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Secular Judaism

שו”תCategory: generalSecular Judaism
asked 2 months ago

After reading your brochure, two questions came to my mind.

A. You raised there, in a very small way, the option that Judaism is defined according to the common “destiny” of the people, and rejected this option because then there is nothing unique to “secular” – all Jews have a common destiny. This was the only time, in my opinion, that you rejected a definition because it does not fit with the word “secular” and not because of the concept of “Judaism”. And I wanted to suggest here the possibility that perhaps secular Judaism does not mean that secularism per se has an additional value that other types of Judaism do not, but rather that it presents a thinner option and claims – that *despite* being secular, it is still Judaism. If you will, its unique species is based on the absence of other additions that exist in other species and not on positive content.

on. You mentioned another possibility that Judaism may be defined according to several items together. That is, if there are 10 indicators of Judaism and I meet 6 of them, then I am Jewish. This insight was not addressed in the rest of the book. For example, you mentioned that studying biblical history is not part of Judaism since Christians also study the Bible. But here it is possible to import the first argument and claim that a person who was born into the Jewish people and is also part of its history and also studies the Bible (according to secular study schools) is therefore part of the secular Jewish movement.


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מיכי Staff answered 2 months ago
A. What remains after you remove Judaism? Son of a Jewish mother? And of course a halachic definition. Does Amos Oz read and pay taxes to the State of Israel? I wrote there that I am advocating a value-based definition and not a cultural or ethnic one. As far as I understand, there is no such definition for secular Judaism. You have not proposed one here either. on. Same as above. I am not looking for an ethnic or cultural definition, but rather a value-based one. That is precisely why I did not continue to consider the option of a complex definition (such as a medical or psychiatric diagnosis).

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