Jewish Streams Re-Explained (a Response to @UsefulCharts)

0:00 Intro
0:45 Edot
2:14 “Streams” vs. “Sects”
3:51 First Temple Judaism
4:54 Elephantine Judaism
5:32 Second Temple Judaism
6:11 Samaritanism
7:31 Pharisees and Sadducees
9:33 Essenes
10:12 Hillelists and Shammaists
10:54 Zealots and Early Christianity
11:27 Post-Temple Antiquity
13:54 Eastern and Western Judaism
15:10 Haymanot
16:21 Karaite Judaism
17:21 Epikursim
17:59 The Maimonidean Controversy
19:08 The Shulhan Aruch
21:12 Jewish Secularism
22:19 Sabbateanism
23:25 The Ramhal
24:11 Hasidim and Mitnagdim
26:00 The Haskalah
27:19 Reform and Modern Orthodox Judaism
27:58 Radical Reform
28:58 Conservative Judaism
29:42 Reconstructionist Judaism
30:34 Jewish Renewal

[SamAronow]

Don't worry, my regular videos are returning very soon!
2. I didn't include Humanistic Judaism, as Matt did, because I judged it not to be so much a stream as an organized form of Jewish secularism.
2. The American taboo against tattoos is more complicated than I made it sound. It is true that Jewish law forbids tattoos, but the US is unique in that there is a persistent rumor (untrue) that people with tattoos can't be buried in Jewish cemeteries. This rumor likely originates in 1759, when the leadership of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York _considered_ trying to enforce Jewish Law by refusing to bury people.

[tehandroidmaster]

As a Sikh, I can't help but admire and envy the academic ethos that Jews have with documenting their own history and promoting historical research and critical academic scholarship of their traditions and customs. I came across your channel when I was looking up Iranian Jews, and I fell down a rabbit hole of Jewish history that scratched *so* many itches I've had for so long. Beta Israel, Central Asian Jews, Jews in China, Jewish traders in India that lived in the same time period as Saint Thomas and his legendary voyages to Kerala. Sam, your channel doesn't just benefit your own people - it's of immense value to non-Abrahamic gentiles like myself, who've always been puzzled by the relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Without hyperbole, your content is on par with creators like Filip from Let's Talk Religion and Andrew from Religion For Breakfast. In some areas, your content actually manages to eclipse theirs in the level of depth and specialisation you can go into.

Keep up the good work, my good man!

[dhtsoaedsdhtnadi]

ask 2 jews the same complicated question, you'll get at least three different answers. that's not an insult. rather it's a compliment aimed at studious culture.

[itzhakbenelkabbed]

As a Conservative Jew, I would like to think (completely without evidence) that your popularity in our stream has to do with our tradition of free research. We like educational content, especially Jewish studies.

[AncientAmericas]

Really enjoyed this! It's awesome to see the history you've covered (and will cover) presented in such a simple and visual way.

[ibnyahud]

As a Jewish Ethnographer myself, this chart is great!
Although within "Haredi" there are so many "streams", they deserve their own charts.
You guys should team up and make a Jewish historical atlas.... you'll definitely sell out the printings ...

[Hp-pmof]

I was actually really excited as a religion nerd to learn about the connection between abu hanifa and karaite Judaism

[kalraevyn]

I'm a black American and I've always felt a connection of our people experienced similar atrocities and the spirit of survival is strong in both. That being said, I'm a student at heart and love learning to learn. Hell, Between you and Matt (useful charts) as well as a few other political streams I've been able to identify historical patterns modern parallelisms that only became clear when historical context was added. You all have inspired me to start writing on what I'm learning. So thank you all.

[rebeccacuthbertson]

This was so good Sam! When Matt said you were going to do a response I got super excited. And you made posters together?!?!?!?! Going to need to grab them for my classroom when I start teaching Hebrew school again.

Love that tidbit about Conservative Jews being your largest subscriber base among Jews. Glad to help be part of that statistic!

Keep up the amazing work. It’s very much appreciated

[noorhanisahabrahman]

Clicked as soon as i saw A sam aronow video!

[willblasingame]

Thanks for clarifying that Paul taught that Jewish Christians should still follow Jewish law while non-Jews were not obliged… I’ve seen the idea that Paul taught Jewish Christians to disobey the law pop up often

[brianross]

I think it is fitting that Matt's chart showed Conservative Judaism as branching off from Modern Orthodoxy, while Sam Aronow's chart shows Conservative Judaism as branching off from Reform. There's truth to both. The intellectual underpinnings of Conservative Judaism can be viewed as a break off of Reform, though, in terms of Conservative Judaism as a separate stream, I think Matt's telling of it breaking away from Modern Orthodoxy is more correct. (And Sam’s description of Conservative Judaism as maintaining ritual only symbolically is a bit misleading).

An intellectual precursor to Conservative Judaism was the Positive Historical school, developed by Zecharia Frankel in the 1840s. He was an early reformer of Judaism and attended the conferences of the other early reformers. However, he broke from other reformers chiefly over the question of whether to use Hebrew or the vernacular in prayer (Frankel favored Hebrew). His Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau influenced the Jewish Theological Seminary in America, which later became a central institution of Conservative Judaism.

However, up until the 1940s, it was not clear that "Conservative" Judaism was a separate stream from Orthodoxy but rather just represented the liberal wing within Orthodoxy. JTS in the US was founded as an Orthodox institution (one of its founders later went on to found the OU), though with some influence from Breslau and the "Jewish studies" movement. Schechter took over JTS in the 1900s, and liberalized it. This caused the Orthodox council of rabbis called the "Agudath Harabbonim" to denounce JTS, but the OU still recognized the institution. The left wing of the OU looked pretty similar to the congregations within Schecter's new "United Synagogue." It wasn't 'til the 1940s that it became clear that Conservative Judaism would become a distinct stream from Orthodoxy. The Jewish law committee of the Conservative Rabbinic Assembly passed several "takkanot" (decrees) with broke from established Jewish law, such as the "driving" responsa, which allowed driving to synagogue for certain people who didn't live within walking distance of a synagogue. Meanwhile, the OU started requiring member synagogues to have mechitzas (barriers between men and women) and to remove microphones on Shabbat. These divisions sharpened further in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Conservative movement started allowing congregations to count women in minyanim and started ordaining female rabbis. Meanwhile, Modern Orthodoxy took further steps to the right, generally distancing itself from critical biblical scholarship and the like.

[valmarsiglia]

I think it's going a bit far to say that Catholicism and Protestantism can be seen as different religions. Protestantism especially is such a big tent that it's not really possible to generalize about it that way. Some forms of Protestantism (eg High-Church Anglicanism) would be practically indistinguishable from Catholicism to a non-Christian. And in the US at least, there's a broad feeling of "We're all Christians" among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox despite differences in theology, doctrine, and practice.

[royharel]

Honestly this has to be one of your very best works! its so useful, simple to process and informative. Thank you for making this wonderful guide to the perplexed :)

[Yakovolf]

1. Hillelism and Shammaism are not "streams" or "denominations." They are just two schools of thought in the interpretation of Jewish law. They didn't differ theologically. And the claim that Christianity is an outgrowth of "Hillelism" is absolutely ludicrous.

2. "Epikursim" is a general term mentioned in the Talmud meaning "Heretics", it's not a separate stream or theology, it's just a general name for heretical Jews.

3. Anti-Maimonideanism is, again, not a stream of Judaism. Not every Legal dispute should be viewed as a schism. Legal disputes like those of Hillel-Shammai, Abaya-Rava, Maimonides-anti, etc. etc. happen all over Jewish history.

[thedemongodvlogs]

Small correction at 1:40, Western Ashkenazim or more specifically Yekkes in this case also have the minhag of not naming babies after living relatives. As a yekke, with a strong interest in genealogy and local history, this fact is very useful when locating names and relations!!

[gemmamoon]

Part of the reason Conservative Judaism is rapidly shrinking is because Reform and Conservative practices have merged into each other a lot. There are still liturgical differences, and the philosophical reason they’ve converged come from different schools of thought, but to the average congregant they are quite similar. One thing you failed to mention is that the contemporary Reform movement is almost unrecognizable from the Classical Reform movement of R. Isaac Mayer Wise. The URJ no longer fully rejects Jewish ritual, and in fact encourages it. Where the Reform & Conservative movements differ now is primarily on patrilineal descent (URJ says they’re Jewish, USCJ does not), interfaith marriage (URJ allows, USCJ does not), conversion practices, adherence to halacha (URJ says it’s all optional, USCJ amends the halacha while knowing that a lot of congregants don’t strictly follow halacha), and liturgical differences. Those small deviations are likely what makes Reform Judaism more popular than Conservative—while both are relaxed about halacha and have similar services, people who are accepting of interfaith marriage, patrilineal Jews, etc. will gravitate towards the Reform movement, and those who care more about halacha will lean towards Modern Orthodox.

[samwill]

These are the exact kinds of conversations that makes it so that my brother's Rabbi can rivet me to my seat once we start talking. (Your channel was one of the resources she gave me when I was asking for help being a good brother during my brother's conversion!)

[wenchbyatt]

I'm not Jewish, but the explanation on the Zealots made a lot of things make more sense for me from my days in Catholic school. Especially "render unto Caesar".
Also, I live in Poland, and I can see traces of the former Jewish life everywhere, so your channel helps fit those into their larger context when I encounter them

[MenachemWeinstein]

Thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you, Sam!