on behalf of the society and teaches regularly at Hebrew Union College.
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The Rise of Reform Judaism
A Sourcebook of Its European Origins
By W. Gunther Plaut
The Jewish Publication Society
Copyright © 2015 The Jewish Publication SocietyAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8276-1279-2
CHAPTER 1
Trail Blazers
* * *
1. THE FIRST GENERATION
Modern reform Judaism has its beginnings in the eighteenth century period of Enlightenment (see above, p. xiii).
For the Jew in Europe, Enlightenment went with the name of Moses Mendelssohn, the ghetto-born philosopher (1729-1786), who became the model for all those aspiring to civil and cultural equality. Mendelssohn's success amid the great of the Christian world was, for his coreligionists, a powerful stimulus to acquire a secular education, to perfect their knowledge of German and of the arts — in short, to become accepted in the larger environment. What would happen to their Judaism in this revolutionary process of breaking the ghetto's spiritual and physical walls? For some, it was a choice between Judaism and Christianity — and, therefore, most rabbis of the time saw in Mendelssohn the symbol of a future dissolution of Judaism. Mendelssohn himself rejected the necessity of such a choice and remained a staunch adherent of tradition. Yet the tension existed, and out of it a new, modern Judaism slowly began to emerge. Fifty years later, in the 1830's and 1840's, it became a torrential stream which carved out the river bed of modern Reform Judaism.
There had been many translations of the Bible before Mendelssohn's time, but none by any modern Jewish scholar. In many ways, the effort which Mendelssohn and a group of associates made became the touchstone of a new era; the cultured, scholarly Jew, using the language and tools of German scholarship, emerged onto the stage of Western culture. The introduction to the translation, of which the following is a small excerpt, is symptomatic of this new trend.
WHY A NEW TRANSLATION? (Moses Mendelssohn)
In 1545, the great grammarian, R. Elijah Habachur, translated the Pentateuch and the Megillot word for word into the German, and had this translation printed at Constance in Switzerland. In 1679, he was followed by R. Josel Witzenhausen and R. Jekuthiel Blitz, the latter possessing approbations of the most distinguished rabbis of his time. R. Jekuthiel says in his preface, that he had seen the German translation of the Pentateuch printed at Constance, and found it so faulty and unfit that he was convinced the translation could not emanate from the celebrated German grammarian. I, the writer of this, have never seen the translation attributed to R. Elijah, as it was not to be had in our country; but I have seen that of R. Jekuthiel, and observed that he censures faults from which he himself is not free. Though his intention might have been praiseworthy, and he might perhaps on that account have obtained the approbation of contemporary rabbis, it is certain that the execution of the work is not deserving of praise; for he is quite ignorant of Hebrew, and therefore did not understand how to penetrate into the depth of the Hebrew style; but what he understood he rendered into a most corrupt language, so that one who has been accustomed to pure language feels quite disgusted with it.
Since then up to this day no one has undertaken the task of mending this fault and of rendering our Holy Writ in correct language, suitable to our age. The children of Israel who have a mind for useful studies sought the knowledge of the word of God from Christian translations; for in every age the Christians translated the Scriptures according to the variations of language and people, suitable to the wants of the time and in conformity with the correct use of the language. They did so in euphonious style — now keeping close to the word, then only rendering the sense; now word for word, then by explanatory paraphrase — in order to satisfy the desire of every learner, and in accordance with the customary language of the age. But this way, which many of our coreligionists have already adopted, leads to manifold mistakes and carries the most dangerous consequences with it. For the Christian translators, who do not recognize the traditions of our sages and do not keep the Masorah, nay more, who do not consider themselves bound by the vowel points and accents as we have them, look upon the sacred volume "as an undefended city," where everyone can go his own way and act according to his own choice. Not only as regards the vowel points and accents, but even as regards the letters and words, they allow themselves optional alterations as they think best, and therefore read in the Scriptures not that which they contain, but that which suits them.
I will not, therefore, pronounce censure on these learned authors, for what could bind them to a tradition which has not been handed down by their ancestors, or to a Masorah which has not been laid down by men who appear to them as authorities? But then, they do not consider the Torah from that point of view to observe everything which is written therein; they only treat it as a historical work, containing information on the events of past times, and representing to them the divine rule and providence in every age. From this point of view there is no harm in making trifling alterations, adding or omitting a few letters or words, in the same manner as it is done with secular authors, where every editor and reviser alters the text according to his judgment.
Now, although this may be suitable to Christian authors, it cannot by any means be considered right and proper for us. To us the Torah is a heritage, not only for remembering the past, but also for attaining a knowledge of the precepts which the Eternal, our God, commanded us to learn, to teach, to observe, and to keep; it is our life, the preserver of our existence. But in order that we should not be continually in doubt, and not have to depend upon the frail reed of speculation and upon the uncertainty of hypotheses, our sages have established the Masorah, thereby erecting a fence around the law and judgment, so that we need not grope in the darkness of conjecture. From this even path we must not turn either to the right or the left. We cannot modify our texts according to the hypotheses of one or the other grammarian; we must cling to the standard which the authors of the Masorah have established for us. This is the tradition to which we must adhere. By its guidance we understand the Scriptures, search and inquire into them, often according to the simple explanation, and often according to the interpretation of our sages, for both are equally true and just, as I shall hereafter show.
THE THREE PARTS OF JUDAISM (Moses Mendelssohn)
Mendelssohn's theory of the nature of Judaism had a profound though strange effect on succeeding generations. Of the three parts of Judaism — doctrines, historical truths, and ceremonial laws — he considered the first two accessible to all men and not part of divine revelation. Only the ritual law was revealed especially to Israel, and since it was the distinct mark of the Jew's relationship with God, Mendelssohn saw no reason why this law should not be meticulously observed. The rationalism and universalism which pervaded his total approach to Jewish theology soon found wide acceptance; and it was not long before the ceremonial law which he had held sacrosanct was also considered subject to rational investigation and adaptation and was accorded a place inferior to the "religious" aspect of Judaism. Traditionalists, who generally anathematized Mendelssohn, approved of his acceptance of the ceremonial law as part of revelation, while Reformers looked at his basic theory and applied it to the whole body of Judaism.
I recognize no other eternal truths than those comprehensible to human reason and those provable and demonstrable through the human power to think. However, anyone who believes that I could not make such claim without deviating from the religion of my ancestors is misled by a false concept of Judaism. On the contrary, I hold this to be an essential point in the Jewish religion, and I believe that this doctrine represents a characteristic difference between the Jewish and Christian faiths. To put it briefly: I believe that Judaism recognizes no revealed religion in the sense understood by Christians. The Israelites have divine legislation, laws, commandments, ordinances, rules of life, and instruction in the will of God concerning rules of conduct which are intended to lead to earthly as well as eternal salvation. These tenets and precepts have been revealed to them by Moses in a wonderful, supernatural way; but they are neither dogmas, nor redemptive truths, nor universal propositions demonstrable by reason. At all times these latter truths are revealed to us and to all other humans by the Eternal, by nature, and by circumstance, but never by word or writing.
At this point I can briefly sum up my views on the Judaism of the past, combining them into a single viewpoint. According to its founder, Judaism consisted of, or was supposed to consist of:
1. Doctrines and precepts, or eternal truths of God and His direction and divine providence, without which man cannot be enlightened and happy. These were not forced upon our nation under the threat of eternal or earthly punishment, but rather were recommended for rational understanding according to the nature and evidence of eternal truth. They had not been inspired through direct revelation; indeed, they could not have been made known through speech and writing, which are understandable only here and now. They were revealed by the Almighty to all rational creatures through concepts and things themselves, written into the soul with a clarity that remains legible and understandable at all times and in all places.
2. Historical truths or accounts of the destinies of former ages, especially of the life of the nation's founders; their knowledge of the true God; their virtuous life before God; their own transgressions and the paternal chastisement that followed; the covenant that God had concluded with them and the promise He had so often repeated to them, to make their descendants a nation consecrated to Him in times to come. These historical accounts contained the basis for national unity, and they cannot, because of their very nature, be accepted as historical truths, other than on faith. Authority itself affords them the required evidence; besides, these accounts were confirmed to the nation through miracles and supported by an authority sufficiently strong to render the faith immune to all doubts and scruples.
3. Laws, precepts, commandments, rules of life which are this nation's own, adherence to which will achieve not only national salvation but also the attainment of personal happiness for each individual member. God was the lawgiver, not in the sense of God as creator and preserver of the universe, but rather as God, protector and confederate of their ancestors, liberator, founder and commander-in-chief, king and sovereign of this people; and He bestowed the most solemn sanction upon His laws, publicly and in an unheard-of, wondrous way. Thus these laws were enjoined on the nation and all its descendants as an immutable responsibility and obligation. These laws were revealed, that is, they were made known by God, through words and writing. However, only the most essential part has been entrusted to writing; and even these written laws are for the most part unintelligible without the unwritten elucidations, delineations, and detailed instructions transmitted by oral and vivid instruction. They are unintelligible, or had to become so in time, since no words or scriptures can retain their meaning unchanged throughout any generation. The written as well as the unwritten laws, representing precepts of action and rules of life, regard public and private salvation as their ultimate goal. At the same time they are a part of Scripture which has meaning and importance also as ceremonial law. They guide the seeking mind to divine truths; they guide it, partly to eternal truths, partly to historical truths, on which the religion of this people was based. The ceremonial law was the link which was to connect action with contemplation, life with theory. The ceremonial law was supposed to induce personal relations and social contact between school and teacher, scholar and instructor, to stimulate and encourage competition and imitation. This purpose was actually achieved in the beginning, before the Law degenerated, and man's folly interfered once again, transforming, through misconception and mismanagement, the good into evil, the useful into abuse.
THE RIGHT TO BE DIFFERENT (Moses Mendelssohn)
Mendelssohn's call for religious pluralism was issued at a time when nowhere in the German realm had Jews as yet attained citizenship.
Brothers! If you care for true salvation, let us not mismanage ourselves into uniformity when obviously diversity is the plan and ultimate goal of Providence. None of us thinks and feels exactly the same as the man next to him; why, then, do we wish to deceive one another through false words? It is sad enough that we are doing this in our daily relations, in our conversations, which are of no particular significance. But why do it in matters concerning our earthly as well as our eternal welfare, indeed our entire destiny? Why make ourselves, through mummery, irrecognizable to one another in the most important matters of our very existence, since God certainly must have impressed His own image on each individual for some good reason? Were we to do that, would we not oppose destiny as much as possible and, indeed, frustrate the very purpose of creation? Would we then not wilfully act contrary to our calling, to our destiny, in this life and the life to come?
The House of Jacob can receive no better advice than precisely this: adapt yourselves to the customs and the constitution of the land in which you live; yet, at the same time, adhere firmly to the religion of your ancestors. Carry both burdens as well as you can. To be sure, on the one side, the burden of your civic life is greater because of your religion to which you remain loyal; and on the other side, the climate of the times makes the observance of your religious laws in many regards more troublesome than they actually are. Nevertheless, hold out, stand unflinching in the appointed place assigned to you by Providence, and bear everything with patience, as your Law-giver proclaimed to you long ago.
Regents of the earth! If the voice of an unimportant co-inhabitant may be granted a hearing and reach your exalted heights: do not trust the counsels who, with their smooth words, wish to induce you to such harmful undertakings. They are either blinded themselves and do not see the enemy of mankind lurking in the background, or else they seek to blind you. Were you to lend an ear to them, it would mean the destruction of our most precious gem, the freedom to think! For the sake of your happiness as well as ours, consider that a union of religious faiths does not mean tolerance; indeed, it is the very opposite of true tolerance! For the sake of your salvation and ours, do not use your powerful position to give an eternal truth, which has no relation to civic contentment, the force of law; do not transform a certain religious view, in which the state has no interest whatever, into a statute of the land! Insist on the conduct of men, judge it, bring it under the judgment of wise laws, and leave to us our thought and speech with which our Father has endowed us as an unalienable heritage and immutable right.
STATE OF EDUCATION AMONG THE JEWS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (Hartwig Wessely)
Naphtali Herz (Hartwig) Wessely (1725-1805), friend of Mendelssohn, wrote in classical Hebrew about the needs of his fellow Jews. Hailed at first by the most traditional elements, he soon became persona non grata, for his ideas pointed inevitably to the need for inner regeneration. In this open letter, published at the turn of the century, he lays the blame for the depressed educational condition of the Jew at the door of his oppressors — but it remains for the Jew himself to step forward and acquire what, for centuries, has been denied him.
There is one people on the globe who do not sufficiently appreciate non-biblical literature, and who have neglected the public instruction of their youth in the laws of morality, nature, and science — and this people are the children of Israel, scattered through the countries of Europe and settled in most of her states. In particular, the inhabitants of Germany and Poland have turned their back upon those sciences, although there are many men of great mind and talent among them. Yet all their studies and applications comprise only the divine laws and precepts, but the laws of human nature they have never heard of or learned. They are even ignorant of the rules of the holy tongue, discern not the beauties of its diction, the elevated style of its construction, and the sublimity of its poetry — the unceasing sources of wisdom and moral instruction; much less is their acquaintance with the tongues of the nations among whom they live; nay, many can neither write nor read them. The construction of the globe, the events of history, and the principles of civil law, of natural and scientific philosophy, are altogether hidden to them. And what is the cause of this ignorance? Their never having been instructed in any of these subjects, either by their fathers or by their teachers, who themselves had no acquaintance with them. Nay, even the fundamental principles of their faith were not taught according to any method, so that the youth might become systematically conversant with them, nor did they ever hear in their schools aught of ethics, of morality, or of psychology. Some of the pupils whose theological studies have been successful, with the increase of years perceive their deficiency and endeavor to amend the fault committed by their teachers, by gleaning information either from books or from conversation, "here a little and there a little"; but of what avail are all their endeavors when system is wanting? The same as a thin silken dress on a frosty day. A sound knowledge of those subjects is only to be met within individuals whose hearts have stirred them up "and made them willing," and led them to incline their ear to wisdom, and to devote their lives to science; to learn the languages of different nations, to understand their literature, thus becoming a fountain inexhaustible in its own resources, unassisted by teachers, unaided by parents or superiors, but solely springing from the native love of truth.
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction to the 50th Anniversary Edition by Howard A. Berman,Foreword by Solomon B. Freehof,
Introduction,
Chapter I : TRAIL BLAZERS,
Chapter II : NEW TEMPLES, NEW PRAYER BOOKS,
Chapter III : THE GREAT CONTROVERSY — TIKTIN VS. GEIGER,
Chapter IV : CONFERENCES AND SYNODS,
Chapter V : NEW PATTERNS OF THOUGHT,
Chapter VI : A PEOPLE AND ITS FAITH,
Chapter VII : WORSHIP REFORM,
Chapter VIII : SABBATH AND HOLIDAY OBSERVANCE,
Chapter IX : THE PERSONAL LIFE,
Chapter X : THE COMMUNITY,
Bibliographical Notes,
Index,