Jewish vs. Hebrew
Jun. 5th, 2008 10:34 amI was thinking this morning, and it seems to me that once I'm fluent in Hebrew, I'll probably prefer to think of myself as Hebrew rather than Jewish, religiously if not culturally at least. (I was raised in Jewish culture, and it's a part of me that I don't care to remove.) Religion-wise, 'Jewish' implies rabbinical Judaism, where 'Hebrew' evokes the earlier, more primal form of the religion of the people of the Torah, Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings).
This may take a while, however, as calling myself Hebrew while not speaking the language would be both ludicrous and pretentious, and pretense is unhelpful.
This may take a while, however, as calling myself Hebrew while not speaking the language would be both ludicrous and pretentious, and pretense is unhelpful.