Israel and Humanity - Status and admission of a proselyte of the gate in the Jewish Society

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IV.

Status and admission of a proselyte of the gate in Israelite society.

The Noachide proselytizing is protected equally with the Jew by civil law and criminal. "Listen to your brothers, Moses said to the judges, and judge the fairness of all disputes with his brother or with his gher (host, foreign) . Is it just here, as has been claimed , any Gentile, who is a stranger over the Jew? We think not, because the word gher by its etymology means that an alien who is domiciled, resident in Palestine . It must necessarily see in this verse from Deuteronomy Gentile which the Act grants the title of gher with all the benefits accruing to such and also justified as regards the Noachide having abandoned the religion of his fathers and interests of race, they would be inexplicable if it were an alien of some kind.

The feeling of justice toward the gher is sometimes carried so far that will go up against ruthless Israelites. So David revenge on the descendants of Saul crime committed by him against the Gibeonites. "This, they said, contemplating their punishment, what earned the son of a king the temerity to lay hands on converts volunteers ". Whatever the historical value because it reflects the high esteem and great safeguards which the proselyte was surrounded by law and its ministers in Israelite society.

The proselyte we are talking about was indeed in a situation different from that of client , Rome, vis-à-vis his master. The reconciliation, however, does not cease to be interesting. "Cursed is said to be the boss misleads the customer and the horror that betrayal of trust continues until time Virgil, who put this crime on the same line as the most serious offenses in which a man can commit against his own parents and relatives . In Rome, as in Jerusalem, those feelings were reinforced by the rights of hospitality so much esteemed in antiquity, especially in the Eastern world.

The gher before us is that the Noachide in its relations with the Jewish society governed by the law of Moses. We say Noachide to follow the prevailing opinion of the doctors, who, to give quality gher thoschab or proselyte of the gate, demanding the whole profession of the laws of Noah. According to the opinion still wider R. Meir, it was enough that the Kind renounce polytheism to enjoy the privileges of gher thoschab Our definition of this word gives us better than the latter, however, the key to a practical rather odd that tradition has preserved relative to the admission of proselytes of the gate , we mean that in which the gher thoschab is that when the jubilee is used . But as it is generally acknowledged that the law of Jubilee is effective only when Israel is in possession of his country, it follows that, according to rabbinic principle, there would gher thoschab possible that if the Jews enjoy political independence. But what is the exact meaning of the rule laid down by the Rabbis? Aims Does an absolute acceptance of the proselyte of the gate or does it only relate to the rights attached to his conversion and he could not claim that as an Israel was independent?

Maimonides and araBAD are divided on the interpretation of this principle. For the former, it is only when Israel meets the requirements for the Jubilee celebration Noachism that this intermediate form between polytheism and Judaism, is possible and legitimate outside these conditions, the Mosaic no known other than proselytizing gher zedek or proselyte of justice. The second believes instead that the doctors simply state the enforcement of laws relating to proselyte of the gate and the first of which is that of fraternal assistance to which he is entitled only when the jubilee can be celebrated, but that 'they have no intention of denying the legitimacy of this form of conversion in any other circumstance whatsoever. In seeking to grasp the meaning of these different opinions, we see that if Maimonides makes the admission of proselytes from the door to political freedom in Israel it has no other purpose than to save the Jewish monotheism of the dangers the course of these half proselytes could expose. Until the jubilee there is to say as the independence of the Jews is intact and that the Israelite nation keeps a political center that can offer a strong resistance to any infringement of religious autonomy, it There is no fear that this religion intermediate between paganism and Judaism come absorb it and replace the law of Moses a universal Noachism like Christianity attempted to do precisely when the political unity of Israel was on the verge of extinction. But in less favorable external conditions, everyone understands the danger that Judaism might run across a legitimate form of worship as Noachism, and this is apparently the reason for the restriction imposed by tradition, according Maimonides, the admission of proselytes of the gate.

If this interpretation has in its literal meaning of Talmudic principle, that of araBAD relies on its side on this important consideration than the gher thoschab , as the name of thoschab indicated elsewhere, clearly implies, as we say in the definition of a set of rights and duties inherent in the home of Jewish proselytizing in the country. Now these duties and rights have certainly no reason to be when the Jewish homeland ceases to exist. In fact the doctors, had expressed their rule, have deliberately used the name gher thoschab and not the Noachide ( Noah ben ), although it is also common if not more common than the first in the Talmud. The reason is simple: that the name of Noah bin (Noachide) refers to a state independent of the Jewish nation and therefore the vicissitudes to which it is susceptible, while the title gher thoschab represents the position of Noachide vis-à-vis Israel's political society. Two things so distinct that a situation purely political and purely religious state is not to be confused and that is why the opinion of Maimonides seems we lack a solid foundation when he draws this conclusion from the current "even when a Gentile accept all the Mosaic law with the exception of one of the most minimal precepts of the rabbis should not be accepted ". This is true for the proselyte of justice is not in any way for the proselyte of the gate we know the special position with regard to the various commandments of Judaism.

It should be noted that an ancient author gives full due to R. Abraham in this matter. Here's how he expresses himself. "What has been said about the acceptance of gher thoschab only when the law of Jubilee is in force shall be understood as meaning that any time there is no us obligation to provide for himself, a duty exists only when the Jew is independent. But as to receive and to introduce under the wings of Divinity is what we can do at any time ".

It may also, and this very logical explanation has the advantage of reconciling the two interpretations, that the doctors Talmud Maimonides and after them, have meant one thing: that there can be TODAY 'Today the gher thoschab of formal acceptance on the part of Israel as it existed before, but this reception meant for the Israelites a duty to provide for the proselyte. So says Friedenthal, when he writes: "The proselyte of the gate still exists today, although the rabbinical court has more to deliver his formal acceptance as Maimonides said, and the peoples of Europe are not anything but proselytes of the gate "