Ahavat Yisrael
By Tzvi Freeman
 | If we are a religion, then some Jews are more Jewish, others less Jewish and many not at all. Perhaps nothing has been as detrimental to the Jewish People as the modern idea that Judaism is a religion
12 Comments Posted
It's a very good article. And this non-Jewish girl here has also grown up - at least in certain areas. I can now read about the love a Jew has for another Jew, without feeling left out.
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I can be cynical but I won’t. G-d doesn’t need Jewish people if He didn’t desire to see at least one truthful people for His sake. That’s the truth reflected in Rabbi Freeman’s article. Also, Rabbi Freeman is correct to refute general love over the importance of specific love. Why? Because ‘love’ is ultimately about truthfulness, and that means becoming a truthful self. You would have to start by loving those who would make you truthful.
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I was raised largely unaffliated but with a sort of generic love of Judaism. Chabad has always given me a way to make connection to Judaism. This article just reinforces my belief that Torah Judaism doesn't judge, just guides us along. It doesn't put limits on how "frum" to be or how quickly to become "frum". It recognizes personal circumstances and celebrates our triumphs rather than dwelling on our failings.
Thank you for a great and truthful article.
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Love and Truthfulness are interchangeable in a sense two should approach one another as a mark of maturity. Love is a feminine aspect and evolves from specific to general. Truthfulness is a masculine aspect and grows from generic to particular. Problem with Love is that the desire for Love is always greater than the comprehension of Love. Trouble with Truthfulness is that the comprehension of Truthfulness always exceeds the desire to be Truthful. Love and Truthfulness together form a weakness of human goodness unless the gap between desire and comprehension is minimized. That should give way for the Love to be more like Truthfulness and for the Truthfulness to act more like Love.
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We've got a LONG WAY to go until we get to " If one Jew eats pork or does work on the Shabbat, G-d forbid, it's as IF WE ALL transgressed along with him. " To the WE ALL, I mean. That's only an ideal at this time. But you make it seem as if it's happening now and it just isn't.
Even Reform and reconstructionist RABBIS don't care if you keep kosher or not or observe Shabbat or not.
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I very definitely see a oneness when it comes to Jews. It doesn't matter if the Jew keeps kosher (or not), if he observes Shabbat (or not) - if he's from Ethiopia, the US, Israel or Timbuktu - if he's a good guy or a real-you-know-what.
The real-you-know-what may say derogatory things about the Jews who want to do good - but let his friend who's a non-Jew say the same derogatory thing, and that friendship won't be the same anymore - if it even survives.
If there's any doubt about the oneness of Jews, think of the Holocaust. The nazis didn't care if a Jew was religious or not; they saw a oneness in all Jews. Surely no one can doubt that.
As for Ahavat Yisrael itself, how is it possible that a people who are one can love someone outside that oneness, unless they love everything inside it first? Wouldn't it be the same as expecting a person to love another, without first loving him or herself?
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I agree wholeheartedly. Love takes many forms, but the essential thing is to love and honor the soul of the Jew as one cherishes one's own soul. Though we cannot see it, it is there; it what makes us all matter and what makes us all one. MOSHIACH NOW!
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I enjoyed the sentiment of this article very much, but I don't understand what Rabbi Freeman means when he states that if Judaism is a religion, then some are more or less Jewish than others. Does religion necessarily imply this? I guess the answer depends on how you define it. Jews are Jews, and none are more or less Jewish than any other, no matter what they do or how they observe Judaism, or even whether Judaism is a religion or something
'greater'.
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I think what Tzvi means is that if Judaism were a "religion" in the commonly accepted meaning of that word, i.e., a system of professed beliefs and practiced rituals, than a person would be "Jewish" only to the extent that s/he is "religious" -- that is, to the extent that s/he professes these beliefs and practices these rituals.
But Judaism is NOT (just) a religion. So a Jew who shouts from the rooftops that s/he doesn't believe in G-d and the divinity of the Torah and eats pork on Yom Kippur (G-d forbid) is just as Jewish as the Jew who prays and learn Torah all day and eats only the glattest kosher....
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Someone asked if there are loves beyond sex, urge to continue the history and future of our species, that more sublime, subtle love over all physical.
Listen to this: before i knock on your door and know you, i did not know myself and who are my people, as i had told you, my people! And as i read you, Tzvi, YT, Chana, Wolf, i felt that genuine effort flowing to me, an effort blown up all the dust on top the root of my spiritual source. That experience is like, coming to a new sensation, recognition, awareness of a long spiritual hisotry that i can feel it emerge, surface.
I feel all my ancesters are calling, no, the whole history of my ancesters, my race, summoning me!! Einstein once said of Tagore about "religious feeling". " I have a stronger religious feeling than you do." I feel i am in love that more sumbline love. Enamorado, por primeira vez.
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If Being a Jew is not a religion then is it a race? a culture? An ethnic people? Can a Gentile become a Jew? Was Sammy Davis Jr. a Jew? Can a Jew not become a Jew? I'm a Norwegian. Can I become a Jew? I have a friend who thought she was Jewish all of her life because her mother was a Jew. It turns out she's not a Jew because it was ruled by someone that her father was Jewish but not her mother? So she's not a Jew, even though she thought she was and wanted to be one. She was actually one of the more religious Jews I've met - but now she's told she's not a Jew. Go figure. So tell me someone - who is a Jew?
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Rabbi Freeman, I agree with you that it is a lie regarding to Judaism being a religion, neither is Christianity. Unfortunately the dictionaries say otherwise, it is as secular as the country we live in. I'm Amazed they haven't taken G-d out of our national anthem yet! I frequently use the dictionary, maybe more than others because of being French. We all need a more critical way of thinking to filter all the junk we get bombarded with today.
Nevertheless things sneaked in under the radar and that lie is one of them, the deceiver is good at deceiving.
G-d help us!
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