Walking With God: Realism, Fanaticism, and the Future of Jewish Law
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2009.14.3466Keywords:
Judentum, judaism, Gesetz, law, Fanatismus, fanaticism, Relalismus, realism, moderne Orthodoxy, modern orthodoxyAbstract
Since the mid-twentieth century, converging factors have enabled haredi (“ultra-orthodox”) Jews to exert considerable influence on more moderate forms of observant Judaism. In the area of Jewish law, this has led to a shift from rabbinic realism, characterized by contextual and lenient rulings, to fanaticism, which views stringency as the only authentic mode of Jewish legal interpretation. This paper examines two historically moderate communities particularly affected by haredization: modern Orthodoxy in America and Sephardic Judaism in Israel. From these case studies, it will become clear that without significant efforts to revive and promote a middle-of-the-road approach, observant Judaism will continue to be dominated by fundamentalist views.
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● ________. 1964. Mishpetei Uziel. Even ha-Ezer. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
● Waxman, Chaim L. 1998. “The Haredization of American Orthodoxy.” The Jerusalem
Letter, 376. http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/jl-376-waxman.htm.
● ________. 2007. “Israel in Orthodox Identity: The American Experience.” Pp. 52-66 in Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity. Edited by Danny Ben-Moshe and Zohar Segev. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press.
Uziel. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1999.
● Armstrong, Karen. 2004. “Resisting Modernity: The Backlash Against Secularism.”
Harvard International Review, 25 (4): 40-45.
● Berman, Saul J. 2001. “Diverse Orthodox Attitudes.” Edah.
http://www.edah.org/backend/coldfusion/search/diverse.cfm.
● Brandwein, Irvin. 2001. “Changing the Halakha.” Judaism, 54 (4): 426-437.
● Camino, Richard, and Don Lattin. 1998. Shopping For Faith: American Religion in the New Millennium. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
● Caplan, Lionel. 1988. “Fundamentalism as Counter-culture: Protestants in Urban South India.” Pp. 156-176 in Studies in Religious Fundamentalism. Edited by Lionel
Caplan. New York: SUNY Press.
● Díaz Más, Paloma. 1992. Sephardim: The Jews of Spain. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
● Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Routledge.
● Elazar, Daniel J. 1992. “Can Sephardic Judaism be Reconstructed?” Judaism, 41 (3): 217-228.
● Freedman, Samuel G. 2001. Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Orthodoxy. New York: Simon and Schuster.
● Friedman, Menachem. 1990. “Jewish Zealots: Conservative versus Innovative.” Pp. 127-142
in Religious Radicalism and Politics in the Middle East. Edited by Emmanuel Sivan and Menachem Friedman. New York: SUNY Press.
● Harris, Jay M. 1994. “Fundamentalism: Objections from a Modern Jewish Historian.” Pp. 137-173 in Fundamentalism and Gender. Edited by J. S. Hawley. New York: Oxford
University
● Heilman, Samuel C. 2000. Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.
● ________. 2005a. “How Did Fundamentalism Mage to Infiltrate Contemporary
Orthodoxy?” The Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry (1): 258- 272.
● ________. 2005b. “Jews and Fundamentalism.” Jewish Political Studies Review, 17 (2): 1-2.
● ________. 2006. Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
● Heilman, Samuel C., and Menachem Friedman. 1991. “Religious Fundamentalism and
Religious Jews: The Case of the Haredim.” Pp. 197-264 in Fundamentalisms Observed. Edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
● Goldy, Robert G. 1990. The Emergence of Jewish Theology in America. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press.
● Johnstone, Ronald L. 1997. Religion in Society: A Sociology of Religion. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
● Kamil, Omar. 2000. “Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and His ‘Culture War’ In Israel.” Middle East of International Affairs, 4 (4): 22-29.
● Kligman, Mark. 2005. “Diversity and Uniqueness: An Introduction to Sephardic Liturgical
Music.” Pp. 259-284 in Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry: From the Golden Age of Spain to
Modern Times. Edited by Zion Zohar. New York: NYU Press.
● Kraemer, Joel L. 2005. “Moses Maimonides: An Intellectual Portrait.” Pp. 10-57 in Cambridge Companion to Maimonides. Edited by Kenneth Seeskin. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
● Lawrence, Bruce B. 1995. Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the
Modern Age. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.
● Lehmann, Matthias. 2005. Ladino Rabbinic Literature and Ottoman Sephardic Culture.
Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
● Levey, Martin. 1973. Early Arabic Pharmacology: An Introduction Based on Ancient and
Medieval Sources. Boston, MA: Brill.
● Lichtenstein, Aharon. 2004. Leaves of Faith: Selected Essays of Aharon Lichtenstein. New York: Ktav.
● McClay, Wilfred M. 2003. “Two Concepts of Secularism.” Pp. 31-61 in Religion Returns to the Public Square: Faith and Policy in America. Edited by Hugh Heclo and Wilfred M.
McClay. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins university Press.
● Ovadia, Haim. 2008. “The Bridge with Islam.” The American Muslim. Posted Jan 9.
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/the_bridge_with_islam/
● Rackman, Emanuel. 1978. One Man’s Judaism. Tel Aviv, Greenfield.
● Reich, Bernard. 2002. “State of Israel.” Pp. 267-314 in The Government and Politics of the
Middle East and North Africa. Edited by David E. Long and Bernard Reich. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press.
● Reichley, A. James. 2003. “Faith in Politics.” Pp. 163-194 in Religion Returns to the Public
Square: Faith and Policy in America. Edited by Hugh Heclo and Wilfred M. McClay.
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
● Reid, Patrick V. 1987. Readings in Western Religious Thought: The Ancient World. New
York: Paulist Press.
● Rosenthal, Donna. 2005. Israelis: Ordinary People in and Ordinary Land. New York: Free Press.
● Ruthven, Malise. 2004. Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning. New York: Oxford University Press.
● Sarna, Jonathan D. 2001. “The Future of American Orthodoxy.” Sh’ma 31: 1-3.
● Scheindlin, Raymond P. 1986. Wine, Women and Death. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish
Publication Society.
● Schlesinger, Arthur M. 1992. The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural
Society. New York: W. W. Norton.
● Shapiro, Marc B. 2005. “How Did Fundamentalism Manage to Infiltrate Contemporary Orthodoxy: A Response to Samuel C. Heilman.” The Association for the Social Scientific Study of Judaism (1): 273-278.
● Slobin, Mark. 1995. “Learning the Lessons of Studying Jewish Music.” Judaism, 44 (2): 221-225.
● Schwartz, Morey. 2008. “Review Essay: Marc D. Angel and Hayyim Angel, Rabbi Haim
David Halevy: Gentle Scholar and Courageous Thinker.” The Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry, 2 (1): 96-103.
● Solomon, Norman. 2000. Judaism: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.
● Stolow, Jeremy. 2006. “Communicating Authority, Consuming Tradition: Jewish Orthodox
Outreach Literature and Its Reading Public.” Pp. 73-91 in Religion, Media, and the Public
Sphere. Edited by Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors. Bloomington, IN: University of
Indiana Press.
● Uziel, Benzion Meir Hai. 1939. Mikhmanei Uziel. Tel Aviv: Ha-Poel Ha-Mizrachi.
● ________. 1964. Mishpetei Uziel. Even ha-Ezer. Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
● Waxman, Chaim L. 1998. “The Haredization of American Orthodoxy.” The Jerusalem
Letter, 376. http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/jl-376-waxman.htm.
● ________. 2007. “Israel in Orthodox Identity: The American Experience.” Pp. 52-66 in Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity. Edited by Danny Ben-Moshe and Zohar Segev. Sussex: Sussex Academic Press.
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Published
2015-04-28
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Friedmann, J. L. (2015). Walking With God: Realism, Fanaticism, and the Future of Jewish Law. Marburg Journal of Religion, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2009.14.3466
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