Judaism Response Paper # 1

The definitions of religion, ethnicity are complex on their own as it is. To categorize something as either one of them is even more difficult due to their interrelatedness. Similarly, Judaism can neither be called solely a religion or an ethnicity. It started as primarily a religion and ethnicity but has evolved as more of a culture that is a product of the two.

The fact that at an early stage Judaism embodied Jews—at time an ethnic group—who according to the Torah were the “chosen people” and directly contacted by YHWH shows that being Jewish was more religious. It would be safe to say that the percentage of Jews who believed in a supernatural power who asked to call Him their God and Him only was more compared to that of today. Judaism at that point focused more on the literal fulfilling of the covenant between YHWH made and the Ten Commandments He put forth them. In addition it included only descendants of the tribe that was “chosen”; portraying that Judaism in its roots was also an ethnicity.
However, the fact that the Ten Commandments came after the covenant shows that Judaism had started becoming less of a merely an ethnicity, encompassing instead a moral code for living (giving a framework to the expected behavior of follower, characterizing the functioning of a group or organization—a cultural trait). Unlike the covenant that required only circumcision and loyalty to YHWH, the Ten Commandments included more specific rules that a follower must follow on a daily basis. Judaism being maternally inherited has become a lesser known fact about Jews which shows the deteriorating importance of the once set rule and deviation from Judaism as an ethnicity.

Even though Judaism has not become evangelical, Jews on the whole have become relatively more acceptable to converts proving that Judaism has become less of an ethnicity. This might be due to the increase in the number of secular Jews which is another proof to how Judaism has become less of a religion and perhaps more of a culture. The fact that Jews have a nation of their own gives Judaism a nationalistic identity. This identity however is one that has been acquired from the cultures of the lands which Jews have encountered and have at times emerged themselves in. However since so much of their culture depends on the historical events that they went through as a religious ethnic group, Jews collectively have started defining Judaism as a product of both religion and ethnicity. Judaism though can not be defined as a race since Jews have physical features of nearly every race.

If one associates all Jews more with their Matzo Ball soup rather than circumcision, then it is evident that Judaism has become more overtly a cultural identity.