Ger toshav
Ger toshav is a halakhic term used in Judaism to designate the legal status of a Gentile living in the Land of Israel who does not want to convert to Judaism but agrees to observe the Seven Laws of Noah, a set of imperatives which, according to the Talmud, were given by God as a binding set of universal moral laws for the "sons of Noah"—that is, all of humanity. A ger toshav, especially one who decides to follow the Noahic covenant out of religious belief rather than ethical reasoning, is commonly deemed a "Righteous Gentile", and is assured of a place in the World to Come.
Definition
A ger toshav is a Gentile living in the Land of Israel who agrees to follow the Seven Laws of Noah. The theological basis for the seven commandments of the Noahic Covenant is said to be derived interpretatively from demands addressed to Adam and to Noah, who are believed to be the progenitors of humankind in Judaism, and therefore to be regarded as universal moral laws. The seven commandments of the Noahic Covenant to which the ger toshav agrees to be bound are enumerated in the Babylonian Talmud :- Do not worship idols.
- Do not curse God.
- Do not murder.
- Do not commit adultery or sexual immorality.
- Do not steal.
- Do not eat flesh torn from a living animal.
- Establish courts of justice.
The Encyclopedia Talmudit, edited by rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, states that after the giving of the Torah, the Jewish people were no longer included in the category of the sons of Noah; however, Maimonides indicates that the seven commandments are also part of the Torah, and the Babylonian Talmud states that Jews are obligated in all things that Gentiles are obligated in, albeit with some differences in the details. According to the Encyclopedia Talmudit, most medieval Jewish authorities considered that all the seven commandments were given to Adam, although Maimonides considered the dietary law to have been given to Noah.
The term ger toshav may be used in a formal or informal sense. In the formal sense, a ger toshav is a Gentile who officially accepts the seven Noahide laws as binding upon themself in the presence of three haberim, or, according to the rabbinic tradition, before a beth din. In the Talmud there are two other, differing opinions that pertain to which commandments the ger toshav is required to follow:
- To abstain from idolatrous practices of any kind.
- To uphold all the 613 Jewish commandments in rabbinical enumeration, except for the prohibition against eating kosher animals that died by means other than ritual slaughter, or possibly any prohibition not involving kareth.
In the informal sense, a ger toshav is a Gentile who agrees to follow the seven Noahide laws on his own, or alternatively, simply rejects idolatry. According to the rabbinic tradition, a Gentile who agrees to follow the seven Noahide laws, although not before a beth din, is still regarded as Chassid Umot ha-Olam, and the observance of the Seven Laws of Noah grants them a place in the World to Come. There is a debate among the halakhic authorities as to whether the rules regarding a ger toshav would apply to the informal case. The procedure to officially recognize the legal status of ger toshav has been discontinued since the cessation of the year of Jubilee with the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem; hence, there are no formal gerim toshavim extant today. However, it can be argued that a great deal are "informal" ones, especially since it is possible to be a Chassid Umot ha-Olam even when the Jubilee year is not observed.
History
The Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin 105a named and excluded certain specific Jewish and non-Jewish groups of the distant past from salvation, but thereby implied, as explicitly stated there, that all other non-Jews of past or present could be righteous and would be saved as they were, without Gentiles needing to undergo conversion to Judaism. Following Moses Maimonides' analysis of Islam, medieval Jewish rabbis affirmed that Islam as an entire religion, despite its perceived errors and cruelties towards the Jews, could still be considered as a Noahide faith, and the 13th–14th century Catalan rabbi Menachem ben Solomon Ha-Meiri fully extended much the same status to Christianity itself.The Talmud has some striking accounts illustrating how far God's lovingkindness and mercies might extend, giving ultimate salvation even to persons who had led notoriously evil lives: some said that if those persons had done only one truly selfless, kind and good deed in their entire lives God would accept them for the sake of that precious act into Paradise, either immediately at death or after they had atoned for their sins in Purgatory—so it is evident that full observance of the Noahide covenant itself was not always obligatory for salvation after all, even if it remained the chief guide to lives of spiritual loftiness and nobility. This led the 18th-century Italian Jewish Kabbalist and rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto to emphasize and explain at length that God would end up accepting all humanity, good and evil alike, into the World to Come —the evil ones, however, would of course need to purify themselves in Purgatory first, but there will be no eternal punishment for them.
During the 1860s in Western Europe, a resurgence of Noahide faith as the universal moral religion for Gentiles was developed by the 19th-century Italian Jewish Kabbalist and rabbi Elijah Benamozegh. Between the years 1920s–1930s, French writer adopted the Seven Laws of Noah at the suggestion of his teacher Elijah Benamozegh; afterwards, Pallière spread Benamozegh's doctrine in Europe and never formally converted to Judaism. Modern historians argue that Benamozegh's role in the debate on Jewish universalism in the history of Jewish philosophy was focused on the Noahide laws for Gentiles as the means subservient to the shift of Jewish ethics from particularism to universalism, although the arguments that he used to support his universalistic viewpoint were neither original nor unheard in the history of this debate. According to Clémence Boulouque, Carl and Bernice Witten Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York, Benamozegh ignored the ethnocentric biases contained in the Noahide laws, whereas some contemporary right-wing Jewish political movements have embraced them.
The Encyclopedia Talmudit, edited by the 20th-century Belarusian Hasidic rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, states that after the giving of the Torah, the Jewish people were no longer included in the category of the sons of Noah. Maimonides indicates that the seven commandments are also part of the Torah, and the Babylonian Talmud states that Jews are obligated in all things that Gentiles are obligated in, albeit with some differences in the details. According to the Encyclopedia Talmudit, most medieval Jewish authorities considered that all the seven commandments were given to Adam, although Maimonides considered the dietary law to have been given to Noah.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, published and spoke about the Seven Laws of Noah many times. According to Schneerson's view, based on a detailed reading of Maimonides' tractate Hilkhot Melakhim in the Mishneh Torah, the Talmud, and the Hebrew Bible, the seven commandments originally given to Noah were given yet again, through Moses at Sinai, and it's exclusively through the giving of the Torah that the seven commandments derive their current force. What has changed with the giving of the Torah is that now, it is the duty of the Jewish people to bring the rest of the world to fulfill the Seven Laws of Noah.
Modern times and views
, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, encouraged his followers on many occasions to preach the Seven Laws of Noah, devoting some of his addresses to the subtleties of this code. Since the 1990s, Orthodox Jewish rabbis from Israel, most notably those affiliated to Chabad-Lubavitch and religious Zionist organizations, including The Temple Institute, have set up a modern Noahide movement. These Noahide organizations, led by religious Zionist and Orthodox Jewish rabbis, are aimed at non-Jews in order to proselytize among them and commit them to follow the Noahide laws. According to Rachel Z. Feldman, American anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Dartmouth College, many of the Orthodox Jewish rabbis involved in mentoring Noahides are supporters of the Third Temple movement who believe that the messianic era shall begin with the establishment of a Jewish theocratic state in Israel, supported by communities of Noahides worldwide:Feldman describes Noahidism as a "new world religion" that "carv out a place for non-Jews in the messianic Zionist project" and "affirms the superiority of Judaism and Jewish biblical right to the Land of Israel, in line with the aims of the growing messianic Third Temple Movement in Jerusalem." She characterizes Noahide ideology in the Philippines and elsewhere in the global south as having a "markedly racial dimension" constructed around "an essential categorical difference between Jews and Noahides". David Novak, professor of Jewish theology and ethics at the University of Toronto, has denounced the modern Noahide movement by stating that "If Jews are telling Gentiles what to do, it’s a form of imperialism".
According to the Jewish philosopher and professor Menachem Kellner's study on Maimonidean texts, a ger toshav could be a transitional stage on the way to becoming a "righteous alien", i.e. a full convert to Judaism. He conjectures that, according to Maimonides, only a full ger tzedek would be found during the Messianic era. Furthermore, Kellner criticizes the assumption within Orthodox Judaism that there is an "ontological divide between Jews and Gentiles", which he believes is contrary to what Maimonides thought and the Torah teaches, stating that "Gentiles as well as Jews are fully created in the image of God".
According to Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the status of ger toshav will continue to exist, even in the Messianic era. This is based on the statement in Hilkhot M'lakhim 12:5 that lit. “all the world will be nothing but to know G‑d." In its plain meaning, he asserts, kol ha'olam also includes Gentiles. As proof, he cites 11:4, which deals with the Messianic era, and the similar term ha'olam kulo, "the world in its entirety", refers to Gentiles. Continuing the text in Hilkhot M'lakhim 12:5, Maimonides explicitly changes the topic to Jews by using the term Yisra'el, explaining that "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", indicating that Jews and Gentiles will co-exist in the time of the Messiah. In any case, even when there is a Jewish king and a Sanhedrin, and all the twelve tribes live in the Land of Israel, Jewish law does not permit forcing someone to convert and become a ger tzedek against his will.