xxMo0 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tevai Wrote:
> ---------------------------------------------
> >
> > Kulanu (means: "All of Us" in Hebrew;
> >
https://kulanu.org ) is a Jewish organization
> > working constantly, worldwide, to "bring home"
> ,
> > all genuine descendants of ancient Jewish
> origin
> > who desire to make aliyah (basically:
> "immigration
> > to") Israel.
> >
> > These efforts by Kulanu do NOT include Black
> > Hebrew Israelites, who have no genetic or
> genuine
> > cultural ties to Judaism or to the Jewish
> people,
> > ancient or contemporary.
>
> Is Judaism a religion or an ethnicity?
Judaism is both a religion AND an ethnicity. [The best way I have heard it described is "Judaism is a family." Some of your family members are blood-related to you, others of them (spouses of blood family members, for example) are not. Regardless of blood ties or the lack of blood ties, though, ALL of your family relatives ARE family to you.]
> > P.S. It is theoretically possible that, as
> > discrete individuals, SOME "Black Hebrew
> > Israelites" COULD decide to seek Jewishly-legal
> > conversion to Judaism (and, as I kind of dimly
> > remember, some of the Black Hebrew Israelites,
> > who
> > moved to south Israel as NON-Jews, have, as
> > individuals, sought, and been granted, legal
> > conversion), so it is possible/probable that
> > SOME
> > (would be a small number) of the descendants of
> > black American slavery, who formerly
> > self-identified as Black Hebrew Israelites,
> > have
> > sought to become actual legal Jews....so they
> > DO
> > exist--though these individuals would be, as a
> > group, a very small minority, no matter where
> > they
> > have chosen to live.
>
> Who has the "authority" other than the individual
> himself to declare himself a Jew or otherwise? It
> should be totally based on self identification.
Judaism is a family, it is an extremely varied tribe, and it is also governed by laws. The legal definition of a Jew is:
1) Someone born to a Jewish MOTHER. (Fathers do not count.)
--OR--
2) Someone who has converted to Judaism according to the requirements of Jewish law. In particular, so far as this discussion is concerned, this means "Has gone through a qualified Bet Din (rabbinical court composed of three rabbis), and has been deemed, by that court, to now be a Jew."
No single person can legally declare him- or herself a Jew, this is totally a matter of what Jewish law says. (I could not declare myself to be a Catholic, for example, if I were not baptized a Catholic.)
> I long believed that a benefit of Judaism (like
> Islam and some other religions) was that unlike
> some denominational churches, there is no central
> "authority" to tell people who does or does not
> qualify.
You are correct: There is NO "central 'authority'" in Judaism, that authority is posited in rabbinical courts worldwide (which may be ad hoc groups made up of three qualified rabbis who never again serve together as a rabbinical court)....
....and also, in another "configuration," as individual rabbinical opinions (where qualified rabbis opine, as individual rabbis, on whatever the subject is).
Rabbinical opinions of individual rabbis often apply only to those who are in the same "groups" as the rabbis in question--
but any other Jew has the legal right to adhere to that opinion if they want to, although it is not binding on them.
Remember that Jews come in all kinds of "group" affiliations (including atheist Jews--and for those Jewish atheists who seek an atheistic Jewish lifestyle, there is an organized Jewish movement ("denomination"): Secular Jewish Humanism).
Jews also identify by minhag ("tradition"): Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, and various ethnic minhagim: Ethiopian, Chinese, sub-continent Indian, anusim (descendeants of the "conversos" of Inquisition times), etc.
All Jewish groups have basically the "same" Jewish law, but each of these also have their own deviations from "STANDARD"
(because there is no real "standard") Jewish law--so the global Jewish "family" is about as opposite to "central authority" as is possible to contemplate.
In addition, each individual Jew is their own, as it were, "rabbinical court," and is free to accept, or reject, specifics of Jewish law as they see fit. (For example: I, as an individual Jew, do not EVER want the Temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt, because the PURPOSE of that Temple would be (in the high 90s percentages) to kill animals as a way of "communicating with God.")
Two thousand years ago, following the destruction of the Temple which stood during the time frame of Jesus, Jews as a whole switched over to prayer as a substitute for animal sacrifice, and I deeply hope this continues, without interruption, for the rest of time.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2019 06:21PM by Tevai.