Judaism: Religion v. Culture

Although Judaism can be defined in many ways, it seems appropriate that it should be primarily defined as a religion; or, I should say, as primarily a non-Jew but also as an atheist, I see Judaism as mostly a religion because firstly, in the historical context, people first identified with Judaism when God spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai—this focus on God, and the fact the primary source for this history is the Bible, suggests to me that Judaism is based on religion. Secondly, although according to Jewish law, one is not Jewish unless descended from Jewish parents (mothers), historical Jews, who were first the Israelites, came from a multitude of nations and empires of different peoples. Similarly, today religion, culture and race are all aspects of determining nationality—yet modern Jews are part of many different nations as are individuals who identify with other religions. Practices in Judaism are all elements of religious expression, and although one can be born Jewish—according to Jewish law primarily recoded in the Torah—the fact that this is based on religious law should not be overlooked by the fact that Judaism can be inherited.