What Is Judaism?
Level: Basic |
What is Judaism? What does it mean to be a Jew? Most people, both Jewish
and gentile, would instinctively say that Judaism is a religion. And yet,
there are militant atheists who insist that they are Jews! Is Judaism a race?
If you were to say so, most Jews would think you were an antisemite! So what
is Judaism?
Clearly, there is a religion called Judaism, a set of ideas about the world
and the way we should live our lives that is called "Judaism." It is studied
in Religious Studies courses and taught to Jewish children in
Hebrew schools. See
What do Jews Believe? for details.
There is a lot of flexibility about certain aspects of those beliefs, and
a lot of disagreement about specifics, but that flexibility is built into
the organized system of belief that is Judaism.
However, many people who call themselves Jews do not believe in that religion
at all! More than half of all Jews in Israel
today call themselves "secular," and don't believe in
G-d or any of the religious beliefs of Judaism.
Half of all Jews in the United States don't belong to any
synagogue. They may practice some of the
rituals of Judaism and celebrate some of the
holidays, but they don't think of these actions
as religious activities.
The most traditional Jews and the most liberal Jews and everyone in between
would agree that these secular people are still Jews, regardless of their
disbelief. See Who is a Jew?
Clearly, then, there is more to being Jewish than just a religion.
In the 1980s, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Jews are a race,
at least for purposes of certain anti-discrimination laws. Their reasoning:
at the time these laws were passed, people routinely spoke of the "Jewish
race" or the "Italian race" as well as the "Negro race," so that is what
the legislators intended to protect.
But many Jews were deeply offended by that decision, offended by any hint
that Jews could be considered a race. The idea of Jews as a race brings to
mind nightmarish visions of Nazi Germany, where Jews were declared to be
not just a race, but an inferior race that had to be rounded up into ghettos
and exterminated like vermin.
But setting aside the emotional issues, Jews are clearly not a race.
Race is a genetic distinction, and refers to people with shared ancestry
and shared genetic traits. You can't change your race; it's in your DNA.
I could never become black or Asian no matter how much I might want to.
Common ancestry is not required to be a Jew. Many Jews worldwide share common
ancestry, as shown by genetic research; however, you can be a Jew without
sharing this common ancestry, for example, by
converting. Thus, although I could never
become black or Asian, blacks and Asians have become Jews (Sammy Davis Jr.
and Connie Chung).
Most secular American Jews think of their Jewishness as a matter of culture
or ethnicity. When they think of Jewish culture, they think of the
food, of the
Yiddish language, of some limited
holiday observances, and of cultural values
like the emphasis on education.
Those secular American Jews would probably be surprised to learn that much
of what they think of as Jewish culture is really just
Ashkenazic Jewish culture, the culture
of Jews whose ancestors come from one part of the world. Jews have lived
in many parts of the world and have developed many different traditions.
As a Sephardic friend likes to remind me,
Yiddish is not part of his culture, nor are bagels
and lox, chopped liver, latkes,
gefilte fish or
matzah ball soup. His idea of Jewish cooking
includes bourekas, phyllo dough pastries filled with cheese or spinach. His
ancestors probably wouldn't know what to do with a
dreidel.
There are certainly cultural traits and behaviors that are shared by many
Jews, that make us feel more comfortable with other Jews. Jews in many parts
of the world share many of those cultural aspects. However, that culture
is not shared by all Jews all over the world, and people who do not share
that culture are no less Jews because of it. Thus, Judaism must be something
more than a culture or an ethnic group.
The traditional explanation, and the one given in the
Torah, is that the Jews are a nation. The
Hebrew word, believe it or not, is
"goy." The Torah and the
rabbis used this term not in the modern sense
meaning a territorial and political entity, but in the ancient sense meaning
a group of people with a common history, a common destiny, and a sense that
we are all connected to each other.
Unfortunately, in modern times, the term "nation" has become too contaminated
by ugly, jingoistic notions of a country obsessed with its own superiority
and bent on world domination. Because of this notion of "nationhood," Jews
are often falsely accused of being disloyal to their own country in favor
of their loyalty to the Jewish "nation," of being more loyal to
Israel than to their home country. Some have
gone so far as to use this distorted interpretation of "nationhood" to prove
that Jews do, or seek to, control the world. In fact, a surprising number
of antisemitic websites and newsgroup postings linked to this page (in an
earlier form) as proof of their antisemitic delusions that Jews are
nationalistic, that Israel is a colonial power and so forth.
Because of the inaccurate connotations that have attached themselves to the
term "nation," the term can no longer be used to accurately describe the
Jewish people.
It is clear from the discussion above that there is a certain amount of truth
in the claims that it is a religion, a race, or an ethnic group, none of
these descriptions is entirely adequate to describe what connects Jews to
other Jews. And yet, almost all Jews feel a sense of connectedness to each
other that many find hard to explain, define, or even understand. Traditionally,
this interconnectedness was understood as "nationhood" or "peoplehood," but
those terms have become so distorted over time that they are no longer accurate.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz has suggested a better analogy for the Jewish people:
We are a family. See the third essay in his recent book,
We
Jews: Who Are We and What Should We Do. But though this is a new book,
it is certainly not a new concept: throughout the Bible and Jewish literature,
the Jewish people are referred to as "the Children of Israel," a reference
to the fact that we are all the physical or spiritual descendants of the
Patriarch
Jacob, who was later called
Israel. In other words, we are part of his
extended family.
Like a family, we don't always agree with each other. We often argue and
criticize each other. We hold each other to the very highest standards, knowing
that the shortcomings of any member of the family will be held against all
of us. But when someone outside of the family unfairly criticizes a family
member or the family as a whole, we are quick to join together in opposition
to that unfair criticism.
When members of our "family" suffer or are persecuted, we all feel their
pain. For example, in the 1980s, when Africa was suffering from droughts
and famines, many Jews around the world learned for the first time about
the Beta Israel, the Jews of Ethiopia. Their religion, race and culture are
quite different from ours, and we had not even known that they existed before
the famine. And yet, our hearts went out to them as our fellow Jews during
this period of famine, like distant cousins we had never met, and Jews from
around the world helped them to emigrate to
Israel.
When a member of our "family" does something illegal, immoral or shameful,
we all feel the shame, and we all feel that it reflects on us. As Jews, many
of us were embarrassed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, or the Jack Abramoff
affair, because Lewinsky and Abramoff are Jews. We were shocked when Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was killed by a Jew, unable to believe that
one Jew would ever kill another member of the "family."
And when a member of our "family" accomplishes something significant, we
all feel proud. A perfect example of Jews (even completely secular ones)
delighting in the accomplishments of our fellow Jews is the perennial popularity
of Adam Sandler's Chanukkah songs, listing
famous people who are Jewish. We all take pride in scientists like Albert
Einstein or political leaders like Joe Lieberman (we don't all agree with
his politics or his religious views, but we were all proud to see him on
a national ticket). And is there a Jew who doesn't know (or at least feel
pride upon learning) that Sandy Koufax declined to pitch in a World Series
game that fell on Yom Kippur?
© Copyright 5761-5766 (2001-2006), Tracey
R Rich
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