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Judaism's Far-Flung Family
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14593 |
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BOOK WORLD
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5 / 1988 |
3,632 Words |
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Edward S. Shapiro
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THE THIRTEENTH GATE
Travels Among the Lost Tribes of Israel
Tudor Parfitt
Bethesda, Md.: Adler & Adler, 1987
167 pp., $17.95
There is perhaps no more troubling question for modern Jews than "Who is a Jew?" Until the twentieth century, the regnant definition of a Jew was an adherent of Orthodox Judaism. Traditional religion declared that one was an authentic Jew if his or her mother was Jewish or if he was converted according to halakah (Jewish law). The doctrine of matrilineal descent stemmed from the need to determine how Jewishness was to be passed down from generation to generation. Religious authorities ruled that descent would be through the mother since the maternity of a child is never in doubt, in contrast to its paternity.
A convert was required to immerse himself in a ritual bath (a mikvah) and pledge to observe traditional Jewish religious practices. Orthodox rabbis had to certify the authenticity of a potential convert's desire to become Jewish, and were required to discourage the potential convert on at least three occasions. Only after the convert had demonstrated his sincerity was the conversion allowed to take place. The prospect of marriage to a Jew was not deemed sufficient reason for conversion. Rather, one had to be committed to becoming part of the Jewish community of faith. The convert's knowledge of Judaism was subsidiary to the sincerity of his commitment.
The most famous case of conversion was, of course, that of the Moabite, Ruth. Ruth had married one of the sons of Naomi, a member of the tribe of Judah who had migrated to Moab because of a famine. After the death of her husband and two sons, Naomi decided to return to the land of her fathers. Ruth, now a widow, decided to accompany her mother-in-law. Ruth's response to Naomi's appeals that she remain in Moab is among the most famous lines in the Bible, "Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." The Bible's description of Naomi's reaction is laconic: "And when she (i.e. Namoi) saw that she was steadfastly minded to go wither, she left off speaking unto her." There was no further examination of Ruth's bona fides, and later, through her marriage to Boaz, she became one of the ancestors of King David.
The religious definition of Jewish identity came under increasing attack during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Religious reformers in Germany and elsewhere who rejected Jewish law naturally rejected that law's definition of Jewishness. Reformers disdained the concept of Jewish peoplehood or nationhood and argued that Judaism, like Christianity, was merely a religion. German Jews were simply "Germans of the Mosaic persuasion." Another interpretation of Jewish identity resulted from the rise of nationalism in Europe during these same two centuries. While religious reformers repudiated the national content of Judaism in behalf of religion, the early Zionists repudiated the religious content of Judaism in behalf of nationalism. Most of the first Zionist spokesmen were secularists in revolt against the Orthodoxy of their parents. For them, the Jews were a nation
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