From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Fri Oct 24 2003 - 13:58:25 EDT
RFaussette@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 10/24/03 8:58:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> gmurphy@raex.com writes:
>
> While biological kinship has been an important aspect of
> Judaism, its significance should not be overstated.
>
> This is wrong. It should properly read, its significance should not be
> understated.
>
> . On the inside cover of a Passover Jewish Action Magazine distributed
> in local supermarkets in 2001 by the Union of Orthodox Jewish
> Congregations of America I was amazed to find an unselfconscious
> letter addressed to Jewish children:
>
> “...Our aim is nothing less than to convince a record number of
> Jewish youngsters that interdating and intermarriage are a betrayal of
> who they are.”
>
> “As the sacrifice he offered could have no blemish, the kohen
> himself could have no blemish. Thus to maintain the purity of his
> lineage he was kept to stricter marriage standards than his Jewish
> brothers.” Lamm, The Jewish way in Love and Marriage
>
> Biological kinship is the sine qua non of orthodox Judaism, and in
> reform and conservative Judaism the kohen is still the chief religious
> functionary. If you face that fact of course, there are implications
> and who wants to deal with the implications?
>
> Nebuchadnezzar had removed the upper classes to Babylon leaving the
> lower classes behind who assimilated with the locals. When Cyrus let
> the Hebrew people go to return and rebuild their temple, he empowered
> Ezra who set up the marriage prohibitions immediately to maintain the
> isolation of their bloodlines which the captive Jewish community had
> maintained during the Babylonian captivity.
Why am I not surprised that you responded on this topic?
To the extent that Jews feel threatened with religious & cultural assimilation,
an emphasis on "biological purity" will naturally be emphasized. The fact that that has
been the case for many generations since the return from Babylonian exile makes it
unsurprising that it would come to be seen by observant Jews as an essential of their
faith. My point was that that was not an important part of earlier Israelite faith - a
point that you have not addressed for obvious reasons. The fact that Judaism has, in a
sense, been existing in an emergency situation for ~2500 years does not change this.
I am speaking here of Judaism as a religion, not simply as a cultural and ethnic
identity. The 2 aspects are not identical, though there may be consdierable overlap.
The fact that they are not identical is shown simply by the fact that proselytes from
the Gentiles can be accepted as religious Jews.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
gmurphy@raex.com
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
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