‘Judaism is self sufficient, developed out of its own resources and may abandon the outer garb of a particular period without surrendering anything of its essence’
- Abraham Geiger
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'Through investigation of the particular, to knowledge of the universal, through acquaintance with the past, to understanding the present time, through reason to faith’- Abraham Geiger
"Reform Judaism was not a rejection of earlier Judaism, but a recovery of the Pharisaic halakhic tradition, which is nothing other than the principle of continual further development in accord with the times, the principle of not being slaves to the letter of the Bible, but rather to witness over and over its spirit and its authentic faith-consciousness"
The fetters which national life had put upon I have been broken- if it continues to live when those who are its standard bearers no longer exist as a political unit- then this religion has passed a great trial on the way to demonstrating its reliability and its truth’
Was a Jew, a Pharisee Jew with some with some Galilean colourations; he was an individual who shared the hopes of his time and believed that this hope had been fulfilled in him. He uttered no new thoughts nor did he break through the boundaries of nationalism
We cannot deny him a deep introspective nature, but there is no trace of a decisive stand that promised lasting results… there was no great work of reform nor any new thoughts that left the usual paths. He did oppose abuses, perhaps occasionally more forcefully that the Pharisees, yet on the whole it was done in their manner’
The Talmud must go, the Bible, that collection of mostly so beautiful and exalted human books, as a divine work must also go. |
Judaism is self sufficient, developed out of its own resources and may abandon the outer garb of a particular period without surrendering anything of its essence |
For the love of heaven, how much longer can we continue this deceit, to expound the stories of the Bible from the pulpits over and over again as actual historical happenings, to accept as supernatural events of world importance stories which we ourselves have relegated to the realm of legend, and to drive teachings from them, or at least, to use them as the basis of sermons and texts?