--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Richard J. Williams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Duveyoung wrote: > > I was tipping my hat to the fact that despite not > > knowing about mitochondria, the Jews came up with > > a system that recognizes the mother's role in > > "owning offspring." It's cool that they intuited > > it, and came up with a "rule" about it. > > > Great, but there's still no "Jewish" mitochondria. > Judaism is a social religion, not a separate race > of humans. That was my point.
It isn't a "race," but it is a "tribe." It's "social" in the sense that it can incorporate new members, but the genetic component is very important; the descendants of converts are considered genetically Jewish. Plus which, matrilineal descendants of Jews never *stop* being Jewish, halakhically speaking, even if they convert to another religion. On the other hand, "The womb can't lie" (or "It's a wise child that knows its own father") is more than sufficient explanation for the matrilineal descent system; there's no reason to suspect intuition, however inchoate, of mitochondria was involved. It's really just simple observation. If you want to be absolutely certain og the genetic inheritance, you have to go by motherhood.
