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Comments (0)With the high intermarriage rate, the question must be asked: Who is a Jew by Torah law?
According to written and oral tradition, if a child’s mother is not Jewish, the child is not Jewish (Tractate Kiddushin 66b). This understanding is derived from Deuteronomy 7:1-5, where God tells the Jewish people that when they inherit the Land of Israel they should not intermarry, “for he [the Jewish man married to a non-Jewish woman] will turn your son [read grandson] away from me and they will worship other gods …”
This law is also found in the Mishnah: “He counts as a brother in every respect unless he was the son of a maidservant or of a gentile woman” (Yevamot 2:21a). This law is later codified in traditional Jewish texts, including by Maimonides. In his Mishnah Torah, the Rambam writes, “He counts as a brother … unless he was the son of a … gentile woman” (Laws of Forbidden Relationships 15:4).
There are other Torah sources, including one in Leviticus and one in the Book of Ezra.
(The Reform movement, which does not see Halachah as binding, accepts patrilineal descent under certain conditions.)
Just because Judaism honors women by their determining the Jewish status of their children, men also hold a coveted role. The father, for example, is the one who determines what tribe — Kohain, Levi or Israel — the child is from.