Different Kinds Of Jews (I)

I'm 63 years old and was born a Jew. My parents never kept a Kosher kitchen, they didn't bring me to a synagogue except on the day I was Bar Mitzvahed (though they allowed me to be Bar Mitzvahed in an orthodox synagogue and take the necessary pre-requisite classes because that is what I wanted to do). I had wanted this Bar Mitzvah because I wanted to honor my religious grandparents and because I wanted to spite Hitler and all Jew haters. This desire of mine had nothing to do with believing in God or in wanting to follow God's law. Part of Bar Mitzvah preparations involved attending several Sabbath services at the synagogue (without my parents who were as I told you, "not religious" and didn't attend any synagogue services). Then I'd go out and get a slice of peperoni pizza. And I was definitely a kind of a Jew!

Now if Jewishness is connected to Judaism (it is) and Judaism is a religion (yes, it is) how could someone be a "non-religious Jew"? (and possibly the majority of Jews alive today would say they are just that). Well, the short answer is it is not possible. There are Jews who even believe that they are non-religious, and say that they are non-religious, but it just isn't so. They belong to probably the largest and yet least formal branch of Judaism, one with sub branches to boot, as several branches also have. And all subscribe to the basic jewish law which I shall "reveal" later.

The mother lode of Judaism is Orthodox Judaism, which is based on the Talmud which is newer than Christianity. Some people hold that the Talmud is a reaction to Christianity:
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8383.html
"...the New Testament and the Talmud, could not be more different in form and content: the one, written in Greek, is concerned about the mission of this Jesus of Nazareth, who, regarded as the Messiah and the Son of God, was rejected in this claim by most of his fellow Jews, put to death by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, and resurrected on the third day after his crucifixion and taken up into heaven; the other, written mostly in Aramaic, is a huge collection of mainly legal discussions that deal with the intricacies of a daily life conducted according to the rabbinic interpretations of Jewish law.

Moreover, and here things become much more complicated, with the juxtaposition of “Jesus” and the “Talmud” bordering on an oxymoron, both stand in a highly charged and antagonistic relationship with each other. The Jewish sect triggered by Jesus in Palestine would eventually evolve into a religion of its own, a religion to boot that would claim to have superseded its mother religion and position itself as the new covenant against the old and outdated covenant of the people of Israel by birth. And at precisely the time when Christianity rose from modest beginnings to its first triumphs, the Talmud (or rather the two Talmudim) would become the defining document of those who refused to accept the new covenant, who so obstinately insisted on the fact that nothing had changed and that the old covenant was still valid..."

and so, first came Christinity and then came talmudic Judaism.

Well, this is a lengthy topic, more later. Stay tuned.

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