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38 Detroit Jewish News

JONATHAN ROSENBLUM
Special to the Jewish News

t would be easy to dismiss the lat-
est platform of Reform Judaism
adopted in Pittsburgh last month
as platitudes in search of meaning.
Easy, but very wrong.
To be sure, the significance of the
most recent Reform platform lies not )
in the area of theology. It is not, as 7_ \
both its proponents and critics have
billed it, a return to a traditional
understanding of Judaism.
The essence of Judaism has always
been a sense of commandedness. God's
commands are objective facts binding
upon us by virtue of our acceptance of
the covenant at Sinai, where He spoke
to us directly. From this perspective, the ,
denial of even one mitzvah is a denial of
the entire system.
The 1999 Pittsburgh Platform
starts from a very different perspec-
tive. It recognizes no objective stan-
dards, and retains the classical Reform
emphasis on autonomy. The individ-
ual remains bound only by that which
comports with his subjective morality.
Though for the first time in
Reform history the platform employs
the term mitzvah, it does not mean b
the term objective commands equally
obligatory on each and every Jew, but
merely traditional practices.
While casting a more favorable eye
on such traditional practices as wearing
a tallit and kippa in houses of worship
does not signal a theological approach,:
to traditional Judaism, it does represent
at the sociological level a growing rap-
prochement between the Reform and
Conservative movements.
Today, the differences at the con-
gregational level — not the theologi-
cal level — between the two move-
ments are primarily matters of taste:
Conservative Jews tend to favor a
more traditional lifestyle to foster (Z\
their sense of Jewish identity; Reform
Jews tend to feel the need for less tra-
ditional practice.
The new platform opens the way
for Reform practice to move toward
"Conservative lite," in the words of
one critic. A more positive affirmation
by Reform leader Rabbi Richard Lev))
is that it allows Reform Jews to cease:
identifying themselves solely in terms
of the traditional practices they reject
Despite its failures as Jewish theol-
ogy, the 1999 Platform is nevertheles
of crucial significance. The fierce
opposition to earlier drafts, and even
to the final version itself, suggests the
importance of the document.

