Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site mhuxv.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!mhuxm!mhuxv!segs From: segs@mhuxv.UUCP (slusky) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Simple Questions Message-ID: <178@mhuxv.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 10:45:14 EDT Article-I.D.: mhuxv.178 Posted: Mon Sep 24 10:45:14 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 08:18:27 EDT References: <452@houxu.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 30 > As a non-Jew observing this debate on who is Jewish, I have some simple > questions: > > Who were the first Jews? > > Were Adam and Eve Jews? > > If Eve is a Jew then by Jewish law aren't we all Jews? > > > Larry Welsch > houxu!welsch Sarah and Avraham were the first Jews. Sarah and Avraham's son Yitzchok (Isaac) married his cousin Rivkah (Rebekkah) who accepted Judaism in some poorly defined way. Rivkah and Yitzchok's son Yaakov (Jacob) married his cousins Rachel and Leah who also accepted Judaism as above. Rivkah and Yitzchok's other son Esau rejected Judaism. The decendants of Yaakov by Leah, Rachel and their "handmaidens" are Jews. The insistance on Judaism being passed by the mother as well as more formal conversion procedures are products of a later age. However, Avraham's son Ishmael, whose mother was not Sarah but Hagar, was not Jewish. This serves as part of the basis for insisting on matrilineal religious determination. -- mhuxv!segs