Baal teshuva movement
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The baal teshuva movement is a description of the return of
Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, large numbers of previously highly
This movement among the Jewish people has produced a corresponding response from the various Jewish denominations and rabbis, particularly from Orthodox Judaism, which calls its response
In 1986, New York magazine reported:
The people making this sweeping change in their life grew up in a secular world. They went to good colleges and got excellent jobs. They didn't become Orthodox because they were afraid, or because they needed a militaristic set of commands for living their lives. They chose Orthodoxy because it satisfied their need for intellectual stimulation and emotional security.[4]
Repentance in Judaism Teshuva "Return" |
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Repentance, atonement and higher ascent in Judaism |
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Origins
In the United States
Appearing as an identifiable movement in the 1960s, a growing number of young Jews who had previously been raised in non-religious homes in the United States started to develop a strong interest in becoming a part of observant Judaism; many of these people, in contrast to sociological expectations, became attracted to observant Judaism within Orthodoxy.
Rabbi Yosef Blau the mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva University has noted:
A baal teshuva movement has emerged with a significant number of Jews from non-traditional homes returning to the observance of grandparents and great grandparents. In fact one of the challenges facing modern Orthodoxy is that many of these returnees are attracted to a European Orthodoxy.[5]
The Baal teshuva movement has not just been about
Whereas the earliest Baal teshuva trends were partly related to the prevailing anti-establishment atmosphere of the 1960s, it was an outcome of the great rise in Jewish pride in the wake of Israel's victory in 1967's Six-Day War: "It can even be said the inspiration rising from the Six-Day War fueled the beginnings of the baal teshuva movement."[7] The research of Janet Aviad also suggests that the oft-claimed “miraculous” Israeli victory in 1967 gave momentum to the Ba’al Teshuva movement.[8]
Although the effects of
... in the 1970s. Orthodoxy began a remarkable revival, spurred on by the missionizing done by the Baal Teshuva movement among other Jews. Lubavitch (also called
In the former Soviet Union
The baal teshuva movement also appeared in the former
The Israeli victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 ignited the pride of Jews in the Soviet Union, particularly in Russia. Suddenly there were hundreds of thousands of Jews wanting to go to Israel, although they dared not express their desire too openly. Several thousand applied for exit visas to Israel and were instantly ostracized by government organizations including the
Many Russian Jews began to study any Jewish texts they could lay their hands on. Foreign rabbis, often young students in Chabad Yeshivot, came on visits in order to teach how to learn Torah and how to observe Jewish law. Jewish ritual objects, such as tefillin, mezuzot, siddurim, and even matzah, were also smuggled into Russia. With the fall of the Communist regime, there is now a rich resource of Russian religious texts that flourishes and caters to Russian Jews living in Russia, America, and Israel.
The return-to-Judaism movement was a spontaneous
In Israel
During the 1960s there was a movement among secular Israeli Jews that was essentially a search for spirituality. At the time, most Israeli parents were secular Zionists. While some Jews were hostile to traditional Judaism, a spiritual quest in the 1960s and 1970s caused some Israelis to seek answers in Jewish tradition.
Rabbi Aharon Feldman observes that:
Decades of indoctrination by the secular school systems and the media in Israel have failed to have any effect on the sense of identity which most Jews feel with Judaism—as recent surveys have shown. The masses have become aware of the emptiness—and the terror—of a purposeless, consumerist culture. As a result, among the grassroots levels there is a deep yearning for spiritual values. This yearning has taken on massive proportions as expressed in the baal teshuva movement. The secret is out that Jews believe in God and that they have a Torah.[10]
In Israel, special schools developed for the newly-religious, who came to be called "Baalei teshuva" (m. plural), "Baal teshuva" (m. singular), a "Baalat teshuva" refers to a female, and "chozeret biteshuva" in
Among
Challenges, critiques and difficulties
As with all social movements, there is controversy and criticism. Early twenty-first century researchers have debated the "drop-out" rate from this movement and the reasons for it[13] and new challenges that are now presented. From a 2005 paper:
Now, many of the younger
Baby Boomers and Generation Xers are finding their way back to the synagogue. Some are spiritually hungry; others are just looking for a place to park the children. Either way, they join congregations in large numbers on the suburban frontier. However, it is not so easy to become religiously involved. Meaningful religious life requires knowledge and learning takes time, something that many young families lack. Most of the parents also lack basic religious skills. The vast majority of American Jews do not know how to read a Hebrew prayer book, and this makes it difficult for them to participate in an active manner in synagogue ritual. This frustrates them and their egalitarian religious expectations. Rabbis reach out to as many different types of people as possible and encourage them to find ways of connecting to the congregation, and, through the synagogue, with God. Given the barriers of language, though, it is a difficult challenge.[9]
See also
- Chabad outreach
- Orthodox Judaism outreach
- Reform Judaism outreach
- Conservative Judaism outreach
- Silent Holocaust
- Jewish fundamentalism
References
- ^ Lisa Aiken The baal teshuva survival guide 2009 p1 "Since the baal teshuva movement began in the 1960s, tens of thousands of Jews have become observant. The movement's effects were so noticeable by the 1980s that the New York Times, New York Magazine, the Baltimore Jewish Times, ..."
- havurah and later in Jewish Renewal; others found it in the baal teshuva movement where (hundreds of) thousands of Jews have returned to becoming Torah observant... of Jewish Renewal that is the Baal Teshuvah movement. It is unprecedented in Jewish history. In ed. Mark Avrum Ehrlich Encyclopedia of the Jewish diaspora: origins, experiences, and culture: Volume 1 2009 Page 627 "It is important to note that although Renewal was fed by the Baal Teshuva movement (new returnees to Judaism) in the late 1960s ... The Baal Teshuva movement was a movement of disenchanted Diaspora and Israeli youth who turned back to ...
- ^ Timothy Miller America's alternative religions 1995 Page 113 "The Baal Teshuva movement addressed these same issues. Men and women attracted to Orthodox Judaism articulated a vision of renewed selfhood. M. Herbert Danzger, studying this phenomenon, commented on the affinity between the ideals of ..."
- ^ Jakobson, Cathryn (November 17, 1986). "The New Orthodox". New York. 19 (45).
- ^ Blau, Yosef (October 26, 2004). "American Orthodoxy in the Twenty First Century". The Commentator. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.
- ^ "Rabbi Shlomo Charlebach (1925–1994)". Jew of the Day.
- ^ Goldstein, Moshe (2007). "The Miracle of '67: Forty Years Since the Six-Day War". Where What When. Archived from the original on December 12, 2007.
- ^ Aviad, Janet. 1983. Return to Judaism: Religious Renewal in Israel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
- ^ a b Dana Evan Kaplan, ed. (2005). "The Cambridge Companion to American Judaism". Cambridge University Press.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Why the Secular Left Hates Judaism". Jerusalem Letter. Archived from the original on December 3, 1998.
- ^ "Rabbi Nota Schiller ("credited with being one of the visionary leaders of the Baal teshuva movement")". ohr.edu. Archived from the original on April 9, 2004.
- ISBN 9789004395626.
- ISBN 9781558747890. Cites her research that dropping out will occur if the newly-religious do not marry within five years.