Why Should I “Give Up Being Jewish” for Jesus?

Before we even get to the “BIG QUESTION,” can we begin with a couple of sub-questions that I personally find fascinating –

(1) What Is Jewish Society? and (2) Can the Jewish Society Be Clearly Defined Today?

I know you thought I was going to ask the “Who Is a Jew?” question but to me that question was rendered moot by the years 1933-1945 and I refuse to ask it.

If you identify as Jewish through birth (mother or father; grandmother or grandfather; great-grandmother or great-grandfather) … you are Jewish. If you identify as Jewish because you converted … you are Jewish.

However, the sociological questions need to be answered because if we are going to ask you to consider the Jesus question, we both need to know what is truly being asked.

In the late 1800s, the great French-Jewish sociologist Emile Durkheim identified a Jewish Society by the following definition –

“a small society, compact and cohesive, with a very keen self-consciousness and sense of unity.”

It could be argued that on many levels that this is still somewhat of an accurate view but is there a better and more modern definition for the 21^st century?

Modern American-Jewish sociologist Aaron J. Hahn Tapper of San Francisco University wrote in his 2016 work Judaisms what I would consider a better definition for the Jewish people today –

“Are Jews best described as a religion, culture, ethnicity, nation, race, political orientation, or something else? And are Jews the only community that can be understood as an example of all of these categories at the same time?”

For as I was considering all the conceivable just religious labels that a Jewish person might wear today for a paper I presented a while ago, this is the short list I came up for my presentation:

Ultra-Orthodox

Modern Orthodox

Open Orthodox

Traditional Orthodox

Conservadox

Conservative

Bridgers between Conservative/Reform

Reform (HUC-Cincinnati)

Reform (HUC-NYC)

The Reconstructing

Humanistic

Jewish Renewal Movement

Secular/Agnostic/Atheist

Jewish Buddhists

Jewish Mystics (often aka Kabbalists)

So, and with all these religious labels possible in Jewish Society, why would Rabbi David Novak have said, “One cannot accept Christian and still be part of the normative Jewish community; one cannot live by Torah and still be part of the Church.” (emphasis added)

My question then is simply and really two-fold: (1) what really is normative in today’s Judaism and (2) Christianity values the Torah as the Word of God so why would he think that it would be impossible to live by Torah and be apart of the Christian faith?

I wonder if he really is defining Torah as Talmud? And if so … shouldn’t he have said so? For who except the most observant of Jewish people really “observe” Talmud? Did even the Conservative Rabbi Novak?

But before we move onto the next section … here are some Jewish facts that you should consider:

• Did you know that not only were all the first believers in Jesus Jewish (Peter, James, John, Paul, etc.) but also it was not until about 50 CE that non-Jewish people were even considered as Jesus followers and a Church Council without first requiring circumcision (Acts 15)?
• Did you know that followers of Jesus were considered as a predominantly Jewish sect until about the early 2^nd century and the Bar Kokhba Rebellion? It was not an either/or proposition until the rabbis made it so.
• Did you know that the latest Pew Research Survey (2013) shows that 38% of Jewish people believe that one can be Jewish and still believe in Jesus?

Incidentally, and for comparison’s sake, we should examine what Maimonides said about the issue versus what Jesus might have said:

Which one appears to be the more preferred Jewish way of living that you would like to follow? Just asking? Let’s talk about it more at the CAFE Kehillah Discussion Board as well. And explore the next question Jewish Values vs. Christian Values as well.