The rabbi knows best part 2 – Reality check

As I said in my previous article about people being conditioned to accept norms, we Gentiles have been marked as being of lesser quality by reform noahides (see note at the end to see what a “reform noahide” is) and their Jewish teachers. What is held over the heads of all Gentiles is that, not having the national revelation of Israel, we have a history steeped in idolatry and other immoralities. Our religious “leaders” have led us astray and continue to do so. I include scientists and politicians and educators under the umbrella of “religious leaders.” We have a form of idolatrous philosophy (or philosophical idolatry) today in all these institutions. So throughout history, our failures are documented and counted against us to such an extent that our non-Jewish nature is tainted to the point that even the good amongst us are not able to teach others about the seven laws. We’re just bound to get it wrong. It’s just best to sit down, shut up and learn.

You see, the Jews are simply better than us and some of their rabbis teach that not only is it an obligation for us to listen to the rabbis, but it’s part of our laws that they must teach us and not we ourselves. If a Gentile has a question about the Seven Laws, who must he go to? A Jewish Torah scholar.

If a question in Torah Law arises for a Gentile and the verdict is not explicit and clearly explained in the permitted sources, he does not have the ability or power to identify the correct ruling. Rather, he must ask a reliable and observant Jewish Torah scholar, for only they have permission to explain the Torah and decide what the correct Torah-law ruling is in any particular situation. (topic 4, chapter 5, Part 1, The Divine Code, emphasis mine)

The footnote connected to this states the following.

However, if a matter is easily understandable from learning about the Noahide Code and the conclusion is obvious, it appears clear that a Gentile is allowed to decide upon it for matters of personal practical observance. But it is essentially difficult to decide an exact conclusion for Torah law in general, and laypersons do not have the objectivity and breadth of Torah knowledge to be certain that they are making the correct ruling. (footnote 97, ibid)

[Aside: Please note the redundancy of part of this passage. If “the matter is easily understandable … and the conclusion … obvious,” then there is nothing to decide. So the following words, “the Gentile is allowed to decide,” when there is nothing to decide, is redundant. This part of the footnote is just patronising.]

You see? It’s just much too, much too tough for us. We lack “objectivity.” We need to know stuff not part of the rabbis teaching for Gentiles, possibly not even part of the seven laws, to come to the right decisions. It’s just too hard for us; so just go to the Jew. He may not have done that great a job teaching Gentiles for the past decades for even one of them to know enough to make such decisions, but hey, the Jew can get it right.

Added to that, apparently, it’s only meant for the Jew to make such decisions and rulings. The same footnote says, with no evidence,

More so, a Gentile may not be ordained to teach and expound the Torah, because that is solely the spiritual assignment of the Jews–to be deeply involved in Torah, and to delve into it for the purpose of deciding practical rulings on a Torah-law basis. (ibid.)

By “Torah,” in this context, I conclude that he’s including the seven laws in this.

We Gentiles don’t know enough and aspects relevant to our seven are withheld from us so that we simply don’t have the keys to understand our own laws in depth.

In addition to this, as I started in this post, we Gentiles are just genetically and naturally inferior to the Jew. Just look at our history! And wasn’t the greatest prophet a Jew? Won’t the greatest king, the future “Messiah,” be a Jew? And they have the Torah, having successfully preserved it for thousands of years. There are just too many signs that the Jews are successful, better with Torah topics, and we Gentiles simply can’t grasp it enough.

Just go to the Jew, the rabbi. The rabbis know best and there’s too much to prove this.

One of the reasons the Jewish Bible is so odd as a book containing history is that it actually records the failings of Israel. It’s easy for people to whitewash the accounts of themselves and their rulers. But the Jews do not.

Does the Jewish Bible ever make out that the Jews are the epitome of good and perfection? Absolutely not!

So Gentiles, away from Torah, were beset with idolatry? Well, the Jewish Bible records the continued idolatry that existed amongst the people of Israel. Did the people of Israel perfectly keep God’s commands? Well, when Israel was split into the kingdoms of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, the northern kingdom and their kings disobeyed God so much that they were evicted from the land to dwell amongst the nations and did not seem to return. The southern kingdom’s history was more up and down with king and populace being guilty of going against God multiple times. A significant portion of the message of the prophets was spent condemning Israel and Judah to return to God and to obeying him.

Even after the record of the Jewish Bible, the history of the Jews is not a spotless and unblemished narrative of perfection. There were fallings away, false messiahs, breakaway groups, Jews converting to foreign religions. Even now, a significant portion of Jews in the land of Israel either don’t even fear God or keep his commandments.

Yes, they have been through rough times, but let’s not portray them as the perfect, superior or master race.

Added to that, even nowadays, the way some rabbis have taught Gentiles is so poor, that too many who espouse the seven laws have an incorrect understanding of the very basics. This highlights the terrible and poor track record they have teaching us, unless they’ve only been teaching us to remain cowed and herdlike. And those who sell us short (aided by the teaching of some Jews and rabbis), branding us as all fallen, too mentally weak, as if original sin and total depravity was a rabbinic doctrine limited to Gentiles, will see this as a good thing, for our hands to be tied, and led like a mentally retarded imbecile. If those rabbis have been unable to teach a Gentile for all these decades of the so-called “noahide movement” to be expert enough with his own laws, then can the cause of the failing only be directed to the Gentile, or those rabbis? I’m an equal-opportunities guy, happy to share the blame liberally, not just to the Gentile, but to those rabbis. Imagine a school with no successful graduates. I know I’d be suspicious at the very least. But realistically, I would not place myself or my children in the hands of such terrible educators, either in the analogy or in real life!

Where are the Gentile Seven-Laws leaders who actually know our law properly and not some bastardised version of Judaism-lite or Reform Noahidism (*I almost vomit in my mouth thinking of such abominations*) where focus is given to religion and not justice? Failure. Wait there. What about this? Where is the learned seven-laws keeping Gentile leaders who can talk about our non-Jewish laws without using Hebrew words dotted in their words? There are those who are more in line with my thinking that is against “Judaism-lite” but still can’t help talking in Hebrew. What sense does that make? “Well, David, some words don’t translate out well.” But a word is only the expression of a concept. Teach the concept in, for example, English. Is it so hard? Maybe the rabbis have failed in more ways than I imagined.

If the history of the Gentile is to be held against us, can the history of the Jew be held against him?

Try this one on for size.

What is a “baal teshuva?” A “baal teshuva” is a Jew that has a background of rejecting the Jewish law, maybe having a secular upbringing, maybe an upbringing much like a Gentile. Can you guess what can become of a God-rejecting or Torah-rejecting Jew who repents? He can learn so much Torah that he is able to become a rabbi, people who can supposedly make decisions about the seven laws.

What about a Gentile who, having a similar upbringing to the secular Jew, figures out his upbringing has gone against his seven laws and changes his life to live according to God’s way for him, a life in accordance with the seven laws? Can he become a master of his own laws? In the minds of some, apparently not!

But wait! Why? Is there a seven-laws-legal reason? No. Our seven laws states that we Gentiles must produce righteous courts, judges and a community cognizant of the seven laws. To do that, we Gentiles must have everything that is ours regarding the seven laws. To have a community, we Gentiles need our own teachers and educational institutions. Gentile parents need to know enough to teach the children, to expound to them the seven laws. Can you believe that people teach that only rabbis can expound the seven laws? I guess parents are screwed if they don’t have a rabbi, huh? And with there being individuals who are outside of the reach of the rabbi even now, teaching should be sufficient enough for the Gentile to become self-sufficient, not needing a rabbi-hotline to help him.

“But we must listen to the rabbis. That’s what the Oral Torah teaches.”

No, that’s what some rabbis teach. That’s what the author of the Divine Code teaches. But the book’s very pages shows disagreement there.

Rabbi Zalman Nehemiah Goldberg holds that Gentiles have basically no obligation to follow rulings of the Sages in any matter. The author disagrees … (pg 174, footnote 30, The Divine Code, by rabbi Moshe Weiner)

Yes, although the author details his disagreement (and doesn’t expand upon the position of Goldberg), there is still a view amongst Jews that differs with it. Maybe the following is part of the reason why.

There is not even a part of our seven laws that obligates obedience to rabbis.

Let me repeat that.

There is not even a part of our seven laws that obligates obedience to rabbis.

It makes sense on a good few levels. The main fact is that as we are responsible to keep our laws, not the Jews who live according to a body of laws different to ours. Despite our track record, despite theirs, we must aim to know our laws in detail, sufficient detail to even figure out our own way in our different lands.

This post hasn’t been created to throw hatred on the rabbis or the Jews, only to make it plain that no one is guiltless historically. If a person … No, if I’m gonna rely on the Jews because they are supposed to be better, then their record is not spotless enough to warrant wholesale trust in them and a wholesale rejection of all Gentiles to teach our own laws after sufficient training.

There is more to this, much more. For example, understand this, the seven laws existed before the giving of the Torah. They were given to Adam and his descendants, to Noah and his descendants. One part of the role of Israel is to tell us that Gentiles had the obligations before the giving of the Torah.

“… the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded them in the Torah and informed us through Moses, our teacher, that Noah’s descendants had been commanded to fulfill them previously. (law 11, chapter 8, Laws of Kings and Wars, Mishneh Torah, Maimonides, emphasis mine)

You know, there were no rabbis, no Jewish Torah scholars, no Jewish judges before Sinai. Think about that. Think about the implications of that.

Sure, the rabbis can help us learn what we’ve collectively forgotten or use those historical laws given to Noah to refine the goodness some of us already have. But to rule us? To lead us? To make new rulings? There is nothing in our laws to give them that authority. At all.

…

*sigh*

I need to stop writing.

To each his own. If you want to believe that the rabbis know best and/or that Jews are simply better, go ahead. I used to have such high esteem for rabbis and Jews.

Used to.

Note: Reform Noahide:

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 [practical/legal instruction] of the Seven Laws. The observant Noahide, on the other hand, focuses on his or her obligation to observe the [practical/legal instruction] of the Seven Laws. (page 417, Secular by Design, by Alan Cecil)