Q&A: Is It Reasonable to Doubt My Neighbor's Jewishness?
Is It Reasonable to Doubt My Neighbor's Jewishness?
Question
I have neighbors who are thugs.
They’re really not shy.
They’re really not compassionate.
They’re not exactly big on acts of kindness.
They make noise with unpleasant music at insane volume at all hours; they have a lot of arrogance, crudeness, and bullying in them, and the girls in those families aren’t much better either.
I’m wondering whether it’s possible that they’re somehow here but not Jewish, because our identifying signs are that we are shy, compassionate, and doers of kindness?
Answer
It is certainly possible. It is also possible that you’re not Jewish, and that I’m not either. Regarding anyone, it is possible that he is not Jewish, whether he behaves this way or that way, whether coarse or refined.
Take those identifying signs, wrap them as a gift, and send them to Safed to Rabbi Yosef Karo.
Discussion on Answer
Because he took those criteria from the Talmud far too seriously and inserted them into the Shulchan Arukh at the beginning of Even HaEzer.
Why to Rabbi Yosef Karo?
What does he have to do with the matter?