Page "Orthodox Judaism" Paragraph 7

In reaction to the emergence of Reform Judaism, a group of traditionalist German Jews emerged who supported some of the values of the Haskalah but who wanted to defend a conservative, traditional interpretation of Jewish law and tradition.

This group was led by those who opposed the establishnent of a new temple in Hamburg as reflected in the booklet " Ele Divrei HaBerit ".

As a group of Reform Rabbis convened in Braunschweig, Rabbi Jacob Ettlinger of Altona published a manifest in German and Hebrew " Shlomei Emunei Yisrael " having 177 Rabbis signing on.

at this time the first Orthodox Jewish periodical was launched " Der Treue Zions Waechter " with the Hebrew supplement " Shomer Zion HaNe ' eman "-1855.

In later years it was Rav Ettlinger's students Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer of Berlin who deepened the awareness and strength of Orthodox Jewry.

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch commented in 1854 thatIt was not the ' Orthodox ' Jews who introduced the word ' orthodoxy ' into Jewish discussion.

It was the modern ' progressive ' Jews who first applied this name to ' old ', ' backward ' Jews as a derogatory term.

This name was at first resented by ' old ' Jews.

And rightly so.

' Orthodox ' Judaism does not know any varieties of Judaism.

It conceives Judaism as one and indivisible.

It does not know a Mosaic, prophetic and rabbinic Judaism, nor Orthodox and Liberal Judaism.

It only knows Judaism and non-Judaism.

It does not know Orthodox and Liberal Jews.

It does indeed know conscientious and indifferent Jews, good Jews, bad Jews or baptised Jews ; all, nevertheless, Jews with a mission which they cannot cast off.

They are only distinguished accordingly as they fulfil or reject their mission.

( Samson Raphael Hirsch, Religion Allied to Progress, in JMW.

p. 198 ) Hirsch held that Judaism demands an application of Torah thought to the entire realm of human experience — including the secular disciplines.

His approach was termed the Torah im Derech Eretz approach, or " neo-Orthodoxy.

" While insisting on strict adherence to Jewish beliefs and practices, he held that Jews should attempt to engage and influence the modern world, and encouraged those secular studies compatible with Torah thought.

This pattern of religious and secular involvement has been evident at many times in Jewish history.

Scholars believe it was characteristic of the Jews in Babylon during the Amoraic and Geonic periods, and likewise in early medieval Spain, shown by their engagement with both Muslim and Christian society.

It appeared as the traditional response to cultural and scientific innovation.