RELI-448N Week 5 Discussion: Judaism

For this week’s discussion, I plan to compare and contrast Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism. Prior to the reform movement, traditional Judaism was simply that, because there was no alternat e form at that time. Orthodox Judaism was formed as a response to the reform, and refers to traditional Judaism, (Molloy, 2013, p. 322). Some of the specific practices of Orthodox Judaism included: separation of gender in synagogues, Hebrew conducted services, a requirement of a quorum of ten Jewish men for a service to take place, strict social/gender roles, and strict laws about diet (Molloy, 2013, p.322-323).A distinctive characteristic of this type of Judaism is openness and encouragement to question our requirements to God, and then answer those questions within the system that was given to us by God (Orthodox Judaism: Background & Overview, paragraph 4). Conservative Judaism is a branch that was created for Jews that wanted to blend the best parts of old and new Judaism by giving room for modern change while protecting beloved traditions (Molloy, 2013, p. 323). This branch is essentially a middleman between Orthodox Judaism and Reform Judaism. The name was not created as a political label, but as an indicator that their interest remains to conserve traditional Jewish tradition. (Jews for Jesus, 2019, paragraph 27). Being that they are two separate branches of Judaism, they do have some sim similarities and have differences. Both accept the Laws of the Torah as a guide how to live one’s life, they both have rituals for Jewish, life cycle moments, and recognition and support Israel as the ancient and modern homeland of the Jewish people (Prasad, 2018, paragraph 3). Differences between Orthodox and Conservative Judaism lay with the belief of human influence. Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah represents the exact word of God with no human influence. While both branches believe that the laws of the Torah are of divine origin, the Conservative Jews believe the Talmud are additionally of divine origin. The Talmud is a compilation of commentary on Hebrew scriptures. The belief of human element in the Torah and Talmud allows the Conservative Jews to accept the modern notion that show that Jewish writings also show the influence of other cultures (Conservative Judaism: Background & Overview, paragraph 5). References: Conservative Judaism: background & overview. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2, 2019, from Jewish Virtual Library: