Orthodoxy

Abstract

The term Orthodox comes from the Greek, meaning “the right idea.” In Jewish communities, Orthodoxy is used to identify a theological and sociological stream in the modern period. From a theological perspective, the term is used to signify the belief that canonical Jewish texts are divine, and that the Halakha (or Halacha), the Jewish legal system, is binding. The Jewish historian Jacob Katz (b. 1904–d. 1998) saw Orthodoxy as a phenomenon that developed in the modern era as a response to secularization. This response created a critical dialogue with modernity that leads Orthodox communities to selectively choose and legitimize parts of the modern experience, creating a spectrum of Orthodoxies with many different sociological variables determined by the extent of integration with modernity (e.g., in Israel, Orthodoxy spans a spectrum from religious Zionism to Haredi [or Charedi] Judaism). The sociologist Menachem Friedman points to several common attributes to Orthodoxy, mainly its rejection of secular society and the emphasis that Orthodox discourse puts on the past as a lost idyllic reality that should be resurrected. Geographically and chronologically, Orthodoxy spans many spaces. It morphs in many ways, and its manifestation in 19th-century Russia is very different from its evolution in interwar Poland or post-Holocaust Israel. But in these different situations and historical contexts, Orthodoxy developed very clear theological and political agendas, all based on a shared textual traditions that allows for transitions between different Orthodox communities, such as modern Orthodoxy in the United States. The Orthodox ethos stems from the positions of Rabbi Moshe Sofer (b. 1762–d. 1839), known as the Chatam Sofer, who had to craft a policy reacting to acculturation, secularization, and assimilation in Germany and Hungary. He promoted a policy of creating fences around the observant Jewish community, preventing the influence of secularism by celebrating particularism and emphasizing the need to maintain a separate Jewish sphere with the most minimal connections to the non-Jewish world.