Is modern Judiasm becoming more liberal as the case now with Christianity?

[MissShona]

This is a tough question for me to answer because I'm honestly not familiar with "the teachings" of Reform and Conservative Judaism. Who would be really....except for those who go through their seminaries and yeshivot? Anyway, I imagine that the answer would be "it depends"...although on a whole, it does seem that religion (in the United States) is becoming more liberal.

One area where I'm really surprised in is Conservative Judaism's stance regarding homosexuality. Keep in mind, up until, what, a decade ago, they were staunchly against intermarriage. I don't know...perhaps they officially still are; but plenty of Conservative rabbis will officiate at an interfaith marriage. You would think that the halachaic hurdles from and intermarriage to the acceptance of homosexuals would be pretty big. But it doesn't seem to be playing out that way (in Conservative Judaism).

Ironically I don't see "Open Orthodoxy" as a liberal form of Orthodox Judaism. I see it as a response to #1 - Orthodox Judaism's general move towards the right and #2 - Conservative Judaism's move towards the left. For 3 years I belonged to an Orthodox synagogue that was a very old congregation...and outside of an established "frum" community. It was founded over 100 years ago by immigrants in a (then growing & bustling) Pennsylvania mill town and there was no way that these individuals were going to go the Reform route. Initially, there were 3 "Orthodox" synagogues in town...all formed around ethnic groups (Hungarian, Romanian, Sephardic). As time marched on, we did get a Reform congregation...mergers created 2 Conservative congregations, and only the Hungarian one remained Orthodox (which is the one I belonged to). This congregation had 3 long-standing rabbis...each serving the congregation for over 30 years each (our previous one served for 45 years). They all received smeicha from Orthodox yeshivot. However, the synagogue members themselves ran the gamut in regards to observance. You had plenty of members who were business owners and left services to go to their business on Shabbat. You had members that drove. You had members who were even intermarried. However the rabbis insisted on the service remaining Orthodox, having a mechitza, and making sure all of the leadership was shomer shabbos/kashrut/mitzvot.

When I left the congregation, the former rabbi had passed away and tons of new rabbis were interviewed and declined taking the pulpit. Either the congregation was not frum enough (sorry...we had 5 to 10 70-80 year olds who were driving to shul on Shabbos, and there was no way you were going to tell them to stop), or the mechitzah wasn't high enough, or the children were too Jewishly ignorant. Oh and you had to drive "downtown" a whole 15 miles, to get kosher food and Jewish Day Schools. We even had a rabbi say that there was no way he was bringing his wife and children to such a goyishe area. So to me, that is a clear sign of Orthodox Judaism growing more conservative. Were "Orthodox Jews" of the past had no issue with things that modern-day Orthodox Jews balk at (like letting their children be friends with gentile children).

I'm also kinda confused as to why Egalitarianism has been such a major issue in Judaism. Maybe I'm not a feminist (I never will make that claim), but I have no desire to fight over women leading public prayers and leining Torah. However Open Orthodoxy has other appeals to me personally....mainly due to Orthodox Judaism's "move towards the right".

[theflipflop]

I find great comfort in belonging to Shul that has moved significantly further right than it already was six or seven years ago. What used to seem to be chumras are now community standards. We're more than a thousand miles from Lakewood, NJ, but at any given minyan, you wouldn't be able to distinguish the BT's and gers in my shul from a Lakewood stiebel. Just feels right. When I walk down the street in my dark suit, white shirt and black hat, I feel like royalty. When I get to shul, I try to take that same feeling, as if I'm standing among royalty, speaking directly with the King.

[DonCarlodiCalatrava]

What you need to grasp is that Judaism subsequent to the giving of the Torah was never governed by "dogma". Since 200 BCE, with the Rabbinic codification of the Mishnah, Judaism has always, through millenia, been INTERPRETIVE. There is no such thing as a literal interpretation of the Torah in Judaism.

Following the Mishnah, there was a vast body of Rabbinic interpretation of the Torah over 600 years. In the 19th Century, several new responses to traditional Judaism arose: "Modern" Orthodoxy (right wing), Reform (left wing), then Conservative (a swing back toward center, or moderate).

When in the 12th Century the great Jewish sage Maimonides (who is revered to this day) issued a sort of "Credo" of Jewish belief, he was criticized from all quarters where Jews lived, both in Europe and in the Middle East.

Judaism does not rest on "dogmas" or "doctrines. It rests on DEEDS (Mitzvot) as commanded in the Torah:
DO this/DO NOT DO that. Judaism emphasizes ACTION with JUSTICE.

The age-old tradition of INTERPRETATION of the Torah in Judaism is an EVOLUTIONARY approach, similar in many ways to the structure of the United States Supreme Court: The Torah is Judaism's Constitution; the vast body of accumulated commentary over millenia serve as precedent (case law) on which to base new rulings in new circumstances.

[mensaguy]

Take the politics over the the Politics and Other Controversies forum and keep it out of the Religion & Spirituality forums.