What makes you a Jew?

The simple answer is if your mother is Jewish then so are you. But there's a reason they say if you put three Jews in a room there will be five different opinions

But a Haredi Jew will give you a very different answer from a Reform Jew, an American Jew will have a different answer from an Israeli Jew and a convert will have a different answer from a Jew for Jesus.

This semester I reluctantly decided to take a Tanach (Bible) class. The premise of the class is to give us a small taste of what the Tanach has to offer by going through it in order, learning one book each class. Since it's obviously impossible to even do a cursory summary of an entire book of the Bible in one class we focus in on one or two specific stories from which our teacher would like us to take a lesson or message from.

In order to appreciate this class you have to picture the scenario: here's a religious looking guy with the tzitzit and the beard and you're getting all geared up for a lot of "emmming" and Messiah preaching and then this guy opens his mouth and out comes rapid fire English.... in a Scottish accent!! To top it all off he has perfected that twirl of the wrist the rabbis doing when making a point where they make an "L" out of their thumbs and pointers and then rotate their wrists as if to say "But on the other hand..."

The point I was just trying to make was that my teacher was a pleasant surprise. He's upbeat and knows English very well. Though he is still somewhat resistant to accepting other people's points of view, I'm certainly not discouraged from disagreeing with him and stating my own opinion (he will just simply say "Well that's interesting but...")

One day in class we were discussing two different stories: one was the death of Aaron's sons Nadav and Avihu and the other when Moses hit the rock. The first incident takes place right after the completion of the building of the Tabernacle and the induction of Aaron as high priest. His sons give an offering that was not instructed by God. They were promptly consumed by fire. In the second story, the Israelites ran out of water so God instructs Moses to ask the rock for water. Moses raps on the rock and-poof- water appears. Because he did not give God proper credit for this miracle Moses was not permitted to enter the land of Canaan.

My teacher made some point that connected the two stories but all I kept coming back to was God's reaction in both instances. In the case of Aaron's sons, they died for being caught up in the heat of the moment, wanting to show their devotion to God, wanting to be like their father- take your pick. No matter what their motive was, it seemed somewhat extreme for their punishment to be instant death. In response to similar concerns over the second story my teacher gave an interesting explanation that Moses was never intended to go into Canaan. This was merely another example of how he was stuck in the mentality of the older generation that left Egypt (and just as a refresher, the Israelites had to spend 40 years in the desert until that whole generation of slaves died off). And yet, God's anger in this instance stems from Moses forgetting to give credit where credit was due. I'm sorry, but if God is almighty and powerful then is he that arrogant that he gets angered if someone forgets to thank him profusely before doing something? In both these excerpts, God came off arrogant, self centered and short tempered.

This just leads me to wonder how someone who has studied all these stories can still have unwavering loyalty to the God of the Bible. How can you still love a God who warns of death to anyone who does not observe the Shabbat and keeps his laws? How can you still believe in God after the destruction of the Temple, exiles, persecutions, pogroms and the Holocaust? Furthermore, if Israel is supposed to be the land of the Jewish people then why has it taken us over 2000 years of exile to finally regain it only to have to maintain an unrelenting fight for its existence?

I personally have a hard time believing in the God of the Bible. Every lesson I struggle to reconcile between what my mind is telling me and what my heart is trying to say. Can you be Jewish and not believe in God? Can you follow Halacha (religious practices) without believing in its purpose? Is their a point? Is believing in God just a leap of faith?

I believe Jews around the world today can be placed in two very broad general categories: Religious Jew and Cultural Jew. The latter is a new form of Judaism that sprung up as a result of the modern Zionist movement. With the creation of the State of Israel came the idea that by living in Israel you are fulfilling your duty as a Jew. There are also those who love Israel, Hebrew, the music, the food, the history- they just have no connection to the religious aspects. Is one type of Jew better than the other? Is one more important than the other? Can they exist together in the modern world?

And now the million dollar question: What was it that has allowed Judaism to be the oldest and longest lasting religion in the world? Is it the religion, language, history, culture or all?