Reform Judaism and the
She'ma
The Reform attitude towards the She'ma best illustrates the ongoing tension about Mitzvot and ritual.
As early as the 2nd century C.E. the She'ma (not counting the blessings before and after) consisted of three portions of the Pentateuch:
The first was Deuteronomy 6:4-9:
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Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when your are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your home and on your gates. |
The second was Deuteronomy 11:13-21:
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If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil- I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle- and thus you shall eat your fill. Take care not to be lured away to serve other gods and bow to them. For the Lord's anger will flare up against you, and He will shut up the skies so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its produce; and you will soon perish from the good land that the Lord is assigning to you. Therefore impress these My words upon your heart: bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead, and teach them to your children-reciting them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up; and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates- to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth. |
The third was Numbers 15:37-41:
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The lord said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe; look at it and recall all the commandments of the lord and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all my commandments and to be holy to your God. I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I, the Lord your God |
Early Reform prayer books removed all but the Hear O Israel. Later on parts of Deuteronomy 11:13-21 were returned, (love the Lord with all you mind, set these words on your heart and the verses about tefillin and mezuzot). The last part of Numbers 15:37-41 (Thus you shall be reminded) was returned, but to this day no mention is made of fringes.
The literature on the history of the Reform movement talked about the removal of the missing parts in terms of the need to shorten the service and the general distaste for what they called outmoded rituals and commandments. Some sources referred to the reinstatement of tefillin and mezuzot because of popular demand.
The omission of the verses on fringes is ironic for two reasons: Some Reform congregations have restored the blessing for the Tallit and use it at the beginning of the service when there is a Bar or Bat Mitzvah . According to the English translation in the standard Reform Siddur, GATES OF PRAYER, the words of this blessing say:
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Blessed is the Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who hallows us with his Mitzvot, and teaches us to wrap ourselves in the fringed tallit. |
Actually, this is a very liberal translation. The Hebrew literally says:
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...commands us to put an outer garment with fringes upon ourselves |
However, the commandment referred to in Numbers 15:37-41
and Deuteronomy 22:12 is not limited to the wearing of
a tallit in the synagogue, on
Shabbat,
and then only while we are on the
bima, the commandment is
simply and clearly to put fringes on our garments.
The commandment of tzitzit is a general commandment,
just like "you shall not murder" (Exodus 20:13). To reduce
it so that it applies only in a symbolic way to a
very limited time and space is not to
really follow it at all.
To make matters worse, we have eliminated the commandment to wear fringes from the She'ma, but we have restored the last portion of that commandment:
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Thus you shall be reminded to observe all my commandments and to be holy to your God. I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I, the Lord your God. |
The reminder in those two verses does not refer in the Torah to tefillin or mezuzot, but only to the commandment to wear fringes.
For various reasons, Reform Jews have come to so avoid the idea and practice of fringes, that we are willing to Bowdlerize the ritual, weaken it, and make it meaningless.
As with other discussions of mitzvot and ritual, Bluethread does not advocate any manditory return to the old ways, because that would go against the Reform approach to Judaism. But we do call for clarity, consistancy, and an informed approach to choices.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Central Conference of American Rabbis, eds., GATES OF PRAYER: The new Union prayerbook, Cincinnati: CCAR, 1975.
5/16/98
© 1997, Rosemarie E. Falanga, Cy H. Silver