Stoudemire heads to Israel after discovering Jewish roots

[Redz]

I would like to hear a little clarification on how one discovers "a mother".  Adoption I'd guess?

Not necessarily -- you can convert into Judaism. It's a religious, not an ethnic identity (though I am sure there are people here who can offer more detail on the issue than me).

Right, you can convert to Judaism, but what does that have to do with the discovering "a Jewish mother"?

According to an Army Radio report, the Florida native plans to spend time in Israel learning Hebrew, having recently learned he has a Jewish mother.

[asterix]

Israel isn't just a country. Israel was a person who was originally known as Jacob, the son of Isaac the grandson of Abraham. (Many know this already.)

There were 12 sons to Jacob aka Israel. If your Jewish it means you are a descendant of either Judah, Benjamin or Levi. The other 9 and a half tribes were dispersed early in Israel's history. (Joseph was split into two, Manasseh and Ephraim) Manasseh returned to Israel in 2006. The return of all 12 tribes into Israel is a precedent to the building of the Temple which happens before the return of Joshua the Messiah (Jesus in the Greek and English tongue)

Being Jewish means you are a blood relative to Isaac and Jacob. It's a big family really. The land known as Israel was a promise from God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to their descendants.

There really is no reason to convert to Judaism and many Messianic Jews protest such and cite Jesus' quote from Revelation, "Cursed is any man who says he is Jewish and is not, he comes from the synagogue of Satan."

Many believe this infers to the fact that Judaism is a genetic family lineage that was given specific laws and ways of life from God to be His people that He would work wonders through.
Everyone else is adopted into that promise through Jesus who is King of the Jews.

There will always be disagreement between Christians and the Jewish family. However, I believe both in their truest and purest forms are more alike than either side would ever admit to. After all, Jesus was a Jewish man who practiced Judaism but thanks to the Roman empire allot of Roman mythology became Chritianized and caused allot of disparities between Christianity and Judaism that exists today.

If I'm not mistaken the head priest of Israel is considered a prophet however minor his role may be compared to the biggies such as Moses, Isaac, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor ones in the Bible. The tribe of Levi is the priesthood of Israel.

I'm always looking to learn more on this so if their are any Jewish people here who is willing to teach more about their rich history and blessed lineage please send me a PM this is something I've always been interested in.


A couple of corrections mate:

1. I have been living in Israel almost my whole life (I'm 36). No lost tribe came back in past 4 years. Israel is a society formed from Jewish immigrants from all over the world. many groups consider themselves to be this or tha tribe but there is no one group that relates to to the old tribes except for those whose surname is Cohen - those are direct decendants of the Levi tribe
2. The head Rabbi is state post and has nothing to do with the old prophets...

[Andy Jick]

I would like to hear a little clarification on how one discovers "a mother".  Adoption I'd guess?

Not necessarily -- you can convert into Judaism. It's a religious, not an ethnic identity (though I am sure there are people here who can offer more detail on the issue than me).

Right, you can convert to Judaism, but what does that have to do with the discovering "a Jewish mother"?

According to an Army Radio report, the Florida native plans to spend time in Israel learning Hebrew, having recently learned he has a Jewish mother.

Yahweh bless his little heart...  I just hope he doesn't miss Christ in his search for meaning (or whatever he's looking for). 

I'm looking forward to hearing, "And now, the starting PF for your New York Knickerbockers, Yarmulkamare Stoudemisrael!"  (complete with laser show, of course).