Joshua Grynbaum Week 2: The Jewish People- Community or Family?

  Last week in my Judaic Studies class, an important question was brought up questioning whether the Jewish people are more like a community, or a family. During class discussions, many different points were brought up for both sides of the argument, but I have still held the same opinion from the very beginning.

When this question was first asked to me, the thought that not every Jew is as close to one another as a family is, so I initially thought that there was an obvious answer to this question, however it wasn’t that simple. The idea of a community is a group of people that don’t necessarily support each other but do share similar views and ideas. A family, on the other hand, is a much more powerful title that invokes love and trust within a group of people. Within a family, there are usually many disagreements with different opinions, however, they still show love and affection to one another and are, for the most part, supportive of each other’s different ideas. A community is a more broad term that doesn’t show the same love and affection as a family does, however, most individuals within a community share similar ideas and are supportive of one another.

In addition to a class discussion, we went over sections of the first two books of the bible Genesis and Exodus and were shown sections that explained that the best metaphor to describe the Jewish people is as a family. The Torah spends a great deal of time stating the fact that all of the children of Israel were descendants of Ya’akov and his twelve sons, which related back to the idea that the Jewish people are more like a family, rather than a community. With all this being said, I still think the term "family" is too meaningful to be labeled upon every single Jewish person, and that we are more like a community, rather than a family. Do you feel that the Jewish people as a whole are more like one big family, or a supportive community?

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 6, 2022 at 4:29 AM

    I believe that the Jewish people are much more similar to a family because, like in a family, each member usually has their own opinions and views on topics just like there are many sects with different views in Judaism.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 6, 2022 at 9:45 AM

    I on the other hand agree that our people are more of a family. This is because in Bereishit, Adam and Eve who are the beginning of the Jewish people as a whole, were a family. In this way of thinking, it can be concluded that the familial relationship between Adam and Eve represents the fact that the Jewish people are more of a family.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 7, 2022 at 7:32 AM

    I believe that there are Jewish families inside Jewish communities. I also think it's easier to form a Jewish family because of the inherent bond that already exists from being Jewish.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousSeptember 11, 2022 at 1:42 PM

    I consider the Jewish people to be a community, and I feel very connected to my family because I know them directly. I really agree with how you described a community and family.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Johny IounatanovDecember 10, 2022 at 4:36 PM

    I believe that in present day, Judaism is more of a community due to the expansion of the religion and how much its evolves. There are many types of Judaism now that originate from the torah, creating many different communities rather than one big family.

    ReplyDelete

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