"Reform Jews don't do that"

[cellio]

This morning the torah-study group continued looking at kashrut, and someone raised the issue of kashrut standards for the synagogue kitchen. (Several of us would like there to be some beyond "no pork".) We talked about that for a while and then a relative newcomer said the words that really bug me: "Reform Jews don't keep kosher". (Just to be clear, my gripe is with the first three words of that sentence.)

My response was (approximately): The Reform movement isn't about not doing things. It's about autonomy. We can't just say "I'm Reform so I don't do that"; we're required to study and make an informed choice. Sometimes that informed choice will be "I don't do that", and sometimes it will be "I do that".

Sigh. The Reform movement certainly has its bad apples (as do all movements, or for that matter all organizations). And it's had some really embarrassing history, mainly in the 19th century. But we get enough flack from outside the movement that it really bugs me when people inside don't recognize that it's possible to take this seriosuly.

Maybe, if I'm lucky, I helped to enlighten one person today. It's a start.

Comments

[alice-curiouser.livejournal.com]

I know this is an old post; I hope you get email notices!

I had to find this post again, because I actually mentioned it in the course of my conversation with the rabbi. That is by far the best description of reform Judaism that I've seen. Must write that down in my handy dandy notebook... :)

I asked the rabbi if there was a word for people who are partially observant, a word between shomer (as in shomer kashrut or shomer shabbos) and "not at all". She said there was a word that a friend of hers uses; it sounded like she said "zo-hare" ... it had something to do with the commandments being repeated in a second book (Deuteronomy?) and the difference between observing the mitvot and remembering to observe them...? Or something? Are you familier with a word like this?

[cellio]

I'm glad my post helped you.

I know the word you're looking for, though I'm not 100% sure of the grammar. Let me back up a bit, though.

The ten commandments appear twice in the Torah, once in Sh'mot (Exodus) and once in D'varim (Deuteronomy). They are not identical, which is a source of much commentary. One of the ways in which they are different is that one version says, with respect to Shabbat, "shamor" (keep, or guard really) and the other says "zachor" (remember). Some of our prayers and blessings make a point of mentioning both meanings.

I infer from grammatical pattern-matching that the term your rabbi used was "zocheir Shabbat" (or "zocheir kashrut" or whatever). By the way, that "ch" is "chet", that sort of guttural-sounding letter that's hard for non-natives to learn at first. (Keep at it; you'll get it.)

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner has written some articles about applying "zachor" as opposed to "shamor" to Shabbat. Basically, he makes the point that we can fulfill mitzvot in a way that remembers, even if we do not do the traditional implementation of keeping them. He says this much better than I can, so get thee to a library (or your rabbi's bookshelf), find the book A Sabbath Reader (ed. Dov Peretz Elkins, UAHC Press), and read his essay there. Much of the rest of the book is worth reading, too.