Dear Liberty,

So you think a Jew is not a Jew unless he/she follows the teachings of the Torah ...

Would you apply the same principle to a Christian? Is a Christian
still a Christian if they don't follow the teachings of the Christian gospel? Especially the demand of, " Do unto others as you would have done unto you."

Foxy,

[[[[Dear Liberty,
So you think a Jew is not a Jew unless he/she follows the teachings of the Torah ...
Would you apply the same principle to a Christian? Is a Christian
still a Christian if they don't follow the teachings of the Christian gospel? Especially the demand of, " Do unto others as you would have done unto you."]]]]
.
.
.
Unfortunately the definition of Jewishness is not contingent on the consistency of lack thereof of the adherents of any other belief. And vice versa.

As this thread is about Jews, it is therefore not appropriate nor a form of skilled debate to introduce tangents.

So the issue of what is Jewishness still stands: they must not be able to define themselves by themselves (a circularity), but by an (at least ostensible) external source. Such ostensible external source is the Torah, for such is purported to emanate from someone other than themselves, ie, God.

The issue over what is Christianity, or Islam, or Mormonism, or any other belief, should be confined to a thread which deals specifically with those peoples, as does this thread with Jews.

What is therefore in order is to repeat what I have last posted, viz. a Jew is only a Jew if he completely submits to the teachings of his Torah. For failing such submission, and were he amongst those original Jews with Moses, he would have been put to death for wilful disobedience to such Torah. And a Jew who is dead is no more a Jew than an onion without skin is an onion.

Dear Liberty,

As a result of the long and varied history of the Jews, it is difficult to define a Jew. For example, there is no such thing as a Jewish race. Anyone born to a Jewish mother, or anyone who has converted to Judaism according to Jewish law, is a Jew.

Many people simply define Jews as persons who consider themselves Jews.

ooops, I forgot to add that Judaism has two major collections of sacred writings, the Bible and the Talmud. These works provide the basis for Judaism's beliefs and practices. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible make up the Torah. The Talmud is a collection of legal and ethical writings as well as a guide to the civil and religious laws of Judaism. Orthodox Jews believe the laws in the Talmud were given to Moses by God and passed down orally from generation to generation.

You may be interested to know that Judaism has three major branches
1) Orthodox Judaism. 2) Reform Judaism and, 3) Conservative Judaism. And that each branch represents a wide range of beliefs and practices.

RobbyH,

Jews are disproportionately more active in philanthropy than the wider community.

http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=655