Judaism(s) and Hinduism(s)

Abstract

No religion is a monolith, but some more so than others. This is probably a fair way to sum up the following discussion. It touches on the fundamental assumptions of the present work. When we speak of Judaism’s encounter with Hinduism, we implicitly assume a meeting between two entities, which should be described and related to in roughly the same terms and categories. In all probability, such a reference is envisioned along the lines of a meeting between two individuals. The reality, however, is that religions are far more complex. They are constituted by various specific religious, ideological, and practical ways of expressing a broad tradition. Under certain circumstances the different expressions of a religion may recognize one another and be recognized as belonging to the same religion; at other times, even this may be questioned. This issue is relevant for both Judaism and Hinduism, but particularly for the latter. In the case of Judaism, the complexity of definition of what Judaism is and how to recognize its different manifestations as expressions of a single religious system have led Jacob Neusner, and other scholars who follow his lead, to speak of Judaisms, in the plural, rather than in the singular. Thus, Neusner represents each of the different groups operating in late Second Temple and rabbinic times as “a Judaism.” Each Judaism has specific practices, a worldview, a social structure, and so on, that make it distinct from another Judaism. The rabbis are “a Judaism,” members of the Qumran sect are “a Judaism,” hellenistic Judaism is “a Judaism,” and so on.¹ This logic applies also to the varieties of Judaism found in later periods, including our own.² According to this logic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal Judaisms should each be considered “a Judaism.” Such a perspective has merit, inasmuch as it recognizes diversity for what it is, and avoids the essentialist reference to “Judaism” as a monolith, whose essence, ideas, and practices can be stated in abstraction from specific manifestations of particular Judaisms.