Is the reform movement becoming conservative? Today’s Chicago Tribune, October 30th, 2007, had a story about the new reformed prayer book and it quotes a controversy about the prayer book with many local reform rabbi saying it is an indication that it is becoming more conservative. It re-introduces some classic prayers that were taken out by early reform editions.
So how do I assess that? Well, first of all, there are still huge differences between the reformed and conservative movement. The reformed rabbi has taken decisions that place them outside their traditional Judaism and the basic issues of who is a Jew and who is married. For example, they will marry someone, a Jew to another Jew, even if they are married before and they do not have a Jewish divorce. See my video on Jewish divorce. They will conduct a conversion, if they want without immersion in a Mikvah and a circumcision or (foreign language), the symbolic circumcision, that will all do, some do but, it is optional. They will allow someone to be considered Jewish whose father is Jewish and mother is not and never converted. I convert lots of those people because they need to be converted traditionally, and, they will perform intermarriages between a Jew and a non-Jew. Some, not all, but some reformed Rabbis, they allow that.
So, on the basic issues of who is a Jew and who is married, they are outside of traditional Judaism and they have realized their huge mistake early on and getting rid of a lot of the commandments that are ritual-bound, they got rid of our Mitzvah and brought it back, they were anti-Israel and they are now Zionists, their prayer book was almost all English when I grew up, it was, they did not allow you to wear caput and tallitote and now they have brought all of that back, more Hebrew and they allow wearing of tallitote and caput and so they are definitely moving towards more tradition. They have, we emphasized Saturday morning services, and they are introducing and emphasizing study. most of the kitchens in reformed sitting I just do not coshure and they serve sometimes pepperoni pizza in their youth programs, some do but they are definitely moving more towards conservative.
Now, the main issue is what is the difference between conservative and reformed, is there really a need for different denominations because actually, most American Jews, outside of orthodox, they have decided that they are not bound by Jewish law and they live their lives pretty much like reformed and conservative Jews live the same way. Most do not have coshure homes, most do not keep coshure out and services are a little bit different, but a lot of the differences are, a lot of the similarities are very superficial. You put a talise on, you put a cape on, you would sing a little bit more in Hebrew. The structure of the prayer service is still different. The reformed movement does not have mosaf for example on Saturday. They do not have all the traditional warding and of the prayers. But the conservative movement honestly made some changes too and it deviates from the orthodox because we think that we do not agree with some of the orthodox terms and prayers. And the re-constructionist’s movement is going through this kind of same gyrations, debating about what kind of liturgy in the prayer book text they should have.
So is the reformed movement becoming more conservative? Well, superficially, wearing tallitote and caput and having more Hebrew on their prayer book and reintroducing some prayers as options that are traditional. But you got on the core issues on who is a Jew and who is married. They still are outside the norm of traditional Judaism in a huge way and that forever makes a very huge difference. But in the way, people actually live their lives; yes there is a lot of similarity. My goal would be to bring all of us, the conservative and reformed Jews and re-constructionists more towards a practical application of Jewish life and observing Shabbat and Kashrud and daily prayer and all of the sacred Mitzvah of Judaism.
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