German Jews take theology to court
A few Reform Jews are unhappy with the former Sephardic chief rabbi:
Eliyahu, who is considered the spiritual leader of the National Religious Party, was asked by the radio interviewer, "What was the sin of the six million?" In response, he quoted from Exodus 22:5: "If fire gets out of control and spreads through weeds, and [then] consumes bound or standing grain or a field, the one who started the fire must make restitution."He then said, "Those people [Jews in general] are not to blame, but Reform started in Germany, those who changed the religion began in Germany. And because it is written that God was angered, even He did not differentiate among the righteous, it was done." The chief rabbi of
Safed, Eliyahu's son Shmuel Eliyahu, said his father's words do not justify the Nazi crimes but "are based on historic facts," and that anti-Semitism rose where there was assimilation.
They've filed a slander complaint...which I don't understand. Eliyahu's argument is that Reform angered God, who allowed the Holocaust to happen. Now, that is a theological proposition. The only way to decide whether it is false and thus slanderous is to have YHVH Himself testify.If you take "God's wrath" out of the equation, you have the claim that Reform is not true Judaism, which is again a theological argument. This case would be thrown out of court in America...but this is Germany, which is a little twitchy about the Holocaust.
Indeed the only person being slandered here is God, who is being accused of overreacting and of having lousy aim. OK, Reform started in Germany, but if God wanted to kill Reform Jews, he could have gotten behind Fr. Coughlin and done it in America, with less risk to the orthodox. And since God is equally capable of dealing with those who slander Him or who slander others in His name, the court system is totally superfluous.
Comments
Posted by: tim
Posted on: April 20, 2007 10:10 PM
Can anybody explain the meaning of this controversy to me? Granted, I'm atheist, but VERY educated on Bible (Protestant perspective), but not as much from a Jewish perspective - most my Jewish friends not real religious - but Mensa IQ & WAYup on current affairs. But I DON'T GET IT - does 'reform' here mean Luther's Christian reform, or was there reform of Judaism in Germany too? Did it occur around Luther's reform? I'd love to briefly discuss this if anybody can explain it to me. THANKS~ Tim (tim2cb @ aol . com) in long form
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: April 21, 2007 01:22 AM
Luther wasn't a Reformer, just another one of you Christian heretics, Tim. And don't expect me to tell apart one group of Christian heretics from another. :)
Seriously, as one of the few Jews who probably knows a Maronite from a Marist, Reform Judaism (called Progressive or Liberal Judaism outside North America) is one of the major movements--started by German Jews who wanted to adopt as much Gentile ways as possible in the hope of being accepted by their Christian neighbors in the 19th century. Their Christian neighbors, especially in Germany, spent the next eighty or so years proving them wrong, but Reform remains a vigorous movement, especially in the US. Since the start of Christianity, there have been four important schisms among Jews: the Karaites, who rejected the Talmud in early Moslem times; the Sabbateans, who followed the false messiah Sabbatai Sevi in the 17th century; Chasidism, which was a populist movement in many ways similar to Methodism (the founders of both were contemporaries); and Reform. Only the Chasidim were able to maintain full community with the rest of "Orthodoxy".
Rav Eliyahu's point was that Reform, which involved in practice the denial of the historicity of the Torah and the need to perform almost all the laws of the Torah and rabbinical tradition, arose in Germany, and that therefore the Deity chose to punish this mass falling away from Orthodoxy by starting the Holocaust in Germany--and was so angry he also punished the much more Orthodox communities of Eastern Europe along with them. It's a theological thing, as JQ said. And since the traditionalist communities were the ones that suffered the worst, a Reform Jew might counter that in fact God was punishing their refusal to adapt to the modern world and modern scientific knowledge, etc. etc. But apparently Reform and Conservative Jews (who are sort of midway between the two camps, but edging to Reform more and more, and about whom the term conservative has no application to secular politics) don't think the way that Orthodox Jews do, because AFAIK, nobody has done so.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: April 21, 2007 06:34 PM
I was hoping you'd chime in there, Jeffrey.
The closest parallel in Christendom would be a Tridentine Catholic or Anglican Catholic opinion on liberal Methodists. Reform isn't "reform" in the sense of going back to a purer, less diluted faith (basically what Protestantism was all about), but more about getting rid of the funky, irrational ways that made Jews so different. But if you aren't different, what's the point?
It is said that German Jews in America were responsible for the workd "kike", which they applied to Orthodox East European Jews.
As for changes in Conservative Judaism, I went to undergrad school with the woman who went on to become the first female cantor in the Conservative tradition, Erica Lippitz.
Posted by: jeffrey smith
Posted on: April 21, 2007 11:12 PM
Ms. Lippitz is fine. Just stay away from Debbie Friedman. She's the closest thing Jewish music has to formula-pop.
Offtopic, but curiously horrifying: On Mr.Beck's movie meme, I have at least three answers the same as his: first remembered movie (Exodus), movie last seen in theater (Schindler's List), favorite comedy (Mad Mad World, although the original Cage aux Folles and MP and the Holy Grail give it a run for the money). Perhaps that's only the mark that we are almost the same age. But Jaws and Omen were way scarier than Exorcist. As is any movie with Madonna in it.