Because he knew he was thinking, Descartes proved his own existence. I, by contrast, know I exist, and want to make sure I think.
More precisely, given the kind of person I am, I think in a certain sort of way about certain sorts of things — a truism, nowadays, in this Age of Anxious Identity. Tell me who you are and I will know something of what and how you think.
I like, therefore, to engage synagogue leaders in questions of who they are (and how, therefore, they think). Because I do most of my presenting in Reform congregations, I take special interest in their members’ Reform identity and what the Reform label means to them.
Most recently, I asked the question of some focus groups assembled by the URJ (the Union for Reform Judaism) to help me think about the script that I agreed to write for 150th anniversary of Reform Judaism in North America. The participants (who included rabbis and lay leaders) had this to say:
- Representatives of the younger generation, mostly millennials, often found it hard to say what Reform even is. Some of them went farther and thought Reform as a category largely irrelevant. The future, they said, would feature Orthodoxy on one hand and everyone else on the other.
- By contrast, members of the older generations, Gen X and Baby Boomers, believed Reform had once been a persuasive descriptive category but bemoaned its disappearance nowadays. Their advice in writing the anniversary script was to “Go deep”: to provide the intellectual, moral, and historical depth that Reform identity once had but now seems lacking.
I was saddened by the millennials’ response, but not surprised, because sociologists regularly describe millennial resistance to being pigeonholed by organizational labels. But that is the problem: “Reform” has become an organizational label, not (as it used to be) a visionary one descriptive of a proud and committed way of being in the world.
The older informants put their finger on the problem: our Reform movement lacks gravitas. Our institutions are no longer respected as having much to say to the world. Many people say, privately, that they have largely stopped trying.
But lumping Jews together as either “Orthodox” or “other” is a gross oversimplification of both. Our Age of Anxious Identity is equally an Age of Identity Choices. If increasing numbers of people choose “just Jewish,” it is certainly not because they identify equally as everything, from the ultra-Orthodox Haredim to ethnic secularists; it is because (at least for Reform) there is no currently-compelling visionary content to what we say we are.
Historically, however, each denomination has presented its own authentic alternative to being Jewish. Modern Orthodoxy devised a halachic life style in geographically dense communities where people walk to shul together. Conservative Judaism excelled at Jewish education, an historical approach to halachah and traditional davening for people who may not be all that traditional otherwise. Reconstructionism, which saw Judaism as a civilization, emphasized community formation — and small-group Havurah communities at that. Reform Judaism (which I know most about, so can say most about) gave us religion through the lens of reason; continuous revelation beyond Sinai; social justice and prophetic Judaism; courage to make cutting-edge moral judgements, like admitting clergy who are women or LGBTQ+; intentionally joyous worship; a new kind of cantor; and emphasis on spirituality.
Some of these movement identities remain healthy, clear, and viable. Judging from my focus groups, Reform is not among them. We have lost our way.
The denominational identities I want safeguarded are not organizational – not, that is, just parallel bureaucracies that thrive on generating committees, holding meetings, and protecting turf. They are visionary: entire Jewish philosophies of being, alternative traditions of Jewish artistry, that should be elaborated, not eradicated. To be sure, people can be “served” in organizational settings that are “just Jewish,” with no particular philosophy whatever: they all have religious schools, High Holiday services, rabbis on call, and the like. But synagogues that become service centers are a poor caricature of what Jewish life should be. Serving is not the issue. Identity is. And passionate identity is harder to come by in a synagogue that flounders in inchoate generalities.
Visionary denominational identities do not erect boundaries to keep people out. Think of them as diverse photographic slices of the Jewish landscape through time. We properly learn from one another’s pictures, either borrowing or rejecting bits and pieces of the perspective that they capture — but always with respect, and always to enhance our own perception of the Jewish life we seek. Only the shallowest view of Judaism allows us to be every kind of Jew imaginable. Serious Judaism demands choices, choices of this denominational vision rather than that one, each of them constituting a doorway, not a fence; a doorway to a specific Jewish life style, in which we are invited not just to be served but to root ourselves and to grow.
If denominational Judaism is suspect, it is not because denominationalism is bad – quite the contrary. It is because denominational bodies (some more than others) suffer hardening of their visionary arteries. At worst, they construct visions that only the inner circle of the denominational professionals find compelling, or forget they even have a vision altogether. At best, they let their visions petrify, collapsing them into sterile cardboard cutouts of reality, static repetition of two-dimensional photos rather than a kaleidoscopic vision that is always in process, always offering newly insightful ways to rekindle our passion.
I am, therefore I think: I am a Reform Jew; so this is what I think about.
You will now understand the script I wrote for the Reform 150th. I sought to provide an historical overview in poetic/liturgical form that at least suggested the depth of the Reform Jewish vision through time. It was a celebration of Reform as the intellectual and aesthetic artistry that it once was and still can be.
The streamed version is supposed to be available eventually on the URJ website, complete with visual backdrops, changes in lighting, historical reminiscences, video clips, two exceptional narrators (Dana Bash and David Gregory), a cantorial choir, congregational singing, and more.
In the meantime, I am going to post the script for you to read, in stages, as my next set of Open Letters. Stay tuned.
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Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D. 
This is such an important reflection. I look forward to watching your presentation from the URJ celebration. Thank you for your vision!! It’s so needed.
Orthodox Judaism FAQ • Answers to frequently asked questions on Judaism
Why do Jews not believe in JeZeus even after all he did; and he said if you don’t believe in me you’ll go to Hell for eternity. Did Jesus lie? Is Gehinnom eternal? Do Jews not believe what he says? Why for 2000+ years have the Jewish people abhorred and decried belief in JeZeus as a false messiah avoda zarah?
New Testament theology = revisionist history. However T’nach does not teach history, despite historical/conservative Judaism narishkeit. The T’NaCH defines prophesy as a tohor persons who commands mussar.
Witchcraft, by stark contrast, a tumah false prophet predicts the future. Hence the New Testament (Roman counterfeit) declares that JeZeus fulfilled the words of the prophets. Proof that the New Testament promotes false prophet theologies. False prophet theologies defined as a predetermined creed/dogma which dictates what and how people should believe in God as an act of faith.
The Torah defines the tohor concept of faith as: Justice, Justice pursue. Based upon the cruel corrupt and oppressive Courts of king Par’o who withheld straw to Israelite slaves and who ordered the overseers to beat without mercy Israelites for their failure to meet the quota of bricks imposed upon these Israelite slaves. Based upon the conditions where Par’o supplied the Hebrews with the straw they required to make bricks their quota of bricks.
Yitro commanded a strong mussar to Moshe when he saw Moshe all alone judge the disputes between the people. Justice defined as the power of common law courtrooms to make fair restitution of damages inflicted upon Jews by other Jews.
Muhammad pulled the exact same rabbit out of his tumah magic-hat. The Koran rhetoric repeats prophet, prophet, prophet Ad infinitum, yet never defines – from the Torah – the term prophet. The Gospels did the exact same tumah Abracadabra, with the ((to quote Baba Kama: “Mountain hanging by a hair”)), the Pie in the Sky term of: Love.
T’NaCH prophets command mussar. Why? Because mussar applies straight across the board to all generations of bnai brit Israel. A bnai brit Israel grows the תוכחה\mussar rebuke within our hearts.
We grow and nurture this mussar within us. And these “tohor spirits” (based upon the revelation of the שם השם לשמה) they live within our hearts. They cause bnai brit Israel to dedicate defined tohor middot (‘ה’ ה’ אל רחום וחנון וכו, also known as the Oral Torah revelation at Horev) in all our future social interactions with our family, neighbours & people.
Hence the spirituality known as: the baali t’shuva. Mesechta Sanhedrin of the Talmud learns the mitzva of Moshiach tied to the mitzva of baali t’shuva. Based upon Moshe and the burning bush confrontation. Wherein Moshe vocally opposed to go down unto Egypt to bring Israel out from judicial oppression slavery. Yet Moshe, as a baali t’shuva descended unto Egypt and brought Israel unto freedom. Moshe serves as the Torah model for the mitzva of Moshiach. Moshe did not build a Catholic assimilated Cathedral as did king Shlomo. King Shlomo worshipped avoda zarah.
Moshe struggled to build the small sanhedrin Federal courts on the far side of the Jordan river. When king David, based upon the mussar commanded by the prophet Natan, commanded his son Shlomo to build the Beit HaMikdash, he had no such k’vanna for king Shlomo to assimilate and copy the customs manners and ways of the Goyim, who reject the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, and who build Cathedral Temples throughout the annuls of Human History. The k’vanna of the Moshiach to build the Beis HaMikdash learns from Moshe Rabbeinu who established the small Sanhedrin Federal Courtrooms in 3 of the Cities of Refuge on the other side of the Jordan river.
The mitzva of Moshiach constitutes as a tohor time oriented commandment; applicable to all generations of the Jewish people, just like tefillah stands in the stead of korbanot. All tohor time oriented commandments, applicable to all the Jewish people. All tohor time oriented commandments stand upon the foundation\יסוד of “fear of Heaven”.
This foundation of pursuit of judicial justice requires that a baali t’shuva dedicates a tohor middah. Which tohor middah does the mitzva of Moshiach require as its holy defining dedication to שם השם לשמה? The middah dedication to restore the lateral Sanhedrin Federal common law courts across the Torah Constitutional Republic.
Mesechta קידושין teaches that tohor time oriented commandments as applicable to women qualifies as a רשות option. If women choose to place tefillen or read from a Sefer Torah these tohor time oriented commandments come within the רשות of their Will. The NaCH kabbalah בנין אב precedent for this Talmudic ruling, the story of D’vora & Barack fighting together to defeat the Army of Sisera.
The oath sworn alliance, known as “brit”, (like as found in בראשית\ברית אש, ראש בית, ב’ ראשית), this key Torah term means “alliance” and also “Republic”. The 12 Tribes forged this oath brit alliance which established the First Commonwealth of the Torah Constitutional Republic of the 12 Tribes. Based upon the Torah precedent, (known in Hebrew as בנין אב) upon Moshe anointing Aaron and his House as Moshiach.
Aaron dedicates korbanot. A korban sacrifice does not at all represent a barbeque unto Heaven. To dedicate a korban requires swearing a Torah oath. Just as to cut a brit לשם השם לשמה requires swearing a Torah oath. Just as the Shemone Esrei standing tefillah requires the k’vanna to swear a Torah oath through the dedication of one or more defined tohor middot.
The mitzva of Moshiach, a mitzva applicable to all generations of Israel. Just as tefillah and the mitzva of shabbat applicable to all generations of Israel.
The revisionist history of Xtian avoda zarah lacks the wisdom to discern between T’NaCH/Talmudic common law from Roman statute law. This tumah avoda zarah has witnessed oppression and cruelty that far surpasses the evil ways of Par’o and the Egyptians. This false prophet false messiah based religion proves the Gospel declaration of: “By their fruits you shall know them.”
The church stands guilty of the Shoah blood of Caine: Inquisition, 3 Century ghetto war crimes, annual blood libel slanders etc etc etc.