← The CanonThe Canon

← The Canon: all 125

The Canon · No. 097

Orthodox & Conservative Judaism

Torah Judaism; Masorti

1840s–1880s CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Israel, US, UK, France, worldwide

VII. THE MODERN AGE — 1800 – 1945

How many

Orthodox roughly 3–4 million and growing fast; Conservative/Masorti roughly 1–1.5 million and declining in the US.

Who began it

Both are reactions to Reform rather than continuations of an undisturbed past. Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) articulated Modern Orthodoxy; the Chatam Sofer (1762–1839) the traditionalist rejectionist position; Zacharias Frankel (1801–1875) the positive-historical school that became Conservative Judaism, institutionalised in America by Solomon Schechter.

What it is for

Orthodox: to maintain that the Torah, written and oral, was given at Sinai and is binding without alteration. Conservative: to maintain halakha as binding while accepting that it has always developed historically and may continue to.

What it worships

One God.

What it holds

Orthodox: Torah min haShamayim — the Torah is from Heaven, divine in origin, and its law is not subject to modification by human decision. Change happens only through the internal mechanisms of halakhic reasoning. Hirsch's Torah im Derech Eretz permits engagement with secular culture; the Haredi position, following the Chatam Sofer's dictum that innovation is forbidden by the Torah, minimises it. Conservative: halakha is binding and historically developed; the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards can therefore issue rulings that permit driving to synagogue on Shabbat (1950), ordain women (1983) and ordain gay and lesbian rabbis (2006) while insisting these are halakhic decisions rather than departures from halakha. Critics on both sides find this position unstable, which is a fair description of its practical difficulty.

What it does

Orthodox: full Shabbat and kashrut observance, separate seating with a mechitza, three daily prayer services, Hebrew liturgy, men's and women's roles distinguished. Conservative: full liturgy in Hebrew, egalitarian seating and participation in most congregations, kashrut and Shabbat affirmed as obligatory with widely varying practice among members.

After death

Traditional rabbinic eschatology retained in Orthodoxy — resurrection, the world to come, a personal messiah. Conservative liturgy retains the resurrection language while permitting a range of interpretation.

Its texts

Tanakh, Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, and the ongoing responsa literature. Hirsch's Nineteen Letters; the Conservative movement's Emet Ve-Emunah (1988) and Etz Hayim commentary.

Its branches

Orthodox: Modern Orthodox, Religious Zionist, Haredi (Litvish/Yeshivish), Hasidic, Sephardic/Mizrahi Orthodox. Conservative: United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Masorti Olami, and the breakaway Union for Traditional Judaism (1984).

Of note

None of the three modern denominations existed in 1800. Orthodoxy is not simply what Judaism was before Reform; it is the self-conscious defence of tradition, which is a modern posture, and it developed institutions Reform had invented first.

Its timeline

  1. 1806 CE Napoleon convenes the Assembly of Jewish Notables, forcing the question of whether Jews are a nation or a religion.
  2. 1830s–40s CE The Chatam Sofer's rejectionist stance; Hirsch's synthesis in Frankfurt.
  3. 1854 CE Frankel takes over the Breslau seminary; the positive-historical school begins.
  4. 1886 CE Jewish Theological Seminary founded in New York in reaction to Reform's radicalism.
  5. 1898, 1902 CE Orthodox Union founded; Schechter arrives at JTS.
  6. 1912 CE Agudath Israel founded in Europe as the Haredi political and communal organisation.
  7. 1939–45 CE The Holocaust destroys the great European yeshivot; survivors rebuild in New York and Bnei Brak.
  8. 1950 CE Conservative movement permits driving to synagogue on Shabbat — the ruling most cited by its critics.
  9. 1983, 1985 CE Conservative movement admits women to rabbinical school; Amy Eilberg ordained in 1985.
  10. 1997–2013 CE Modern Orthodox debate over women's ordination; Yeshivat Maharat begins ordaining women in 2013 under other titles, and is rejected by the Orthodox Union.
  11. 2006 CE Conservative movement permits the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis; a minority of congregations and the Israeli Masorti movement dissent.
  12. Present Orthodox demographic growth and Conservative decline are reversing the mid-20th-century American picture.

Sources

Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.

The Atlas   The Door