CSJO-CU8.3

=CSJO-Grade 8 Lesson 8.3 (CSJO-Template)=

Practicum Goals: To explore which rituals and practices the Reform Movement kept and which it discarded. To explore which morals/values the Reform Movement kept and which it discarded. To explore how the prophetic tradition espoused by the Reform Movement results from cherry picking the prophetic messages
 * TITLE**: **Reform Judaism: Modernizing the religion**
 * GOALS**: To explore the reasons for the creation of the Reform movement and the changes in beliefs and practices of Judaism that emerged; To begin filling in the Table of Comparative Judaism.

**This lesson needs a major reworking:**

 * ===clearer relationship between the goals and the practicum. For example:===
 * **Explanation of why kohler is important**
 * **Anti-Kohler Prophetic quotes should be more relevant to students and paraphrased into modern, student accessible English**
 * **Explain we like Kohler's choices because they agree with where we are rather than they make us realize where we should be**
 * **Better sense of Rabbinic rules being rejected**
 * **Guided practice - when going over 1885 platform**
 * **Idea that they were imposing their 19th century values onto the religion rather than the other way around**
 * **Gain Attention - identify values as modern, 19th cent, rabbinic**

• In groups, order different forms/versions of Judaism chronologically (first without chart; and then with chart) • Quiz question on chart & everyone put Pittsburgh Platform on chart at 1885
 * MATERIALS**: Chart of Jewish Varieties, etc.; Table of Comparative Judaism with column for traditional Orthodox Judaism (Mitdnagdim) already filled out; copies of 1885 Pittsburgh Platform; folders; examples of prophetic quotes(see appendix 3 below)
 * LESSON**:
 * 1. Gain the attention of the learner:**
 * Decorate folders
 * Creating God and Religion in the image of Man
 * Tell the students they are going to create a new religion emphasizing good deeds, righteousness, caring for weak and oppressed, etc. The religion will have a loving, caring and merciful God and will use quotes from the Bible to represent and justify its beliefs and values.
 * Label one side of the room **Keep** (in religion) the other side **Reject** (from religion)
 * Read selected biblical passages(see below) with both modern and ancient sensibilities
 * After reading each passage, the students will run to the appropriate side for keeping or rejecting the passage in their new religion
 * Keep track of the votes for each passage for comparison with what Kohler and other Reform Jews cherry picked to represent Reform Judaism
 * 2. Relevant past learning:** Last lesson we looked at some of the different kinds of Jews during the 1700s in Europe including the Maskilim, who were trying to integrate Jews into European secular and philosophical culture.
 * 3. Introduce new material:** A desire to make Judaism more rational and to further Jewish participation in modern non-Jewish culture resulted in the creation of Reform Judaism. It started out as a lay movement. Later on, rabbis with both secular and religious education took over the leadership. In many ways, the Reform Judaism movement modeled itself after its Protestant neighbors. The Reformers saw the decorous worship style of the Protestants as being more consistent with modern sensibilities. Also, those Reform Jews who lived in Germany in the 1800s wanted to be accepted by Christians as full German citizens and "emancipated" from the many legal restrictions on Jews (anti-semitic laws). Many German Jews immigrated to the United States in the mid-1800s and created the Reform Movement here. Their beliefs were summarized in the Declaration of Principles in 1885 in a document called the Pittsburgh Platform. In a later lesson we will look at the views of the modern Reform Movement as described in the Pittsburgh Platform of 1999.

The original Reform movement in the 19th century: a. Rejected authority of Talmud and Torah, their revelation at Sinai, and those laws not relevant to modern life. Selectively cited passages from Biblical prophets as ethical guides while ignoring the threatening and violent tone that pervades much of the prophetic writings. Compare, for example, the famous quote about justice at Amos 5:24 to Amos' many threats of destruction upon various nations, for example the Moabites at Amos 2:1-3. b. Modified religious services to be more decorous, including much less Hebrew in prayers, speaking the sermon in the vernacular (e.g., German), using choirs and organs, mixed seating, everyone quiet and paying attention to the rabbi, everyone at the same place in the service text. More like high Protestant services than traditional Jewish ones. c. Eliminated practices inconsistent with modern views and rationality including dietary laws, head covering, antiquated style of overly modest clothing, travel and other severe restrictions on Shabbat. d. Viewed Judaism as changing over time to meet changing needs of Jewish people. Declared the laws of the Talmud (//halakha//) to have been appropriate in the past but no longer relevant. e. Declared Jews are a religious community rather than a nation (Pittsburgh Platform of 1885, item 5). They wanted to be accepted as Americans (or, for those who lived in Germany, as Germans) of the Jewish religion, just like other Americans (or Germans) had their own religion. The phrase "Protestant, Catholics, and Jews" became universally recognized in the US and helped gain acceptance of this Reform idea of the Jews as just another religious group. (Humanistic Judaism is closer to the traditional idea that Jews are bound by a common "peoplehood" rather than by a unifying religion.) Reform is very different from traditional rabbinic Judaism. With all these differences, would you still say Reform Judaism is a form of Judaism or a new religion with an old name? f. Reduction in the authority of the rabbi who is now seen more as a teacher and guide on matters of religion but no longer as a revered sage giving divinely-inspired instructions on every aspect of life. g. Cherry picked values they agreed with. For example, in the Pittsburgh Platform of 1885 (item 7) they say that reward and punishment in heaven and hell are not ideas rooted in Judaism although these have been central to traditional rabbinic Judaism since its beginning; they are harking back to the Torah itself, which has no such ideas although the Reform outlook rejects almost all the laws of the Torah. (We secular humanistic Jews also need to guard against inserting modern values into ancient writings - something nonreligious people as well as religious ones have a strong tendency to do.) • Rules of the game: Students each get a piece of paper with a list of the different values. They individually rank the values according to their importance in Judaism. Each student gets a fixed amount of fake money to spend.
 * 4. Provide guided practice:** Read Pittsburgh Platform aloud and fill in chart independently; correct chart together.
 * 5. Provide guided practice:** Values Auction—Values to stay in Judaism
 * 6. Close the lesson:** Discussion:
 * Review original Reform Jewish values
 * What do we, as secular Jews, agree with and disagree with?
 * Personally, what values are most important to you?
 * What did you learn today?

**Appendices**
1. **Vocabulary** 2. **References**: (optional list of references, links and reading related to the lesson)
 * **Revealed Knowledge -** Knowledge claimed to be given by a supernatural power, usually to one or a select few individuals
 * **Evidenced-Based Knowledge** - Knowledge that can be learned by anyone through observation and reason
 * Pittsburgh Platform of 1885 ([])
 * Pittsburgh Platform of 1999 ([])
 * Wikipedia Reform Judaism ([])
 * Sachar, Howard M. (2007-12-18). A History of the Jews in the Modern World (Vintage)
 * //A Provocative People: A Secular History of the Jews// by Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine
 * //Judaism Beyond God// by Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine


 * 3. Other Sources**
 * []


 * 4. Examples of Rabbinic Values and Practices, some kept, some dropped:**

At the other end of American Jewry’s religious spectrum, the Reform movement remained committed to its vigorous rejection of Talmudism, dietary laws, and the separate and inferior status of women. Its uncompromising emphasis on modernism was reaffirmed in 1903 when Kaufmann Kohler assumed the presidency of the Hebrew Union College. A domineering administrator, Kohler forbade skullcaps and prayer shawls at his seminary and rejected numerous traditional prayers and commandments. Yet it was also during Kohler’s tenure, ironically, and that of his successor, Julian Morgenstern, that the Hebrew Union College over the next three decades attracted growing numbers of students from East European immigrant homes—indeed, fully 75 percent of the student body by 1937. The “demographic” shift in turn reflected the multiple inducements of Reform. The movement was well funded and solidly structured. Its “nativist” origins permitted an oblique identification with the Jewish “aristocracy.” Above all, Reform was humanistic and modernistic. It appealed to both the cultural sensibilities and the social aspirations of educated, second-generation Jews; and, in its social activism, it was “relevant.” Uninterruptedly, then, the Reform movement maintained its trajectory of growth. From 136 congregations in 1900, its Union of American Hebrew Congregations expanded to 411 by 1939.
 * 5.**

Sachar, Howard M. (2007-12-18). A History of the Jews in the Modern World (Vintage) (Kindle Locations 8479-8489). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

CITED BY KAUFMANN KOHLER:
 * 6.** **Examples of Prophetic Quotes**
 * **Amos 2:4-5** - (4) God says: I will punish the people of Judah because they have rejected my laws and not followed my rules. (5) So I will burn Judah, and destroy the forts of Jerusalem.
 * **Amos 5:24** - (24) Let justice roll over and cover everything like water, and let good deeds be always happening
 * **Isaiah 1:16-17** - (16) Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; do not do evil in front of me, your God; (17) stop doing bad things; learn to do good; look for justice, rescue the oppressed, protect the orphan, ask for help for the widow.
 * **Isaiah 13:9-10** - (9) The day God comes, he will be cruel and terribly angry, destroying the earth and removing the sinners from it. (10) On that day, the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon and stars will not shine
 * **Jeremiah 4:5-8** - (5) Say in Judah and its capitol Jerusalem: "Gather together and go into the the fortified cities!" (6) Run for safety, do not delay, for I, God, am bringing an evil army from the north to destroy your lands. (7) Your cities will be ruined and no one left in them. (8) Because of this put on sackcloth and cry out in pain: "The fierce anger of God has not turned away from us."
 * **Jeremiah 9:4-6** - (4) Beware of your neighbors, and do not trust any of your relatives; for all your relatives take from others using force and lies, and every neighbor says terrible things about other people. (5) They all trick their neighbors, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught themselves to lie; they do bad things and are too tired to feel sorry or regret. (6) More and more hurting other people, more and more lies! They refuse to know me, says the Lord.
 * **Joel 3:9-10** - (9) Say this to all the nations: Prepare for war, let all the soldiers come together. (10) Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, "I am a warrior."
 * **Micah 4:3-4** - (3) they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; (4) nations shall not fight against each other, and they shall not learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid
 * **Micah 6:8** - (8) God has told you what is good; and all that God wants from you is to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with Him.
 * 7. Original Prophetic Quotes**
 * Amos 5:24 -** **(24)** Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. NRSV
 * Isaiah 1:16-17 -** **(16)** Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; **(17)** cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. NRSV
 * Micah 4:3-4 -** **(3)** they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; **(4)** nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; NRSV
 * Micah 6:8 -** **(8)** He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? NRSV

NOT FROM KAUFMANN KOHLER:
 * Amos 2:4-5 - (4)** Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but they have been led astray by the same lies after which their ancestors walked. **(5)** So I will send a fire on Judah, and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem. NRSV
 * Joel 3:9-10 - (9)** Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war, stir up the warriors. Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up. **(10)** Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, "I am a warrior." NRSV
 * Isaiah 13:9-10 - (9)** See, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation, and to destroy its sinners from it. **(10)** For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. NRSV
 * Isaiah 24:1-12 (excerpted) -** **(1)** Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants. **...** **(3)** The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled; for the Lord has spoken this word. **... (5)** The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. **(6)** Therefore a curse devours the earth,and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left. **…** (12) Desolation is left in the city, the gates are battered into ruins. NRSV
 * Jeremiah 4:5-8 - (5)** Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: Blow the trumpet through the land; shout aloud and say, "Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities!" **(6)** Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, do not delay, for I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction. **(7)** A lion has gone up from its thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant. **(8)** Because of this put on sackcloth, lament and wail: "The fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us." NRSV
 * Jeremiah 9:4-6 - (4)** Beware of your neighbors, and put no trust in any of your kin; for all your kin are supplanters, and every neighbor goes around like a slanderer. **(5)** They all deceive their neighbors, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent. **(6)** Oppression upon oppression, deceit upon deceit! They refuse to know me, says the Lord. NRSV

