Progressive Hebrew Faith

 

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About PHF

Progressive Hebrew Faith is a liberal spiritual monotheistic movement.  It was founded by Daniel Daly of Canberra, Australia.  It centres around a Hebrew understanding of religion, particularly focused on the One True God and the Holy book the Hebrew Torah.  In essence, we are similar in nature to the Jewish Sect the Samaritans, as we make use of the same text – the Hebrew Torah (Pentateuch).  However, unlike them, we approach the faith of the Torah from a modern-day, enlightened perspective.  The ancient Jewish sect, the Sadducees, also relied on the written Torah alone, rejecting the Phariseeical Mishnah, which has come to be known as the Oral Law.  However, they were adamant that the whole Torah was written by Moses, a position which we reject.  In some ways we are also similar to the Reform/Liberal/Progressive movements of Judaism, however, they still see validity in some way or another in the remainder of the Hebrew Tenakh and the Oral law – documents which we completely reject.

 

Core Teaching of the Movement

·       Belief in Almighty God as the creator of the Universe

·       Belief in creation as opposed to evolution as the best explanation to mankind’s origins

·       A Progressive understanding of the Hebrew Torah and practice of the Faith

·       Acknowledgement of the Documentary Hypothesis as the best explanation of Torah authorship

·       A rejection of the Neviim and Kethuvim of the Hebrew Tenakh as non-canonical, as well as a rejection of the Oral Law (Mishnah) and its commentary (the Talmud).

·       Rejection of the circumcision rite for converts.  This is seen as an ancient tradition within Judaism which is non-divine in nature, in fact being a product of the Egyptian experience.  It does not go back to the ancient Patriarch Abram.

·       A Universal application of the 10 Commandments – we see this as the CORE LAW to the Torah, applying it to all members of our movement, be they Israelite or Gentile.

 

More Information

If you would like more information about this movement, please contact  Daniel Daly at email:  [email protected] or telephone (Australia) +61 2 6291 4414