r/messianic

I have a question that's more about identity than genealogy.

While researching my family history, I discovered that my 4th- and 5th-great-grandmothers on my maternal line were Sephardic Jewish. My 3rd-great-grandmother may have had Crypto-Jewish roots, but as far as I can tell she publicly practiced Christianity and married a Christian man. From that point forward, all the women in the maternal line that I know of were Christian, including my mother and myself.

I've had several people tell me that according to traditional Jewish law, because the lineage comes through my mother's side, I would still be considered Jewish. However, I've always identified as a Christian, a follower of Christ, or simply a disciple. I don't usually use many labels because my background and beliefs don't fit neatly into one box.

The interesting thing is that my actual practice probably resembles Messianic Judaism more than anything else. I enjoy studying and practicing the faith in ways that are closer to how Jesus, the apostles, and the early believers lived and worshiped.

So I'm curious: has anyone else here had a similar experience? If you have both Jewish ancestry and faith in Messiah, what do you call yourself? Jewish? Christian? Messianic Jew? Disciple of Yeshua? Something else?

And ultimately, does the label even matter?

i was once or twice a messianic jew and i’m revisiting it. i never read the nt all the way through and i was kindly given one. what’s it like? how does it effect (or affect) your daily life? do you ignore the law?

[removed]

Probably, but for context I didn’t grow up Jewish. I grew up Methodist (I think) and relatively recently I learned about messianic Judaism and liked the cut of its jib, so gradually I’m trying to live more messianic, but I saw a lot and I MEAN A LOT of people saying that they grew up Jewish, and then became messianic, not many in my situation so I started worrying that I NEEDED Jewish heritage, and technically if you go back far enough you’ll probably find it, but I just recently found out I have a graunt who is a holocaust survivor…I didn’t know this, but now I really want to ask her about Judaism and I don’t even know if she’s Jewish, BUT I would really want to talk to her and learn more about this side of my bloodline, that being said I also don’t want to bring up bad memories if I do get the chance to speak to her.

So I recently bought a sandwich yeah? Anyways, it was a chicken sandwich but I didn’t know until it was too late, but it had a slice of provolone on it and therefore not kosher, which brings up a multitude of questions
1: Do messianic Jews need to follow the Kashrut laws or no?
2: if yes, how do I repent for this?
3: why is poultry and milk bad? Like I understand mammals because they make milk and “thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk” now I could take that literally and only apply it to goats but I don’t, I take that as “don’t cook any animal with the milk of its mother” ie cows, goat, lamb, ect. But I wouldn’t guess chicken or poultry in general, because, unless I’m very mistaken, birds don’t lactate. So is chicken and cheese fine? If it isn’t…why?
These are my questions thanks for taking the time, I’m really new to all of this and trying to ease my way in gradually, and I don’t exactly live in a Jewish area, I live in PA, a very German part of PA and moving…yeah that ain’t happening for a while.

My country has the highest concentration of Bnei-Anussim in the world. Recently (in recent decades) there has been an "explosion" of people discovering themselves as "Jews," or descendants of Jews, because of a law in Portugal that guaranteed citizenship to the descendants of Jews who suffered from the inquisition. Due to worldly interests, genealogy has developed a lot in the country and many people have discovered its true origin.

Brazilian synagogues define a Bnei-Anussim as a Jew when he decides to assume this identity and do the process of Teshuvah. It is almost like a traditional Jewish conversion, but the court is not necessary because you, being Bnei-Anussim, are automatically part of the alliance, leaving only to decide whether you want to assume this identity or not.

The movement has been growing a lot and one thing makes me curious: many people, including myself, see in themselves Jewish traits of all kinds and, after discovering their genealogical heritage, come to associate this trait with the fact of being Jewish. I am trying to understand what this is just confirmation bias and what is *really* a Jewish trait.

One question that non-Messianic Jews ask is this: why is no one attracted to the ethnic heritage of isolated indigenous tribes, but many people "feel Jewish"? What, exactly, is the Jewish ethnicity special about? It is important to think about this because many of the Bnei-Anussim no longer have Jewish DNA. In fact, we do not see descendants of Germans feeling "German," or descendants of Italians fighting over pizza sauce, or descendants of Russians with high tolerance for vodka, or descendants of indigenous people walking around half naked.

A convincing answer to this question is that the Jewish people are the only ones who have a covenant with God, but it is not enough. Is there any text in the Bible that states that the Israelites and their descendants would have this special calling?

When I found out that I am a Jew, I started adopting the Jewish diet and learning various Israeli recipes. I realized that no other food makes me as full as this one. This is not a confirmation bias because I did a DNA test that proved to be a great affinity with the Arab/Mediterranean diet.

What do you think of all this?