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Orthodox Judaism
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Orthodox Judaisms are not without their problems. On a theoretical level, the widely held reasoning that "the Halacha will be formulated by the people who keep Halacha" is hopelessly circular. Jews are observant only their practices follow halakha, but halakha is determined by the practices of the people themselves. According to this logic, whatever an "accepted" Jewish community does is automatically legitimate Q.E.D.
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Until recent decades, the story of Orthodox Judaism in America was largely one of decline. Most Jews who arrived during the great wave of Jewish immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries were leaving a Europe where traditional Jewish practice often governed religious life. The new arrivals sought to assimilate and often rejected what were considered outmoded, Old World customs of “shtetl” life. Surveys show that by a wide margin, older American Jews who were raised Orthodox left for another, more liberal movement, such as Conservative or Reform Judaism. In addition, World War II and the Holocaust brought the virtual destruction of European Jewry, including the Orthodox communities that predominated in Eastern Europe.
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Orthodox Judaism has developed in two forms, Sephardi and Ashkenazi. The Sephardis are distinguished by their use of Judaeo-Spanish or Ladino as opposed to Yiddish (a Jewish variety of German) which is used by Ashkenazis, and ... by their pronunciation of Hebrew and some liturgical customs. They were originally the Jews of Spain and Portugal, whose long and creative history ended there when they were expelled by the Christian authorities in 1492. Sephardi communities were established in Italy, Holland, Turkey, the Land of Israel and elsewhere, and today account for 61% of the world Jewish population. In Israel they have their own Chief Rabbi. The Ashkenazis are the Jews of Germany, Poland, Russia and other parts of Europe whose history was one of constant persecution and destruction, culminating in the Holocaust in which their numbers were reduced from about 9,000,000 to 3,000,000.
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Orthodox Judaism's central belief is that the Torah, including both the Written Law and the Oral Law, was given directly from God to Moses. As a result, Orthodoxy expects all Jews to live in accordance with the Torah as explicated by Jewish law.
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Orthodox Judaism's central belief is that the Torah, including both the Written Law and the Oral Torah, was given directly from God to Moses and can never be altered or rejected in any way. As a result, all Jews are required to live in accordance with the Commandments and Jewish law.
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Orthodoxy has long struggled in defining the halakhic role of women in Judaism, and frequently resorts to social answers to maintain the social status quo. Ruling against to the Talmud (Hullin 2b, M. Zevachim 12:4), the Shach prohibits women from acting as shohatot (slaughterers) simply because he hadn't seen it done before (Y.D. 1:1, see Maharik 172). Women's prayer groups are not prohibited by the Talmud, but they represent a change in the Orthodox world. Rabbi Yuval Cherlow a head of a hesder yeshiva said in his opposition to ordaining women rabbis:
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Orthodox Judaism