Let me try to explain to Gentiles why some Jews are so roiled up at others this Pass-over.
Israel is the Jewish state. Though most Israelis are "secular" (not that observant), Orthodox Jews have a monopoly on religious functions like marriage and decide "who is a Jew" and therefore able to claim citizenship under the Law of Return.Israeli courts, at the urging of secularists and applauded by non-Orthodox Jews in America, have begun to challenge that monopoly. That triggered a fierce defense from Israeli religious-political parties: New laws are being passed to ensure that only conversions by Orthodox rabbis, not Reform or Conservative, confer legal Jewish identity on people who want to become Jews.
Many American Jews respond: Who are you fundamentalists to challenge the legitimacy of our modern religious practice? We celebrate diversity in our democracy and don't have to keep kosher to keep the faith. (And we send you guys a bundle, too.)
The Orthodox counter: Your relaxed brand of Judaism has led to intermarriage and assimilation. As a result, in the 50 years that the U.S. population has doubled, the number of U.S. Jews has stayed the same or dwindled, with only the Orthodox segment growing. That proves our way is the only way to preserve the faith. (And we face terror daily, not you.)
If either side totally wins this argument, everybody loses, but it's not enough to urge every demagogue to calm down. As a Conservative in Judaism and politics, I turn to the Book of Job to work out a position on who can best decide what the standard should be to make somebody Jewish.
You remember the story: To prove to the Satan that a devout man's faith was not based on his worldly success, God unjustly afflicted Job. When his friends, representing organized religion, came to commiserate, they told Job that his suffering had to be the result of some sin.
The horrified religionists then accused Job of impiety, but the worked-up dissident maintained his ways until God engaged his challenger directly in his longest speech in the Bible. After slapping Job down for his impudence, God tells the friends they were mistaken all along and rewards Job.
Among the messages in this near-heretical book: suffering is no evidence of sin, God does not distribute justice on Earth as seemingly promised in the Covenant, and the individual believer, no matter how outcast from society or berated by co-religionists, is never isolated from his God.
I take that last message to be directed at those who, in Nelson Man-dela's phrase, "think more with their blood than their brains." Jewishness combines clan with culture and faith, and faith is the central part of the mix.
The faith of Judaism emphasizes congregation, or coming together to worship, but requires no intermediary between believer and believed-in. A rabbi - no matter how strong a moral leader or profound an interpreter of Scripture - is a teacher, not a priest or a saint.
And as Job teaches, we're encouraged to argue with any authority, which is why this controversy, if conducted civilly, can enliven and enrich Judaism.
As we acknowledge how tradition deserves respect, you should consider how rigidity begets reform. Outsiders are not enemies. As a non-Jew likes to remind me, the Old Testament Job was a Gentile.