What is Orthodox Judaism?
Orthodox Judaism is the strict form of the Jewish religion, holding the law of Moses together with the body of rabbinic tradition that grew up around it. The commentators in this collection treat it under two questions: is it the religion God actually gave, and where does it stand now that the temple and its sacrifices are gone?
Where the Jews' religion began
The nation and the religion do not have the same starting point. One writer separates them carefully:
F. B. HoleThe Jewish nation had its birth in Abraham, the Jewish kingdom in David, but the Jews' religion started when the law was given at Sinai. In the law of Moses God formulated His righteous demands upon men. He joined with these demands much in the way of ceremonial observance, which had the effect, if observed by Israel, of making them a peculiar people and hindering their free relations with the nations... He also connected with His demands the system of sacrifice.
Written law and oral law
What makes a Jew "orthodox" in the strict sense is not only the Bible, but a second law believed to have come with it:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe Jews believed and still believe (at least, the orthodox) in a written law and in an oral law... they taught that while Moses wrote down a law another oral law was given to him, and that this oral law was handed down from generation to generation. It is believed by them that Moses received both the written and the oral law on Mount Sinai. They placed the oral law above the written law... Circumstances, however, forced them to commit the oral law to writing, which was done in the Talmud.
Tradition that covers the text
Those traditions are not neutral additions. One writer explains what they were and what they do to a reader of Scripture:
F. B. HoleThese traditions of the elders were explanations, expansions and inferences drawn from the law by respected teachers of long ago. They dominated the minds of the Pharisees and quite clouded the law of God; so much so that they broke the law in order to keep their tradition... The "pious" and "orthodox" Jew of today has his mind filled with the Talmud, which is built up from these traditions, and it is like a veil, hiding the true word of God from his mind.
Two parties, two descendants
The New Testament names two religious groups in Israel, and one commentator traces both forward to the present divisions in Judaism:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe Pharisees were the strictly religious, orthodox-ritualistic class... They were well versed in the traditions of the elders, and occupied themselves with creating new commandments and strange interpretations of the law. They are the fathers of the talmudic Jews of the present day... The Sadducees were the rationalists, the unbelieving class... Their offspring today are the reformed Jews, who reject the greater part of the Word of God.
A religion left without blood
The law God gave rested on sacrifice, and sacrifice needed one altar in one place. A rabbi's own answer, recorded in a convert's account, shows what filled the gap:
A. J. PollockJerusalem was in the hands of the Gentiles, the temple was destroyed and a Mohammedan mosque was reared up in its place. The only spot on earth where we dare shed the blood of the sacrifice in accordance with Deuteronomy 12 and Leviticus 17 was desecrated, and our nation scattered. That was why there was no blood. God had Himself closed the way to carry out the solemn service of the great Day of Atonement. Now we must turn to the Talmud, and rest on its instruction, and trust in the mercy of God and the merits of the fathers.
This condition was not an accident of history. Reading Hosea's prophecy, one writer sees it described in advance:
William KellyThus it is a state of things far more true now, since the rejection of the Messiah... Clearly then this describes the present condition of Israel — the most strange sight the world has ever seen — a people who go on age after age without any of those elements... they were to be "without a sacrifice," their sacred as well as civil order was at an end; for what is the law without a sacrifice?
Divinely given, divinely set aside
Because the system was genuinely from God, its claim deserves a serious answer rather than a sneer:
An Outline of Sound WordsJudaism could rightly claim to be a divine institution: but the same divine authority that introduced it has set it aside. If then the Lord has thus dealt with Judaism, He can have no pleasure in the various imitations of Judaism with which Christendom abounds.
The veil that can still drop
The writers do not end in condemnation. The obstacle is located precisely, and so is its remedy:
James BoydAre these glad tidings veiled? If so, the veil must be upon the heart, for there is no veil upon the glory... What will make that veil drop off? It will drop off if your heart turns to the Lord... So Israel is turned away in heart now from the Lord... but when that heart of theirs shall turn to the Lord, as it will in a coming day, the veil will be taken away.
Summary
- Given. The Jews' religion began at Sinai, when God set out His demands with ceremonies and a system of sacrifice attached.
- Overlaid. Orthodox Judaism adds an oral law, later written down as the Talmud, and ranks it above the written text.
- Emptied. With the temple gone and the nation scattered there is no blood, so the Talmud, God's mercy and the merits of the fathers are put in its place.
- Set aside. The system was truly divine — and the same authority that gave it has ended it, which is why copies of it inside Christendom are no better.
- Lifted. The problem is not a veil on the glory but a veil on the heart, and it drops the moment the heart turns to the Lord.