What exactly did Sampson do that everyone was doing? Was this disobedience, or was this character, or was this the world the way it was, and perhaps even now, the way we are?
the Disobedient Child — and “Belonging” — a Jewcast, well worth the time to watch and, importantly, to think through. It has ramifications, not only in the past, but for our immediate future, both for diaspora Jewish identity and for Israeli Jewish identity.
Deuteronomy 21:18
כִּֽי־יִהְיֶ֣ה לְאִ֗ישׁ בֵּ֚ן סוֹרֵ֣ר וּמוֹרֶ֔ה אֵינֶ֣נּוּ שֹׁמֵ֔עַ בְּק֥וֹל אָבִ֖יו וּבְק֣וֹל אִמּ֑וֹ וְיִסְּר֣וּ אֹת֔וֹ וְלֹ֥א יִשְׁמַ֖ע אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃
If a householder has a wayward and defiant son, who does not heed his father or mother and does not obey them even after they discipline him,
וְתָ֥פְשׂוּ ב֖וֹ אָבִ֣יו וְאִמּ֑וֹ וְהוֹצִ֧יאוּ אֹת֛וֹ אֶל־זִקְנֵ֥י עִיר֖וֹ וְאֶל־שַׁ֥עַר מְקֹמֽוֹ׃
his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the public place of his community.
וְאָמְר֞וּ אֶל־זִקְנֵ֣י עִיר֗וֹ בְּנֵ֤נוּ זֶה֙ סוֹרֵ֣ר וּמֹרֶ֔ה אֵינֶ֥נּוּ שֹׁמֵ֖עַ בְּקֹלֵ֑נוּ זוֹלֵ֖ל וְסֹבֵֽא׃
They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is disloyal and defiant; he does not heed us.
What exactly is the issue here? Is this a charachter flaw worthy of killing a child, or perhaps, instead, “cutting to the quick of our times,” is this perhaps an identity issue?
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Yehuda Kurtzer — to this issue, from the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and North America — here hosts a serious conversation of identity, how we will define ourselves moving forward, and where we are going individually and as a community.
Who gets to decide someone’s Jewish status, and what happens when that status comes into conflict with someone’s identity
This week on Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer sits down with Christine Hayes, Sterling Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at Yale and Hartman Senior Fellow for a provocative conversation about intermarriage, Jewish adjacency, and the boundaries of community and belonging.
A transcript of + an excerpt from this episode is available below. Listen to this episode wherever you get your podcasts or for today: Link: https://www.hartman.org.il/non-jewish-in-the-shadow-of-the-synagogue-with-christine-hayes/?mc_cid=ca8c826bc7&mc_eid=5a6dac857f
Excerpt: Yehuda: Hi everyone, welcome to Identity/Crisis, a show from the Shalom Hartman Institute creating better conversations about the essential issues facing Jewish life. We’re recording on Thursday, August 28th, 2025. Earlier this week, I was at a meeting with a couple of folks where I was brought in to discuss some Jewish issues, as I often do, but it wasn’t a meeting in the Jewish community proper. We jumped into the discussion. It was heated and interesting. Afterwards, as I was leaving, one of the people in the room came over to me and said that she was, in fact, Jewish. Then she said, actually, half Jewish. Her mother was Jewish, her father was not. This kind of confession of sorts, people disclosing to me some aspect of their Jewish identity, is something I get often.
Wherever I show up for work, wherever I go, I travel through the world as a Jewish person, but also as a Jewish leader of a Jewish institution. I wear a kippah. I have a really Jewish name, which basically means “Jew,” and I’m sure it’s also informed by the fact that I’m male, in those subtle ways in which gender and affect inform how people attribute identity to others or themselves, for better or worse. People want to identify themselves as Jews to other Jews, especially when they feel that their own identity might be invisible.
Some of this may be how minorities operate, seeking kinship with others, and it’s a little bit more complicated for Jews because of the ways in which we all look different from one another. There’s no such thing as “looking Jewish.” Maybe some of all of this is residual from generations of attempting to assimilate in order to avoid persecution, but never leaving our identities behind in the process.
When a person says to me, “I’m half Jewish,” a response that I’ve learned over the years is probably wrong, even though it’s never been received badly. I said to this person as I often do, no, no, you’re Jewish. She said, I’m half Jewish. I said, no, no, you’re Jewish. Almost like, don’t worry, we’re good. I approve of you. I think you’re okay.
I think the reason I respond this way to someone describing themselves as half Jewish is because I worry that the person is selling themselves short, is gripped with some insecurity about the fact that they’re not really Jewish.
