This question was never raised until the time of the second Temple period. Before that time, it was always understood that a Jew was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was determined by ethnicity, the fact of belonging to a population group made up of people who shared a common cultural background or descent. You were born into that ethnic group, and you stayed in it.
What happened in the first century? There were among the Jews different groups with different interests, political parties and religious parties. The rivalry between these groups created the necessity to define One Judaism. Those who did not conform to this Judaism were considered to be members of a fringe group or sect. However, they were still Jews.
During the Second Temple period, the Pharisees emerged as a Jewish social movement and a school of thought. Ever since Abraham, being Jewish always was an ethnicity, but now “Judaism” turned into a theology as conflicting sects of the Jewish people began to argue the question of what it really meant to be Jewish. Pharisaic beliefs became the foundational, liturgical, and ritualistic basis for Rabbinic Judaism.
After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, only two main groups remained, Rabbinic Judaism and Messianic Judaism. It was the rivalry between the two of them that brought up the question: “Who is the real Jew”?
Evidence of Jewish people following Yeshua as the Messiah can be traced back to about AD 30. All of Yeshua’s first followers were Jewish, and the writers of the New Testament were Jewish. These Jewish followers of Yeshua have been documented for several centuries as an established religious entity called the notzrim (“Nazarenes”).
The messianic group explained that a real Jew is a Jew in the heart, a Jew who follows the faith of Abraham. Paul, in the New Testament, distinguished between a Jew in the flesh and a Jew in the spirit. He himself was born to Jewish parents from the tribe of Benjamin, so Paul was ethnically a Jew.
The rabbinic group said that it was not a question of being a Jew in the flesh or in the spirit, but that of following rabbinic Judaism. This is where ethnicity and theology became intertwined. Ethnicity and Theology become one. It is said that Rabbi Akiva was a convert to Judaism. Lacking ethnicity, he was accepted as a Jew because he followed the Rabbinic teachings. But Paul left the rabbinic teachings and therefore lost his Jewishness. As a follower of Yeshua he was considered to have become a Christian and was therefore no longer a Jew.
Before the first century Judaism was not a theology. It was just a people with lots of parties and sects and other means to please God. But nobody said: “You are not a Jew or you are a better Jew if you believe this or do that.” However today we face the problem of how can one be Jewish and follow a different faith? All over the world there are still different sects of Judaism and inter-Jewish rivalries and conflicts saying, you are not Jewish enough. There are the Orthodox, the Conservatives, the Reform etc.
But if you do not follow a certain Jewish theology, your ethnic Jewishness is at risk. I fail to understand the logic. If a Chinese person who followed Buddha now believes in Yeshua, the person is still Chinese. They don’t lose their ethnicity because of their belief. But if a Jewish person believes in Yeshua, he or she is no longer considered to be a Jew and can therefore not make Aliyah. How can you lose your ethnicity because of your belief?
“Who is a Jew?” It remains a controversial question within both mainstream Judaism and within Messianic Judaism. According to Rabbinical Judaism a Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who went through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.
So, who is a Jew? Why are today’s Messianic Jews no longer considered Jews?
Can a Jew born into a Jewish family lose his or her Jewishness?
Standing with Israel 
History: the study of past dead generations vs. Prophetic mussar – the rebuke to all generations living.
The Hebrew T’NaCH includes Torah Prophets and Holy Writings. The relationship of the Holy Writings to the Torah and Prophets compares to the relationship the Gemarah of the Talmud has with the Mishna. The T’NaCH does not include any Books of History as the alien Xtian biblical classifications falsely assumes.
The T’NaCH does not teach History but rather prophetic mussar. Big/HUGE error in basic T’NaCH scholarship. Mussar defines the concept of all T’NaCH prophesy. Prophets did not foretell the future, predicting the future falls under mysticism like as found in the Book of Daniel or the tumah witchcraft abomination which worships a female God. By absolute contrast, prophetic mussar applies equally to all generations of bnai brit Israel! Only bnai brit Israel has a sworn oath-brit-alliance with HaShem. The Xtian Bible and Muslim Koran – both fail to bring even once – the name of HaShem – as revealed in the 1st Commandment of Sinai!
The Talmud views the stories in the T’NaCH NOT as history but rather prophetic mussar. The “Aggadita” communicated within the first Book of בראשית, all these Torah characters teach prophetic mussar. RATHER than physical notions of historical reality. The Aggaditic stories from Adam, Noach, the Avot and the children of Israel who descend unto Egyptian g’lut — all these personages communicate Aggadita mussar stories, not the history of the people of Israel. The story of Israel enslaved in Egypt by Par’o and redeemed by Moshe — also strictly & only an Aggadita mussar nonliteral story. These mussar nonliteral stories, they serve as the basis by which Israelites forged the unique culture and customs which form & shape the collective souls of the Jewish people – our identities of self – as a people distinct and separated from all other peoples on this Earth.
The T’NaCH Aggadic mussar stories, they do not define Jewish ancient history. Rather these codifications, they both describe and define, the cultures and customs developed by an ancient people – known today as the Jewish people. A people do not develop their identifying cultures and customs out of thin air. This most essential fact, it does not “convert” the Hebrew T’NaCH literature into a collection of history books as the biblical and korah scholars claim. That the authors and framers of these collection of T’NaCH Books, despite written a long time ago … the k’vanna of all these aggadic works contained within T’NaCH literature – T’NaCH aggadic mussar stories, do NOT communicate concrete actual histories of ancient Israel.
This subtle distinction of k’vanna/intent\ separates Torah faith, day and night: from Xtian and Muslim avoda zarah Av tumah faiths. The latter “holy” (a pun) books absolutely depend upon and requires concrete depictions of physical history. Abstract aggadic mussar has absolutely no meaning or purpose in the Creeds and theologies espoused by all avoda zarah belief systems. Xtianity cannot exist without a physical Jesus. Rava, a later Amorah Gemarah sage, he expresses a totally opposing idea to the false history parameters set by the preachers of avoda zarah – – Rava refers to Job only as an imaginary man!
This warp/weft: concrete/physical vs. abstract\emotional – Talmudic “loom” – it weaves the fabric of all Talmudic literature, which always separates concrete realist halacha, from its opposing abstract emotional/aggadic feelings. This distinct division within and throughout the whole of the Talmud, it fundamentally defines how the Sages perceived the relationship between Torah commandments. vs.Torah common law/משנה תורה. The New Testament fiction which pretends to depict the imaginary man Jesus as God, and the actual character, the agent provocateur the Apostle Paul, both this & that errs to make the most essential of distinctions between Jewish Oral Torah common law contrasted by Roman statute law.
Obviously, the translation of the ancient Hebrew prophetic mussar texts have greatly interested many alien outsiders, foreign Goyim scholars who never cut an oath sworn alliance with HaShem. The hard fact, that Goyim scholarship ignores the Order and organization of the Torah, known as פ/chapter and ס\sub-chapter (פרק\סוגיה). This gross error, arrogant Biblical foreign translators, who unilaterally presume that they possess a mandate to impose a completely different Order and organization upon the Torah & NaCH literature. This foolishness compares to the UN who assumes that they possess a protectorate mandate over Israel which gives them the legal right (international law) to determine the international borders of the Jewish state of Israel, together with the determination of the Capital of Israel! The numbered Chapters and verses made throughout their biblical perversions, defines the arrogance and ignorance of Xtian biblical scholarship throughout history. The pius fools remain totally oblivious, that changing the Order and structure of the T’NaCH compares to GOD vs. DOG.
This Goyification of the Hebrew T’NaCH likewise prioritizes the history of a theology which declares biblical characters as actual real-life historical persons. At the same time, this perversion totally and completely ignores prophetic mussar expressed through Aggadic abstract emotions, expressed throughout all T’NaCH literature! This foreign European viewpoint, it has shaped and defined the avoda zarah of both Xtianity and Islam. The falsification of ancient Hebrew culture and customs into artificial “actual” history, artificially created, a physical history narrative that never actually lived nor existed; this tumah corruption of the T’NaCH, it has changed and degraded & defiled the mussar message within the whole of the T’NaCH, throughout the entire history of Xtianity and Islamic avoda zarah.
Church arrogance, throughout its entire history, therefore, views the Talmud with extreme hostility. The Talmudic sages who read the T’NaCH as prophetic mussar/aggadita. Who separate and distinguishe between abstract tohor vs. concrete tumah middot “spirits” (lust for a woman, for example, represents a tumah emotion), this most basic and fundamental T’NaCH mussar, the church fathers have utterly despised, discounted, and ignored. Hebraic prophetic mussar simply does not fit into their ‘Good News’ narrative. Which the New Testament proponents throughout history have actively desired to preach & promote across the world.
Therefore, the church fathers in total derision of how the Jewish refugee people, the developed our customs, cultures and traditions that shaped and defined by both T’NaCH and Talmud. These evil most wicked church fathers, they preferred to deny the existence of all Oral Torah common law; linked to prophetic mussar, by means of the Aggadic portions within the Talmud. According to the פרדס kabbalah as taught by Rabbi Akiva, and all the sages within the Talmud. The corrupt church fathers simply chose to burn the Talmud, as did the Nazis, rather than consider or objectively weigh the essential perspective taught by Jewish Torah Talmudic scholars.
Starting with the Apostle Paul, Goyim religious leaders, authorities, and scholars condemned any attempt to “Judaize” Xtianity, as this threatened their false messiah narrative; their Creed based belief systems & theologies. The early church leadership emphatically rejected inclusion of their Creed based theologies as having any part with the cursed Christ killers. They rejected any attempt categorize Xtianity as being just another Jewish heretical subset within Jewish culture and traditions. The church therefore strove to develop its own unique set of cultures and traditions, which shapes the different European civilizations and societies of Europe & Russia; or until the Shoah abomination obliterated the good name of their false religion.
The western notions of history define box thinking. The west simply refuses to acknowledge that life and reality exist outside of their silly theological creed boxes. This Catholic Church called this type of box thinking stupidity ‘church dogma’. The Inquisition banned publication of Galileo’s works on astronomy because it challenged church dogma. Western science and medicine compared with this silly worthless hidebound dogmatism merits deep consideration.
LikeLike
The T’NaCH & Talmudic vision does not limit reality to 3 physical dimensions as does the modern scientific method which restricts evidence to physical/empirical “truth”. To the T’NaCH & Talmud this confinement of the 613 commandments compares to crated eggs, sold by the dozen = avoda zarah; limiting the Gods to 3 physical dimensions. As does Xtianity in that it requires a physical historical JeZeus. Deny Xtianity a physical historical existence of their God, and abracadabra! That imaginary Man ceases to exist or hold any power over the lives of Mankind.
רוחות ומלאכים,translated as Male Angels and Female Spirits, compare to Adam and Chava in the Garden. By contrast תמיד מעשה בראשית, translated as the “continual action of Creation”, opposes segregation of the Torah commandments into some Apartheid positive vs negative Catholic ghetto War-Crime. The vision that Torah and even observance of the Rabbinic commandments, if elevated to tohor, “no accurate translation for this abstract term”, time-oriented commandments, an accomplishment which requires supreme Torah wisdom, they create from nothing – in the Image of HaShem – who Created the Universe from nothing, the k’vanna of תמיד מעשה בראשית. Mitzvot have the power to create multiple parallel Universes which can change the life destiny of man on this Earth. Similar to how Adam and Chava define the connection of מלאכים כנגד רוחות which most essentially define the purpose of keeping the Commandments of the Torah.
LikeLike
If you learn Aramaic then you immediately see the connection between the later Zohar to the earlier Book of Daniel. Translations totally suck. Worlds separate learning the k’vanna (the aim that the arrow flies in order to kill) from … translating words from language to language. The latter compares to gossip where a person whispers “something” into the ear of another and that person repeats the process, which that other person repeats making a chain transmission of the original idea communicated. From about the 3rd person down the chain of transmission the original idea becomes totally distorted and changed!
The secret kabbalah, originally referred to as Rabbi Akiva’s Pardes/פרדס logic system/Oral Torah. Where sod/hidden\סוד functions as the “logical inference”, known as דיוק/polar opposite\ (((like as does Hegel logic system developed in the late 19th Century))), the opposite “force” of Rabbi Akiva’s פרדס, ie ס, represents סוד-Sod … contrasts with רמז/hints, the letter ר, in the term פרדס/Oral Torah. Where Sod expands the meaning of a term to include ideas outside of itself. Remiz contracts within itself to grasp different ideas. Something like the difference between the Atomic bomb dropped on Japan, ending WWII vs. the Hydrogen bomb first developed by the USSR, at the height of the Cold War stand-off between the two Great Superpowers.
Hebrew examples of the two opposing logical methodologies. בראשית, the 1st word of the Torah, contains within its 6 letters ברית אש, ראש בית, and ב’ ראשית. This רמז\remez developed in entirely different ways to interpret the k’vanna (the aim an arrow flies from the shooter to the deer) of the Genesis story. The פרדס\Pardes logic system, by which Rabbi Akiva explained the revelation of the Oral Torah at Horev 40 days after the golden calf, stands on the סוד/יסוד:hidden secret/foundation, (((The “secret” of building a stable house, building a solid foundation upon which a person’s house stands. The eye cannot see the foundation upon which a person constructs his “house”, which expands by way of סוד to include “wife”.))), the idea of foundation expands its original meaning to include “Republic”. For example: the 13 American colonies made an alliance (understood in Hebrew as ברית/brit) by which the Founding Fathers established the American “Republic”. The US 1st and foremost: a Republic of the 50 States comprising the Union, before it post Civil War became a democracy. The huge population of California does not determine the policies of different States with much smaller populations. Hence the role of the Electoral College in Presidential elections.
The סוד of Jewish law, it stands on the יסוד of Judicial common law as opposed to Roman legislative statute law decrees. The latter directly compares to bureaucratic “red tape” laws imposed by non-elected carpet baggers. The Pauline propaganda rhetoric in the New Testament, where he declared that Goyim are not under the law! This propaganda rhetoric failed to discern between Torah common law from Roman statute/bureaucratic law. Jewish common law stands upon the יסוד of precedents/בנין אב “binyan av”. Meaning that Jewish judicial common law stands upon the סוד of “father”, as the basis by which a man builds his “house”, meaning his wife and family… meaning in terms of law: precedents. The axis of רמז\סוד serves as the basis for the k’vanna of all the halachot learned within the Talmud.
To study the Zohar, completely unaware that it learns by means of kabbalah secrets/סוד of Rabbi Akiva’s explanation of the פרדס logic system known collectively as the “Oral Torah”, compares to a person with no legs, who attempts to win a 100-yard sprint to break the world record in the Olympics! The logical inference-opposite of סוד, the concept known as רמז in the Oral Torah logic system.
Rabbi Yechuda, the author of the compilation of Great Sanhedrin common law courtroom halachic rulings, interpreted the language of the kre’a shma בכל לבבך\with all your heart, based upon the רמז reading of בראשית … ב’ ראשית. The Hebrew for ב’ ראשית — two beginnings. The Hebrew for heart/לב. Why does the Torah in the Book of דברים also known as משנה תורה, (((this latter reference for the 5th Book of the Torah means by way of סוד both “Judicial Common law” & also: “Legislative Review”))) spell the word heart: as לבב? Rabbi Yechuda, based upon the רמז of ב’ ראשית, the 2 Creation stories within the language of Genesis, as inclusive that a person has to accept the yoke of the kingdom of heaven ie the סוד of blessing and curses, with both his Yatzir Ha’Tov & his Yatzir Ha’Rah. His good & evil inclinations! Herein interprets בכל לבבך\כם language employed in the 5th Book of the Torah which the kre’a shma includes.
The language of ראש בית defines the blessing within the Machor/מחזור said on Rosh HaShanna Yom Kippor and also upon the re’gel of Pesach, Shevuot, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret: אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים … You have chosen us from all other people/nations. Israel alone lives as the Chosen People, the Cohen nation. The People who discern between tohor and tumah spirits within the two opposing Yatzirot within our hearts. This רמז interpretation sharply contrasts with the church abomination, which makes a bi-polar God vs. Satan Heaven vs. Hell theology.
The Gemara of mesechta Sanhedrin asked the famous question: What caused the floods in the days of Noach which destroyed all life on the Planet Earth, except for Noach and the survivors inside the Ark? Answer given by that Gemara: “False Oaths”. Based upon the רמז of ברית אש within the letters of the first word of the Torah. What defines the Fire of the Brit? Torah oaths – the answer given by the sages in the mesechta of Sanhedrin of the Talmud! Hence the act of Creation stands on the סוד of swearing an Oath alliance. The term ברית/brit means alliance. By way of סוד, alliance expands to include “Republic”! The term Torah: interpreted by way of סוד expands to include “Constitution”! Hence the Davidic Kingdom attempted to make the Torah the “Constitution” of the Israelite Republic of 12 Tribes!
The סוד expands oath brit alliance from swearing Torah oaths to making Torah blessings! Hence just as the mesechta of shabbat and the mesechta of baba kama asks: do the “generations” follow after the fathers? So to the mesechta of blessings/ברכות teaches that making a blessing qualifies as the offspring/תולדות of swearing Torah oaths. Herein defines the k’vanna of tefillah which separates making blessings from praying Tehillim/Psalms. The latter qualify as a lower order praise/שבח rather than swearing a Torah oath before a Sefer Torah. Hence the Shemone Esrei also know as Amida/standing prayer. Mesechta Shevuoth/Oaths teaches that a man can swear a Torah oath while standing before a Sefer Torah. The Sages include swearing a Torah oath with a minyan of 10 men. Hence the mitzva of קידושין/marriage done with 2 witnesses and a minyan; a man acquires Title to the future born children of this marital union by swearing a Torah oath! This likewise explains the post marriage custom of 7 blessings the week thereafter marriage.
The point of this Introduction to kabbalah, a person must understand how סוד stands as the opposite “book-end” of רמז. A person has no more chance to comprehend the סוד of kabbalah instruction as expressed by the Zohar work than a legless man has a possibility of winning a 100 yard sprint to shatter the world record in the Olympics! First learn Aramaic and then study the Aramaic Book of Daniel in the T’NaCH (Torah Prophets and Holy Writings). Confusing the Hebrew T’NaCH with the Xtian Bible translations of abomination, the latter about as useful as tits on a boar hog.
The fraud NT authors did not even know that the T’NaCH defines the term “prophesy” as Aggadic mussar. Aggadic mussar makes up about 1/4th of the Sha’s Bavli. The Sages of the Talmud read the T’NaCH as aggadic prophetic mussar rather than stories of history of times way back when. This fundamental distinction separates Traditional Judaism from Historical and Reform Judaisms which read the T’NaCH as a historical documents rather than an instruction of prophetic mussar which applies equally to all Jews who ever live on the face of this Earth.
LikeLike