Who qualifies as an “orthodox” Jew and what do we mean by “orthodox” Judaism? These are vexing questions, which rabbis, polemicists, academics, and laypeople alike have persistently confronted for the past 200 years. This article reexamines key historical episodes in this long-standing debate and unpacks the definitions of “orthodoxy” which emerge from them, but not with the view of establishing the correct one. Rather, it aims to demonstrate the futility of any such effort. Harnessing insights from Wittgensteinian thought on essentialization and family resemblance, it identifies historical and conceptual hurdles which prevent any proposed definition of “orthodox” from prevailing among Jews in the modern period, despite incessant attempts at pinning down the term’s essence. By recasting the debate through the lens of family resemblance, the author puts forward an alternative framework for navigating divergence and deviance which better accounts for the manifold ideologies populating the contemporary Jewish landscape.

中文翻译：

---

我们所说的“正统”犹太教是什么意思？

谁有资格成为“正统”犹太人？我们所说的“正统”犹太教是什么意思？这些是拉比、辩论家、学者和外行人在过去 200 年中一直面临的令人烦恼的问题。本文重新审视了这场长期争论中的关键历史事件，并解开由此产生的“正统”定义，但并非着眼于确立正确的定义。相反，它旨在证明任何此类努力都是徒劳的。利用维特根斯坦关于本质化和家庭相似性思想的见解，它确定了历史和概念上的障碍，这些障碍阻止了现代时期犹太人对“正统”的任何提议定义，尽管不断尝试确定该术语的本质。通过家庭相似性的镜头重铸辩论，