Matrilineal Ascent -A Great Contradiction in Judaism

Matrilineal Ascent -A Great Contradiction in Judaism

Jews say maternal ascent is the way to inherit Judaism, saying Isaac was Jewish but Ishmael was not. Here there is a pattern of maternal ascent where Kings come from the womb of Sarah, according to the Torah. However, when thinking that is not to say Ishmael was not a Jew. The first obvious contradiction is: What of the first Jew? The mother of Abraham is not considered Jewish. Her name is not even mentioned in the Torah. However, this pattern occurs again. Rebecca was Jewish, and she was the mother of Jacob and Esau. Yet, here is where the hypocrisy begins. Esau is not considered Jewish. The hypocrisy continues with Lot. He was a Jew. He was the son of Abraham’s brother. This is one family. There are no divisions in it at this time in the Torah. Abraham was to be the founder of a nation. This is the Jewish nation. It makes no sense not to include his immediate family, people such as Hagar, Keturah, Lot, Esua and Ishmael. This nation then has tribes, but yet the Torah does not mention many of the mothers’ names. Are we to think that Darda is not a Jew because there is no Jewish mother mentioned for Zerah. What about Hezron and Hamul. There are no Jewish mothers there, but yet we consider them to be Jewish.

Jews recognize that tribal affiliation comes from the father, but what of intermarriage. Is it really a reason to consider someone not to be a Jew? It wasn’t for the half-tribes, Manassah and Ephraim. Then, there is this idea of conversion, neglecting the Samaritan idea given in Genesis. Orthodox Jews use conversion to explain everything, but conversion is not in the Torah and neither is having a Jewish mother. The idea of conversion arrives with the book of Ruth. Ruth becomes a ger and not a full Israelite in this book, according to the castes of the Talmud. The myth of the Jewish maternal ascent being the only way doesn’t arrive until much later with the prophet Ezra. However, one descended from Judah is affiliated with Judah, as any other of these tribes. He/she is not to be cast away, but to retain this affiliation, mother or not.

So what is with this identity crisis in Judaism? Jews now focus more on their ancestries and their rite by birth than the ethics of the Torah. That is sham Judaism. Sham Judaism is someone that says, “I am a Jew because my mother was a Jew, and that is all I know about this religion.”