Jewish Marriage

I found the topic of marriage to be probably the most interesting of all the topics we have discussed thus far in Sinai Scholars. This is probably mostly because I am a hopeless romantic.

My parents have always told me that I should marry a Jew, but their reasoning was always, "Because it's your religion." That never seemed like much of a reason to me, as obviously I could keep my religion even if I got married. And I most definitely was not prejudice against other religions. Besides, the celebration of Christmas always appealed to me.

Anyway, during this past lesson I learned a whole lot more about marriage, and what it has to do with being a Jew. And yes, I can see where marriage is completely ridiculous besides being a commandment of G-d. But then, why do so many other cultures get married? Marriage is a worldwide phenomenon. If it's so ridiculous, why does everybody else get married? And I mean, these cultures developed this idea without the influence of other cultures, as far as we know. So could it be that finding a life partner is a natural part of being a human? Could it be as natural as laughing when something amusing happens? So if a person is another religion, and G-d happened to command the Jews to laugh when happy, would it be meaningless if someone in another religion laughed?

Besides, aren't all people of all religions G-d's creations. I realize that Jews were the ones that were ordered to carry out the commandments. But wouldn't G-d bless a Jewless marriage as much as one with two loving Jews? The act of love should be a mitzvah within itself. I feel G-d should be happier with people focusing more on loving each other, rather than deciding who they can and cannot love. After all, shouldn't it be a sin if a parent disowns his or her son because he or she has done the unthinkable and married a gentile? Or what about people that find that they can only love a person of the same gender? Should they be forced to marry a person of a different gender, even if he or she will never be able to return the same feelings? I feel that that is unfair especially to the other person who will devote his or her life to someone that will never be able to return those feelings.

And also, that opens up a whole different perspective. The Christianity and the Muslim religions both branched off from the Jewish religion. They both worship the same G-d and have the same commandments. But what makes them non-Jews? Because weren't they technically Jews in the beginning, but then changed Judaism to their own religion? What distinguishes a Jew from a non-Jew? How does G-d distinguish between the two?

Anyway, going back to marriage--I learned some very valuable lessons about love. I was especially inspired by what you said about saying one is in love. I completely agree that it's very easy to say one is in love with someone after knowing his or her significant other for a matter of days, weeks, months, etc. It's