Orthodoxy is actually made up of several different groups within itself. It includes the modern Orthodox, who have largely integrated into modern society while maintaining observance of halakhah (Jewish Law), the Chasidim, who live separately and dress distinctively (unfortunately often referred to erroneously in the media as the “ultra-Orthodox”). These movements are all very similar in belief, to the point that the differences may be contained to observers that follow Orthodox Judaism. Speaking generally though, they believe that God gave Moses the “Whole Torah”, the Oral and the Written. They believe that the Torah is true, that is has come down to them intact and unchanged. They also believe that the Torah contains 613 mitzvot binding upon Jews but not upon non-Jews.
Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal or Progressive Judaism, sets for a Judaic religious system that tackles the need to accommodate to political changes in the status of the Jews from the eighteenth century onward. At the core of Reform Judaism is the (reform) belief that Judaism has historically maintained change to succeed through their challenges. They believe that this represents the continuation of that religion’s ability to evolve. In the United States a separation of Church and State and nondiscrimination on grounds of religion where embedded in the Constitution; religious practice and belief was simply voluntary. During these beginning times of the Reform Movement the religious climate in the welcoming United States made for an accepted home to Jewish families who had recently arrived from Europe and upon arrival expressed their viewpoint of the American practices and beliefs in Orthodoxy to be merely watered-down.
This difference in opinion established the first major separation of the Jewish religion within the United States. Newly founded, the Reform Movement catered greatly to the many United States immigrants arriving from Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Simply, the Reform Movement does not believe that the Torah was written by God, but by separate sources (man) redacted together. Also, Reform Jews do not believe in the observance of commandments as such, but they do retain much of the values and ethics of Judaism, along with some of the practices and culture.
Between Orthodoxy and Reform, a third movement began in the United States. Conservative Judaism attempts to find a centrist position on the values of tradition and change. This movement affirmed a far broader part of the received way of life than Reform, yet it rejected a much larger part of the worldview of the system of the dual Torah than did Orthodoxy. However, Conservative Jews agreed with the Reformers in their basic philosophical position, but also with the Orthodox in their concrete way of life. The stress of Conservative Judaism, also called Historical School in Europe, can be broken down in two matters. First and more importantly, scholarship, with historical research assigned the task of discovering those facts of which the faith would be composed, secondly observance of the rules of the received Judaism. This movement exemplifies orthoprax Judaism, which is defined through works, not doctrine.
The Fourth American Jewish Movement that was initiated in he United States began in the early decades of the twentieth century. Reconstructionist define Judaism as the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people. The practices of seeking to understand historical contexts in which Jewish beliefs and practices emerged and changed as well as adapting and reinvigorating those ideas and practices in the lives of contemporary Jews are at the center of this movement. Specific beliefs exclude the idea of a personified deity that is active in history or the belief that God chose the Jewish people. Observation of the halakhah is optional, attending to it is seen as a valuable cultural remnant not a binding law from God. Inherited laws and practices are not known to be literally commandments from God but rather accumulated wisdom of generations of Jewish Communities that pursued lives of sanctity and justice, permeated by ultimate meaning.
The covenant between God and the Jews is believed to have began, according to Orthodox and Conservative Jews, when under the leadership of Moses, God led the Jewish people of Israel away from persecution where thereafter he gave Moses the Torah, the agreement that if the people would hearken to God and observe his covenant, they would be the most beloved of nations, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
In examining this belief of this particular covenantal event an argument of the purpose of religion is formed. The Jews in exile were being persecuted. They left their homes in search of safety, of safe living. What they got, rather, what they believed they got was a much greater result than they had expected or hoped for. When Moses told his followers that he had met God and that if they would only agree to this covenant they would forever be safe and much more. If they agreed to this covenant they would be the most loved of nations, live eternally, and be rewarded for living good lives; much greater than being just merely safe in your home. This is exactly what a person is exile who was being persecuted because of their beliefs and lifestyle would need. If the Orthodox and the Conservative Jews are correct in their belief of how this event happened, then it is evident in this case that religion is catering to the human need, the need of the individual to feel safe. Since the Jews in exile could not live safe lives physically they agreed with a covenant that would allow them to feel safe spiritually and mentally, demonstrating the argument that religion often is merely fulfilling human need. In turn this exhibits the contention that contemporary Jewish religion was structured on need of the individual.
Reform and Reconstructionist movements in Judaism acknowledge the event regarding the giving of the Torah. However, the core beliefs that separate them from Orthodox and Conservative Jews, the idea of religious evolution, further justifies the argument that the roots of the Covenant are based on human need. Judaism services those that need to be serviced by it. Reform and Reconstructionist acknowledge the events that happened at Mount Sinai, further, they also agree that there is a bond between them and God, a covenant. While the events at Mount Sinai are of pivotal meaning to Orthodox and Conservatives and their relationship with God through the covenant, to the Reform and Reconstructionist, the covenant is the pivotal aspect, in spite of what happened at Mount Sinai. The core of their belief, evolution, is justification for their newer “evolved” perspective of what happened at Mount Sinai. At one point it was essential to believe that God gave the Torah directly to Moses, this to serve the need of the individual. However, now the need of the individual is no longer what it was at that time, religious evolution verbatim.
