Mystic musings

Is Judaism a race or religion?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: Welcome. I'll be with you in a moment...what's on your mind?

Taryn: Are Jews of the Jewish faith really a unique race? For many centuries there was intermarriage and conversion. How sure are you of your blood line?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: we don't consider ourselves a race whatsoever

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: Jews are a People, and Judaism is the religion of that People

Taryn: I'm from a split family father Spainsh & mother Jewish. I'm now taking a comparative religion class. I'm trying to sort this all out. I asked my question, because intermarriage seems to be a big deal. Is it?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: it is.

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: when we say Judaism is not a race, that means we aren't all one type of people in skin color or place of origin etc. In other words, superficially we are not all the same

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: On the other hand we are not just indiviuals who follow a certain religion, because even non religious Jews are still Jewish

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: what we are is a "People". That is our essence. Jew. And each Jew is obligated to fulfill the religion of Judaism, but whether he does or doesn't that can't take away from him being a Jew by essence

When we say that Judaism is not a race, this means we aren't all of one skin color or place of origin. In other words, SUPERFICIALLY we are not all the same

Taryn: So intermarriage is not a race thing. Then if either spouse converts to Judaism, then would the marriage be valid?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: In order for one to have that Essence as Jew they need to either be born to a Jewish mother, or convert properly into the Jewish people, and then they attain a new soul, and a new essence

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: therefore intermarriage is a big thing in Judaism, because 1) if one is born to a Jewish father but not Jewish mother, they are not Jewish, and 2) more importantly, since we are talking about an Essence, it is not possible for two different Essences (jew and non Jew) to have the ultimate union a marriage could and should provide

Taryn: So if two non jews convert and marry they are Jewish and of the chosen people?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: if they convert properly, that is absolutely correct

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: the same would be with one non jew who converts, who marries a jew by birth

Taryn: Would they have all rights or are there limitations? Could a convert become a rabbi?

Every Jew has certain restrictions based on tribal affiliation, and so would a convert. A convert can be a rabbi. Some great rabbis in the Talmud were either converts, or the children of converts

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: they would be a Jew like any other Jew. Every Jew has certain restrictions based on tribal affiliation, and so would a convert. They can be a Rabbi. Some great rabbis in the Talmud were either converts, or the children of Converts

Taryn: My Jewish professor mentioned that there would be limitations for converts. You mentioned there could be certain restrictions. What would they be? Can a convert marry a Rabbi?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: a convert can marry a rabbi. A Kohen cannot marry a convert, and a convert cannot be a king

Taryn: I separated from my family at a young age and was in an environment that was not conducive to much thought about faith. I have not practiced Christianity or Judaism. My mother was a Jew and practiced the Judaism. Since I have not, them I guess I’m not a Jewish???? Would I have to convert?

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: No. Since your mother is Jewish, so are you!

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: You just need to learn about your rich heritage so can begin taking advantage of it :-)

Taryn: I will! It is still a bit confusing. Since I know virtually nothing about Judaism it’s hard for me to understand that I’m Jewish. I appreciate your answers. I still have many questions, but unfortunately I have to go. If it is ok, I’ll be back with more questions.

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: it would be our pleasure

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: also, where do you live?

Taryn: I live just outside of xxxxxx. I’m sorry to say that I have tried contacting a couple of congregations, by email and phone and nobody has ever responded.

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: try the closest Chabad center. Look for them on www.chabad.org/centers, and tell the rabbi I sent you from askmoses.com

Taryn: Thank you, I will. Take care

Rabbi Shlomo Chein: all the best


All names, places, and identifying information have been changed or deleted in order to protect the privacy of the questioners. In order to preserve authenticity, the chat sessions have been posted with a minimum of editing. Please excuse typographical errors, missing punctuation, and/or grammatical mistakes which naturally occur in the course of informal chat sessions.

Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe

One of the greatest paradoxes of a life of faith concerns the need to work for a living. If G-d is the source of all blessings, why toil to earn a livelihood? And if we do work, how can we avoid the thought that it is our labor alone that produces material results? We seem torn between absolute passivity and the denial of G-d's involvement in the world.

Thus the believer engages in what can be termed "passive labor." In the opening verses of Vayak'hel, Moses instructs the people of Israel:

Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of sabbaths to G-d...

Not "Six days shall you work," but "Six days shall work be done." The passive form suggests that even during the week's six workdays, when the Jew is permitted and obligated to work, he should be occupied, but not preoccupied by his material endeavors.

This is how Chassidic teaching interprets the verse (Psalms 128:2), "If you will eat the labor of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you." What King David is implying, say the Chassidic masters, is that the labor in which a person engages for his material needs (so that "you will eat") should be only "of your hands" -- an activity of the outer man, not an inward involvement. One's "hands" and "feet" should attend to one's material endeavors, while one's thoughts and feelings remain bound up with G-dly things. This is the same concept as that implied by the verse, "Six days shall work be done." One does not do the work; it is "done," as if of its own accord. The heart and mind are elsewhere, and only the person's practical faculties are engaged in the work.

The Jew works not to "make a living," but only to fashion a keli ("vessel") to receive G-d's blessings. This is what the Torah means when it says, "And the L-rd your G-d will bless you in all that you do." Man is not sustained by his own efforts, but through G-d's blessing; it is only that G-d desires that His blessing should realize itself in and through "all that you do." Man's work merely provides a natural channel for the divine blessing of sustenance, and man must at all times remember that it is no more than a channel. Though his hands prepare the channel, his mind and heart must remain focused on the source of the blessing.

The Chassidic masters take this a step further. In truth, they say, man should really not be allowed to work at all. For of G-d it is said, "I fill the heavens and the earth" and "The whole earth is full of His glory." The proper response to the ever-present nature of G-d would be to stand in absolute passivity. To do otherwise would be to be guilty of what the Talmud calls "making gestures before the king." If a person standing in the presence of a king were to do anything other than devote his attention to the king, he would surely forfeit his life. So it is only because the Torah itself permits, indeed commands, "Six days shall work be done" and "The L-rd your G-d will bless you in all that you do," that work is permissible and desirable. But to go beyond the level of involvement sanctioned by the Torah -- beyond the "passive labor" of making a "vessel" -- that would be, in the first place, to show a lack of faith that human sustenance comes from G-d; and secondly, it would be "making gestures before the king" -- an act of rebellion in the face of G-d.

The Double Shabbat

This explains the phrase shabbat shabbaton -- "a sabbath of sabbaths"--used by Moses in the above verses. Shabbat is not a day of rest following six days of active labor. Rather, it is a "sabbath of sabbaths," a Shabbat following six days that are themselves "sabbaths" of sorts -- days of passive labor, in which one's work only engages one's external self with the true focus of one's attention in a higher place.

Indeed, a true day of rest can only be one that follows such a week. Citing the verse, "Six days you shall labor, and do all your work," the Sages say: "On the Shabbat, a person should regard himself as if all his work were complete." This is true rest -- rest in which one is utterly free of all workday concerns. If, however, during the six days, a person had been preoccupied with material concerns, on the seventh day anxieties will invade him; even if his body ceases work, his mind would not be at rest. On the other hand, if he has given his work its proper place during the week, the light of Shabbat will illuminate him, and it will be shabbat shabbaton--a Shabbat twice over. For Shabbat will then permeate his whole week, and when the day itself arrives it will have a double sanctity.

The Day after Yom Kippur
This also explains the context in which Moses addresses the above verses to the assembled congregation of Israel.

Our Sages elaborate on how the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) atoned for and rectified the sin of the Golden Calf. Ostensibly similar (both the Calf and the Mishkan were a "consecration" of physical matter, particularly gold), the Mishkan was, in truth, the very opposite of the Calf: the Golden Calf was a deification of the material, while the Mishkan was a subjugation of the material to serve the Divine. So on the day after the first Yom Kippur, immediately following G-d's full forgiveness of Israel's sin, Moses conveyed G-d's instructions to the people to build Him a "dwelling place" in their midst; that very day, the people donated their gold, silver and copper to the making of the Mishkan.

First, however, Moses gathered the people of Israel and commanded them in G-d's name: "Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of sabbaths to G-d..." This implies that, like the Mishkan, this commandment is a refutation of, and atonement for, the sin of idolatry.

Maimonides traces the origins of idolatry to the fact that Divine providence is channeled through natural forces and objects. The original idolaters recognized that the sun, moon and the stars derived their power to nourish the earth from G-d, yet they attached divine significance to them. Their error was to regard them as objects of worship, whereas they are no more than the instruments of G-d, like "an axe in the hands of the hewer."

In a certain sense, the excessive preoccupation with business and the material world is also a form of idolatry. For this, too, involves the error of attaching significance to what is no more than a vessel or channel of Divine blessing. The materialist's preoccupation with material things is a form of bowing the head, of misplaced worship. Only when a person sees his workday effort for what it truly is--a way of creating a natural channel for the blessings of G-d--will his work take the passive form and the focus of his thoughts be on G-d alone.

This is how idolatry--whether in its overt or its more subtle forms--is atoned. Six days of passive work in the sense of mental detachment and the realization that human work is only an instrument of G-d, culminating in and inspired by a "sabbath of sabbaths" that focuses utterly on the source of our blessings--are the corrective for and the denial of the instincts of idolatry. (bold and red text here my additions)


Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe More articles...
Excerpted from Torah Studies (Kehot 1986), an adaptation of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's talks by Britain's Chief Rabbi, Dr. Jonathan Sacks

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