Yes, I quoted Yeshayahu Leibowitz saying this before, but it bears repeating…
The word religion in English means “law” (as in Megillas Esther, and לבדות להם דת) from the Latin “religio” (רליגיוזה). This definition is undisputed. (The origin of “religio“, itself, however, is disputed.) Correct, there is an enormous chasm between Judaism and its competitors, but, contra Feiglin and many others, Judaism is neither more nor less than a religion.
Judaism is not a race, a nation, a “ReligioNation” (as Rabbi Meir Kahane coined it), a culture, whatever Rabbi S.R. Hirsch calls it, a “marriage” of sorts (Rabbi Kook’s explanation for why we must not worship other nations’ idols is that’s like stealing a man’s wife!), or “Sooo much more than a religion”. Awkward though this may be, I absolutely embrace the early Jewish Reform self-description (in the sense I intend it here) as: “_ Bnei Dat Moshe” (or: “Members of the Mosaic Faith”/”Persuasion” or, in short, “Mosaic Confessors”). (The “German” prefix is an anti-Zionist hedge, which as an anti-anti-Zionist I of course reject.)
It is not the case other religions are genuine “religion”, while Judaism belongs to another category. Rather, other “religions” are mere imitations of religion, while Judaism is the real thing. The tiny number of “mitzvos”, or laws, faux-religionists claim to observe are nothing but a way of evading all the rest of them.
The Cursedian “accusation” of Judaism being “legalistic” has it exactly right. Unlike antinomian (read: criminal, disobedient, rebellious, Godless, etc.) non-Jews, Jews do observe God’s laws.
Judaism IS Legalism!
And if we’re the “Law and Order” folks, what does that make you guys, eh…?