This Matriarch of rational religion is a barren woman in grief today. She loses her children daily due to two factors:

Bahir

The concept that one is chosen via birth is a claim of exclusiveness.

When reconciliation of this word is not a distraction, inviting others into its fold drains the Jewish energy. This tension exists due to Jewish-sharia called Halakha.

Halakha

The Matriarch remains one of the first to encourage its adherents to live a rule-based life. What was meaningful few millennia back, has become a source of constant vigilance now.

The energy spent in reconciling centuries of scholarship can become demoralising. And there seem to be no easy answers for the observant Jews.

IMPACT

Assimilation

Due to its already small size, further contraction of its adherents remains a source of concern for people who are sympathetic to Judaism.

The concept of Bahir plays a huge role in Jewish life, and will continue to dictate the future of the Jews. Like the Brahmins of India, Judaism struggles to find ways to solve this issue of exclusivism.

Vigilance 

Again due to its small demographics, the Jewish community deems it necessary to find a benevolent partner for its visible survival. In our global village, this does not have to be the case but the Jewish institutions struggle to balance the odds all the time.

Our globe, if run by rule-based society, will see the flourishing of all viable ideas that leads to progress and comfort for humanity – including its soul.

Divisions

Despite its small size, and no lack of eminent scholars, the Jews remain a diverse community – all due to the community’s views through the prism of Halakha.

In the future, these diverse views from Halakha will likely give rise to divergent claims – one being racism – and uneasy relations between Arab and European Jews.

Halakha, instead of bringing Jews together, tends to divide people. In this sense, Judaism is no different from other religions which are going through their crisis of “purpose of life”.

—> Christianity