We Are Not a Religion — We Are a Nation
- WireNews
- May 1
- 3 min read
by Ram ben Ze'ev
The time has come to speak plainly. The Jewish people are not adherents of a religion. We are not one of many belief systems on a shelf, nor are we participants in the global circus of faiths. We are עם קדוש (Am Kadosh – a Holy Nation). And while the world may insist on seeing Judaism as a religion, this mischaracterisation has distorted our identity and weakened our national unity.
Religion, as it is practised by the nations, is merely a ritualised form of idolatry. They bow to objects, recite incantations, and construct dogmas that serve their image of the divine. But their gods are not G-D. Their doctrines are not Torah. And their rituals are not holiness. These are inventions, layered over centuries of spiritual confusion. Their religions were born out of distance from truth. Ours was born in the fire of הר סיני (Har Sinai – Mount Sinai).
When the Torah declares, ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש (Mamlekhet Kohanim veGoy Kadosh – a kingdom of priests and a holy nation), it does not identify us as a religion. It appoints us as a nation under G-D, entrusted with His law. We are not bound by belief; we are bound by covenant.
The nations of the world invented religion. We received Revelation. They constructed spiritual systems to approximate the Creator. We stood at the foot of the mountain and heard His Voice. Our connection is not imagined, not allegorical, not philosophical. It is literal. Historical. Eternal.
To reduce עם ישראל (Am Yisrael – the Nation of Israel) to a religion is to betray that encounter. It is to convert Divine national destiny into a private spiritual preference. Judaism is not a religion. It is the constitution of a nation created by G-D Himself.
A Jew who forgets this walks in exile within himself.
אוי למאן דעביד צלמא ופלח ליה… ברם ישראל מתקשרין לעילא, עמא קדישא למלכא קדישא, ולא יהוון כעמין דפלחין למה דלאו הוא קודשא בריך הוא.
Woe to the one who fashions an image and worships it… But Israel is bound above, a holy people to the Holy King, and they shall not be like the nations who serve that which is not the Holy One, blessed be He.— The Holy Zohar, Volume 2, Page 187a
Let the world have its religions. Let them invent and adapt as they always have. But we must remember who we are. We are not participants in world religion. We are its antithesis. We are the nation that testifies to truth.
Call to Action
If you are Jewish, then you are not religious — you are national. You belong to a people who walked through the sea, who heard the Divine Voice without a mediator, and who carry the Torah as national law, not personal faith. Stop apologising. Stop blending in. Stop pretending Judaism is like other religions. It is not. Return to your people. Return to your nation. Return to your King. עם ישראל חי (Am Yisrael Chai – the Nation of Israel lives).
###
Bill White (Ram ben Ze'ev) is CEO of WireNews Limited, Mayside Partners Limited, MEADHANAN Agency, Kestrel Assets Limited, SpudsToGo Limited and Executive Director of Hebrew Synagogue
