Reform Judaism, The Repair of the World, and the Eternally Growing Tree of Life
Reform Judaism refers to the beautiful metaphor of water and frozen objects in order to explain its position in the world. For the Reform community, a Judaism frozen in time and constrained by the inflexible grasp of over-asserted tradition can turn what should be a living fountain into a frozen heirloom. The spirit of Reform Judaism—which strives daily to keep the waters of the ancient religion flowing with great vitality and relevance—is such that innovation is not feared, for it is not believed to be inherently against the preservation of tradition. Similarly, to embrace diversity is, in the view of Reform Judaism, to very often to expand the general conception of and to reaffirm unity and collective humanity.
In every way, Reform Judaism affirms the central tenets of Judaism. God, the Torah, and Israel are central to its beliefs and practices. The Torah, a symbolic “tree of life”, remains in this denomination a fount of ongoing revelation to the Jewish people by God. To the Reform conception of Judaism, it is ever a living document that guides Jews as we confront all aspects of life--those that are timeless and encompass family, food, rituals, life-cycles, and sacrifice, and those which are strikingly current, such as politics and the environment. Furthermore, Tikkun olam or 'the repair of the world', is a hallmark of this form of Judaism that places a great amount of weight on the coming together of a community to try to improve life for all of its members, rich and poor, sick and strong. Philanthropy and Jewish education are thus central to the efforts of the Reform movement.
Reform Judaism has aptly been referred to as a most liberal form of Judaism for very good reason. As a movement begun in the United States, since 1978 it has reached out to interfaith families and Jews-by-choice (non-Jews who have sought out and undertaken a conversion process). Unlike in conservative or orthodox forms of Judaism, a child of any Jewish parent, whether mother or father, is considered to be Jewish so long as they are raised that way. Women, gays, and lesbians are regarded as absolute equals to any other member of the congregation and the community at large. As such, Reform synagogues were the first to ordain women rabbis and openly homosexual clergy, elect women presidents, and invest women cantors.
The first principles of Reform Judaism were declared at the 1885 Pittsburgh Conference. This conference was a continuation of the first Philadelphia Conference (1869) and the German Conference of 1841-1846. A strikingly Universalist declaration, the first Reform Jews recognize[d] in every religion an attempt to grasp the infinite, and in every mode, source or book of revelation held sacred in any religious system the consciousness of the indwelling of God in man. With this assertion of the deepest respect for all of the world religions, the first Reform Jews still recognize the bible as the record of Jewish consecration, the Jewish mission, and as a most potent and highly conceived instrument of religious and moral instruction. Yet even as Judaism and Israel remain the great messianic hope of its people, the old rabbinical “Mosaic” laws which regulated diet, priestly purity, and dress, are thought to have originated in ages quite foreign to the modern era of universal culture and intellect.