Not Everyone Needs to be a Jew, but Everyone Needs Torah

Judaism's Universal Message is not Pluralistic; it's Unifying.

Imagine you were to walk up to a random man in Southern Texas, or the Vatican, or Brazil, or even Papa New Guinea and ask him the following:

Do you believe that G-d chose Abraham amongst all the men on earth and, through his family, separated the children of Israel from the nations of the world? He brought them down to Egypt, and from there, Moses took them out with a series of plagues, then led them to the wilderness where, on Mount Sinai, He gave them the Law? 

Chances are overwhelming that (unless you’re in Austin) he would answer, “Of course!”

Now, imagine you walk to another random man in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, or Indonesia and ask him the same question, what would be the answer? Overwhelmingly likely, he would answer, “Of course!” as well.

And if you were to walk into a Mormon compound, a Druze village, or a Bahai community, you would get the same answer to the same question, too.

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The last 2,000 years have wreaked havoc on the Jewish people. Sadly, we have inherited, nearly all of us, the so-called ghetto mentality. It manifests in different ways in different people, but a ubiquitous symptom is a feeling of shame and inferiority next to our religious neighbors, coupled with a constant need to justify, diminish or entirely conceal ourselves. As a corollary to this, these dual feelings often lead to hatred of Jews who dare to stand out. The shame for and loathing of ostjuden by German Jews prior to WWII perfectly encapsulates this.

Finding Logic in the Illogical

So persecuted have we been for our beliefs that a particular feeling of mortification has pervaded entire segments of the Jewish population concerning them, to the point where we are almost apologetic to a fault. We feel the compulsive need to be the very opposite of those who oppressed us rather than embrace what kept us strong throughout our most demanding times.

It's a very illogical and purely emotional knee-jerk reaction that goes like this:

X did Y to use because they believe Z [a belief that incorporates A, B & C]; therefore A, B, C individually & definitely Z as a whole are bad and must be entirely rejected.

The illogicality of this lies in the fact that it's entirely possible for X to do Y in the name of Z and yet go completely against the meaning of Z. Or it could be that components A and B of Z are bad. Still, C is perfectly acceptable, and merely because Judaism rejects the former two doesn't mean we should also leave the latter behind as a result ch" vs.

It is entirely silly to suggest that Jews should fully shed or shy away from certain parts of Torah simply because non-Jews, in the name of non-Jewish ideologies, claim similar beliefs as theirs and, in their names, inflicted horrific acts on innocents as a result, when it is not at all how Judaism explains those very same beliefs, or how they should be implemented.

This holds particularly true when it comes to proudly asserting that the Torah is the Truth. 

Not Just Fit For Whispers Behind Closed Doors

• Xians believe that they hold the truth and that everyone else is wrong.

• Muslims believe they hold the truth and that everyone else is wrong. 

• Mormons believe they hold the truth and that everyone else is wrong. 

The list goes on and on and on. Every single ideology deserving of the name believes it has a superior truth next to others; otherwise, it would not be an ideology.

Why should Jews be ashamed of saying that we know we hold the Truth and that everyone else is wrong? This is not ethnocentrism. This is not gloating. This is fulfilling our mission by extending the Torah to the non-Jewish nations so they, too, can fulfill their role in creation.

Two counter-argument are usually brought up to this: 1) We are 15 million versus 8 billion and, 2) 'In the name of believing they held the truth, we were oppressed, pogrom'ed, tortured, forced to convert, taken in slavery, told we would be condemned to eternal death… To say something like that makes us like our oppressors.' (or its modern equivalent, 'It's not nice.')

It would be true if G-d commanded us to violently overtake or destroy other religions, or to force conversions on non-Jews (or simply say "there's no compulsion in religion" while making their lives as miserable as possible until they convert to lighten their burden); yet this is not Judaism's path at all. 

The Torah is clear, our mission is to bring the world to belief in the G-d who gave us the Torah on Mount Sinai and to obey the Seven Laws of Noah; however, this is to be accomplished in two ways: 

1. Convincing non-Jews through philosophical/theological arguments.

2. Being an Or laGoyim, a light unto the nations through our actions.

Not An Obscure Teaching

G-d did not give the Torah for Jews to keep for themselves and observe in the ghetto, behind closed doors. Much like the light of the menorah has to be seen in public, so too does the message of bringing G-d's holiness into the world to non-Jews has to be seen and shine in public.

It was written clearly (and through allusions) all over the Tanach, the portion of the Torah that all of the Nations have access to (unlike the Oral Torah, which is only relevant to us.) To wit:

Zephaniah, Chapter 3

Zechariah, Chapter 14

Micah, Chapter 4

Isaiah, Chapter 2:

And the Aleinu Prayer, recited three times a day, where we beseech:

We therefore put our hope in You, G-d, our L-rd, that we may speedily behold the splendor of Your might, that you remove idols from the earth, so that the false deities will be utterly cut off, the perfect the world under the sovereignty of the A-mighty.

All flesh will invoke Your name, causing all of the wicked of the earth to turn to You. All the inhabitants of the earth will recognize and know that every knee should bend to You, every tongue should swear by Your Name. Before You, G-d, our L-rd, they will kneel and prostrate themselves and give honor to the glory of Your name.

They will accept upon themselves the yoke of Your kingdom. May You speedily reign over them forever and ever.

This is one of the oldest prayers in Jewish history, attributed to Joshua after the conquest of Jericho and fixed into the order of prayer by the Men of the Great Assembly long prior to the advent of Xianity and Islam. It also makes it clear that the Nations themselves will recognize, in the end, the greatness of G-d, not that it will be forced upon them by Jews.

It is a constant theme throughout the Prophets that during the Messianic era, the whole world will worship G-d as one, as the Torah comes forth from Zion and enlightens the whole world through Mashiach.

Legally, It Was Understood Literally

Those sayings from the Prophets were never seen as allegories or metaphors, neither in the Talmud nor Jewish Law codes. Unlike all other deciders of Jewish law, the Rambam codified the laws related to the coming of Mashiach and his rule. As such, his opinion is universally agreed as the final word on the subject. In Laws of Kings and Their Wars (Hilchot Melachim 12:4-5), he writes:

4. The Sages and the prophets did not yearn for the Messianic era in order to have dominion over the entire world, to rule over the gentiles, to be exalted by the nations, or to eat, drink, and celebrate. Rather, they desired to be free to involve themselves in Torah and wisdom without any pressures or disturbances, so that they would merit the world to come, as explained in Hilchot Teshuvah.

5. In that era, there will be neither famine or war, envy or competition for good will flow in abundance and all the delights will be freely available as dust. The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know God.

   Therefore, the Jews will be great sages and know the hidden matters, grasping the knowledge of their Creator according to the full extent of human potential, as Isaiah 11:9 states: 'The world will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the ocean bed."

The Rambam (11:4) also mentioned about the era preceding Mashiach that:

Nevertheless, the intent of the Creator of the world is not within the power of man to comprehend, for His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts, our thoughts. Ultimately, all the deeds of Yoshke of Nazareth and that Ishmaelite who arose after him will only serve to prepare the way for Mashiach's coming and the improvement of the entire world, motivating the nations to serve God together as Tzephaniah 3:9 states: 'I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of G-d and serve Him with one purpose.'

So, according to him, while we don’t understand why Islam and Xianity had to exist (and cause Jews so much pain throughout our history), one reason for their existence we can comprehend is that they are part of the Divine plan to prepare the world to acknowledge the G-d of Torah and Him alone.

Vox Populi, Vox D.ei

Prior to the rise of both religions, only the Jewish people knew and worshipped Him, alongside the “G-d-fearers” of Rome, who were quite numerous, but nowhere near the current 2.56 billion Xian believers and 1.97 billion Muslims. That’s 4.53 billion people on earth, which, coupled with the Jewish population, means that 4.55 billions who believe that G-d gave the Jewish people the Torah at Sinai. In fact, if you were to add smaller offshoots like Mormonism, the Bahai and Druze faiths, we get close to or past 4.8 billion people out of 8.

This is simply the most mainstream religious belief on earth. The most mainstream belief, period. Over 60% of the planet believes that G-d came down on Sinai and gave the Jewish people the Torah. Opinions might diverge after that, but the majority of the world agrees that this was the case.

It’s lonely at the top

We have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, of all of the religions on the earth, we share two characteristics that simply do not apply to any other: a national revelation (rather than a single man claiming prophecy or divinity), and we do not condemn the non-members to eternal torment, damnation or destruction.

In fact not only we do not consider non-Jews damned or irrelevant, we believe that they also play a vital role in the redeeming of the world, and as such all of the Righteous of the Nations will have a place in the World to Come in the Messianic era.

So let us embrace our beliefs, let us embrace our non-Jewish neighbors in brotherly relationship, and let us all hope for the day when all seventy nations and the Jewish people will all worship G-d as one, with our righteous Mashiach delivering Torah from our rebuilt Third Temple, speedily in our days.

Amen v’amen.