Monday 10 October 2011

You Know You're Reform When...

One of the excuses the OP use to justify their lifestyle is that they find meaning in the actions they do. In other words even though we dont subscribe to the dogma, we find at least some of Judaism's rituals and practices meaningful so we keep them anyways.

But of course this is no longer Orthodoxy and it is not even Conservative Judaism. Both these movements *officially* believe man is OBLIGATED to follow rituals. You do them whether or not you find meaning in them. If you can find meaning in them then great! But if not you still do them because you have to.

The OP mindset I've described is much closer to the philosophy of Reform Judaism. Reform Judaism believes man is not obligated to follow Halacha and that Halacha is entirely man made. However, Reform Judaism sees value in keeping the rituals which furnish us with meaning while dropping the ones that don't.

My mindset and the mindset of many OP'ers especially those who skip the "less meaningful" rituals (e.g. praying every day, washing hands before bread, wearing tzitzit) is really some form of Reform Judaism.