If you want to understand how Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism, Modern Judaism today came to be,
you need to take a step back to when they first formed.
And to understand two movements that are both a little bit of a mouthful
that kind of formed western civilization as we know it today.
One was intellectual and one was political.
Enlightenment and Emancipation
So the Enlightenment was this idea that we have the ability to use logic and discover truth on our own
as opposed to just trusting the church on what we're supposed to believe
In the 18th Century, this was a revolutionary idea.
Like literally revolutionary.
If the protestant reformation – which many say is the seed of the enlightenment -sought
to overthrow the Catholic Church’s control of truth,
the Enlightenment sought to overthrow the authority of religious leaders in general
The history here normally focuses on the French Enlightenment
Because it was very important to the English and the founders of America
But the Enlightenment in Germany which was happening at the same time
was important to the Jews as it was more friendly to religion or rather "rational religion."
God linked with the idea of morality and ethics.
So Moses Mendelssohn, the star of our story, came to Berlin in the 1700’s and became
one of the figures of the Enlightenment.
He was a socialite with other philosophers as well as an observant Jew.
He gained broad respect through writing about the enlightenment,
and he used that respect to strongly advocate for Jewish Emancipation.
– which is the other movement, a political and social one.
It meant Jews gaining civic rights and becoming German citizens.
Up until that point, Jews had a corporate status, so they interacted with the authorities
as a group rather than as individuals – they paid their taxes as a group, they’d only
go to German courts if a matter couldn’t be resolved in a Jewish court.
Emancipation meant Jews being live where they wanted.
It meant getting access to many more jobs through being able to join the guilds.
It meant being able to go to a bunch more schools.
So the hope was with Emancipation everything would be open.
It was kind of a big deal.
There was an ongoing debate in Germany over whether Jews should be emancipated.
Even though Jews had been there for centuries, they were viewed as outsiders because they
had their own culture –their own laws and their own language - Yiddish.
Before Emancipation could happen, many Germans wanted Jews to have a better knowledge of
German culture in general– its literature, its values and its language.
So in an effort to teach Jews German, and in that way encouraging Germans support Emancipation,
Mendelssohn translated the Bible into German
using Hebrew characters – you could call it a transliteration - Jews could read a familiar
text in a language they were less familiar with.
It was like watching a movie you know really well in English, in another language.
You just get better at it.
So, it was accompanied by a commentary – the Biur – which was written by Mendelssohn’s
students who oversaw the project.
The Biur was trying to bring enlightenment ideals into alignment with other Jewish commentary.
The word for the Jewish enlightenment is the Haskalah and the Biur is what kicked it off.
So the Biur was the early project on which a lot of his students cut their teeth.
It got a strong reaction.
Some denounced it.
Others wondered what the point was.
Most ignored it.
What’s important is that it helped sparked the Haskalah movement.
Even more than the book itself, the creation of the book,
This collection of his students working on the project
created a movement.
And while in Germany the Haskalah only went so far – it’s influence continued to spread
and by the time it reached Eastern Europe, it had a huge impact.
Emancipation took time – government rulings are complicated – Napolean was great for the Jews
well he was good for the Jews
His departure was less good.
God that's a simplification.
but by 1871, with the establishment of the modern German state,
the Jews were formally emancipated and remained emancipated until they lost their
rights under the Nazis.
Enlightenment, a new way to think,
and Emancipation, Jewish civic rights and economic opportunities
meant that the world had changed.
It was now inevitable that the religious aspects of Judaism would change too.
And it did.
Reform, Conservative, and in a way Orthodox Judaism grew out of this.
To learn about the birth of the Jewish movements,
as we know them today
click to watch the next video.