Zechariah Frankel was born in Prague in 1801. He received a religious and secular education in his youth and earned a doctorate in classical languages ​​from the University of Budapest, eventually becoming a rabbi. He served as rabbi in several German communities until he was elected president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau. He was the first rabbi in Bohemia with a modern education. In 1845, he disbanded from the conference of Reform rabbis meeting in Frankfurt because they had declared that Hebrew was not necessary for public prayer.

The Breslau School, the name given to Frankel and his group, advocated complete freedom to research and study the origins of Jewish beliefs and institutions, without implying any modification to the strict observance of its precepts. He coined the term «Positive Historical Judaism,» where the positive aspect was the way of studying Judaism using the scientific method, as objectively and dispassionately as possible, and the historical aspect because it recognized that Judaism had its history and had not simply been received from heaven ready for use.

Frankel argued that if we want to understand Judaism correctly, we must study its history. When reading a Jewish text, we must ask ourselves who wrote it, when, for whom, why, etc. Furthermore, in doing so, we must utilize the tools used by historians, including texts from other ethnic groups, archaeological discoveries, and linguistic studies. We also have to distinguish between what the author intended (Peshat in Hebrew) and the meaning it acquired over time (Derash or Midrash in Hebrew).

By studying Judaism in this way, you discover that it has been a historical phenomenon, influenced and modified by the political, social, economic, and cultural conditions under which Jews lived and by contact with other peoples. In other words, Judaism has not been the same throughout its existence. This does not mean that Judaism has changed so much that there is no connection between our current Judaism and that of Moshe Rabeinu. What has happened is that Judaism has evolved organically over the years.

Not only that, Judaism will continue to change. The world does not stand still, and living organisms must learn to live under new circumstances if they are to survive. But this did not justify, Frankel said, introducing artificial changes that were inconsistent with the true spirit of Judaism, as the Reformists did when they radically altered sacred traditions for the Jewish people. Nor did it coincide with the Orthodox position of Samson Raphael Hirsch, who opposed the positive historical method. Frankel argued that tefillin were black not because of a commandment received at Sinai, as Hirsch claimed, but because painting them black was a very ancient custom that Jews had preserved over time. Furthermore, tefillin have only been used for a little over 20 centuries. In fact, Abraham Avinu didn’t even had tefillin.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Articles by Louis Jacobs, Elliot N. Dorf, and other sources.