Dear B’nai Shalom members, families, and friends:
It is likely that many of you have heard the following question posed without the questioner receiving a satisfactory answer: “Is Judaism a religion, a people, a nation, or just what?”
The question is a good one and the answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE. People have difficulty in fully understanding just what it is to be a member of the Jewish people because our definition does not work or fit with other people, nations, or religions. A person who identifies him/herself as a Catholic bases this categorization on what he/she believes and the manner in which that person conducts him/herself in his/her religious practices. If at a given time this Catholic individual finds reason to find favor with a different Christian denomination, he/she may convert to a new, different religion and, from that point forward, identify him/herself as a member of that new denomination. By way of example, a former colleague of mine was born into a Catholic family, was raised as a practicing Catholic, and as a young adult, chose to convert to become a Methodist.
If a person lives in France, that individual will identify him/herself as French, as will the members of his/her family who are born and raised in France. If the family moved to Sweden and then lived a generation or two there, the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren born in Sweden would identify themselves as Swedish with only a tangential mention of the previous ties to France.
As Jews, we all came from the same family and clan, beginning with Avraham Avinu, Abraham our Patriarch — the first Jew — following the family lines going through his son, grandson, and great grandsons respectively: Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons of Jacob. We can trace our roots through the generations back to our Biblical beginnings, defining Jews then and today as part of one ongoing, large family.
By Abraham having had the promise made to him by Almighty G-d fulfilled by G-d’s giving Abraham, his family, and his descendants – us, the gift of the Land of Israel, we, as a people, settled in our own land, flourished and grew, and solidified the indestructible ties between the people of Israel – us, and the Land of Israel.
Because we were privileged to be chosen as the recipients of G-d’s holy Torah, our people, in addition to being linked one to another by virtue of having come from the same family and having come from the same land, are inextricably connected by the all-encompassing mitzvot, values, traditions, and directives of the Torah. The manner in which we relate to G-d, the manner by which we conduct our lives, the rituals we perform, the holidays we celebrate, plus so much more, all come to form – what is typically defined as – our Jewish religion.
Being that we are MORE than “just” a religion, being that we share the same legacy, history, origins, land, language, and values, we defy the usual, more typical categorization of our people as simply a religion, a nation, a people, or culture only.
A Jewish individual who eats on Yom Kippur, does not keep kosher, does not celebrate Jewish holidays or observe the Shabbat may not be defined as an “observant” Jew and may not see him/herself as particularly religious, but, nonetheless, is a Jew. A Jew’s identity is not simply defined by what he/she does or doesn’t do.
A Jewish individual who does not demonstrate strong or conspicuous ties to the Land of Israel, past or present, may not be an identified Zionist or supporter of Medinat Yisrael, but this does not define the person as a Jew or not. To put it in a phrase that makes clear our eternal nature and identity, a Jew is a Jew is a Jew.
Am Yisrael Chai!
With Torah blessings always,
Rabbi Dr. Yaacov Dvorin