As its title implies, “Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life” reflects Kaplan’s effort to redefine how modern American Jewry thinks of itself. Judaism is not only a religion, Kaplan stated; it is a people with its own history, identity, culture and civilization. Moreover, like any civilization, to remain vital it must continue to evolve to meet and adapt to the challenges and needs of each new generation. It must be reconstructed, so to speak””or else risk losing its purpose.
Kaplan practiced what he preached at Sabbath and holiday services at his synagogue, SAJ (where I am an active member and am teaching a course on Kaplan’s thought this winter). Seeking to reinvest traditional ritual and liturgy with relevance to contemporary Jews, he emphasized modern interpretations while also revising or discarding prayers (like the traditional prayer for rain) he thought incompatible with the progressive, rational-minded, science-oriented world of 20th-century America.
A believer in gender equality long before the term political correctness became a cliché, Kapan in 1922 “invented” the modern-day bat mitzvah””in which 12-year-old girls (like their male counterparts, 13-year-old boys, at their bar mitzvahs) symbolically accept the religious responsibilities of adulthood””when, at Sabbath services one Saturday morning, he called his oldest daughter to the pulpit and had her read from the Torah scroll. Since then, of course, this then-unheard-of custom has become an accepted, even expected rite-of-passage among Jews in all but the Orthodox branch of the faith.
Indeed, Kaplan held the goals and ethics of democracy and equality so high that he declared anachronistic the idea of Jews being the Chosen people””and changed or deleted the wording of traditional prayers that implied that belief from his 1945 Sabbath Prayer Book.
There’s a good reason why Reconstructionist Judaism remains such a small, fringe group.. In rejecting the idea of a supernatural God, a deity beyond the natural realm altogether, Mordecai Kaplan emptied Judaism of its central core doctrine.
But I didn’t know he gets the credit for introducing the practice of a Bat Mitzvah for girls. I didn’t realize how recent that innovation was.
David Handy+
I note from this article that Kaplan challenged the idea of the election of Israel. By way of contrast in the November issue of First Things there is an article by Meir Soloveichik called ‘God’s First Love: The Theology of Michael Wyschogrod’. Quite challenging – but wonderful to discover that Wyschogrod often cited Karl Barth to Jews who were downgrading the idea of Israel’s chosenness.
It never ceases to amaze me how we don’t think God is big enough to handle his creation and/or our particular day and age. I was just reading from Genesis 18 this morning and apparently Abraham and Sarah had the same problem in believing God’s promise to them. God’s response? “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” Apparently Kaplan joins a long line of others who think there are some things too hard for God and cheat themselves and those who follow them out of abundant life and power to overcome our broken world. Sad.
Mere empty self-deluding, self-defeating revisionism. The only parts of the Jewish community which are growing (by leaps and bounds) are the Orthodox and Haredi, and may Hashem’s blessing ever be upon them and their descendants. Within another generation or two all other the parts will essentially have disappeared into the great general gene pool. Good riddance to what is called Reconstructionism, Reform, and Conservative (a false term in that context if ever there was one, presuming to declare kosher that which is treif).
In Judaism you don’t “get bar mitzvahed” as you might “get baptized” or” be confirmed.” A boy simply “becomes a bar mitzvah” (son of the law) on his 13th birthday. This means he is now obliged to carry out the 613 ritual commandments required of Jewish males. One of these is the ability/obligation to read from the Torah if called up in the synagogue. A ceremony (colloquially called a “bar mitzvah” )usually accompanies the first time a boy does this. But he “is” a “bar mitzvah” whether or not such a ceremony occurs (or, for that matter, whether or not he is ever actually called up to read) as soon as he reaches his 13th birthday (as calculated by the Jewish calendar).
A girl becomes a “bat mitzvah” (a daughter of the law — requiring her to carrying out all the obligations of Jewish women — which aren’t that many for unmarried women) on her 12th birthday. The orthodox hold that women not only NEED not, but MUST not carry out the duties of a man — for example, reading from the Torah in the synagogue. However, in any synagogue that calls itself “egalitarian” (typically reconstructionist or reform but sometimes conservative) men and women do the same things. Therefore, a girl is called up to read sometime after her 13th birthday (not 12th — they are treating her just like a boy) and has a “bat mitvah” ceremony which is identical to a boy’s bar mitzvah ceremony.
Being a Christian, I don’t believe that either men or women are required to observe any of the ritual commandments, thus I don’t have a dog in this fight. But the idea of a girl — at 13 — being called up to read the Torah is clearly a recent invention. The symbolism has clearly taken on a completely different meaning anyway considering that neither boys nor girls in reconstructionist, reform, or conservative synogogues are likely to be carrying out 99% of these ritual commandments anyway.
As a young lawyer, I dated a woman who was Jewish (although she used to say, “I am ‘Jew-ish’, not necessarily Jewish”). She claimed that bat mitzvahs only existed so that parents wouldn’t have to put up with their teenage girls whining about the sons getting all the swag.
Perhaps my friend had had poor religious instruction.
Perhaps my friend had good societal/cultural insight.
Which, is for persons other than me to decide.
I have attended two Bat-Mitzvah and I am a little surprised at the above – I understood that allowing girls to read from torah and halachah in the synagogue dates from at least the 19th century. But I wouldn’t know for sure.
Senior Priest, I have seen no sign at least in Australia that the Orthodox and Haredi are growing by leaps and bounds, nor that conservative or reform wings of judaism are shrinking. Possibly the reverse, although I don’t know how anyone would know for sure.