I Am A Jew, By Choice!

My name is Joseph Tsefanyahu Farkasdi. My ancestry is one of many lost records, by way of multiple immigrations and family traumas. I am by genetic parental history and by ethno-religious practice a Sephardi Jew. My forefather to the United States arrived from Budapest-Bèkès County, Hungary, by way of Ellis Island. But, we know nothing, by way of records, of our Eastern European ancestors, thanks to the Cyrpto-Jewish behavior of our great-grandparents after arriving here in the United States.

What we do know is that ‘di’ was attached to the end of the family name (surname) “Farkas” upon arrival to the United States. This adding a suffix, to make the name a place name, was a customary practice among Jews immigrating to the USA in my great-grandparents time, in order to signify of “Jewish” origins.

I have had my DNA tested for their paternal and maternal haplogroups, in order to know who every father before me was and to know who every mother before me was. By Y-chromosone, meaning every father that has come before me, I am an indigenous Levantine in origin (G-L42) and, by the subclave, the Sephardi Jew that I always knew myself to be (distant ancestral ties to Portugal-Spain). But, this alone doesn’t make me a Jew! … Well, it does, but there is more to Jewishness than just who your fathers were!

We’ll briefly get back to this! On my mother’s side, all my mothers before me, by mtDNA haplogroup, are indigenous Sardinians (U5b3). The “First Peoples” to the European continent, who have preserved themselves for thousands of years as a people on a little island off the coast of Italy. Both are rare haplogroups within this world of humans. Yet, my mother is a citizen of the USA.

So, I am like my forefathers and foremothers before me, a product of immigration. But, what does this have to do with being a Jew by choice? Everything, actually! Being a committed member of the Jewish people requires more than just parentage. It is not enough that I am Levantine indigenous (the Judean Levant, in my case), for there are many Jews with other Y-chromosone haplogroups from *around* this world who are *just as Jewish* as I am. So, let’s talk further, because all Jews are Jews by choice!

My first two years of life was lived in Japan, and I grew up in the Asian-Polynesian communities of Hawaii. It is through the Jewish communities of Hawaii, that I was thoroughly inculcated in Judaism. With Chabad in one ear, Reform in the other, Masorti in front of me, Israelis behind me (yes, even Israelis live in the islands), and a fundamentalist Dad’s voice constantly preaching in both ears (giving moral advice in a overbearing self-righteous way, with disregard for the possibility of pluralities), I have spent my entire unaffiliated Jewish life wrestling with Torah!

Though I may not be pedigree raised – frum, yeshiva trained – I have had a thirst for knowledge all of my life. That is partly my mother’s doing. My first Hebrew words were taught to me by her. So, through an obsession that I cannot fully explain, I have made up for my upbringing deficiency, and quite by accident.

Like a sponge, I absorbed what local religious Jews and rabbis had to offer and, for thirty-some years, I have supplemented this teaching with daily (lay-)scholarly research into every subject that crossed my attention. Torah, Talmud, apocalyptic literature, Dead Sea scrolls. Have even dabbled into the world of Zohar literature, merkabah mysticism, and the like.

The more I learned religiously (literally, ethno-religiously), the more I began to search beyond this – moving into secular and critical-study ANE Jewish scholarship. Strangely, the more I learned, the less theistic and more devoted to Judaism as a ethno-religious and cultural whole I became. Study is my greatest distraction! So, to this day, I keep close tabs on what TABS scholars are uncovering about Jewish history and our inherited Jewish literatures in relation to the ANE, and on what Torat Chayim rabbis have to offer in the way of teachings derived from their yeshiva upbringing experiences.

It all has its place in Judaism, from the most secular of studies to the most religious. There is just SO much to draw from and to compare, when one maintains an open mind. There has been a time or two that I wish I had been raised pedigree, yeshiva trained from childhood, for I would have been a research rabbi all my life for this, I’m quite sure! But, my upbringing was not this, my direction in life was chaotic and geographically unsettled, and I had given up the ancestral “God” worship thing over time. Still religious, but aware!

So, I have some knowledge and I know where to look for more. But, it’s more by obsessive accident that I am this way, and by thirty-some years of study. Do I have degrees to show for it? No. I’m quite bad at the traditional classroom experience, it’s not how I learn. Plus, I needed to keep working for family sake. So, there it is, I think.

Now, historically, there are three types of Jews: ethnic Jews, assimilated/adopted Jews, and religiously converted Jews (Jews by choice). All three are Jewish halakhically, meaning by Jewish law. Ethnic Jews, the majority, are Jewish by paternal and/or maternal descent, whether religious or secular. Assimilated/Adopted Jews are like ethnic Jews, though they may not have direct ethnic Jewish paternal/maternal lineage. Converted Jews are non-Jews who have endured the arduous process of becoming Jews through religious conversion. Even though I can show definitely and scientifically that my family, through my fathers before me, are indigenous Jews from the Levant, I choose to call myself a “Jew by choice” for a very specific reason.

The Talmud clearly states that it “is written with regard to him, as the verse states: “And one judgment shall be both for you and for the convert that sojourns with you” (Numbers 15:16)” – Yevamot 46b, Babylonian Talmud

“There will be one law and one ordinance for you and the foreign-born who resides with you.” – Bamidbar/Numbers 15.16, Torah

The Talmud clearly states, “As cited above, the latter clause of the baraita states: “With you in your land” (Leviticus 19:33). I have derived only that a convert is accepted in Eretz Yisrael; from where do I derive that also outside of Eretz Yisrael he is to be accepted? The verse states: “With you,” which indicates that in any place that he is with you, you should accept him.” And, “The Gemara explains: That phrase is necessary to teach that even in Eretz Yisrael, the Jewish people should accept converts, as it could enter your mind to say that it is only for the sake of benefiting from the goodness of Eretz Yisrael, and not for the sake of Heaven, that they are converting, and therefore they should not be accepted. And it could also enter your mind to say that even nowadays, when God’s blessing has ceased and there is no longer the original goodness from which to benefit, one should still suspect their purity of motives because there are the gleanings, the forgotten sheaves, and the corners of fields, and the poor man’s tithe from which they would benefit by converting. Therefore, the verse teaches us that they are accepted even in Eretz Yisrael.” – Yevamot 47a, Babylonian Talmud

“When a foreign-born sojourns with you in your land, you shall not taunt him. The foreign-born who sojourns with you shall be as a native from among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” – Vayikra/Leviticus 19.33-34, Torah

And the Rabbi Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel, the first Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, wrote in 1951: “According to Torah, it is both permitted and a commandment to accept men and women converts, even if we are aware that they will not observe all the commandments.”

This means that 1) a Jew by choice is just as Jewish as any Jew by birth, ethnically Jewish or assimilated, and 2), when a convert to Judaism becomes accepted as Jewish, his or her status as a Jew is irrevocable like a born Jew. Now, add new babies to the Jewish community, please! And teach the Jewish way of life to your children, as has been done for thousands of years.

Which leads me to the point of my page, here. The most blessed Jews are the Jews who chose to be Jewish and take on the destiny of the Jewish people, no matter what that destiny entails. There could be no greater courage, than this! So, as a Jew, I stand with all Jews – ethnic, assimilated/adopted, and religiously converted. And, as a Jew, I stand as a “Jew by choice,” even if I don’t need to do so, for every Jew is authentically a Jew – when accepted by a Jewish community in this world! And, by Torah, we have no right to question or reject this status, only to question one’s development as a Jew.

If you’ve committed your life to the Jewish people – to it’s fate, to the preservation of its inheritance (Torah), its languages, its unique cultures, and its connection to the ancestral land (Israel) – then you are a Jew, and no subset of the Jewish people can deny your status as a Jew. If it is tried, it is halakhically wrong! And time will weed out this fallacy.

I heard a story about Rabbi Joseph Mesas, chief rabbi of Haifa, who stated in 1965 that “in matters of conversion, the general policy to be followed is to accept all people seeking to convert. Rejection of people seeking to become Jewish achieves no positive results, and frequently leads to unhappiness, resentment and bitterness.

To illustrate this, Mesas related a case in which rabbis refused to convert a woman who then proceeded to move with her Jewish husband to another location, where they “passed” as Jews. Fifty years later, it was discovered that the family’s matriarch was not Jewish; ipso facto, neither were her daughters or their children — although all of them had grown up thinking they were Jews. Several members of the family agreed to convert, while others were so upset and distraught that they left Judaism entirely.

Mesas criticized those rabbis for lacking the foresight or will to comprehend the cost of their rejectionist policy. Indeed, he said, under contemporary conditions, rejecting candidates for conversion was not a sign of true religious commitment but rather of sanctimonious pseudo-piety.”

– quote directly above from Prof. Zvi Zohar, Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, teaches at the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar Ilan University,
https://www.google.com/amp/s/forward.com/opinion/199505/the-talmudic-case-for-conversion/%3fgamp

Enough said? Let me show you where Rabbi Mesas’s stance comes from, by stepping back through time, yet again:

“The Gemara relates: There was an incident involving one who was presumed to be Jewish who came before Rabbi Yehuda and said to him: I converted in private, and therefore I am not actually Jewish. Rabbi Yehuda said to him: Do you have witnesses to support your claim? He said to him: No. Rabbi Yehuda asked: Do you have children? He said to him: Yes. Rabbi Yehuda said to him: You are deemed credible in order to render yourself unfit to marry a Jewish woman by claiming that you are a gentile, but you are not deemed credible in order to render your children unfit.” – Yevamot 47a, Babylonian Talmud

In other words, once a Jew always a Jew, period! Even, as embarrassing as it sometimes is, when an occasional few embrace the yetzer hara over the yetzer hatov. Jews are a minority people in this world, and it is to our peril to spurn or reject those committed to the survival of the Jewish people and call themselves Jews – just like we don’t ever spurn ethnic Jews and assimilated Jews, such as myself.

Further reading:

“There remains a difficult passage in the Talmud (Yevamot 47b) that begs some elucidation. “Converts are as difficult for Israel as a blight!” Not a very flattering depiction. A simple explanation might be that when converts are insincere, and they are not really committed to living a full Jewish life — perhaps they converted for ulterior motives, like to marry a Jew — then their failure to observe the commandments brings disrepute to Judaism, and may have a negative ripple effect on other Jews.

But there is also an alternative interpretation. Some understand the suggestion that converts are a blight upon Israel to mean that they give born Jews a bad name. Why? Because all too often, converts are more zealous than any other Jews in their commitment to the faith. Have we not seen converts who are more observant and more passionate about Judaism than most born Jews? “A blight upon Israel” would then mean that their deeper commitment and zealousness puts us to shame.

Those who would look down upon converts should remember that some of our greatest Torah sages were descended from converts, including the legendary Rabbi Akiva. If your mother is Jewish, [according to Rabbinic Judaism,] then you are Jewish. Period. You cannot surrender your birthright. [Same if your father is Jewish, according to non-Rabbinic Jewish traditions]. Like it or not, it is a biological and spiritual fact of life. You can attempt to convert out of the Jewish faith, but Judaism does not recognize such artificial alterations. A Jew is a Jew is a Jew. If you were born a Jew, you will die a Jew. But a convert did not have to become Jewish. No one forced him or her into it.”

– Rabbi Yossy Goldman, Senior Rabbi of the Sydenham Shul since 1986, president of the South African Rabbinical Association
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/385671/jewish/How-Are-We-to-View-Jews-by-Choice.htm

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I so love intellectual honesty!

“As Professor Ernst Simon once said, “ The people I can pray with I cannot talk to, and the people I can talk to I cannot pray with.” In terms of living a Jewish life and experiencing its intensity, I am totally at home in the most Charedi of communities. If I had to choose, that is where I would go. But intellectually and theologically, I have almost nothing in common with the Charedi world.

I have spent many years living, studying and associating with Charedi Jews around the world. The piety, charity, humility, and devotion is beyond anything I have found elsewhere. They are the hidden, unknown tsaddikim, saints and modest men and women who are the true bearers of the religious flame. This is where my soul feels at home. But there is another side. Fanaticism, aggression, bullying, exploitation, and leadership that dares not, or will not, take a stand. It rewards the sinners rather than victims. It hates secular authority while craving its financial rewards. It often puts the letter of the law above the feelings of ordinary people and puts money above justice and honesty.”

But, above all, it doesn’t evolve with the times. My greatest personal grievance (beyond immorality)! It clings to a language that is not our understanding in the present. It clings to an understanding of life that is rooted in antiquity, like the Torah speaks in a language of antiquity before it. I love the lifestyle, but hate the inflexible narrow-minded beliefs! I love the ethno-religious approach to life, but hate how inflexible it can be – and is – in expressing this. Nature abhors stagnation, and stagnation leads to decay. Hence, why I am an ethical-oriented traditional Jew – someone who is representative of both extremes of being Jewish!

Take the time to read every word he said, it is worth your time.

https://www.facebook.com/211463586001641/posts/798820113932649/

Torat Chayim rabbinic member Rabbi Dr. Jeremy Rosen:

“My problem with religion…

Marx was right. And Freud was right, too.” But, “I love my religion passionately.”