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Introduction

Reconstructionist Judaism

Reconstructionist Judaism is an American Jewish denomination founded in the last century that seeks to unite Jewish history, tradition, culture and belief with modern scientific knowledge and the way people live today.

Reconstructionism is particularly suited to meet the needs of people with a scientific turn of mind as well as a strong spiritual sense since it takes the supernatural elements out of religion. It teaches that the Jewish religion was created by the Jewish people and was not a revelation from God. Most reconstructionists reject the idea of any such supernatural being. They also reject divine revelation and the doctrine of the Jews being God's 'chosen people'.

But reconstructionism is not secular. Jewish spiritual insights and religious teachings provide important sources of meaning and purpose and religion is seen as the heart of the Jewish search for meaning in life. In recent years reconstructionism has become more responsive to the part played by emotion and the heart in religion. It now accepts a wide range of individual spiritual practices and acknowledges the value of mysticism.

Reconstructionism is not exclusive; it believes that the Jewish people should preserve their 'Jewishness' while at the same time being fully integrated citizens of the secular culture of which they are also part.

Reconstructionism is always changing to meet a changing world. The past is important, but reconstructionists don't allow religious laws and traditions to prevent them changing things in order to create a Judaism that is relevant to modern times. As they put it "the past has a vote, not a veto".

The movement is highly community-oriented. This is important in two ways: first that the primary way of expressing oneself as a Jew is to live as a member of the Jewish people, and second that the Jewish religion grows out of (and in) the collective life of the Jewish people.

Reconstructionism takes an open and creative approach towards ways of expressing religion. This allows reconstructionist communities to develop new rituals and ceremonies that help their members experience and celebrate their Judaism. Although reconstructionist thought has been highly influential, it represents what remains a very small denomination.

Basic beliefs of Reconstructionist Judaism

Basic beliefs

• Judaism is more than a religion; it is an evolving religious civilisation. It is this that characterises Jewish people, rather than their core beliefs. This civilisation includes:
  • the history, customs and culture of the Jewish people
  • the stories and religious rituals of the Jewish people
• Judaism is therefore the creation of the Jewish people themselves, not of God.
• Judaism changes throughout history:
  • the past "has a vote, not a veto"
  • Judaism must react to new knowledge and understanding in order to stay vibrant and alive
  • individual autonomy should not be sacrificed to obedience to unchangeable religious law
  • religious law is a guide, but need not be slavishly followed
  • reconstructionists create new rituals and observances that are relevant to the modern world
• A supernatural understanding of God (and of heavenly salvation) is misguided:
  • God is not a being
  • God does not intervene in human life
  • People can't know God as a person
  • God is the 'power that makes for salvation'
  • Salvation must be achieved in this world, not some supernatural 'hereafter'
  • The Torah is not the result of supernatural revelation
• Jews are not a 'chosen people'
  • Reconstructionist philosophy affirms the uniqueness of the Jewish people and its heritage among the peoples of the world
  • the affirmation of Judaism's uniqueness, however, implies no sense of superiority over other peoples
  • Jews must always regard themselves as members of two civilisations - the Jewish civilisation and the civilisation of the secular state in which they live. It was out of this important belief, combined with a desire to reconcile the differences found in Jewish and American societies, that reconstructionist Judaism sprung.
• Judaism should be inclusive
  • people with Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers are accepted as fully Jewish
  • non-Jews are welcomed as major participants in community life
  • intermarriage (with some restrictions) is permitted
  • women have full rights
  • people of any sexual orientation are accorded equal rights
• The driving force behind Judaism is belonging rather than believing
  • the primary way of expressing oneself as a Jew is to belong; to see oneself as a member of the Jewish people.
• Judaism and working for social justice are inseparable
  • tikkun olam - which means 'repairing the world' through social action - is a way to live out Jewish values
  • working for social justice is a spiritual practice, like prayer and study
  • working for social justice takes humanity closer to realising "a Messianic age" in this world
  • working for social justice is the way to achieve salvation in this world, which is the only world in which salvation can be achieved
• The State of Israel is vital to Jewish cultural and spiritual survival

Religious civilisation

What is religious civilisation?

The best explanation of religious civilisation was given by Mordecai Kaplan:

Reconstructionist Judaism and God

Concepts of God

Reconstructionist concepts of God are radically different from those of most Jews, or indeed most people who say they "believe in God".

Reconstructionists reject the idea of a God who can break the laws of nature and act like a person, or who chose the Jewish People and gave them the Torah.

Reconstructionists say that a supernatural God is incompatible with current scientific knowledge about the universe. In fact, they don't think God is a being at all.

But they do still say that God exists. They think that God can be found in human experiences and the things of this world.

Most Reconstructionists see God not as a being, but as a power, process or force that works through nature and human beings.

This approach to God allows Jewish spirituality and self-understanding to keep the power, structure and poetic truths of the Hebrew Bible, prayer books and other writings without accepting them as literally true.

Many people think these ideas are really atheism wearing a cloak of 'God-speak' though Reconstructionists deny this and feel that their branch of Judaism can still be called Judaism.

God and the supernatural

Although some Reconstructionists are comfortable with the idea of a personal and supernatural being, most don't think God is a being at all. They say:

• God is not a supernatural being
• God is not the Creator, nor can God intervene in this world
• God is not a being who can be met by human beings
• There is no God who "speaks" to human beings
• What we sometimes portray as the voice of God is the human conscience
• God is not a being who gave humanity the Torah/Bible
• God is not a being who chose the Jews to be his special people
• God is not a being we must obey

God as a force

Reconstructionists may see God as a force in the world, or more specifically as a powerful force for goodness and holiness in the universe that human beings can choose to work with.

God as a moral symbol

For some reconstructionists, God is "a symbol that expresses the highest ideals for which men strive".

Some writers describe God as a moral template that provides humanity with their moral framework for this world. Moral goodness involves taking positive action to improve oneself and the world in line with the ideals expressed in God as a symbol.

God-talk

What does 'God language' mean?

Reconstructionism often expresses seemingly atheistic ideas in religious terms, so it may be helpful to explain what reconstructionists mean when they use God language.

• They may 'feel God' when they are aware of the good things in life; such as apprehending beauty or the positive feelings experienced recovering from illness
• They may 'meet God' when they do good things like helping others, being kind to people or treating someone with love. That can be what they mean by 'God acting in the world'
• When they say they 'believe in God', they may mean that they believe that people can be good, caring, and loving and that they can care about things that are bigger than themselves
• To 'follow the way of God' may mean to live a life of proactive moral responsibility
• To 'seek God' may mean to seek for the truths that teach a person how best to live, both with themselves and with the rest of humanity
• To 'believe in God' may mean to believe that humanity and the world can change for the better, and to live so as to promote this change

A difficult idea of God

Reconstructionist ideas of God are very difficult to grasp intuitively. They really only work for people who approach religion through the mind rather than the heart, so it's fortunate that reconstructionism's ideas of rituals, celebration and community cater for the other side of people's spiritual needs.

Mordecai Kaplan, the father of reconstructionism, taught that there was an important distinction between belief in God and any particular idea of God:

Kaplan believed that "Thinking of God as process rather than as an entity in no way tends to make Him less real." Kaplan was probably wrong about this for most people.

But it is difficult to use such abstract ideas in everyday life and worship. This is demonstrated by the way modern Reconstructionist prayer books still use personalised descriptions of God, and address prayers to God as "you".

Importance of community

Community

The denomination stresses the importance of membership of a Jewish community to religious life - one buzz-phrase describes it as a religion of "belonging, not believing".

Reconstructionist organisations reflect this by being highly democratic and inclusive. They allow access and participation to everyone on an equal basis, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Mixed faith families are also welcome. People who aren't Jews can also take part to a great extent. Non-Jews are accepted as full members of the movement. As the one community puts it:

There are several reasons why community is so important:

• The primary way of expressing oneself as a Jew is to belong: to regard oneself as a member of the Jewish people
• Reconstructionists believe that godliness and human fulfilment can only be achieved by building good relationships and fostering interdependence among human beings
• Community action is vital in promoting social justice

Reconstructionist worship

Worship

Reconstructionist worship uses both Hebrew and English. Men and women can play an equal part in services.

In line with the reconstructionist approach to religion, worship, prayer and rituals are not seen as unchanging practices that God has commanded the Jews to carry out. Instead, they are ceremonies that the Jewish people have devised over time to aid their religious lives. Kaplan referred to these Jewish religious observances as "religious folkways designed to ensure the enhancement of the value of Jewish life".

Prayer

Reconstructionists don't believe that they must pray in order to comply with religious law, but they do regard prayer as being very important, because it is a way of finding and expressing meaning and values.

Since there is no God who actually hears or answers prayer, the effect of prayer is the change that it brings about in the person doing the praying, or in the praying community as a whole.

Prayer serves many purposes:

• prayer reinforces values
• prayer creates community and brings the community together
• prayer connects the individual with other Jewish people
• prayer connects the individual to history
• prayer acknowledges that human beings are not all-powerful
• prayer deepens spiritual lives
• prayer increases connection with God (or with godliness)
• prayer increases awareness of what people hope for in their lives
• prayer increases awareness of what people are grateful for in their lives

The 1945 Reconstructionist prayer book put forward two functions for prayer:

• the prayers of the synagogue imply the will of the worshipper to become one with the collective being of the Jewish people and its spiritual aims
• Jewish prayers are expected to express what a Jew should believe about God, Israel and the Torah, and about the meaning of human life and the destiny of mankind

But the texts in that book and its modern successors present a paradox: