Why be Jewish?

In the last days of his life, Moses renewed the covenant between God and Israel.

The entire book of Devorime is an account of the covenant, how it came about, what its terms and conditions are,

why it set the core of Israel's identity as an um-kadoosh, a holy

people, and so on. And now comes the moment of renewal itself, a kind of national referendum, as it were.

Moses, however, is careful not to limit his words to those who were actually present, about to die,

he wants to ensure that no future generation can say,

Moses made a covenant with our ancestors, but not with us. We didn't give our consent. We are not bound.

To preclude this, he says these words, it is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing

here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.

Now, as the commentators point out, the phrase, whoever is not here, cannot refer to Israelites

alive at the time who hadn't to be

somewhere else. That cannot be since the entire nation was assembled there. It can only mean

generations not yet born. The covenant, in other words, bound all Jews from that day to this.

As the Talmud says, we are all Mushpa and Omeid, Mehar Sinai. We are

foresworn from Sinai. By agreeing to be God's people subject to God's laws, our ancestors

obligated us. Hence, one of the most fundamental facts about Judaism. Converts accepted, we do not choose to be Jews.

We are born as Jews. We become legal adults, subject to the commands and responsible for our actions,

at the age of 12 for girls, 13 for boys, but we are part of the covenant from birth. A bat or bar mitzvah is not a

confirmation. It involves no voluntary acceptance of Jewish identity. That choice took place

more than 3,000 years ago when Moses said it is not with you alone I'm making this sworn

covenant but with whoever is not here you alone I'm making this sworn covenant but with

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