The Stubborn Subversiveness of Judaism’s Matrilineal Principle
The recent #patrilineal debate about the matrilineal exclusiveness of being Jewish in Germany that started last July between several writers/opinion makers demonstrates perfectly just how difficult but also dangerous it is to speak of ethnicity, race, religion, gender but also blood particularly in their intersectional form. Although doing politics of identity “correctly” makes it very difficult to speak about anything that may be offensive, marginalizing or insulting to disadvantaged groups of people who are defined by ethnicity, sex, gender, and/or sexual orientation, it remains pertinent to unpack some of these issues.
The following contribution attempts to explicate the central challenge behind the ethnically based matrilineal principle in Judaism. I neither recap the invasive and infuriating debate, nor do I attempt to answer the “Who’s a Jew” question in Germany. After all, being Jewish just like eating Kosher or even “organic”, is a heterogeneous term “that means different things to different people.” Instead, my intention here is to focus on the major blind-spot of this entire debate: The Jewish legal construct of motherhood. Not only much beauty and wisdom is lost when such a construct and the importance of the matrilineal ethnicity is overlooked; bringing the woman back into the debate is helpful in elucidating what, how and why Jewish law is so adamantly protective of its matrilineal principle. Importantly, such matrilineality urges us to examine the strengths and limits of the very foundation of “secular” liberal democracies, namely religious freedoms, legal pluralism but also gender equality.
Historical Anomaly? From the Bible to Rabbinical Judaism
The matrilineal principle in Judaism does not mean Judaism is matriarchal, let alone feminist. Judaism is as patriarchal as all other monotheistic religions. Genealogy, indeed, is determined by the father regarding all categories except the most important: Whether a child is Jewish in the first place. Even if Jewish identity is constructed on the basis of a genealogical and biblical family—we are all descendants of the 3 patriarchs and 4 matriarchs—the matrilineal principle is not biblical. The bible remains relatively silent on the issue of matrilineality (in the book of Ezra 10 2-3 it is only mentioned that breaking with faith begins with marriages with foreign women). It remains equally silent on the question of conversion. The law of conversion (Gerut/Keritot 8b) opens Judaism’s matrilineal exclusiveness for men and women alike. Both the laws of conversion and the matrilineal principles were sharpened over time. From the second century of our era onwards a child of a Jewish mother and a gentile father is a Jew while a child of a Jewish father and a gentile mother is not Jewish (see Mishna Qiddusin 3: 12). The extent to which the matrilineal principle is counterintuitive in the Halacha, the Jewish law, can be appreciated when we consider the historical gravitas of the “who’s a Jew?” question for all Jews, all over the world, for centuries. The “who’s a Jew” question was only intensified with the establishment of the Israeli state that incorporated rabbinical/orthodox Judaism over Judaism’s more recent and liberal reform and conservative movements.
It’s all about Genealogy, not Theology
To speak of descent—matrilineal or patrilineal—contests the Christian assumption that religion is a matter of belief. Judaism, in contrast, is a genealogical ethnical and indeed blood-line-based religion. God, it is argued, is bound to his monotheistic followers through familial kinship that essentializes both the physical and spiritual dimensions of our Jewish existence. It is only from our embodied humanity, upon all our physical needs and spiritual desires, that God may be worshiped. Be that as it may, it remains difficult to determine if it is Judaism’s particularistic genealogical principle—that contradicts Christianity’s theological understanding of religion—or its insistence on the matrilineal principle that comes under attack presently.
Reasons for Matrilineality: Possibly Maybe?
There are numerous socio-biological-historical explanations for the birth of the matrilineal principle (pun intended). Starting with the argument that paternal identity is less certain than that of mothers, that mothers are responsible for the children’s upbringing, or the importance of the continuation of the Jewish birth even when and if Jewish fathers were away at war or entirely disinterested. Moreover, there are important similarities between the Jewish matrilineal principle and earlier Roman laws that deemed the children of Roman citizens and foreign mothers to follow the mother’s religion.
One of the more imaginative and moving readings into the matrilineal principle goes back to Adam, the first biblical man, whose name is not informative of being the forerunner of humanity. Antithetically, Eve (Hava), the first woman (Genesis 3:20), is “the mother of all living things” (“em kol hai”). Significantly, the Talmud and Midrash go on to secure the position of women of Israel as the saviours of the Jewish people. From Isaiah’s words “Can a woman forget her child, refrain from having mercy on the son of her womb?” (Isaiah 49:15), rabbinical Judaism reads that while God is both the mother and father of the Jewish people, it is because of God’s maternal relationship with Israel that the Jewish people will never be abandoned. In Proverb 1:8: “Hear, my son, the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the Torah teaching of thy mother.” Here the mother is the Torah/the body/the flesh and the biological while the father is the Mosar/morality/Nomos/spiritual and faith. However historically contested the binary dualism between body-mind may be—binaries that kept philosophers, theologians and indeed jurists busy for centuries—it remains pivotal that rabbinical Judaism values (however unequally) the body and the mind.
By crowning the Jewish womb to be the source of it all, one can see how Judaism, almost accidentally, lands up bestowing some subjective legal personality onto the maternal body. After all, a child born to a Jewish mother will forever be a part of the Jewish family, no matter what that child’s belief or practices are. Moreover, bearing in mind that there is no proof that the matrilineal principle was introduced due to any of these socio-biological-historical and even legal needs we are obliged to surrender our need for valid and flawless justifications. Instead, it needs to be accepted that there is more to Judaism’s matrilineal principle which discloses the importance of motherhood, family and the nature of Judaism itself. It is not the first or last time that religious logic in general is impermeable. And the Halacha is notorious for its subversive inability to succumb to social trends.
On the Dangers, Beauty and Future Prospects of the Maternal legal Personality
Whatever the real reasons for the matrilineal legal principle are, it is still something that Jews and gentiles alike need to reckon with. Ultimately, a constructive and analytical examination of this law, a law that kept the family of the Jewish people intact for centuries, is essential, even if speaking of blood, body and ethnicity has justifiably gotten more dangerous and complicated post WWII. The real challenge behind the matrilineal principle lies in the manner in which it contests our modern albeit still systematically gender-biased society upon its legal normative orders. For Jews (it is mostly men who wish to do away with Judaism’s matrilineal principle) it remains disheartening that men’s blood matters less than that of women. For gentiles it is outrageous that religion can “still” be determined by ethnic based genealogy, let alone the added gendered preference of the mother. While this mirrors the universality of patriarchy it also illuminates the anxieties around intersectionalities between religion, gender and ethnicity in our pseudo-pluralistic society. Opening up the “who’s a Jew” question, in the name of (patriarchal) universality and equality gets precarious for Jewish women because it harms the little legal privilege it actually gives them. So before we trash the historical, sociological, legal and religious Halachic logic because it is conservative or too archaic to meet modern-life, we should pause with some humility: on the one hand it is futile to ignore the genealogical, ethnic and hence legal construct of the maternal in Judaism, because it remains the very basis of our individual and collective Jewish identity. While on the other hand, we ought to appreciate the potentiality it offers for religious/legal pluralism and also gender equality by and large.
The rabbis institution of the law of matrilineal decent is something I really wrestle with. 1) It has caused great pain and separated families and communities. There are first cousins who could be raised together and some be considered Jewish while others are not. A man could be considered Jewish and welcome in any synagogue but his children and wife would be rejected. What is that man going to do? Leave. Why would we hold onto something that is not explicitly in the Torah/TNK when yachad (togetherness) is so important to us? 2) Moshe (Moses) married Zipporah of Midian while in exile from Egypt. Were the sons of Moshe not Jewish??? 3) Was our Melech Shlomo (Solomon) not Jewish??? We would have to admit that a king of Israel was not Jewish. Do we really want to do that? Did not the glory of Hashem fill the temple that He commanded him to build when it was consecrated? 3) To your point, while it gives a place of honor to women…Jewish men who are observant have limited options while Jewish women could marry whoever and have Jewish children. We have the ace card for once! While that’s a fun thought to entertain, I think we all know it’s a little off balance. Humans do not reproduce asexually. If a person wouldn’t be here without a Jewish father how could we say that person isn’t Jewish? 4) Does this really serve us well? We are an extreme minority. It does us no good to exclude 50% of our population from being progenitors of more Jewish people. That’s just my two cents! Thanks Dr. Paz for this thought provoking article!
It is without a doubt Jews are of Patrilineal descent. The Kohanim are specifically passed onwards from the fathers line, which proves it. The family line of Aaron was chosen in order to be a specific lineage to differentiate it from all other family lines which were also based on the father. Women did not have many rights 5000 years ago and the tone of the scripts makes it very easy for the father to dispose of a wife etc, therefore it would have to be paternal lineage for that to make any sense and for the religion to work. In addition all of the examples as stated before, such as tribe of Ephriam having non-Jewish mothers and others such as Solomon. The Rabbis just make this stuff up and Rabbis themselves dont even exist in the scripture. They were most likely just power usurpers from the Priest line because of the animosity of that time
Amein! Well spoken, I totally agree, we need more unity and inclusiveness in the Jewish family, if one desires to learn more and “be” more Jewish, no one should hinder them. The recent events in Isra and all around the world highlight our need to come together and gather in all who desire to live a Jewish life
Israel
So we’ll written. This issue causes so much pain and isn’t helpful for Jews as a group. DNA wise it’s nonsensical. Nobody would deny a child with an Italian father the fact they’d be half Italian for example. Religion is another matter, one of choice. But to also invalidate the flesh and very beings of people with the “wrong Jewish parent” is self harm and invites hate from both sides. Not to mention antisemites claiming Jews are racist and apartheid. They will use this as proof.
I must agree with the previous comment by Rebecca,
“We are an extreme minority. It does us no good to exclude 50% of our population from being progenitors of more Jewish people.”
And while I can not speak as eloquently as Rebecca did, let me address why this topic has my sudden interest.
My background , Raised by my father (Jewish by birth) his mother (Jewish by birth) both practicing Conservative Judiasm. Born by a mother who had converted to Judiasm and deserted me and my sister at the age of 2 and 4 respectively. I work in the car industry and recently had an orthodox Jewish couple enter the dealership. As often comes up as you make conversation we hit upon many subjects. I have a very German last name and so the topic of whether i was German came up, which led to the conversation of when my family got out of Germany. The female half of the couple at least five times during the conversation told me I wasn’t Jewish. The fact that I was raised Jewish, believe in Judaism, practice Judiasm as much as possible, at one point was on the Board of Directors of a Temple, that I had a BarMitzvah in a conservative Jewish Temple, lost great uncles in the holocaust, and that I have fought my whole life because I was Jewish , meant nothing. Her argument was because I did not truly “know” my mother I was not Jewish. I did not know if she was truly Jewish.
The Jewish people wonder why we are diminishing in numbers, it is no wonder when our own faith, doesn’t want us.
Can totally relate. And I lost my non Jewish mother at a very young age. Also was in foster care (non Jewish) for a few years. Yet have experienced Antisemitism and been told by other Jews, including orthodox family, that I’m not one of them. Basically I’m a nothing and they “feel sorry” for me that I’m not a Jew. decades of this.
My dad was Jewish and my mother had some Jewish ancestry but NOT on her matrilineal line. Such a distinction turned me off to ever pursuing Judaism as a faith.
Raised a Messianic (Christian) Jew, I consider myself fully Jewish even while being one who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah. If we disagree on this point, that is an argument separate to core of this one.
Anyways, my father’s Jewish bloodlines came through his mother’s side. He was a Rabbi originally in the Messianic Jewish faith & later in the more traditional orthodox Jewish circles, since he choose to reject his faith in Yeshua in accordance with his 2nd wife’s family’s faith. Again & to be quite clear, he then went on to become a recognized rabbi even in orthodox Jewish circles! Yet since my Jewish bloodline comes from my father & not through my mother, he can be and indeed was a literal Rabbi & recognizef Jewish leader even while some try to claim that my lifetime claim to being Jewish is invalidated not by my claim of Yeshua as Messiah but rather & categorically by this unBiblical obsession over matrilineal decent. In other words, I could be a Jew for Jesus (as some say) if only I were actually Jewish. What utter nonsense!
The very Words of God as clearly seen through the Torah & the books of the prophets are far more important than any teachings of mere men (of rabbis), no matter how seemingly respectable or thought provoking. The rabbis’ institution of the supposed “law” of matrilineal decent both is solidly against our fathers’ traditions prior to this corrupted practice put forward by these mere men & is clearly againts the practices as seen in the very Word of God. As such, it is far more groundless & decisive than even the question of the Messiah might be to some.
Put God’s Word first, and see where that leads you! (Isaiah 53)
What an interesting blog. Thank you.
I found Shlomo Sand’s 2009 book ‘The invention of the Jewish People’ (2009, Verso) both provocative and scholarly. Personally, I don’t wish to follow a religion the principles of which I cannot question or reject.
About a decade ago the science journal Nature published an article which claimed that there is a specific gene marker shared by all Cohens. There was a flurry of interest in this implication that Judaism might be ‘genetic’. Interest waned when it was discovered later that this same marker was widely distributed across many cultures and various religions in the Middle East.