Am I Jewish Enough?

One subject that was briefly touched upon last week was one I have been meaning to blog about for a while now. Someone mentioned how they felt underqualified to take this course and appreciated how Professor Cohen explains any Hebrew words that come up, etc. I've noticed this theme running throughout so many of the blogs. The writer feels like the rest of the class is "Really Jewish" compared to him. I feel bad that people are so intimidated, but I can kinda relate. There are so many facets to Judaism (as we're finding out in this course) that I think even if you went to Yeshiva for 12 years, you would still feel like you had an inadequate amount of knowledge to talk about many subjects. I think this sentiment also points to a certain hierarchy within the religion. This feeling that someone coming from an Orthodox background is more qualified to comment on any and all things Jewish than someone with a less observant or secular background. People talk of "Jewish guilt" all the time (hey, look at Guilt and Pleasure) and I think it's usually attributed to Jewish mothers. If Jewish guilt exists, then I wonder if maybe a lot of it comes from ourselves. With so much history to learn and so many rules to follow, it is really easy for people to feel like they are not doing what they are supposed to or are not living up to some ideal.

Ironically, the simple fact that they are signed up for this class on Jewish Identity would probably make a lot of people outside refer to the students in this class as "Really Jewish."