Reply to Moshe

Submitted by Seamus MacNemi (United States), May 13, 2007 at 01:51

I am not Halachically Jewish but I think we as a people have shared the same burdens in this life as the Jews. I am a Celt and if you know anything about the Celts, you would know that the only thing that really matters to us is our relation to the Almighty. All other matters are of secondary importance to us.

I am a poet and I grew up in a family of traditional poets and story tellers that goes back long before the time of writen history. I grew up with the hero tales wonder stories of my Celtic ancestors that were passed down orally from generation to generation from as long ago as anyone can remember. I was destined to try to carry on that tradidion in a world that had forggoten who they were and had gone after the ways of strangers.

Poets are a breed apart. They see things through uncommon eyes. There is that within them which reaches out across time and great distances to link minds with others of their kind in other lands, times and places. When first I read the Torah I felt a connection within myself with those folk who left Egypt so long ago. It seemed to me as if I had also been present to witness the events at Sinai and that I as well had recieved the Law from the hand of G-d. If you understand the mind of a Celt this will not be as strange as it may seem. We are a folk of great imaginings which is something you will see in us if you study and our history for any length of time. That is why the church feared us so much and sought to either convert or to kill us. We alone had the power to move people in ways that the church could not touch

It is said amongst the folk, that if you would speak with a man you must light the fires of his imagination with your words. My family has a particular talent in that realm. When I was a boy growing up I used to play word games with my grandfather at the supper table and between the two of us we would keep the whole house in stitches from laughter. There was always laughter and joy in my family and often the music and songs would go on for days. We went to work singing and sang and whistled our way through the day often to the consternation of our employers and fellow workers. It was always a pleasure to see the faces of others light up when one of us would strike a tune in the middle of a particularly gruling day. The work might be difficult and at times even dangerous but the tune made the burden much lighter for all who heard.

My grand father had left Ireland with the aftermath of the rebellion in Dublin. He was a man wanted by the British for his revolutionary ideas and activities. He came to America and settled for a time in Nova Scotia until the trail got too hot for him and he had to leave. He then came down to the U.S. and lived in Northern Main for a time Some how he got a burr under his collar and decided to go to the then British mandate region of Palestine. There he became involved with the nascent Irgun and soon found himself again in the thick of things with the British authorities. He hated the British and would do anything to stick it to them. I think he saw it as a chance to get back at them for what they did in Ireland. He knew Menachem Begin in the early days and from his telling of it they were quite good friends.

My family traces its roots back to the Galations mentioned in the New Testament. Given the way my mind works and the way I think this doesn't seem too improbable to me. I had no difficulty learning Hebrew and when I went to a Synagogue most people would think I was Jewish until I told them otherwise. We had a new Rabbi once who made the mistake of calling me up to read the torah. I think he felt somewhat embarrassed when I refused an the grounds that I was not Halachically Jewish so I had no business being on the bimah.

I've had some Cabbalistically inclined Hassidim tell me that I had a Jewish soul. Somehow I don't think that would work with the Beit Din. I've thought seriously about converting, but it has occured to me that I might be more useful to HaShem if I remained a gentile. I could keep the most important Mitzvot even as a gentile and not being limited by the restrictions of the Schulchan Aruch I would be able to do more in the realm of men. This was for me a strictly practical consideration. My father had been killed when I was ten and as the oldest male in the family I had the primary resonsibility for looking after my mother in her old age.

Tradition is very important in my family. It's what holds us together as a family. It gives us our identity and provides us with a sense of moral responsibility which guides us in our dealings with others. That's one of the things that apeals to me in Judaism. Most people in our modern world grow up not knowing who they are really. I think that's one of the reasons why there is so much crime here in America. Nobody has any real connection with their own souls. They have no familial memory of who their folk were beyond a genaration or two and no understanding of their ancestors experience in living.. They have no real history.

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