Reconciling Tradition and Modernity

The Challenge of Modern Orthodox Judaism

Tradition!

Tevye sang about it, generations of Jews have grappled with it, and today The New York Times is writing about it.

Jews began to face the challenge of reconciling tradition with modernity in the 19th century. Modern scientific discoveries shined doubt on Biblical text. Contemporary social mores made traditional taboos seem primitive. And technological advances made it difficult to stay enclosed within the Jewish world and separate from the non-Jewish world.

This conflict between conventional and novel led to the birth of liberal branches of Judaism. Humanistic Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism have embraced the modern world.

Orthodox Judaism, in contrast, continues to shun the modern world in favor of tradition. From the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night, Orthodox Jews – living in insular societies - observe biblical commandments concerning prayer, dress, food, sex, family relations, social behavior, the Sabbath day, holidays and more.

In between these two approaches to Judaism, Modern Orthodox Jews in America today strive to find a way to live traditionally in the modern world.

The Challenge

In his article “Orthodox Paradox” (The New York Times, July 22, 2007), Harvard University law professor Noah Feldman writes about the contradictions he has encountered in a Modern Orthodox Jewish community struggling to “be modern while simultaneously cleaving to tradition.”

After marrying a non-Jewish woman, Feldman becomes a persona non grata in the Modern Orthodox Jewish community in which he was raised. Just as Tevye refuses to recognize this daughter Chava after she marries a gentile, Feldman’s former school edits his photo out of and avoids any mention of him in the alumni newsletter.

While he acknowledges that Jewish resistance to intermarriage derives from Jewish law and is empowered by Jewish concern for future survival, he also sees the resistance coming from the need of a religious community to define its borders in a liberal modern state. Liberal branches of Judaism have little need to establish these borders. Orthodox Judaism “addresses the boundary problem with methods like exclusionary group living.” But Modern Orthodox Judaism faces a challenge.

Since Modern Orthodox Jews endeavor to embrace the modern world around them and still hang on tightly to traditional ways, they address the boundary issue by insisting on social coherence (as opposed to political coherence) within the religious community. While freedom of beliefs is granted, actions are strictly policed. Feldman concludes that marriage, one of life’s most public deeds, becomes the key to social membership in the modern Orthodox community. Feldman writes “My own personal lesson in nonrecognition is just one small symptom of the challenge of reconciling the vastly disparate values of tradition and modernity.”

This challenge of Modern Orthodox Judaism to reconcile two worlds is the crux of the matter. “A central goal of the (Modern Orthodox) movement has been to normalize the observance of traditional Jewish law -- to make it possible to follow all 613 biblical commandments assiduously while still participating in the reality of the modern world. You must strive to be, as a poet of the time put it, ''a Jew in the home and a man in the street.'' Even as we students of the Maimonides School spent half of every school day immersed in what was unabashedly a medieval curriculum, our aim was to seem to outsiders -- and to ourselves -- like reasonable, mainstream people, not fanatics or cult members.”

The Resolution

There are instances of failure to meet the challenge. These include extremists like Baruch Goldstein murdering political opponents, overzealous rabbis imposing modesty on innocent youth, and religious communities excommunicating faithful believers. Exclusion is the common element in these failures.

And there are instances of success in the struggle. "Easily the most extraordinary figure in post-biblical Jewish history, Maimonides taught that accurate knowledge of the world -- physical and metaphysical -- was, alongside studying, obeying and understanding the commandments, the one route to the ultimate summum bonum of knowing God. A life lived by these precepts can be both noble and beautiful, and I believe the best and wisest of my classmates and teachers come very close indeed to achieving it.”

Finding creative ways to include despite differences, to maintain flexible borders despite risks, and to elevate understanding of individuals above promoting the group can enable Judaism to preserve meaningful traditions while benefiting from modernity. For the sake of Jews and non-Jews everywhere, let us hope and pray that Modern Orthodox Judaism succeeds.