The Reforms Of Sabbath In American Reform Judaism

Sabbath is one of the most important Jewish ritual ceremonies; and Torah states:"Every one that profaneth it (Sabbath) shall surely be put to death."In the nearly 2000 years'Diaspora, Jewish people could maintain their Jewish traditions in Europe where the Anti-Semitism was prevalent in the Middle Age, because Jewish Sabbath banded Jews together.Since 17th century, the Jewish immigrants from Europe to the United States enjoyed unprecedented opportunity offered by American liberty and equality. On the other hand, Sabbath, the symbol of Jewish tradition conflicted with American modern life, and impeded the Jews on their way to melt into American mainstream society. The autonomy of the individual, the core principle of American Reform Judaism, endows each Reformed Jew the right to decide ritual observance; Jewish Sabbath is a traditional law for every Jew that calls for absolute obedience. American Reform Judaism changed the Sabbath drastically in the past 100 years to reconcile the the autonomy of the individual with the Sabbath. However, the excessive changes of Sabbath gradually endangered Jewishness in the Reformed Jews, and then more traditional sabbatical ceremonies embraced restoration since 1980s to repair Jewish identity.To sum up, this paper insists that the reforms of Sabbath in American Reform Judaism resulted from the conflict between the autonomy of individual, the core principle of the Reform Judaism, and the Jewish traditions. The idea will be presented from three parts.Firstly, the history and significance of the Sabbath in Judaism, the changes of Sabbath in the history will be introduced.Secondly, the underlying reason for the reforms of Sabbath resulted from the conflict between the Jewish tradition and the autonomy of individual, the core principle of the Reform Judaism.Thirdly, the traditional sabbatical ceremonies are restored by American Reform Judaism to fix the compromise to the Jewish identity caused by the excessive changes of Sabbath. The reform and return of Sabbath in American Reform Judaism reflects the lesson of the conflict for the Jews to keep traditions in the development with times, and offers us the valuable experience to deal with the contradiction between the cultural traditions and reforms.