Differences And Practices Of Orthodox And Conservative Judaism

For this essay I am writing about the beliefs and practices that distinguish Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism. In Orthodox Judaism, people follow the traditional beliefs and practices very strictly. However in Conservative Judaism, Conservative Jews practice Jewish traditions and rituals but with a more flexible approach to the understanding of the law than Orthodox Judaism. Conservative Judaism is a little bit of a mix of both Orthodox and Reform Judaism. Therefore Conservative Judaism has many similarities with the Orthodox but there are a few differences as well. Orthodox Judaism is distinguished by its maintenance of the traditional forms of worship in the Hebrew language, and of the traditional practices as set by the Torah (Israil …show more content…
Synagogue is a Jewish church where people gather for worship. In comparison, in Conservative Judaism men and women sit together and women participate fully in the synagogue services, prayers and rituals (Israil and Judaism Studies). One interesting fact that I found out that Orthodox and Conservatives have a different word for church. Orthodox call it shul and Conservatives call it synagogue.
There is also a slight difference that distinguishes Orthodox from Conservatives when it comes to rabbis. The word rabbi originates from the Hebrew and it means teacher (Rich). So in Judaism rabbi is pretty much like a priest. In Orthodox Judaism rabbi can only be a male, Orthodox worshipers do not ordain women as rabbis (Rich). However, in Conservative Judaism movements began to allow women to become rabbis in the last few decades.
According to Orthodox Jewish belief, the tradition obligates the man to discipline himself by following the halakha. The word halakha means the Jewish Law (Rich). The Orthodox Jews follow the halakha very strictly. Whereas, Conservative Judaism represents a serious departure from a strict faithfulness to the halakha in