Leviticus 19:19
"You shall observe My statutes: You shall not crossbreed your livestock with different species. You shall not sow your field with a mixture of seeds, and a garment which has a mixture of shaatnez shall not come upon you.
What this is literally saying is that you should not mix specific things, but my interpretation of this has to due with intermarriage. Intermarriage is banned "Because he will lead your son astray from Me and They will serve strange gods" (Deuteronomy 7: 4) This works with the idea of not crossbreeding because it dilutes the bloodline. These can be put together to make the connection that intermarriage mars the bloodline of Judaism. The reason that the line says "he will lead your son astray" and not she, is that the possession of the children belonged to the mother. If the mother of the child was not Jewish, then the child is not Jewish. This idea of matrilineal descent is still present in Orthodox and most Conservative movements. It is fairly clear how to uphold this mitzvah, just if you're a women you aren't supposed to marry a non-Jew. Of course this isn't as easy as it sounds, with in America every other Jewish marriage is one of intermarriage.
The above photo is of a mikveh, a ritual bath with many uses in the Jewish world. One of these uses is for conversion. While Judaism isn't a mainly conversion focused religion, it is allowed. The reason it is not widely done is that by converting, you are promising to live an Orthodox lifestyle. Marrying someone who converted is completely ok. I have many friends back home who's mother converted to Judaism. All of this just shows how even though there are things prohibiting us from certain things for the sake of Judaism, Judaism still leaves us a way to get what we want.
I'm sorry about the way how this came out, I realize this could come out as very offensive to certain people, and I apologize.
ReplyDeleteScott i honestly believe in a lot of what you had to say because of the fact that every day in the US Jews are intermarrying and we are loosing our people. What the reform movement has been doing is a great job but its still not enough. I believe that one shouldn't intermarry because i have a belief that i need to continue my judaism from generation to generation (l'dor v'dor) in the best way i can. Still i hate that Judaism is looked at through a bloodline i feel that judaism should be given to all that accept it.
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