Being a Jew is so easy!   Judaism is simultaneously one of the hardest traditions to define, and one of the easiest.   We began with Abraham, the first to recognize the one God, and grew from there.   To be a Jew is have a unique relationship with God, and with other Jews.   The word “Jew” is derived from the Hebrew yehudi, which means, “of the tribe of Judah.”   After 3000 years, we are still those same people that walked ancient Middle East.   Sure, you could run down the checklist, but there is so much more.

To state what a Jew believes, it starts and ends with berit olam, an eternal covenant.   A Jew has faith that no matter what, God and the Jewish people are bound together in relationship.   Sometimes it is hard, and sometimes it is easy, but we are always in relationship.   We put our faith in God and make the effort to follow the Divine will as expressed in the Torah, and in return God sustains us as a people and as individuals.   Throughout the millennia, this has been our faith.   What does following that will entail?   A quick story from the Talmud explains it.

Once a nudnik¹ , showed up at the home of Rabbi Hillel, a great sage of the first century BCE.   He knocked at the door, which Hillel answered and graciously asked, “How can I help you?”   The man said, I want to learn everything about Judaism while I stand on one foot.   Now Hillel had heard about this man and knew that he had been knocking on the doors of all the sages and mocking them in a similar manner.   Hillel was ready for him.

“Start standing.”   Surprised, the nudnik went to one foot. Hillel said to him, “What is hateful to you, do not do to another.   All the rest is commentary; now go and learn it.”   As the story is told, this man was so inspired that went on to become a great scholar and teacher in his own right.   Hillel had taken a nudnik and made a Jew.

“Go and learn it” has been a rallying cry for Jews since then.  When we want to discern God’s will, prayer and study have been the answer for Jews.   To learn and teach are sacred activities. Scholarship is a form of devotion to God.   What does it mean to be a Jew?   It means to be committed, heart and soul, to God and the Jewish people.   It means having the freedom to question God and Jewish tradition and still belong to both.   It means having soul, mind, and body acting together in purpose.   It means a connection to eternity is possible in every moment.   It means a belief in the possibility of moving ourselves and our world to a more perfect state and that we must act to do so in partnership with God.   It means a belief in the people of Israel’s unique destiny to preserve our vision of humanity and strive for it every day, despite those who might strive to tear us down.   Being a Jew is so easy!

¹ A Yiddish word denoting a person who delights in tweaking others just for the sake of getting a rise out of them