Sources re: "who is a Jew"?

amother

Tue, Apr 01 2008, 1:15 am

Help! My cousin was over this evening and we got into an argument. She is not very religious and her family is reform. Her mother had a reform conversion in college, her father is Jewish.

So anyway, around them I try to not really say anything or cause trouble. But a discussion started up tonight and I quietly stated that well, halachically you are not jewish. So she starts up with how closeminded we are and that according to reform you have to have either a jewish mother or father.

So she wanted me to give her sources that say that only with a jewish mother is a person jewish. Now, DH and I are both BT and don't know these things right off the top of our heads. So I told her I'd get back to her tomorrow. I just wanted to know if you all, who are so much more knowldgable than me, could tell me the sources for this. She won't accept "That's just the way it is" and I feel unprepared to give her what she wants to know. Thank you.

grin

Tue, Apr 01 2008, 1:51 am

from Askmoses:

Deuteronomy 7:3-4 states: "You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son. For he will turn your son away from following Me, and they will worship the gods of others".

(Immediately we see an interesting point: the verse focuses on "daughter"; giving your daughter, or taking his daughter. But more importantly...)

What does it mean "He will turn your son away"? It should either say "She will turn your son away" or "He will turn your daughter away"?

The Talmud 1 explains that in this verse "son" actually means grandson 2. Thus the meaning of the verse is as follows: in a case of intermarriage "He (the non-Jewish father) will turn your (grand)son away from following Me". The grandchild is called son (of the grandparents) because this child is still connected to the grandparents - he is still Jewish.

From the fact that the Torah does not go on to say "She will turn your son away", (I.e. the non-Jewish mother will turn your grandson away) we know that if the mother is not Jewish the grandchild is not your son - he is not Jewish. 3

This teaches us that if the mother is Jewish the child is Jewish. It also teaches us that even if the child of a Jewish mother is "lead astray" G-d forbid, he is still Jewish.

Footnotes
* 1. Jerusalem Talmud tractate Yevamot 13a, and Babylonian Talmud tractate Yevamot 23a
* 2. It is not uncommon in the Torah for a grandparent to be called parent, or a grandchild to be called child. See for example Rashi on Genesis 20:12
* 3. See also Rashi Deuteronomy 7:4