This is one of the most original and entertaining threads I've read in quite a while! But nobody has addressed the question of
Bombadil's Jewishness from the ceremonial standpoint:
Was he circumcised? Did he have a briss?
If so, that would mean that somewhere in
Middle-earth there was a moyel (a rabbi trained to do ritual circumcision) around to do the job. If we have a moyel then we have to have a whole Orthodox community to which he belonged and in which he functioned! If so, they are a complete
mystery because
Tolkien never mentioned them.
Did Bombadil and his Lady
Goldberry (a suspiciously Jewish-sounding name) celebrate the Jewish Holy Days? Did they keep kosher? The questions are endless...
Tolkien does mention Jews in his collected letters. Here are some selected passages:
(From Letter #156)
The
Numenoreans...began a great new good, and as monotheists; but like the Jews (only more so) with only one physical centre of 'worship': the summit of the mountain of Meltarma 'Pillar of Heaven' — literally, for they did not conceive of the sky as a divine residence..."
(From Letter #30)
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for your letter.....I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by
arisch. I am not of
Aryan extraction: that is Indo-iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of
Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have
no ancestors of that gifted people.
But most to the point:
(From Letter #176)
[This in relation to a broadcast adaptation of LOTR]
...I thought that the
Dwarf (
Gloin not
Gimli, but I suppose Gimli will look like his father — apparently someone's idea of a German) was not too bad, if a bit exaggerated. I do think of the '
Dwarves' like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the
languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue...
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So Tolkien thought that Jews and Dwarves had more to compare than Jews to Bombadil. Also, since Bombadil was "the oldest," the implication is that he had no parents since he was "there since the beginning." And with no (Jewish) parents, no briss!
I think the whole thing is, as someone suggested, that some of the words invented by Tolkien have a mild and passing resemblance to some Hebrew words, although they are more based in Finnish and Old English.
Abi gezint!
Barley