Who is a Jew? What is the difference between a Jew and a Jew?

Each of us repeatedly failed to hear from the unfamiliar and close unflattering mention of any disliked figure - "Jew." It is always said with confidence and with mockery, with a little contempt and a twinkle in your eyes. Sense is caught at some deep, subconscious level - very few people know exactly who is a liar. But if you say so yourself, in return you can hear an understanding poddakivanie and strengthened nods in the head. Only this does not explain much. Why is this attitude to a seemingly ordinary word? What does it mean? After all, who is the Jew?

What does Orthodoxy mean?

They say Jews are called Jews, only with a contemptuous coloring. But if everything was so simple, there would be no question of how the Jew differs from a Jew, and the nickname would not be shrouded in a mystery. In addition, during the investigation for some reason, immediately comes clarification from religion: they say, so they call the Jews. It turns out that they, the followers of this faith, have two names: Jews and Jews. Then, it's true, it's completely unclear. To deal with this will have to do with the help of well-known historians, historical facts and other reports.

Quoting A. Nechvolodov

A well-known Russian historian wrote that the origin of the word "Jew" is more than simple. It is not a secret that the Jews are the descendants of Judah, so every European language has a name for them. The Germans call them "Yude", the British - "jue", the French - "jyuyf", but the Poles chose so beloved Russian people - "Jew". Both the chroniclers and historians borrowed the nickname and used it everywhere. This can be seen in their work of a long time ago, when no claims to the term did not arise.

Why then contempt?

It would seem that than then did not fall in love with the "Jew", since the etymology does not contain anything like this? Here it is worth returning to faith and religions. For Orthodox Jews - the enemies of Christ, as already mentioned above, they came from Judas - a traitor, as Christians assure. This means that the Jews are a people who deny God. That's why Orthodoxy confidently declares that the problem of what the Jews do not like when they are so called is the result of the struggle of the creeds, and not anything else. Therefore, a "Jew" in the eyes of a true Christian can turn out to be a person of any nationality who accepted Judaism, and therefore turned away from Jesus Christ.

Great and mighty...

Let us turn to the Dictionary of the Explanatory Dictionary of Dahl. The Jew in this Talmud is defined as "stingy, miser", etc. Not very flattering definition, but, by the way, the fact that this is a synonym for the word "Jew" is nowhere even hinted at, not that it is mentioned. That is, the question of who is a Jew in Russian, you can honestly answer - a greedy man. Without being tied to anything national, religious, and so on. But this completely non-contradictory fact falls for some reason against the background of everything else, it is not perceived as a sufficient argument.

And maybe still a national strife?

Where did the general dislike for the Jews come from? Perhaps, anti-Semitism as a phenomenon in Russia is only trying to ignite, and completely groundless? Is very similar.

Interesting fact: published in 1978-1980 and completely unchanged (if you believe the editors) dictionary Dahl page with the definition of "Jew" does not contain. That's created the ideal conditions for the addition of a new stereotype. According to him, the Jew is a nationality, and not a member of the religious Jewish community.

It is interesting that the reason why Jews Jews, in fact, is nowhere explained. The distortion of these two concepts is artificial, and the interpretation of the second of them is falsely attributed to the first. And suddenly - this is an enemy nation.

Another sophism - a hidden logical error

"Nation-enemy": what's wrong with this expression? First of all, perhaps, the fact that the Jews were never a nation. It belongs to faith, religion. To Judaism, already mentioned in this article. From this point of view, the position of Orthodoxy, although not very ethical, is logically presented.

Although, of course, with the question of the nation, everything is also not so smooth. And this is why: in Hebrew, "Jew" means both belonging to the people, and religion, and in Israel, and in general - the legal status.

A tale about how the Jewish community was tried

Theodor Herzl gave his definition to the people-ethnos. According to him, this is not only a group of people with a historical past and cohesion in the present, but also with the cause of this community - a common enemy. That is, according to Herzl, there is no enemy - there is no unity. A controversial statement, but it is this that explains so well the concept of anti-Semitism: national oppression gives rise to an oppressed nation.

There are Jews and there are Jews ...

Everyone remembers the axiom that there are Germans, and there are Nazis? Here. " Jew, Jew: the difference between them is the same, principled. At least, there are always those who say so.

Some people are genuinely surprised at why such hatred is shown to Jews. At some national level, even if a person does not know how to hate something, folk art in the form of anecdotes is simply stained with inserts like "the Jew," allegedly exposing their mentality to a mockery. And it would be nice if it was not a stereotype that harmed anyone, but after all - a whole list of bad consequences.

And this despite the fact that among the representatives of Jewry a whole heap of scientists, creators, geniuses. The Jew is a stingy merchant - more like a habitue of old retellings, a vivid, secondary face of literary works.

Few historical summaries

In order not to be confused: the tale and Orthodoxy with their contempt for the Jews, as well as the explanatory dictionary of Dahl with its skillfully evoked anti-Semitism, are not two fundamentally different points of view. First, one does not interfere with one another, and secondly, one does not deny one another.

So, let's take as a historical fact the following: the origin of the word "Jew" from "Judas" and its originally completely non-contemptuous meaning. This name began to be removed from official reports with the beginning of the reign of Catherine II. There was a transformation similar to the current rethinking of the word "Negro", which became sharply offensive.

Incidentally, while Russian writers in Russia already had to justify themselves for their alleged hatred, expressed through the use of the "wrong" word in their works, the Polish-Ukrainian environment lagged behind it, so to speak. In the territories of these countries everything remained the same.

Exclusively Russian problem

Let's continue the list of entertaining facts: when translating into English the words "Jew" we get "jew". When translating the word "Jew" (attention!) - also "jew". Then what is the difference between a Jew and a Jew? The fact that the first at some point became disagreeable.

The situation worsened during the Soviet era: first, the word was associated with the counter-revolution because of the anti-Soviet propaganda of the White Guards. And during the Great Patriotic War the "Jew" acquired a mockery "superstructure" over what was called, which did not at all contribute to his emotional receptivity for the better - everything only worsened.

The changes then took root so strongly that now it would be more than difficult to reverse the transformation.

"Gide": meaning

To the explanatory dictionary, Dahl was already referred to in this article. And if you believe him (and do not believe in him, in turn, there is no reason), then the "Jew" is a greedy, stingy man, more simply a miser. Immediately recalled a well-known stereotype about the Jews. At once, the chain of calligraphy is very logical. But, finding the answer to this question, we come across the following: not about why the Jews are Jews, but about why the Jews are considered stingy.

Lyons Levinson once said that Jewish greed certainly exists. As well as French, American and Ukrainian. A surprisingly accurate remark. Every nation has everything in moderation: there are not the best representatives in it, but there are also incarnations of virtues.

Association "Jews-greed"

The first reason. Religious. And again Judas, and again spoiled his people's life. The traitor Iscariot sold Jesus for money, for thirty silversmiths (which, in fact, is not so much), therefore, greed destroyed him. A miserly character is associated with the Jews, and yet, by the way, they went completely from the other Judas. Not for nothing at the beginning of the article was a clarification: the Iskariot of the Jews is associated with the Orthodox, but this does not mean that they are right. Because in fact - no, not at all. Judas was also called one of the followers of Christ, not guilty of anything.

The second reason. Specially historically formed. In essence, this reason is also somewhat related to Christianity. The Church in the Middle Ages banned virtually all types of monetary relations. Credit, however, is important not only in the economy, but also in agriculture, which the Christian peasants have already been engaged in. What should Jews do that have nothing to do? Correctly - settle in a niche loan. And then everything goes like clockwork: naturally, every creditor works, first of all, to his own advantage, and the fact that the Jews became associated with this stingy and greedy field of activity is a matter of time, no more. In the modern world, this nation realizes itself in other spheres, not only in trade and banking.

Results and conclusions

So, what can you come to conclusion? Let's run through everything written just above:

1. The mystery of the origin of the word "Jew" rises to the name of Judas.
2. The Orthodox believe that Judas the ancestor of the Jews is Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ. Therefore, for Christians, the answer to the question of who the Jew is is any Jew, since this is the faith of the traitors turned away from God in favor of the Devil (Satan).
3. "Jew" - the old name of the Jews.
4. Starting from a certain point, the "Jew" began to wear a negative emotional color. From official documents, the word was deleted, rewritten, ashamed.
5. The interpretation of the word "Jew" is miserly, greedy.
6. The Jews are called greedy, because Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus because of money.
7. In addition, the association greedily comes from the fact that the Jews of the Middle Ages mainly engaged in trade, banking, credit and economics.
8. The question why Jews are Jews is asked only in the post-Soviet space, since in foreign languages the translation of these words is the same.
9. There is a theory by which the negative coloring of the word "Jew" is one of the items on the plan to artificially provoke anti-Semitism among Russians.

Apparently, inaccuracies still have a place to be. Unfortunately, this is not a topic on which to draw a clear conclusion. The process of rooted stereotypes in thinking, hatred of individual nations by the representatives of others is a long and historically developed thing. But the "Jews", whose photos are sometimes used for ridicule and impartial signatures, are just people who, as you know, are not only good or just bad.