ICJudaism: A Teacher’s Guide to Judaism

      Hosted by ICTeachers                                                                Formerly: Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism

Disclaimer:

The contents of these pages represent the author’s personal views, experience and understanding.
There are bound to be some things here that some Jews would disagree with.

 

Jewish Diversity

Like most religions, Judaism encompasses a range of belief and practice all the way from fundamentalist to lax. There is a wide range of different groupings of Jews with different views of how to interpret their faith. The preferred terms for these groups is movements or streams. Judaism can also be classified according to the history and origin of its members.

Charedic Jews  are often referred to as Ultra-Orthodox, although this is a term that many consider to be pejorative; a better term would be “strictly Orthodox”. Charedi is their own preferred term. Charedic Jews cling to a traditional way of life. (The term charedi means those who fear or are anxious ie. in awe of God). They tend to belong to distinct communities, often centred around the teachings of a particular rabbi. Many of the communities have their origins in particular towns or villages in the Eastern Europe of the 19th Century .

A key feature of both Charedic and Modern Orthodox (see below) Judaism is the belief that Jewish law comes directly from God and, therefore, cannot be changed.

Charedism puts great emphasis on the closeness of the family and community, the distinct roles of men and women, the importance of both prayer and study as a means of following God’s laws, as set out in the Torah, by better understanding them. Charedic Jews, particularly the men, are often, but not always, recognisable by their choice of clothing (Men in dark suits, dark coats and hats together with full beards - sometimes with long, often curly, sidelocks - and women demurely dressed with full length sleeves, longer skirt lengths and with their hair covered when in public). Charedic families tend to be larger than average and the number of Charedic Jews in the UK is growing.

Charedism is not a uniform grouping. It includes a variety of different communities. One particular grouping within Charedism is the Chasidic Jews or Chassidim, which takes a charismatic approach to Judaism. It began in the 18th century as an approach that opened Jewish understanding and worship to those Jews who were less well educated. (The term Chassid is a form of the Hebrew word chessed meaning loving kindness).

In Britain there are many Charedic communities, the best known being the Chabad-Lubavitcher Chassidim, a high profile community, who put much effort into bringing lapsed Jews (ie those who are not charedic) back to the "true faith". There are many web sites giving charedic viewpoints. An informative website, well worth visiting for more information about Charedic Judaism is: Chabad.org which is crammed full of information about Judaism, much of which is simply but comprehensively explained and, although it is written from a strictly orthodox viewpoint, much of it is easily accessible to non-Jewish readers.

Modern Orthodox Jews share many of the viewpoints of the Charedi but are far more assimilated into their local communities. They tend to have a rather more flexible approach to interpreting the rules of Torah and are likely to dress indistinguishably from members of the majority community in which they live. Until, relatively recently the majority of British Jews were modern orthodox. In Britain the main group of modern orthodox Jewry is the United Synagogue. The Chief Rabbi is the elected senior rabbi of the United Synagogue.

A useful website is Tracey Rich's Judaism 101. Although it has an American slant, this site is an excellent source for fuller information about Jewish thought and practice. It is comprehensive and the explanations are clear.

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