Jews do not Proselytize Because…
People become Jewish for many reasons. Being saved by believing in Judaism as the only true religion is not one of them.
Four decades ago I met a recent Russian immigrant who had started an introduction to Judaism class in Boston. She had to leave that class to move to L.A. with her husband for his new job. She was six months pregnant and wanted to be Jewish before the baby was born, because she was the child of a mixed marriage in the Soviet Union, and she did not want her child to have a similar experience.
She told me that at age 18 everyone in the USSR had to get an identity card. Since her father was Jewish, and her mother was Russian, the government official told her she could pick either one for her identity card, but she could not change it once it was issued. She said she wanted her identity card to read: Jewish.
The official, and then his boss, spent over a half an hour arguing with her that this was a very bad decision. She insisted and it was done. When I heard that story, I told her that in my eyes she had already become Jewish by that act alone. I was ready to convert her next month. And I did.
And I was at the circumcision of her son two months later. The family joined my congregation, and were members for several years, until they moved to another part of Los Angeles.
Unlike Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, Judaism does not have much of a missionary impulse. That is why there are so few Jews in the world. Mormons, who very actively seek converts, already outnumber Jews even though the Mormons have been around for 200 years compared to more than 3,500 years for Jews.
Judaism lacks a strong missionary impulse because Judaism is a pluralistic religion. Judaism teaches that the Jewish way is right for us, but good people in other religions also have a place in the world to come. Correct behavior in society is more important than correct beliefs about God. Thus, while Jews welcome non-Jews to join us, we do not have a urgent motive to ‘enlighten’ or ‘save’ them.
Lacking the missionary impulse of more universalistic religions, Jews react to potential converts in very varied ways, ranging from wariness to encouragement. Practical community concerns guided many of out Sages.
Almost all parents love their own children much more than they love the children of their neighbors. This is only natural. Most parents are also able to acknowledge that some of their neighbor’s children exceed in merit their own children in some, even occasionally in many, aspects of character, personality or talent. Nevertheless, normal parents still love their children much more than their neighbor’s children.
The same preference is also found among religious believers. In every religious community people think that their own prophet, their holy book, their saints and their religious traditions are the truest and the best. This natural human feeling can sometimes lead to an arrogant pride that results in verbal abuse that can lead to physical conflict between believers in different religions.
This arrogant pride in the superiority of one’s own religion should be condemned by all religious leaders as did Prophet Muhammad, when he was called upon to judge between a Jew and a Muslim in a conflict laden situation.
Prophet Muhammad is so well known for his sense of justice, that a Jew can appeal to him, even in a conflict with a Muslim who has attacked this Jew. It is only natural for Jews to think that Moses is the best, and for Muslims to think that Muhammad is the best. Prophet Muhammad rebukes the Muslim, telling him not to claim that Muhammad is superior to Moses, because even on the day of Resurrection, Muhammad himself will not know their relative merit, for although Muhammad will be the first of all the comatose to be revived, Moses will already be there holding the side of God’s throne.
Prophet Muhammad teaches us that claims of religious superiority are wrong, for no human in this world, and perhaps even in the world to come, will know who is the best prophet. Such arrogant comparisons do not help anyone to become a better believer in the one God that all mankind should worship; but only polarize believers by inciting partisan fervor.
I am a Reform Rabbi and I can state that all Reform Rabbis would applaud this teaching of Prophet Muhammad because we are all aware that during the Middle Ages all three religions claimed religious superiority over each other. If Jews, Christians and Muslims had only followed this teaching of Prophet Muhammad, we could have avoided many centuries of bloodshed and massacres: three of the best known examples being; the many Christian Crusades in Spain, Poland and the Middle East; the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Spain and Portugal; and the 30 year war between Catholics and Protestants in Germany and central Europe.
Almost all prophets are unsuccessful. They are like Hud who was sent to Ad; or Salih who was sent to Thamud. They come to warn their own people of their impending destruction due to their corrupt and immoral ways, and to call them to repentance. In almost all cases their teachings are rejected; or if these prophets were successful in influencing their own people to embrace monotheism and abandon idols, their influence faded away in a few generations, and their people either disappear or revert to polytheism and idolatry.
The prophets of the Children of Israel are different. First, Abraham is the only prophet we know of who has two sons, Isma’il (Ishmael) and Ishaq (Isaac), both of whom are also prophets. Indeed, Abraham’s grandson Ya’qub (Jacob) and great grandson Yusuf (Joseph) are also prophets. Thus starting with Abraham, Allah established a family dynasty of prophets. With Joseph and his brothers (the tribes) the extended family of Ya’qub became the 12 tribes of Israel or as they are usually called the Children of Israel/Ya’qub.
The Children of Israel did succeed in establish an ongoing monotheistic community because they were blessed with many of God’s prophets, who were all descendants of the Children of Israel/Ya’qub, who generation after generation urged the Jewish people to stay firm in their covenant with God.
This ongoing prophetic concern is expressed clearly in the Qur’an: “When death approached Ya’qub, he said to his sons, ‘Who will (you) worship after I am gone?’ They answered, ‘We will worship your God, the God of our forefathers, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, the One God. Unto Him we will surrender ourselves.’” (2:132)
The miracle of Islam’s birth is that this 14 century old religion was established by just one Prophet acting all by himself. Even Prophet Jesus, was preceded by Prophet John the Baptist.
Perhaps this is why Natan’el al-Fayyumi, a prominent 12th-century Yemenite rabbi and theologian, wrote in his philosophical treatise Bustan al-Uqul (“Garden of Wisdom”) that God sends prophets to establish religions for other nations, which do not have to conform to the precepts of the Jewish Torah.
Nethan’el explicitly considered Muhammad a true prophet, who was sent from Heaven with a particular message that applies to the Arabs, but not to the Jews. Al-Fayymi’s explicit acceptance of Muhammad as a Prophet for non-Jews throughout the world in general, and all idol worshiping polytheists in particular, was rare and virtually unknown until recent times.
Many open minded Muslims have asked me if “Jewish People were a Nation, or a Religion, or a Race?” And I reply yes they can; and most Jews are all three.
Although Jewish people usually, but not always, share a common gene pool, they are not a race because any non-Jew who converts to Judaism will be recognized as being Jewish by all those rabbis who share a commitment to the same denomination of Judaism as the rabbi who did the conversion.
For example, a few years ago a Korean American woman, Angela Buchdahl, was named Senior Rabbi of Manhattan’s Central Synagogue. She is the first Asian-American senior rabbi of one of the North America’s largest (2,400 families) Reform synagogues.
Rabbi Buchdahl, and Chinese American Reform Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, rabbi of Temple Sinai in Oakland, California. exemplify the new, ethnically and racially diverse face of the worldwide Jewish community, which now includes between 300-500,000 non-Jews who have become Jewish; formally by conversion or informally by acculturation into the Jewish people and its culture.
Orthodox Rabbis would not accept these two Reform Rabbis because (1) they do not want to accept any Jewish woman as a Rabbi, (2) they do not want to accept any Reform Rabbis as Rabbis, and (3) because they do not want to accept Reform converts to Judaism in general. They only want to maintain a monopolistic control over Judaism.
What might be considered the Jewish Nation? Like most nations, Jews have a national language, a shared history, which is much longer than most nations, and a style of cooking and thinking that is as distinctive as that of many other nations.
What they have lacked for most of their 4,000 year history is an independent State in one geographical area. However, states come and go (Yugoslavia) and go and come (Poland and Israel) so having a state is not the most important aspect of being a nation.
More important is that the majority of Jews do not view “Jews for Jesus” or Messianic Jews as belonging to the Jewish community.
The answer to the question of ‘what are Jews?’ is that since Judaism and the Jewish People are so deeply intertwined they cannot and should not be separated. Individuals Jews act in all kinds of ways, but the historical community is a blend of Jews: by birth (genes), belief, behavior and belonging.
New genetic studies show how over the centuries many non-Jews have entered the Jewish community and many Jews have, voluntarily or not, left the Jewish community. Today we can answer the complex question: are all present day Jews really the biological descendants of the Jews who inhabited the Land of Israel 3,000 years ago?
The answer is: Yes and No. Genetic analysis does support the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa and Spain during Classical Antiquity, actively proselytizing and marrying into the local populations, and, in the process, forming distinct populations that stayed largely intact for almost 2,000 years except for the Jews of Spain who were driven into exile.
Some converts to Judaism, and their genes, have always entered the Jewish gene pool. In the west today, many converts to Judaism are descendants of ex-Jews in previous generations who are now returning to the Jewish People, and bringing many non-Jewish genes with them.
This unusual form of religious conversion, as a result of reincarnation, is a special aspect of Kabbalah: the Jewish mystical tradition. Unlike Buddhism and Hinduism, Kabbalah does not teach that reincarnation (gilgul) occurs over the course of millions of years to millions of different sentient species.
According to Kabbalah, only the souls of self-conscious moral creatures who are righteous human beings reincarnate; and they reincarnate only when they have not fulfilled the purpose of their creation.
Since Judaism is an optimistic religion, most Kabbalists teach that most people can accomplish their life’s purpose in one or two lifetimes.
A few souls may take 3-5 lifetimes or more. The bright souls of great religious figures like Moses or Miriam can turn into dozens of sparks that can reincarnate several times.
The souls of Jews whose children have been cut off from the Jewish people, either through persecution or conversion to another religion, will reincarnate as one of their own no longer Jewish descendants.
These descendant souls will seek to return to the Jewish people. A majority of people who end up converting (or reverting) to Judaism and the Jewish people, have Jewish souls from one of their own ancestors. However, their genes are mostly from their non-Jewish ancestors.
Most people of the world have learned of Abraham, not by reading a book of Jewish history, but by listening to and reading from the Christian Bible or the Muslim Qur’an. This unique and amazing situation is a reflection of a promise made to Abraham about 35 to 36 centuries ago:
“I swear (says God) because you did this – not withholding your son, your favorite one, I will bestow My blessing on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command.” (Genesis 22:16-18)
“And remember Our servants; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Endowed with power and insight. We made them perfectly pure and sincere by virtue of a characteristic most pure; their constant remembrance of the Abode. (Qur’an 38:45-7)
“The LORD said [to Himself], “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children, and his household after him (the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities) to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” (Genesis 18:17-19)
And “I swear (says God) because you did this – not withholding your son, your favorite one, I will bestow My blessing on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore; and your descendants shall seize the gates of their foes. All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed My command.” (Genesis 22:16-18) “Indeed, We chose him (Abraham) as one pure and most distinguished in the world, and he is surely among the righteous in the Hereafter”. (Qur’an 2:130)
So it is not surprising that a Hadith states:”We asked Allah’s Messenger how should one (ask Allah to) send blessings on you, the members of the family, for Allah has taught us how to salute you (in prayer)?’ He said, ‘Say: O Allah! Send Your Mercy on Muhammad and on the family of Muhammad, as You sent Your Mercy on Abraham and on the family of Abraham.” [Bukhari, Book #60, Hadith #49]
This is why the Qur’an states: “You have an excellent example to follow in Abraham.” (60:4) and “Follow the way of Abraham as people of pure faith.” (3:95) “And who is better in religion than one who submits himself to Allah while being a doer of good, and follows the religion of Abraham, inclining toward truth? And Allah took Abraham as an intimate friend.” (4:125)
Anyone who sincerely desires to join the Jewish People can become a Jew. Judaism is not a missionary faith and so doesn’t actively try to convert non-Jewish people (in many countries anti-Jewish laws prohibited converting to Judaism for centuries). Despite this, the modern Jewish community increasingly welcomes would-be converts. A person who converts to Judaism and becomes a Jew is just as Jewish as someone born into Judaism.
There is a good precedent for this. Ruth, the great-great grandmother of King David, was a convert to Judaism, and the book of Ruth in the Bible which tells the story of her becoming Jewish, is read every year during the services held on Shavuot; the celebration of the Jewish People’s receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai.
Although Jews do not send out missionaries, it is a Mitzvah to welcome non-Jews who are interested to study Judaism and to join the Jewish people if they so desire.