JUBU: A Jewish Buddhist
Some Jews and non Jews are surprised that so many Jews are Buddhists or atheists. This makes sense as long as it is Understood that Judaism has NEVER been a “religion.” There is a Jewish people and we, the Jews, have a religion just as many other peoples have their religions.
The Jewish religion is very simple. Jews are taught that there is one God. The religion does not say what that God is beyond God being eternal, the force that created all. Judah Halevi, a thousand years ago, taught that God was an immaterial primal force .. outside time and synonymous with the universe itself. This idea is pretty common in other religions. Even the Greek Gods refer to something more basic than themselves ..fate?
So how can a Jew be an atheist? The answer is obvious. Being a Jew does not mean you accept the Jewish religion. However, it is important to understand two things: 1. The Jewish God is not well defined. Einstein’s sense of wonder or Spinoza’s belief that reason underlies the universe are within a range of concepts of the Jewish God. 2. Judaism has a law as well as a God and the law, for man Jews, is more immediate than God.
Jewish law is eternal and unchanging what the Enlightenment called “natural law.” Judaism dictates a very detailed set of rules for Jews, but a much simpler set of common sense laws: the 10 commandments. Other than the requirement to accept one God .. these laws are considered as real as God, that is they are laws for everyone. Jefferson’s concept of natural law, the basis of the US Constitution, echos this Jewish idea as does the Buddhist concept that law can be derived from reason.
Maimonides taught that science supersedes all other beliefs. If science disproves part of Genesis, then we need to revise our understanding of Genesis. The same is true for discoveries of natural law. Just as we learn from science how man came to be, the most orthodox of rabbis can accept the laws discovered by Buddha, Zoroaster or Spinoza. Nothing in this prevents a Jew from learning from any religion as long as that religion or philosophy does not deny our existence as a people, the simple concepts of natural law or existence of a primal entity.
The line comes when the other religion, eg Christianity or Islam, is based on denial or demonization of our existence.
Using your logic then most Palestinians are Jewish. Most biologically are indistinguishable from modern day Jews in Israel. Though it would get more complicated when one considers that about 1/3 of the people of the Roman Republic and Empire were Jewish.
Then there is the whole lost tribe thing and are Mormons by definition Jewish Mormons. They may object. I’m sure many modern day Palestinians would as there is no other God but Allah. Islam is pretty serious about the purity of Islam, none of this mixing is officially endorsed.
I am pretty sure the Temple was really important, and a major cultural draw until those impetuous Romans tore it down in 70CE, and there were a whole lot of Gentiles and Samaritans back in the day in Israel and Judea.
Not quite. Membership in the Jewish people has rules. While some or even many Palestinians may be of Judean descent, their claim to be Jewish would need ot be vetted by … the Jewis of taoday. A good exmaple may be the controversies over tribal memebrships in the US ..google the Cherokee or the Duwamish