Who is a Jew

Photo of Marty Barrack

Someone asked recently whether I’m still Jewish. My answer is: yes.

My sense is that Judaism is reverence for God and Torah. That is the Judaism that has survived three thousand years. But the rabbis say no. It is not based on God and Torah but on ancestry. If you are born of a Jewish mother, you are a Jew all your life. You can become an atheist, completely opposed to God and Torah, and still you are a Jew.

Well, I was born of a Jewish mother and father. That makes me a Jew. Jews say that my baptism was an apostasy, but it is less than the apostasy of a Jew who rejects God entirely. I accepted baptism in the belief that our Father in heaven was calling me into the Catholic Church. Objectively, an effort to obey God is less an apostasy than a deliberate decision to ignore Him.

It is one or the other. God and Torah, or ancestry.

We who are born Jewish and baptized Catholic are the most Jewish Jews of all. Every Jew who waits for King Moshiach seeks completion. Every Jew who has found King Moshiach has completion.

Some Jews say that a Catholic cannot be a Jew because he cannot fully subscribe to the thirteen precepts of Maimonides. Here are the thirteen precepts, together with my observations:

I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is the author and guide of everything that has been created, and that he alone has made, does make, and will make all things.	All faithful Catholics agree.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is a unity, and that there is no unity in any manner like unto His, and that He alone is our God, who was, and is, and will be.	The Hebrew word for God, Elohim, is plural, suggesting the tri aspect of triunity, and therefore can be replaced only by plural pronouns. But the next verse is singular, Gen 1:27 “God created man in his image,” suggesting the une aspect of triunity. Moreover, the Shema states: Dt 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” The Hebrew word for “one” here is echod, which describes a compound unity. For example, Gen 1:5 “And there was evening and there was morning, one [echod] day.” The day had two parts: evening and morning. We find another clear example at Num 13:23 “…a branch with a single [echod] cluster of grapes.” The Hebrew word for the absolute unity Maimonides describes would have been yachid, not used in the Shema.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is not a body, and that he is free from all accidents of matter, and that He has not any form whatsoever.	All faithful Catholics agree that our Father in heaven is pure spirit.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is the first and the last.	All faithful Catholics agree.
I believe with perfect faith that to the Creator, blessed be His name, and to him alone, it is right to pray, and that it is not right to pray to any being besides Him.	The Catholic faith teaches that Jesus is “one in being with the Father.” (Apostles’ Creed) Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity are an undivided unity, all the same spiritual substance.
I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the prophets are true.	All faithful Catholic agree, concerning the prophecies included with the Jewish Canon of Sacred Scripture. Jews and Catholics disagree on whether they point to Jesus.
I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, peace be unto him, was true, and that he was the chief of the prophets, both those that preceded and of those that followed him.	All faithful Catholics agree. Jesus was not a prophet in the traditional sense of that term, a human person sent to speak for God.
I believe with perfect faith that the whole Law, now in our possession, is the same that was given to Moses our teacher, peace be unto him.	All faithful Catholics agree that the Torah has survived through the centuries essentially intact.
I believe with perfect faith that this Law will not be changed, and that there will never be any other law from the Creator, blessed be his name.	Jesus told us, , Mt 5:17 “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Jesus gave us two great commandments. The first was, Mt 22:37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This commandment reflects Dt 6:5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” It summarizes the first three commandments, which teach us how to love God: “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve,” “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,” and “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Jesus’ second commandment was Mt 22:39 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which reflects Lv 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It summarizes the remaining seven commandments, which teach us how to love one another: “Honor your father and your mother,” “You shall not kill,” “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,” and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s property.” No new commandments, only fulfillment.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, knows every deed of the children of men, and all their thoughts, as it is said, “It is He that fashions the heart of them all, and gives heed to all their deeds.”	All faithful Catholics agree.
I believe with perfect faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, rewards those that keep His commandments, and punishes those that transgress them.	All faithful Catholics agree.
I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and, though He tarry, I will wait daily for His coming.	All faithful Catholics agree. We await with our Jewish brothers the Messiah’s next coming.
I believe with perfect faith that there will be a resurrection of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, blessed be His name, and exalted be the remembrance of Him for ever and ever.	All faithful Catholics agree.

Faithful Catholics can agree with at minimum five and at maximum twelve of these thirteen precepts. Jewish atheists cannot agree with any of them. By Maimonides’ criteria, a faithful Catholic is closer to being a Jew than an atheist.