- Family and Society
- Who is A Jew?
Defining who is a jew
Question
Who came up with the idea that a Jew is jewish, permanently, because of his mother’s religion and why?
Answer
ב"ה
Shalom
Being Jewish is not just accepting the Jewish religion, it means being born into the Jewish nation, either by lineage of the mother or by conversion which upon, the convert becomes reborn as part of the Jewish nation. As the Talmud put it " A person who becomes a "ger"= a convert it is as if the person was reborn. (Talmud Yebamot 22A)
The source that the lineage of the mother is what determines if the born child is Jewish, is in the Mishna In Tractate Kiddushin 66B, which states that the child of a non-Jewish mother is like the mother, whether the father was Jewish or not.
The Talmud in Tractate Kiddushin 68b then expounds upon the Mishna and then derives this law from a verse in the Torah that the child born of a Jewish mother is considered Jewish but a child born (from a Jewish father) but a child from a non-Jewish mother is considered non- Jewish. That is to say basically, that it is G-d's idea that only a person born of a Jewish mother is considered Jewish.
Why this is so is explained by the Ramban (Nachmanides ) that a child born in the womb of a Jewish woman is like the child immersed in a ritual bath of purity, which then imbued the child with Jewishness.
This is codified in the Shulchan Aruch Even Haezer 8:5 and has been the Jewish tradition since the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and according to the Ramban since the time of our forefather Abraham.
All the best

Inheritance of Status of Being Jewish
Rabbi Ari Shvat |

Sephardic Bloodine and Giur Lechumra
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Nisan 22, 5780

Jewishness
Various Rabbis | 13 Tevet 5764

Blood transfusion
Rabbi Jonathan Blass | 27 Adar II 5763

Rabbi Yoel Lieberman

Ma’ariv Times
Elul 11, 5769

Golden altar of Incense
Elul 14, 5769

L’Dovid Hashem Ori
Elul 11, 5769

Yerushalmi
Av 27, 5769

Water - Kosher?
Rabbi Dr. Aharon Adler | 4 Tevet 5763
Genesis 24: 2-9 – Put your hand under my thigh
Rabbi Moshe Leib Halberstadt | Tevet 26, 5770

Water - Kosher?
Rabbi Dr. Aharon Adler | 4 Tevet 5763

Davening Alone
Rabbi David Sperling | Av 15, 5773

Livelihood Prayer for Women
Rabbi Yoel Lieberman | Kislev 6, 5784

Children of a Converted Reform Woman
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Kislev 10, 5784

Women sitting with crossed legs in synagogue
Rabbi Ari Shvat | Kislev 6, 5784
