Healing Well of Miriam

3 Av 5779 / August 4, 2019  ~~ Chukat

There has been much discussion in recent years over what various groups should properly be called.  Yes, the Torah does make a distinction between groups of people.  In the discussions, a lot of Hebrew terms, with their legal definitions (in more Hebrew), have been bandied about.  While this is quite important in the Torah world, in the world at large it can simply be confusing and off-putting.  Worse, these definitions have unnecessarily caused hurt feelings and rifts between people.

The first distinction is between Jews and non-Jews.  The Torah was given to the Jewish People at Sinai…but this was on behalf of all the Nations of the world.  We are told that the seventy souls that descended into Egypt with Yaakov were connected to the seventy root nations.  Israel is called to be a “light unto the nations.”  Israel is also called the “priestly nation.”  To understand the distinction of this priesthood, we can look at the model of the Levites and Kohenim in Israel.  There is a difference between the Tribe of Levi and the priesthood of Aaron’s descendants from the rest of Israel; but they are still part of Israel and are to have interaction with Israel.  Of course, they have a separate purpose and function within Israel from the other tribes.   The priests and Levites served in the Temple, and it was literally forbidden for anyone else to take up their service—including the king.    

There is also a distinction among non-Jewish people—between those who have, or have not, renounced idolatry.  Many people of the Nations have come to realize the truth of the Oneness of Gd.  Among these are many levels of this realization.  The Seven Noahide Laws are the foundation of a basic belief system for civil behavior in the world.

·        Do not worship idols.

·        Do not blaspheme God.

·        Establish courts of justice.

·        Do not commit murder.

·        Do not commit adultery, bestiality, or acts of sexual immorality.

·        Do not steal.

·        Do not eat the limb of a living animal.

The term “ger toshav”—those non-Jewish people who settle among the Jewish People—has two meanings as well.  The first, and most well-known, has been the conquered people who live in the Land of Israel under the rule of Israel.  These people, according to Torah Law, must, not only submit to Israel’s rule, but abide by the Seven Noahide Laws in order to have a legitimate place in the Land of Israel.  Interestingly, the Chabad movement posted these laws in Arabic on billboards near Arab villages in Samaria.  If a person notices closely, there is no law commanding belief in God…just that they have no idols and do not blaspheme God.  Overall, it is a code of decent, civilized behavior.   

For some non-Jews, who have a deep love of God and yearn for the Truth that is Torah, this Noahide system is only a beginning.  Many of these people (in the West, at least) began as Christians.  Although the trinitarian belief system is not truly monotheistic, in the minds and hearts of most Christians it is understood to be so.  That subtle distinction of “shituf”—believing in a partnership of some other divine being with God—is something that takes a while to comprehend as being akin to idolatry.  For those who truly love God and seek Truth, however, beliefs evolve, as they find the courage to let go of the vestiges of past belief systems. 

There has been a question about what these people are allowed to learn.  Growing up in churches, Christians have gone through the entire Bible.  I have always thought it makes sense for these people to have the opportunity to learn it correctly in a Torah setting.  Now let’s go back for a minute and think about when and why the question arose in the first place.  For this idea of NOT teaching the people of the Nations is most certainly one born—and codified by the rabbis—during the centuries of Exile.  Not only were the Jewish People in Europe prevented by the Church from proselytizing, but also from teaching Torah at all to non-Jewish people—on pain of death.  This became the normal understanding, as halacha, but it was of the time and circumstances of the Exile.  There was no thought of “ten men of the nations taking hold of the corner of a Jew….”  It was EXILE, in which the reasonable expectation from the hands of the people of the Nations was every imaginable horror.   The rabbis were trying to preserve and protect the Jewish People, and walls and separation were considered the wisest course.   

Many of the writings of the rabbis from centuries gone by sound very negative, and even hateful, toward non-Jews.  It must be understood that they were referring, not just to “non-Jews,” but to idolators.  For most of that period the idea of a truly God-fearing non-Jewish person was unheard of.  We now live in a remarkable new era, in which Torah consciousness is spreading throughout the Nations.  The idea of “ten men of the Nations taking hold of the corner of a Jew” can be seen as not just as a request, but as a demand for Israel to stand in her place as the Priest and to share the light.  This access to the higher soul, that makes this consciousness possible, is quite different from anything observed by the rabbis of the past.  And indeed, this should be seen and embraced as a definitive sign of Redemption.