Peter Knobel

Torah— Torah results from the relationship between God and the Jewish people. The records of our earliest confrontations are uniquely important to us. Lawgivers and prophets, historians and poets gave us a heritage whose study is a religious imperative and whose practice is our chief means to holiness. Rabbis and teachers, philosophers and mystics, gifted Jews in every age amplified the Torah tradition. For millennia, the creation of Torah has not ceased and Jewish creativity in our time is adding to the chain of tradition.

Pittsburgh 1999

We are committed to the ongoing study of the whole array of[mitzvod] and to the fulfillment of those that address us as individuals and as a community. Some of these(mitzvol), sacred obligations, have long been observed by Reform Jews; others, both ancient and modern, demand renewed attention as the result of the unique context of our own times.

Commentary to 1999. If“autonomy” was the key word of the Centenary Perspective,“dialogue” is the key word of the Pittsburgh Principles

Reflecting its time, the Centenary Perspective spoke of the need to secure the survival of the Jewish people, but confidently outlined what the Reform Movement had taught the Jewish world in its hundred years, and called on Reform Jews to confront the differently perceived claims of