The rabbi knows best

I witnessed some of the worse reasoning I’ve seen for some time come from noahides (according to the religious definition) who have been or who are being taught by rabbis or who are most likely being taught by rabbis. It brings to mind a few things, such as the warning of a friend about the sorts of rabbis that have become invested in teaching Gentiles.

I’ve had marked disagreements about the seven laws and the place of rabbis, and the ignorance and/or neglect of the details of our seven laws is astounding.

It brings my mind to a recent brief interaction I had with a “noahide.” He had the view that he would only accept teaching, presumably about the seven laws, from a rabbi, only a rabbi. He shared his view that Gentiles, possibly religious noahides, have such a poor standard of knowledge about the seven laws that all we, as Gentiles, should do is simply ask questions and learn, but never teach. He added that Gentiles must have rabbinic oversight in groups. He was not alone in such a view either.

Remember, the law of Justice, which seems to be neglected by rabbis for some odd reason, teaches that we Gentiles should be judging our own!

But according to my opinion, the laws that were counted [as one] of the seven commandments that the Children of Noach were commanded is not only to set up judges in each and every town , but [rather] He commanded them in the laws of theft and fraud, abuse, fair wages, laws of guardianship, rape and seduction, the main categories of damages, injury to ones’s fellow, laws of the borrower and lender, laws of purchase and sale and similar to them – like the matter of the laws that Israel was commanded. And he is killed for them if he steals or abuses or rapes or seduces the daughter of his fellow, or if he burnt his hedge and caused injury with it, and similar to this. And in the category of this commandment is also that they set up judges in each and every city – like Israel. (Nachmanides’ [RambaN’s] commentary on Bereshis [Genesis] 34:13, found at sefaria.org, emphasis mine) And were the descendants of Noah not commanded with regard to this matter? But isn’t it taught in a baraita: Just as the Jewish people were commanded to establish courts in each and every province and in each and every city, so too, the descendants of Noah were commanded to establish courts in each and every province and in each and every city? (Sanhedrin 56b, Babylonian Talmud, William-Davidson edition, found at sefaria.org, emphasis mine) What must they do to fulfill their requirement regarding the Law of Justice? They have to set up magistrates and judges in each district to judge the people with regard to these Six Commandments; and they must issue warnings (about them) to the people. A non-Jew who violates one of the Seven Commandments is executed by means of the sword. How is this so? Anyone who worships idols or blasphemed or murdered or had sexual relations with one of those forbidden to him or stole even less than the value of a small coin or ate any amount from a limb or the flesh of a live animal or saw someone else violate one of these and failed to judge and execute him, is himself executed by means of the sword. It was for this reason all residents of the City of Shechem deserved to be executed. For Shechem kidnapped and they saw and knew and failed to judge him. (law 14, chapter 9, Laws of Kings and Wars, Mishneh Torah, Maimonides, found at sefaria.org)

Every one of these sources relates the fact that we Gentiles are commanded to set up courts and judges for ourselves, thus necessarily imply we should learn and have sufficient knowledge of justice for ourselves.

Maimonides even adds that the Gentile judges should warn (implying “teach) the seven laws to the people. He says that the people must know enough to recognise one breaking the seven. That implies that Gentiles should learn and know enough about the seven laws enough to implement them. Yet even decades after the start of this so called “noahide movement,” there are still Gentiles suckled by the rabbis as eternal babies and infants, forbidden to teach and judge, or at least warned off such a notion. And just like obedient uneducated savants, they warn others from doing such a thing as well. But what about our law of Justice?

Such an idea that we must only learn from rabbis, that only they can oversee and control us, that only they can teach about our laws can only come from an ignorance of our laws. But if certain rabbis are teaching Gentiles, then what excuse is there for such ignorance? Is it the student? Or the “teachers?” Unfortunately, my experience tells me that neither is guiltless.

Then, when it comes to the law of idolatry, I have Jews and Gentiles preaching the belief in or knowledge of God is part of the seven laws!?! Some “noahides” (in the religious sense, not the Talmudic sense of just “Gentiles”) try to make the case that Gentiles break the law of idolatry. Here I can blame the teachers, and easily so.

This frustrating bleed of philosophy into law, of Jewish law/culture into Gentile Torah law causes the most ignorant of statements to flow from the mouths of Gentile rabbi followers which is also reflected in some of the inane or asinine things Jews say.

Before I go into this, I must give some summaries of our law of idolatry. As I want to minimise any chance of being accused of going off my own steam, let me quote some sources.

A gentile who worships false gods is liable provided he worships them in an accepted manner. A gentile is executed for every type of foreign worship which a Jewish court would consider worthy of capital punishment. However, a gentile is not executed for a type of foreign worship which a Jewish court would not deem worthy of capital punishment. (law 2, ibid.) With regard to idol worship, matters, i.e., transgressions, for which a Jewish court executes a Jew who commits one of them, are prohibited to a descendant of Noah. But with regard to transgressions for which a Jewish court does not execute a Jew who commits one of them, a descendant of Noah is not prohibited from doing them. (Sanhedrin 56b, William-Davidson edition of the Babylonian Talmud, found at sefaria.org)

So for the Gentile, what must be done for us to break the law of idolatry? The Gentile must do divine service or worship to an idol, something that is not God. And that’s not the only thing; the Gentile must do an act for which a Jew doing the same thing would receive the death penalty. This is the Gentile Torah Law of Idolatry 101.

So, knowing this, why on earth would Jews and Gentiles teach that atheism, literally not giving divine worship to any god/idol, breaks the law of idolatry for Gentiles? The Talmud and other works goes through what a Jew would be given the death penalty for, but whenever I quiz the proponents on this nonsensical idea nobody has any proof that atheist Jews are given the death penalty for idolatry directly in relation to their atheism.

Again, this should be basic knowledge of the Gentile prohibition against idolatry. But I already have some idea about why some Gentiles who should know the seven laws hold this weird view that people who honour no god would be guilty of breaking our law against idol worship. Highly exalted books, such as The Divine Code, and some rabbis teach that knowing God or believing in him is part of our law on idol worship. That makes it look like one of our seven basic laws is to believe in God.

I just want you to understand the depth of utter irrationality in such an idea. Put aside the fact that our laws of idolatry is a prohibition, not an active command. Put aside how it is clearly described by Maimonides and the Talmud. Now it makes sense, since God revealed himself to Israel and is manifest in their historical tradition, that Jews would be commanded to know him, to trust in him. The last verses of Tehillim (Psalm) 147, talks about God giving his word and law, his revelation, to Israel, but adds that he hasn’t treated any other nation like this. Get that? Gentiles do not have the heritage of Israel with their special revelation of God. So why on earth are people imposing an imaginary command on Gentiles, people across the world who may our May not have had interaction with the Jews or their teaching, to know God? It’s one thing to reject the foolishness of idols. There are a good amount of things that can lead a thinking man away from that. But then to demand something that isn’t in our divine laws upon the world?

But all that is if you put aside the facts pronounced in Jewish tradition more authoritative than The Divine Code.

It could be argued that this positive aspect of the law of idolatry is ONLY in the unwritten tradition of the Jews, never having been worn or recorded in the old literature of the Jews, only more being recorded by rabbis like Weiner. The clear problem with that reasoning is that what has been recorded and written of the oral tradition limits what can be included in the seven laws and contradicts the idea of the law of idolatry having two parts to it.

I’m not gonna go again over old ground as to why the “commands need a commander” logic fails. That’s not the main point of this article and I’ve covered it before.

The point of this article is, I believe, the problem that it is assumed that rabbis, too many of the rabbis that seem to teach “noahides” (in the religious sense …). You know what? I’ve got to find an easier way of describing that type of Gentile. I’m tempted to use it in a similar way as coined by Alan Cecil in his book “Secular by Design.” He used the term to refer to … let me quote him. From page 417 of his aforementioned book, he writes the following.

Most Noahides who have come out of organized religion (particularly Christianity) have problems letting go of the theology, complaining about having to study “dry legalism” instead of “spirituality,” and that the prime motivation is for “fellowship” and “worship” rather than the moral and legal stipulations of the Seven Laws. The non- observant or Reform Noahide, much like his Reform Jewish counterpart, is the Noahide who believes the Noahide Law constitutes a “religion,” and focuses on the ceremonial and religious aspects of the Torah while ignoring the halakha [practical/legal instruction] of the Seven Laws. The observant Noahide, on the other hand, focuses on his or her obligation to observe the halakha [practical/legal instruction] of the Seven Laws.

At least the term “reform noahide” is less wordy than what I’d normally write. And, to me, its description is apt. There are people who self-identify as “noahide” who will argue that the seven laws are a religion (thanks in part to the rabbi they put over themselves). That’s part of the definition. There are those self-labelled “noahides” who have neglected the actual practical/legal instructions of the seven laws, seemingly due to their teaching, to such an extent that ignorance of Justice 101 and Idolatry 101 leads to statements of the everlasting rulership and supervision of rabbis as if Gentiles will never know enough to share and teach our own law, to where people who worship no god are guilty of idol worship, where people who give divine service to no one is guilty of “strange service,” the “literal” translation of the Hebrew term, Avodah Zarah. That’s a neglect of the practical aspects of our law.

But my rabbi taught me …

But this is the root of the command…

The command presupposes …

Amazing, isn’t it? A number of times, it seems like the problem stems from the teacher. The notion that only rabbis should teach Gentiles the seven laws, I don’t believe that originated from Gentiles. I see evidence of that teaching in modern books, in the words and attitudes of some rabbis. I see some YouTube teachings, where it’s an apparent reform noahide hosting a show where a rabbi is the main teacher/speaker, and the Gentile just seems like, for the main, a yes-man. I thank God that I’ve seen one or two Gentile teachers for Gentiles regarding the seven laws and related subjects. I enjoyed most of what he taught (except when it came to a pet peeve of mine, namely, modern [pseudo-] science).

But the fact is what should be rudimentary knowledge is wholly or substantially lacking, and in its place is, for all intents and purposes, the law for Jews. How the hell can a Gentile be taught by a rabbi and then propose things that either are absent from the seven laws as part of the seven laws, or propose things that contradicts the laws?

And I already know the answer of some.

“You are just an ignorant, arrogant stranger to Torah, to the Jewish tradition. They are rabbis, bathed in the Torah heritage of millennia. They know stuff you don’t! They know the seven laws and Jewish law and are in the place to teach us! You should humble yourself, sit down, shut up and learn.”

In other words,

“The rabbis know best!”

Oh yeah?

“Yeah.”

But my rabbi is Asher Meza! Or David Katz! Or Chaim Clorfene!

“Well, not those one!”

So which rabbis know best?

“The ones I happen to follow.”

How convenient.

I think it’s incredibly convenient that some rabbis, not all, teach that Gentiles will always need them. They’ll always be wanted. I think it’s convenient that too many of their followers have such little conviction about our law of Justice and the fact the seven commandments are supposed to be the basis of international “secular” law that they’ll never really rock the boats when it comes to the corrupt politics of the land, as long as Israel is OK. There’ll be no backlash from the nations if the Gentile rabbi-followers mainly tow the line.

Hey, David, I’m not towing the line. I’m voting Conservatives/Tories/Republican. I voted for Trump/Brexit!

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Anyway, …

“David, quit making out like you’re perfect or that you can learn the seven laws without a rabbi. You’ve learnt from them yourself.”

I would never deny that. I don’t believe in the myth of the self-made man. And I have learnt so much from rabbis and their books. I’ve asked questions and sometimes they answered.

But appreciation doesn’t make criticism impossible. Gratitude doesn’t necessitate a whitewash. I ain’t gonna look at any teacher, of any subject, and think “Hey, I’ll follow everything you say.”

“Well, you have to, David. That’s part and parcel of Judaism.”

The seven laws aren’t Judaism. Judaism is the religion of the Jews. It’s an artificial suitcase for their ancient tribal/national, divinely given identity. The seven laws ain’t a religion. They are not for the Jews, only in their custody. As Maimonides taught, it wasn’t a law newly commanded at Sinai, but rather one that was commanded to Noah beforehand and at Adam. So it’s not the same system as the law of the Jews.

… the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded [the seven laws] in the Torah and informed us through Moses, our teacher, that Noah’s descendants had been commanded to fulfill them previously… Six precepts were commanded to Adam … The prohibition against eating flesh from a living animal was added for Noah. (8:11-9:1, Laws of Kings and Wars, Mishneh Torah)

What, then, is the difference between the Seven Noachide Laws as relevant to “gentiles” and the 613 Commandments that are reserved for the “Jewish nation”? Why two sets of rules? And why did Israel have to make the choice to accept the 613 Commandments of the Torah whilst the Seven Noachide Laws were divinely imposed upon humanity without their prior agreement? Rabbi Yitzchok Hutner (Pachad Yitzchok, Chanukah 9) brilliantly distinguish the two. The precepts within each category are intent upon achieving a different set of results. The 613 Commandments are “Torah”; the Seven Noachide Laws are not. (The Seven Noachide Laws – Parshas Noach, by Rabbi Osher Chaim Levene, found at https://torah.org/torah-portion/livinglaw-5769-noach/

So the notion that “you must follow everything your teacher teachers because it’s Judaism” doesn’t fit a place that isn’t Judaism. I mean, it’s all in the name, isn’t it? “Judah-ism.”

Let me re-quote the words attributed the Rebbe.

1) B’nai Noah [Gentiles] must themselves study and “acquire Torah” (regarding all the laws and values of Torah that pertain to all mankind); 2) B’nai Noah [Gentiles] must become fully conversant in Torah for themselves, rather than relying on Jewish teachers constantly; 3) B’nai Noah [Gentiles] should understand that Jewish teachers may know less about the laws and principles that apply to B’nai Noah than Noahide themselves; 4) the two systems, the Noahide and Torah systems, often differ in their particulars. (“Noahides and Torah Study,” https://hesedyahu.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/noahides-and-torah-study/)

It should be added the agenda of the Jews and the rabbis may not coincide with that of the Gentiles. And that has become apparent in the way the seven laws have been taught to Gentiles where the lacunae in knowledge is right at the base. It is imagined that the base of the seven laws is God. But if a person says they know God, but can’t even get the simple practical parts of our laws right, then something is terribly wrong. It’s a bit like claiming to know the driving instructor but mistaking the steering wheel with the seatbelt.

I know what some may say, what some have already said. I’m acting as if I know better than the rabbis which must be arrogance. “The rabbi knows best” belief is strong. But I believe I have enough grounds to seriously doubt such a belief. And that doubt comes from their own teachings!

I’ll leave it there.