What Is a Jew? How Abraham’s journey reveals the meaning of Jewish identity
About this class
Rabbi Greenberg asks what makes a Jew. He argues that the world's singular hostility toward Jews points to something unique about them, and reads tributes from John Adams and Mark Twain, who asked the secret of Jewish immortality. He then tests six common definitions: a religion, a nationality, an ethnic or cultural group, a race, a language group, or a creation of antisemites. Each but the last holds a kernel of truth, yet none suffices: a Jew who sins is still a Jew, Jews lived mostly outside Israel and the land was named after the people, their cultures and languages differ widely, and converts of every race are fully Jewish.
His definition comes from the Tanya: a Jew has a godly soul that is truly a part of God above, given for the mission of making the physical world a dwelling place for God, while all humanity is charged with basic decency. Anyone may convert, and conversion shows the person has that soul. From this follow other traits: an indestructible people, "stiff-necked" tenacity, and a nation both deeply united and quarrelsome.
He then explains the Torah's names for the Jewish people. Ivri, first said of Abraham, is explained in the Midrash as one who stood on the other side from the whole world. Yaakov is the Jew in exile, Yisrael the Jew in mastery, and Yeshurun the upright Jew of the future. Yehudi, the word "Jew," applies to anyone who rejects idolatry, as the Talmud says of Mordechai, including subtler idols like money and ego, and recalls Leah's gratitude in naming Judah.
- Rabbi Greenberg holds that religion, nationality, culture, race and language each capture part of Jewish identity but none defines it, and that Jews are not a creation of antisemites.
- Citing the Tanya, he defines a Jew as one who has a godly soul that is truly a part of God above, given for the mission of making the world a dwelling place for God.
- Every human being is responsible for a decent, civilized world, and anyone may convert; a completed conversion shows the person has that soul.
- Because of this mission the Jewish people are indestructible, and their tenacity, called "stiff-necked," can be a strength as well as a criticism.
- Abraham was called Ivri because he stood on one side and the whole world on the other; Yaakov describes the Jew in exile and Yisrael the Jew in a state of mastery.
- The Talmud calls Mordechai a Yehudi because he rejected idolatry, and Rabbi Greenberg counts the worship of money, power and ego as subtler forms of idolatry.