Four Variations Of Judaism

Judaism is described as a religion, a race, a culture, and a nation. The Jewish heritage has been passed down from generation to generation for many years. This practice is the oldest of the three western monotheistic religions. There are more than 14 million people who claim some type of Jewish heritage. Judaism as a religion has been around for anywhere in between five thousand and ten thousand years (Johnson). Naturally because this particular religion has been in practice for many years, it is accustomed to change. The practices, beliefs, and rituals of Judaism have changed throughout the years leading to other religions that are variances of Judaism itself. The best way to describe Jewish people is as an extended family. At some point …show more content…
The four variations include Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism. While the four different branches do not differ drastically, nonetheless, they are different from each other and the original Jewish beliefs. The first of the four variations would be Orthodox Judaism. Orthodox Judaism falls under the more traditional category of the base religion. This approach puts more emphasis on the Divine and the origin of the original word as an unchangeable law of God’s will …show more content…
This branch envisions the Torah as simply guidance, rather than as Divine law. Ethical concepts are more important over traditional Jewish law. Reform Judaism is a strong believer that the religion is still continuing to change (Harrison). The third branch is known as Conservative Judaism. Conservative Judaism puts more emphasis on the historic development of Judaism as a culture and a religion. This view of Judaism allows for change and adjustments since these followers view the Jewish religion as an object of continuing change (Harrison). Lastly, the last of the four branches mentioned, is Reconstructionist Judaism. This branch falls as the smallest and the most recent to emerge of the four. The theories of Reconstructionist was developed by Rabbi Mordecai Kaphan when he decided that this branch would emphasize human values as a whole over the other aspects. This branch is most closely related to Conservative Judaism. While we are continuing to see much change with the religion and its number of variances, Judaism, to an extent, continues to remain relatively the same in terms of the original beliefs that have been portrayed for thousands of years. Most Jewish people see themselves as members of an entire Jewish community, rather than being a part of a single branch coming from the base religion