//off the shelf/
Spring 2013
Deconstructing Mordecai Kaplan’s Civilization
|
Review:
Judaism as a Civilization Mordecai Kaplan 1934 |
When I was in the third grade, I went to the South Bend Morris Theater to see my piano teacher play Golda inFiddler on the Roof. I was delighted by the cast’s robust rendition of “Tradition,” a song about the importance of keeping traditions in a Jewish life. But I can still recall my mother’s down-turned expression as the women sang about matchmaking and its sometimes imperfect results. Marriage arrangement, a tradition often practiced by Chasidish and Orthodox Jewish communities for centuries and to this day, is one example of an activity that has been seen by some to represent values and behaviors contradictory to modern society and in need of critical revision. In Judaism as a Civilization, first published in 1934, Mordecai Kaplan addresses this same general discomfort many long-held Judaic traditions evoke for their modern American observers. Considering how industrialization, urbanization, and globalization have changed society and Jews’ roles within it, Kaplan explores what he supposes to be Judaism’s obligation to adapt and accommodate society’s modernization.
Cogently analyzing the importance of transforming and relinquishing some Judaic traditions in what he describes as a creative and necessary process, Kaplan helps the reader to consider the beauty of modifying one’s beliefs and the complex consequences of lifestyle alteration. His intention is to view Jewish history as one of constant adaptation and reimagination, claiming that the malleability of one’s practices to suit one’s context is a powerful matter of conscience and character, to be valued as a dignified evolution in response to social needs. Demonstrated by his nontraditional conceptualization of Judaism as a civilization rather than a religion, Kaplan ensures that unique, modernized thinking is central to his assertions about what Judaism has been, is, and should be. Despite his often compelling argument, however, the thought of willingly altering the Judaic traditions I grew up with—not for the sake of values or ideas, but simply for the sake of change itself—left me with a similar yet distinct discomfort from the feeling that provoked my mother’s frown eleven years ago.
Warning his readers about the pending departure from traditional Judaism, Kaplan explains that the necessity of an evolving Judaism stems from its inherent status as a civilization. Civilizations, Kaplan says, are characterized by a people’s willful organization into a nation, whose membership they accept as a fundamental component of self-conception. He takes pains to explain the ways in which Judaism possesses all requisite features of a civilization: a unique land, language, mores, laws, folkways, folk sanctions, folk arts, and social structure. Embracing a conceptualization of Judaism as a civilization, Kaplan reasons that such a civilization is valuable and justified by its very existence, without an appeal to external values or metaphysical commitments. Understanding this, Jewish communities will be more inclined to maintain their Jewish lifestyles, since they will no longer feel that the underpinnings of their identities are at odds with contemporary concerns presented by scientific and industrial expansion.
Kaplan asserts at the start of his argument that the Jewish people fulfill a civilization’s primary requirement of possessing land. He acknowledges that although the Jewish people have not always owned a concrete land of their own, they have always possessed the psychological yearning for a homeland, allowing them to freely embrace their Jewish lives in relation to it. Emphasizing land’s role in distinguishing a people from a civilization, he claims that the inception of the Judaic civilization in fact resulted from their occupation of Palestine prior to the formation of political tribes. Although the Jewish people have long since dispersed from this central location, Palestine has always provided the geographic origin necessary to allow this people to partake in what Kaplan calls nationalistic behaviors, which establish Judaism as a civilization and extend their beliefs beyond the weaker scope of religion. He insists that the ancient Israelites’ unified gathering in Palestine provided them with a collective character entirely autonomous from their belief in God. “This fact,” he writes, “renders the survival of Jewish civilization independent of the traditional belief in otherworldly salvation”. According to Kaplan, because the identity of Jewish civilization has always, in fact, had very little to do with the Divine, and much more to do with the Jewish people’s physical placement and nationality, they were able to foster the characteristics of a civilization that would unify them through millenia of persistent troubles and diaspora.
Judaism as a Civilization was largely controversial at the time of its release because it challenged the prevailing belief of Judaism as inherently tied to the belief in God. Giving rise to the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement, Kaplan’s opinions were and still are revolutionary because they call the Jewish people to re-root their Judaic identities in nationalistic rather than religious sentiments. Despite the emotional challenges such a demand creates, Kaplan’s assertions aid in forming a novel sense of Jewish inclusiveness. Judaism as a Civilization seeks to distance Judaism from a religion confined by rigid traditions, and move toward a civilization that adapts to the desires of the people—a feature that is necessary to make the Jewish people comfortable with their faith. By advocating for increased participation of women in Jewish leadership positions, the Reconstructionist perspective was all the more celebrated among many Jewish women in 1930s America. Although Kaplan’s argument disputes long-held beliefs about Judaism, it did not do so blindly and may have appealed to many by fashioning a more versatile representation of Judaism.
Understanding Kaplan’s argument requires one to wrestle with his radical minimization of the importance of belief in God. While considering his argument, I struggled to appreciate what seemed to me to be his often reductionist conceptualization of Judaism. Kaplan deliberately and openly excludes belief in the monotheistic Hebrew God as a fundamental contributor to Jewish civilization, but thereby denies one of the most basic building blocks of that Israelite “civilization” from its earliest days in Palestine. Instead of any unifying intellectual or moral commitment, Kaplan claims that “as a civilization, Judaism is not a static system of beliefs and practices but a living and dynamic social process”—that civilization is “conditioned by the nature of the environment.” But his insistence on Judaism’s dynamic and changing nature calls into question any stable characteristics unique to the civilization. If beliefs and morals are to be held in such low regard to the historical coherence of the people, what inherent enduring characteristics can be said to exist that hold the people together? Kaplan’s farfetched emphasis on Judaism’s flexibility prevents him from acknowledging any constancy uniting the Jewish people throughout the distinct periods of their religious evolution. Instead, he fashions a modern-day representation of those who follow Judaism as a segmented people defined by the variable social preferences and environmental characteristics of the time in which they live. Because of this problematic consideration, its modernism notwithstanding, Kaplan’s assertions are ultimately inadequate for a coherent Judaism, in light of their blatant focus on only its extrinsic qualities.
Confronted with what he describes as another crucial evolutionary transformation in the 1930’s in the Jewish civilization, Kaplan argues that all Jewish people are entitled to and should re-define Jewish practices to maintain a sense of Jewish meaning in their lives. He defends the “standpoint…[that] whatever helps to produce creative social interaction among Jews rightly belongs to the category of Jewish religion, because it contributes to the salvation of the Jew” and “[keeps] the Jews of the world united.” The very unifying feature of the Jewish civilization, he argues, is its need to conform to constantly changing environmental and cultural developments. Herein lies Kaplan’s incoherence.
Although he asserts that Judaism’s evolution must occur in conjunction with the modernization of society, Kaplan ultimately argues that this evolution must support the Jewish people’s happiness. He discusses how “salvation [now] depends on making the most of the opportunities presented by this world” and that “as a civilization, Judaism…enables the Jewish people to be a means of salvation” (513). Rather than seeking a relationship with God through daily prayer or ritual, this line of thought demands that the Jewish people support one another in only a vague sense. Through claiming that salvation exists within the Jewish people and is not granted through the generosity of God, Kaplan undermines a vast conventional tradition, along with the daily ritual that goes along with it, and places sole emphasis on the liberating qualities of the Jewish community itself. Rather than creating a sense of comfort for the Jewish people, Kaplan’s devaluation of the relationship between them and God renders the people in a state of religious disorientation. In fact, such a dissociation invites inquiry into the continued significance of all of Judaism’s institutions—if we abandon both God and tradition, then what force does anything have?
Kaplan’s attempts to provide a perspective on Judaism distinct from religion may be novel, but in the end prove too radical. I choose to believe that Judaism will always have a traditional constancy which primarily contributes to its beauty, importance, and meaning. Meanwhile, Fiddler on the Roof is always going to be one of my favorite musicals, and I’m always going to relish its songs’ timeless Jewish luster.
Cogently analyzing the importance of transforming and relinquishing some Judaic traditions in what he describes as a creative and necessary process, Kaplan helps the reader to consider the beauty of modifying one’s beliefs and the complex consequences of lifestyle alteration. His intention is to view Jewish history as one of constant adaptation and reimagination, claiming that the malleability of one’s practices to suit one’s context is a powerful matter of conscience and character, to be valued as a dignified evolution in response to social needs. Demonstrated by his nontraditional conceptualization of Judaism as a civilization rather than a religion, Kaplan ensures that unique, modernized thinking is central to his assertions about what Judaism has been, is, and should be. Despite his often compelling argument, however, the thought of willingly altering the Judaic traditions I grew up with—not for the sake of values or ideas, but simply for the sake of change itself—left me with a similar yet distinct discomfort from the feeling that provoked my mother’s frown eleven years ago.
Warning his readers about the pending departure from traditional Judaism, Kaplan explains that the necessity of an evolving Judaism stems from its inherent status as a civilization. Civilizations, Kaplan says, are characterized by a people’s willful organization into a nation, whose membership they accept as a fundamental component of self-conception. He takes pains to explain the ways in which Judaism possesses all requisite features of a civilization: a unique land, language, mores, laws, folkways, folk sanctions, folk arts, and social structure. Embracing a conceptualization of Judaism as a civilization, Kaplan reasons that such a civilization is valuable and justified by its very existence, without an appeal to external values or metaphysical commitments. Understanding this, Jewish communities will be more inclined to maintain their Jewish lifestyles, since they will no longer feel that the underpinnings of their identities are at odds with contemporary concerns presented by scientific and industrial expansion.
Kaplan asserts at the start of his argument that the Jewish people fulfill a civilization’s primary requirement of possessing land. He acknowledges that although the Jewish people have not always owned a concrete land of their own, they have always possessed the psychological yearning for a homeland, allowing them to freely embrace their Jewish lives in relation to it. Emphasizing land’s role in distinguishing a people from a civilization, he claims that the inception of the Judaic civilization in fact resulted from their occupation of Palestine prior to the formation of political tribes. Although the Jewish people have long since dispersed from this central location, Palestine has always provided the geographic origin necessary to allow this people to partake in what Kaplan calls nationalistic behaviors, which establish Judaism as a civilization and extend their beliefs beyond the weaker scope of religion. He insists that the ancient Israelites’ unified gathering in Palestine provided them with a collective character entirely autonomous from their belief in God. “This fact,” he writes, “renders the survival of Jewish civilization independent of the traditional belief in otherworldly salvation”. According to Kaplan, because the identity of Jewish civilization has always, in fact, had very little to do with the Divine, and much more to do with the Jewish people’s physical placement and nationality, they were able to foster the characteristics of a civilization that would unify them through millenia of persistent troubles and diaspora.
Judaism as a Civilization was largely controversial at the time of its release because it challenged the prevailing belief of Judaism as inherently tied to the belief in God. Giving rise to the Jewish Reconstructionist Movement, Kaplan’s opinions were and still are revolutionary because they call the Jewish people to re-root their Judaic identities in nationalistic rather than religious sentiments. Despite the emotional challenges such a demand creates, Kaplan’s assertions aid in forming a novel sense of Jewish inclusiveness. Judaism as a Civilization seeks to distance Judaism from a religion confined by rigid traditions, and move toward a civilization that adapts to the desires of the people—a feature that is necessary to make the Jewish people comfortable with their faith. By advocating for increased participation of women in Jewish leadership positions, the Reconstructionist perspective was all the more celebrated among many Jewish women in 1930s America. Although Kaplan’s argument disputes long-held beliefs about Judaism, it did not do so blindly and may have appealed to many by fashioning a more versatile representation of Judaism.
Understanding Kaplan’s argument requires one to wrestle with his radical minimization of the importance of belief in God. While considering his argument, I struggled to appreciate what seemed to me to be his often reductionist conceptualization of Judaism. Kaplan deliberately and openly excludes belief in the monotheistic Hebrew God as a fundamental contributor to Jewish civilization, but thereby denies one of the most basic building blocks of that Israelite “civilization” from its earliest days in Palestine. Instead of any unifying intellectual or moral commitment, Kaplan claims that “as a civilization, Judaism is not a static system of beliefs and practices but a living and dynamic social process”—that civilization is “conditioned by the nature of the environment.” But his insistence on Judaism’s dynamic and changing nature calls into question any stable characteristics unique to the civilization. If beliefs and morals are to be held in such low regard to the historical coherence of the people, what inherent enduring characteristics can be said to exist that hold the people together? Kaplan’s farfetched emphasis on Judaism’s flexibility prevents him from acknowledging any constancy uniting the Jewish people throughout the distinct periods of their religious evolution. Instead, he fashions a modern-day representation of those who follow Judaism as a segmented people defined by the variable social preferences and environmental characteristics of the time in which they live. Because of this problematic consideration, its modernism notwithstanding, Kaplan’s assertions are ultimately inadequate for a coherent Judaism, in light of their blatant focus on only its extrinsic qualities.
Confronted with what he describes as another crucial evolutionary transformation in the 1930’s in the Jewish civilization, Kaplan argues that all Jewish people are entitled to and should re-define Jewish practices to maintain a sense of Jewish meaning in their lives. He defends the “standpoint…[that] whatever helps to produce creative social interaction among Jews rightly belongs to the category of Jewish religion, because it contributes to the salvation of the Jew” and “[keeps] the Jews of the world united.” The very unifying feature of the Jewish civilization, he argues, is its need to conform to constantly changing environmental and cultural developments. Herein lies Kaplan’s incoherence.
Although he asserts that Judaism’s evolution must occur in conjunction with the modernization of society, Kaplan ultimately argues that this evolution must support the Jewish people’s happiness. He discusses how “salvation [now] depends on making the most of the opportunities presented by this world” and that “as a civilization, Judaism…enables the Jewish people to be a means of salvation” (513). Rather than seeking a relationship with God through daily prayer or ritual, this line of thought demands that the Jewish people support one another in only a vague sense. Through claiming that salvation exists within the Jewish people and is not granted through the generosity of God, Kaplan undermines a vast conventional tradition, along with the daily ritual that goes along with it, and places sole emphasis on the liberating qualities of the Jewish community itself. Rather than creating a sense of comfort for the Jewish people, Kaplan’s devaluation of the relationship between them and God renders the people in a state of religious disorientation. In fact, such a dissociation invites inquiry into the continued significance of all of Judaism’s institutions—if we abandon both God and tradition, then what force does anything have?
Kaplan’s attempts to provide a perspective on Judaism distinct from religion may be novel, but in the end prove too radical. I choose to believe that Judaism will always have a traditional constancy which primarily contributes to its beauty, importance, and meaning. Meanwhile, Fiddler on the Roof is always going to be one of my favorite musicals, and I’m always going to relish its songs’ timeless Jewish luster.