Movements in Judaism
Question
I wanted to know how to relate to different groups in Judaism and whether Chasidim and non-Chasidim are also additional movements?
Answer
Dear …!
It’s very problematic to call movements that do not keep the Torah and commandments in full, and certainly movements that do not believe in the Creator and the Torah of Israel, and that it was given from Heaven, “movements in Judaism”. Unfortunately, these Jews simply stopped keeping Judaism.
Individually, every Jew is part of the nation of Israel, but a Jew who does not act according to the Torah cannot be considered as someone living a Jewish life simply because he was born to a Jewish mother.
The term “movement in Judaism” can only be attributed to a group that keeps the entire Torah and strives with all its might to adhere to the tradition that we have been keeping with precision for 3500 years.
However, it can certainly be said that despite our attempt to reach full perfection in keeping the Torah and its commandments and in understanding the Torah correctly, part of the exile is that various ways of serving God have appeared. But adherents of each one of these try with all their might to reach the perfect truth. Until we merit that prophecy returns to the nation of Israel in the days of the Messiah, we will not be able to reach absolute perfection in this matter. And that is why it is said, "Nahara Nahara V'Fashtei," meaning that every river flows in its own channel. And every community should keep its ancestral customs. The Sages said that in the days before the coming of the Messiah, "the truth will be lacking," meaning, "scattered, scattered," (this is based on the common root of the ward “נעדר”, which means “lacking”, and the word “עדר”, which means “flock” – Jewish people will be divided into many different flocks) and therefore in our days there are various groups and each one keeps the tradition of its community as they received it from their ancestors. But the unifier among all those who keep the Torah and commandments in full is much greater than the separator, and the basis that we all keep is the 613 commandments and we all received all the words of the Talmud in full.
Source
Tractate Sotah, folio 49; tractate Chulin, folio 18b