[Avodah] Hebrews/Israelites/Bnei Yisroel - Jews

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 16, 2007 at 12:23:50PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> : The gemara in Megillah explains that Mordechai was a "Yehudi" because
> : it means anyone who is "modeh baHashem vekofer baavodah zarah".  On
> : that basis not only can all Bnei Yisrael be called Yehudim, but so
> : can any Ben Noach who accepts the truth of the Torah and keeps the 7
> : mitzvot.
> 
> The gemara gives a beautiful derashah for the word. THat's not the same
> as finding it origin.
> 
> IOW, the qestion of what we can learn from Hashem working it out that we
> are called "Yehudim", or even (if you wish) a reason we can find for
> *why* He chose to, is disconnected to the question of *how* the name
> came to be.

Nice, but that's not what the gemara says.  It's Megilla 13a, at the top
of the page.  The gemara is discussing the apparent contradiction between
"ish Yehudi" and "ish Yemini", and various answers are suggested, e..g
that he came from both tribes, or that Yehuda gets a share in his credit
because David didn't kill Shim'i.  Then R Yochanan says: "le'olam
mibinyamin ka'ati", he came only from Binyamin and not from Yehuda.
"So why was he called Yehudi?  Because he denied AZ, for anyone who
denies AZ is called Yehudi, as it says 'There are Jewish men [...who
don't serve your gods]' (Daniel 3:12)."

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas