Monday, February 16, 2009

Judaism Response Paper #1

Judaism manages to be a race, religion, and culture.
Judaism is undoubtedly a religion. It is a system of beliefs based on scripture that includes the worship of a god. Judaism is marked by the hallmarks of religion, including rituals, tradition, and a significant following.
Technically, if a person’s mother is Jewish, he is Jewish too. Therefore, Judaism is based almost exclusively on family heritage. Indeed, in making His covenant with Abraham, God declares “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” Hence, all descendants of the patriarchs are Jewish. This nature of the covenant supports the notion of Judaism as a race. However, conversion by those not descended from the patriarchs or by those who were not born into the Jewish faith, instead supports the notion of Judaism as a religion and culture.
One can be a secular Jew and still identify as Jewish because of the “deeply embedded forms of family, educational, job and residence patterns reinforced by religion” (Sharma, 296). Neusner asserts that indeed, Jews do exhibit common qualities that demonstrate Judaism’s validity as a culture. “For instance, they live together, forming Jewish neighborhoods; they work in a few specific types of occupations; they marry within the group…As a result, Americans think…that psychiatry is a Jewish profession whereas professional football is not” (Sharma, 296). Having been raised in a practicing Jewish neighborhood, a secular Jew might also choose to abide by kosher food laws. He manages to be effected by Jewish culture (based on religious values), without being religious himself.

3 comments:

  1. Laura,
    I thought that the link to the NY Times article was really interesting and backed up your point nicely. I also thought that the example of a secular Jew following kosher was a really good way to prove that Judaism is a culture.

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  2. Really interesting article! I really like the point you made how a secular Jew might also choose to abide by kosher food laws. I understand how Judaism can be considered the three separately--do you think, though, that is more of one than the others?

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