[Avodah] yovel

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 07:22:46PM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
:> If we ask, in purely descriptive terms, whether anyone born of
:> Jewish parents is a Jew, the answer must be yes. As an epithet, the
:> terms "Jew" remains applicabe to any individual who was ever endowed
:> with Jewish status - even to a meshumad. Hence, he is obligated to
:> pursue a Torah life, and should he decide to return, he would
:> perhaps require no new conversion.(38) However, if we ask whether a
:> meshumad has anything of a Jewish personality and character, and
:> whether therefore, he continues to be endowed with the personal
:> status of a Jew, the answer is a ringing no. He remains a Jew
:> without Jewishness. What he retain is simply the descriptive
:> epithet: shem Yisrael. Of kedushat Yisrael, however - of the
:> sacredness of the Jewish personality, that which essentially
:> constitutes being a Jew - he is bereft. And let us remember that
:> kedushat Yisrael is not simply a psychological condition or even a
:> legal status. It is also a metaphysical state. Of this, the meshumad
:> is divested completely. As he has renounced Jewry, so Jewishness is
:> divorced from him.
:>...
:> Footnote 38: The first point, that the obligation remains, is
:> certain. The second, that reentry would not necessitate gerut, is
:> open to question. One might argue that even for one who is endowed
:> with shem Yisrael, the recovery of kedushat Yisrael requires full
:> gerut. It may also be contended that gerut would not be required,
:> but only because the return to the fold would retroactively cancel
:> the earlier renunciation.

: To me this sounds like a contradiction. Clearly, RAL is trying to
: describe a very subtle point, but I am lost on it. I hope someone can
: explain it to me.

You see a contradiction in the words of someone whose mesorah runs
through Brisk. Obviously, look for a chiluq that involves tzvei dinim.
Here is how I read the quotes from RAL:

There is the din of bein a ben beris, and a seperate din of qedushas
Yisrael. Individual qedushah and collective qedushah.

The 25th generation descendent of Morranos may remain a ben beris, a
"Jew" as RAL puts it, but he lacks the "qedushas Yisrael" of being part
of the tzibbur.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of
micha at aishdas.org        greater vanity in others; it makes us vain,
http://www.aishdas.org   in fact, of our modesty.
Fax: (270) 514-1507              -Louis Kronenberger, writer (1904-1980)