Lee Lofaso -> Joe Bruchis wrote:
 LL> Hello Joe,

 JB>> The only thing that makes a Jew a Jew is that one is born
 JB>> of a Jewish Mother. That's it in totality. Everything else
 JB>> is philosophy, and is also geographical and/or secular in
 JB>> nature.

 LL> "What is a Jew?" - Sigmund Freud

 LL> To the best of my knowledge, that question has never been sufficiently
 LL> answered by anybody.  One man's definition of a Jew might be totally
 LL> different than another man's definition.  As such, how can anyone define
 LL> what cannot be defined?

A Freudian slip, I guess:

Who is a Jew?

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone
through the formal process of conversion to Judaism.

It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you
believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not
undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that
Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still
a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a
person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the
Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox.

http://www.jewfaq.org/whoisjew.htm



 JB>> It does no good to try to nail it down, because it can't be nailed-down.

 LL> Kind of like trying to nail jello to a wall.

Yeah.

 JB>> There is no one description of Judaism or Jewishness other
 JB>> than the one I stated.

 LL> Even your description is open to question.


No, it's not.

 LL> Philosophy is an intellectual discipline.
 LL> Theology is also an intellectual discipline.
 LL> Both philosophy and theology serve to answer
 LL> certain questions.  But no philosopher or
 LL> theologian is God.


Why did you feel you needed to tell me that?

 LL> Was Jesus "just another Rabbi", as some have claimed? 
During his public
 LL> ministry, He was asked, many times, what His source was for what He
 LL> stated.  Who, or what, was His authority?  A rabbi is expected to have
 LL> learned from another rabbi.  Original thought being unthinkable.  What
 LL> rabbi, or school of religious study, did Jesus cite?  Or is it true that
 LL> Jesus claim was that He truly was the Son of God?


How would I know the answer to that?


 LL> Was Jesus just a teacher (rabbi), as some have claimed?
 LL> Was Jesus just a philosopher, as George W. Bush claimed?


He was both.

 LL> "What is a Jew?" could be restated "Who is that Jew?"
 LL> Certainly Jesus was no mere teacher (rabbi) or philosopher.


Certainly? Other than the "Bible" there are large gaps in
documentation regarding his life. I guess you'll never really know, and
certainly, you will never be certain.


Regards,

Joe

--- Thunderbird 2.0.0.21 (Macintosh/20090302)