Diversity in Judaism
Although my hope is to give you an eye into Orthodox Judaism, suggesting that there’s one “Orthodox Judaism” and that it can be lumped together is totally not the case. This is true for a number of reasons. For one, Judaism largely developed into two major groups based on where you were from; these groups are known as Ashkenazim and Sephardim. This roughly means Jews of Eastern-European descent and Jews of Spanish or Middle Eastern descent.
Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews had traditions and religious rulings develop separately from each other, providing a diverse spectrum of practices and customs in the Jewish world today. On that note, for thousands of years, there have been Jewish communities spread out all over the world, and each has different traditions. There were Jews everywhere, from Yemen to Poland to Morocco to Iraq to Russia to India to Ethiopia and the list goes on. Each community has unique customs, different ways of pronouncing some words, different rulings from Rabbi’s, and so on. It’s pretty cool in my opinion.
There’s another really important division within Orthodox Judaism: Mitnagdim and Chassidim. There was a split a few hundred years ago in Eastern Europe between Jews who believed the main focus of Judaism should be intellectual and Torah study and Jews who believed that Judaism should be more about spirituality, joy, singing, etc, as a way to connect to G-d. These different philosophies have led to different schools, and different rabbis associate themselves between these groups.
What rabbi you choose to follow makes all the difference in Judaism. In Orthodox Judaism where you’re following commandments and taking them very seriously, legal rulings are very important, and different rabbis rule differently on various issues. You pick a rabbi based on if they’re more-or-less aligned with your outlook on Judaism, and then you’re supposed to follow their rulings. There are tons of Orthodox Rabbis out there, from different backgrounds, different philosophies, etc., and this leads to lots of diversity within the Orthodox world.
One helpful way to notice this diversity is through dress. Based on where you’re from or what group you consider yourself a part of, it’s typical to dress a certain way. The kind of kippah (or skull cap) a man wears indicates what community he associates with; a black hat or black velvet kippah indicates a different philosophy than a cloth knitted kippah for example. With women, you can somewhat tell based on how long their skirt is or how a married woman covers her hair (with a scarf, wig, headband, etc).
As I mentioned, I consider myself Modern Orthodox. This is the most liberal end of the Orthodox spectrum, and while it means that I’m in a community that abides by Torah law, I’m also in a community that immerses itself in the modern world (whether that means having TVs, going to the movies, using internet, studying at secular universities, and so on).
