Judaism is a civilization. It has history, culture, literature. It has jokes, ... Part of any civilization is its religious beliefs, and so part of Judaism is the religion of the Jew, but they are not the same thing. We're looking at the ways in which a person who is Jewish by birth, civilization, culture, context and family may look at things differently from the way a person who is Catholic and lives down the road may see them. |
We have folklore and superstition and magic. The first book I ever wrote was on magic incantations written by Jewish magi. |
You don't have to be a fish to study underwater archeology or to swim. You don't have to be Jewish to be interested in Jewish literature. |