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What does a religious observant Reform Jew do?

dantech

Well-Known Member
I would like to know what it is an observant Reform Jew does. How his Shabbat is spent. Does he wear Tefilin every day? In other words if you were to spend a week with a Reform Rabbi, how different would the experience be than with an orthodox rabbi?

I am not seeking to make judgement or to "prove" that orthodox is better than reform, I am just trying to compare for my own personal knowledge what the differences are.
 

Rakhel

Well-Known Member
It all boils down to what the person want to do

Reform Jewish males are known to wear a kippah daily. However, they are also known to not wear one until they step into temple. You will also see some women wearing kippot as well. I have seen both men and women wearing a Tallit on Rosh Hashanah. It was rather odd to see a woman wearing a Tallit, but she was also the one that blew the Shofar.
Some do have both Hebrew and English services, some don't.


A reform Jew is known to keep Shabbat. They will abstain from most electrical devices and work. However, since most don't live close to temple, they will drive(and I have heard of at least one orthodox rabbi say, "As long as they park their cars in the parking lot and not in the temple...)


Most of the reform Jews I know and have known will, for the most part, keep kosher. I didn't know any that ate shellfish or pork, though I have hear of those that do. The hechshers, as long as it has one, any one. They are not too picky. The milk and meat part is more of a preferential thing. If they want a cheeseburger, they will eat a cheeseburger.(Me, I will make an argument that birds don't give milk:p. Turkey burgers!!FTW!)

Most make an attempt to keep all the laws that pertain to them, personally and as a community. You will find those that say the laws are antiquated and therefor no longer apply especially since the temple hasn't been rebuilt.

But again this varies from person to person and community to community. The community my husband and I were married in was more traditional than the ones we have run into here in New York. One of the conservative temples we found here was more reform than the reform we left in Little Rock, while another was more conservative.
It all depends.


Oh yeah, and Reform rabbis(at least the one that married us) like to make really, REALLY bad jokes.
See that man carrying the ladder? You should be able to tell his religion based on that alone. No? He's a ladder-day-saint.
 

dantech

Well-Known Member
Hmm it would be strange for me to see Women wearing Talitot or Kippot :p

Thanks for the answer.
 

Rakhel

Well-Known Member
Hmm it would be strange for me to see Women wearing Talitot or Kippot :p

Thanks for the answer.
It was very strange for us as well. That and you will find female rabbis and music during services.

While my husband and I are no where near being orthodox, in observance, we are a bit more traditional than most reform. So while we stayed there at the reform because of the rabbi(he was, believe it or don't, more traditional than his congregation), when we moved to New York, we searched for a conservative synagogue.

The problem we are running into is that even in the conservative movements you will run across women wearing tallit and tefillin and kippot. This is usually due to the size of those attending. When there are less than 10 men, they have allowed a woman to stand in.

So you see, much like the orthdox movement, levels of observance depends on the community.
 

punkdbass

I will be what I will be
The way I understand Reform Judaism is as follows: We consider the moral laws binding, but not the ritual ones. One should get a good Jewish education and try to observe the ritual commandments as well, but they should not feel compelled to follow a ritual mitzvah if, in their opinion, it doesnt add any significant spiritual meaning to their life. So for example, if a person tries keeping Kosher, wearing a Tallit, teffilin, etc, and concludes that any of these things dont add any significant spiritual meaning to their life: then Reform Judaism says they should not feel required to observe those particular commandments.
 
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