THE SEVEN LAWS of NOAH - TORAH FOR NON-JEWS AND GENTILES – Rabbi Michael Skobac – Jews for Judaism

we're going to begin tonight by just mentioning a very well-known story from The Book of Ruth we just celebrated not long ago the holiday of Shavuot and we read the book of Ruth and uh we all know the story that the beginning of the book begins with a famine in the land of Israel and El and his wife Naomi leave Israel with their two sons mlon and kilon they go down to live in moav after a while El dies and Naomi's two sons marry moabit women Ora and Ruth after 10 years maon and kilon die and now Naomi is left bereft of her husband and her two sons and so after hearing that the famine has ended in Israel she decides to return to the land of Israel orpa and Ruth her two daughters-in-law wanted to return with her to Israel but Naomi urged them three times to turn back and to go back to the homes of their mothers do not go with her to Israel and based upon this story The midash in Ruth Raba 216 sees this as a source for the custom that we have of discouraging potential converts three times now we know of course that in the story Ruth persisted even after orpa returned to to her mother's home and Ruth says to her mother-in-law Naomi where you go I will go where you dwell I will dwell your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God and so Ruth returns with Naomi to the land of Israel after a while she converts to Judaism we know that she ultimately became the ancestress of both King David and the future Messiah we see from this story that while conversion to Judaism is an option for non-jews it's certainly not encouraged and there certainly isn't any great necessity for non-jews to convert to Judaism so the question is how then are non-jews supposed to live did God only provide a spiritual path for the Jewish people at Mount siai 3,300 years ago but leave the rest of humanity without any dire ction since the time of Creation in truth our sages teach that from the very beginning of time God provided a universal path of spirituality for all of mankind these were six laws that were given to Adam and one that was revealed to Noah and these seven laws are referred to as the seven noahide laws now there is a numic that I learned in Yeshiva for remembering these seven laws it may be helpful to you sometimes it were better off without the pneumonic and just straight memorization but the way I learned to remember these seven laws was the big three because in Judaism there are three prohibitions three transgressions for which we are required to give up our lives rather than transgress one is taking a human life murder one is aod idolatry and the third is gilot elicit sexual relationships those are the big three and then there's Alf bet giml doid that's the pneumonic device Alf stands for a minai the limb of a living animal so a non-jew is not allowed to eat from an animal unless the animal is first Dead they can't eat the limb of a living creature bet stands for B hasem literally blessing God and that's a euphemistic term for blasphemy we don't want to even say cursing God so we say in Hebrew we refer to cursing God as blessing God but be bet is the prohibition against blasphemy cursing God gimmel is gazel which is stealing theft and doid is denim the only actual positive of the seven Noah Commandments and that's the requirement for non-jews to set up courts of law to enforce the mo the noahide system now these seven laws are often associated with the seven days of the week and more often with the seven colors typically associated with the rainbow which was a sign that God gave to Noah so the noahide path is basically in short a way of living an elevated moral life and having a relationship with God through a life of connection with the Torah and with mitzvot with Commandments and we know that the word Mitzvah commandment is related etymologically to the word for connector or binder so these seven Commandments are ways in which non-jews are able to connect themselves with God my man writes in his classical mishna Torah laws of Kings chapter 8 section 11 that whoever undertakes the seven noai laws and scrupulously fulfills them is among the righteous of the Gentile Nations and has a portion in the world to come the the Babylonian talmud bakama 38a teaches how do we know that a non-jew if he obeys the laws of God will attain the same spiritual communion with God as Israel's high priest because scripture says in Leviticus 18:5 which a man will do and He will live by them so the talmud says it doesn't say a priest it doesn't say a levite it doesn't say an Israelite but a man if a man will do these laws he will live by them therefore even the non-jew who obeys the laws of God attains the same spiritual communion with God as Israel's high priest my manes again in his classical Mission Torah at the end of the Lord of sabatical years and Jubilee years writes any human being on Earth whose Spirit has moved him to know God and to walk upright the way God made him becomes a holy of holies and God shall be his portion and inheritance forever and ever and finally in the classical rinic work the Tana de Al yaho section N9 it is written by our sages whether a Jew or a non je a man or a woman a slave or a maid servant attaining the Holy Spirit depends entirely on one's actions now the truth is that we hear about these seven laws and we think it's such a small Enterprise just seven laws the truth is that this Universal path of Torah includes many more than just seven laws my manes for example and others in insist that even though one of the seven laws is not to believe in God it's interesting that many commentators say that among the Jewish people's 613 Commandments belief in God isn't one of those either and therefore my minies and others insist that belief in God is at the center of the noahide laws and the truth is that the idea of Commandments themselves wouldn't make sense unless there was a commander so obviously Beyond these seven laws is the idea of doing them all because they were commanded by God the talud says in Babylonian talmud tractate hulin 92b it refers to the 30 mitzvot the 30 mitzvot of B Noah but doesn't enumerate them and many of the commentaries explain that these 30 are really bylaws and offshoots and sub divisions of the original Seven Basics RAB Ali of Barcelona in his says make no mistake about the enumeration of the seven laws of the sons of Noah they are but categories these seven and they contain many particulars in each of the categories Professor Aaron Lenin's seminal study on the seven noahide laws revealed that they really Encompass at least 66 of the biblical Commandments from the traditional list of the Jewish 613 for example one of the seven is gazel is theft RAB liin says that this category includes many other Commandments not just stealth stealing by stealth which is theft but also robbery by force also shifting a landmark also Al cheating a person by non-payment of salary also overcharging also having false weights and measures in one's home also kidnapping and also coveting what someone else has So within a particular one of the seven can be many many subcategories included idolatry could include conceivably occult practices such as the prohibitions against sorcery witchcraft divination necromancy Etc now an important issue is how to define each of the seven Noah laws for example murder isn't just the normal Act of shooting someone or killing them with a sword murder would include according to the Jewish teachings abortion euthanasia and suicide so you have to understand what's included in each of the categories there's a huge literature on the question of whether or not the prohibition against idolatry in the seven noahide laws prohibits the Christian belief in the Trinity a minority of opinions would say that it's conceivable that for Gentiles the Trinity may not be a violation of this prohibition against idolatry but the majority opinion seems to be that yes the belief in a trinity God as a trinity would be a violation of the Noah law against idolatry but it needs to be discussed and examined now Beyond these 66 Commandments that I already mentioned there are many other sources in the talmud and elsewhere that include other Commandments and some of these sources include prohibitions against drinking blood against castrating animals the requirement of sanctifying God's name obviously the prohibition against desecrating the name of God fulfilling our Oaths and vows honor uh honoring our parents giving charity and prayer during times of need these would all be again additional requirements for someone living under the noahide laws and some sources like rissen gaon teaches that any Mitzvah or action based upon reason and intellectual understanding would also be incumbent upon B Noah for example in the Bible Deuteronomy CH 23: 4 and 5 the scripture criticizes the people of Moab for not coming out to meet the Jewish people with bread and with water now there's no noahide Commandment that seems to obligate them to engage in such a behavior and yet Scholars like RN go would say that n natural morality anything that would be included in natural morality would require a behavior like helping other people when they're in trouble it just makes sense you don't need to have a particular commandment Rabbi yoel Schwarz who's a great scholar living in Israel and Authority on the seven noahide laws he writes that noahides should work on perfecting their midot their character traits such as working on issues of anger or arrogance becoming more generous so we see that the noahide world is not just seven small Commandments it's a very large totally integrated system of human behavior now I would like to do in the next few minutes is share with you a very brief overview a history of the noahide movement first of all we have many midashim many rabic homes which speak about a Yeshiva an academy that was founded by shame who was the son of Noah and Shan's grandson a and they had this Academy to teach and to study the seven laws of Noah the Bible tells us that when Abraham and Sarah were on their way to Canan when God told them to leave orasim and go to k so Genesis 12:5 says they took with them they take took with them the souls they had made in and the Bible commentaries say to us that they had been spreading monotheism that Abraham and Sarah were teaching people to embrace God and we have an example of this later on in Genesis 21:33 where it says that Abraham planted an asell in beeva and there he began to call upon the name of God the king of the universe the god of the universe and the rabbis discussed in the talmud what is this asell that he planted so so one opinion is that AEL was an in and AEL are the three Hebrew letters that stand for Aila and lenina eating drinking and lodging and the Talma tells us that what would happen is that Abraham would take care of Wayfarers and he would feed them and when at the end of the meal they would thank him Abraham would say don't thank me this is not my food you should thank the the source of the food which is the god king of the universe and he would instruct people to say blessed is the god of the Universe from whose bounty we have eaten so Abraham was someone who was involved with his wife Sarah in spreading this idea of a universal relationship with God now we have in 1948 a famous study that was done by Philip biberfeld who claimed that the ancient hamur hamurabi code the hittite code and the Assyrian code of laws may actually have been rooted in the seven noahide laws based upon what he found to be similarities in the wording and styles between these codes and the Seven noai laws in the times when the Jewish people lived on their own land when we had our political dominion over the land of Israel there was a Biblical concept of g toov a resident alien and a resident alien was not a g sedc they were not someone who entirely converted to Judaism these were people that were willing to accept the seven noahide laws and if they did they became like I'll give you an analogy maybe a landed immigrant here in Canada you're not a full citizen but you have rights and so AAR Tosha was someone who had rights to live in the land of Israel and the Jewish Community had to support them so we see this institution of the noahide in the Biblical times we are told in the talmud that antoninus who was the Roman governor of Israel around the year 170 BCE was a close student of rabuda ani rabuda the prince the editor and redactor of the mishna and he himself antoninus may have been someone who was easily considered a follower of the noahide laws what we find in the literature about the first and second centuries of the Common Era is a group of people called the Y Elohim the fearers of God we read about them in the Christian Bible book of Acts they're spoken about in Josephus in Pho of Alexandria they write about this large group many many thousands and thousands some people estimate maybe even a million fearers of God and they were non-jews they were Gentiles who were very enamored with Judaism they were drawn to Judaism but they stopped short of conversion they would study with Jews they would hang out in the backs of synagogues and they very very easily may have been considered no noahides of their time coming more up to Modern Times Yugo grotius was a Dutch legal philosopher who lived from 1583 to 1645 he's referred to as the father of international law and he referred to the noahide laws as a source of the laws of all Nations now a little bit later on there was an English hebraist and jurist named John Seldon who lived from 15 884 to 1654 and he published a major work in Latin that dealt with the noahide laws arguing that the noahide laws were were a sophisticated system of natural law that are binding upon all human beings in the late 1890s we have a very poignant story there was a young there was a young man who was raised as a Roman Catholic his name was Amy palier and he was raised and pursued the priesthood But ultimately began to discover serious problems with the New Testament such as its misuse of Isaiah chapter 7 as a source for the Christian doctrine of the Virgin birth he also began to have great difficulties with doctrines such as the Trinity and so he considered conversion to Judaism however he had tremendous conflicts because he felt very attached to his mother he didn't know quite what to do he did not want to associate as a Christian he very much was drawn to Judaism he ended up having a meeting with Rabbi Elijah Ben Amo Rabbi Ben Amo was an Italian Rabbi and cabalist who lived from the years 1823 to 1900 and he believed that noahide Faith the noahide path was the religion of all humanity and he believed that Jews should spread the knowledge of these laws he wrote a book called Israel and Humanity which was published posthumously in the year 1914 he passed away in the year 1900 but he advised poier not to convert to Judaism and that he should follow the noahide path which is exactly what poer did he embraced the noahide path he published a book which was translated into English as the unknown Sanctuary a pilgrimage from Rome to Jerusalem published in 1928 in the 20th century there was a fascinating person named David harowitz he was born in 1903 he passed away 99 years later in the year 2002 and he was a very Ardent Zionist and in the year 1943 he formed an organization in New York called the United Israel World Union and he he was very focused on trying to return the 10 lost tribes to their brothers and also spreading Universal faith based upon the Hebrew scriptures his motto was Torah faith for all nations and he was sort of an early proponent of the noahide movement long before there was a modern noahide movement the the movement in modern times really begins if you wanted to find the real Pioneer with someone named vendel Jones vendel Jones was born in 1930 he passed away in the year 2010 and he was probably one of the most important if not the most important pioneers of the modern noahide movement the truth is that until his time there was never really a movement Pier if he was a noahide was one person it's not until the 20th century where we have the beginnings of an actual movement vendel Jones was originally a Baptist Minister and he pastored a church on the Virginia border from the years 1955 to 1956 he began having tremendous problems with what he saw as anti-semitic statements in the Christian Bible he ultimately ended up giving up his pastorate in the year 1956 and he began trying to find rabbis with whom whom he could study in 1967 he moved to Israel he began studying Judea at Hebrew University and he began getting involved with numerous archaeological projects as an amateur archaeologist some people say that the movie character Indiana Jones is based Loosely or directly upon him it's not so clear whether that's true any event he became a full-fledged noahide in the year 1984 and had a huge impact upon other people now in the 1980s there was a tremendous amount that was percolating in the world and one of the things that was percolating for a while but began really hitting hard in the 1980s was that there had been a growing interest among Christians in understanding the roots of their own faith and so one of the major movers of the development to the modern noahide movement was someone named Jay David Davis he was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1972 he became the pastor of Emanuel congregation in Athens Tennessee and in the early 1980s he began with his congregation to explore the question of who was the historical Jesus who was Jesus and it led them to a study of Judaism now why would this Baptist Church be studying Judaism because they discovered that Judaism was the religion of Jesus and Jesus's followers they ultimately came to reject all Christian doctrines and beliefs that ran counter to Jewish biblical teachings ultimately Reverend Davis went to the top of his church broke off the crosses and the steeple he lost about half of his members but half of them stayed with him and they began in the late 1980s to discover the idea of the noahide path as God's original spiritual path for Humanity they developed an interest in following this path they needed to have people teach them they finally discovered there was a local Rabbi Rabbi Michael Katz who was originally from South Africa and they were able to arrange for Michael cats to teach them and this former Baptist Church became became a noahide center in Athens Tennessee as you can imagine they describe Athens Tennessee as the Bible belt buckle and they received a tremendous amount of hostility and opposition from other Christians in the area Jack Saunders was another Christian Baptist Minister who Le led a church in Georgia at the same time and he went through a very similar journey to J David Davis one day after studying the origins of Christianity and the historical Jesus for many many years he announced to his entire church that Isaiah 7 had nothing to do with the Virgin birth of a messiah many of his congregants left but the those that stayed stayed with him to start a b Noah study group at this former Baptist Church one other important personality is James tabore who today is the chair of the Department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte Professor tabore was a deeply religious Evangelical Christian in his high school and University years his focus of study became early Christianity and in the 1960s he began a long quest to discover the historical Jesus and came to believe that ultimately Christianity was really a development more of Paul than of Jesus and he believed that Paul veered away from the jewishness of the original Jesus movement Professor Tabor published two important books on this subject he published the Jesus Dynasty in 2006 and he published Paul and Jesus in 2012 but in 1991 Professor tabore published the first edition of his personal spiritual Manifesto that is called restoring abrahamic faith and in this book he explores what he believes was the ancient spiritual path of righteous people like Noah like Kan shame a malit sedc and the book centers on three major themes the First theme is knowing god the one true God who's the creator of the entire universe the second theme is following the way of God which again Professor tabore sees in the five books of Moses is a life of righteousness and justice and finally the third element is participating in God's plan for the Redemption of world through the teachings of the Jewish people now it's important for me to point out that it wasn't only these three gentlemen who were involved with this incredible journey personal Journeys there were many many Christians at the same time that were going through similar Journeys it's important for us to understand that at the very same time je people were getting involved with this movement thebi R Merson gave a talk in 1987 encouraging hisim to influence non-jews to begin observing the noahide laws as a way to help make our world a dwelling place for God and to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah in 1981 Professor Aaron lienin I me mentioned before published his seminal work the seven laws of Noah which is a crucial Source book for people that want to understand what these seven laws are all about that was back in 1981 the second edition came out in 1986 I mentioned before Rabbi yel Schwarz from Jerusalem he's an expert on the noai laws and he wrote a book in Hebrew called orim which was written basically to encourage people to follow the noahide path and this book was translated into English and published as a light unto the nations in 1988 here in Toronto we have with us Professor David Novak living here he published a 480 page work in 1983 called the image of the non-jew and Judaism which focuses on the noahide laws in 1987 a very important book called the path of the righteous Gentile was published by K clorine and yov ralsky which presented really almost a practical Hands-On guide to what B Noah should be doing in their lives in 1991 arier Gallen I think back then he was going by the English name LEL but AR gallan founded an organization called root and Branch Association in 1991 to promote cooperation between the state of Israel and other nations and between B Israel and B Noah children of Israel and children of Noah and in 1991 he published the first edition of his noahide God guide which was a massive guide to noahide resources and leaders throughout the world now this Synergy between these activists these early Christian activists or former Christian activists and these Jewish teachers led to the launching of the modern noahide movement and it's spreading in modern times in 1990 vendel Jones organized a major conference in Fort Worth Texas it was attended by noahides and by rabbis from both the United States and Israel and there they formed the the audat k b Noah the union of the vineyard of the children of Noah and the chief Rabbi of Israel at the time morai alahu sent both his approval and His blessings for this Enterprise on March 20th 19 90 President George Bush signed into law a joint resolution of both houses of Congress recognizing the seven noahide laws as the Bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization and he urged the United States to return to the moral and ethical values contained in the seven noahide laws at that time Jay David Davis began publishing a newsletter called The Gap to teach people about the 7 no laws and related topics and he began organizing annual noahide conferences at that time the movement began attracting media coverage and press coverage and small noahide groups began emerging all over the globe now when things really change is with the development of the internet that's when things begin to explode it's interesting and ironic that was on the internet when many many Christians for the first time began to read a Jewish perspective on both the Bible and on Christianity and ironically they were reading these Jewish perspectives on Christianity because Jews were responding to missionary propaganda so because Jews felt compelled to put out on the internet the Jewish response to Christianity it wasn't only Jews reading that material you read thousands and thousands of Christians that for the first time were exposed to what Judaism teaches and many Christians began to become influenced by what they were learning on the internet around that time Michael D who is an attorney from Detroit formed the rainbow Covenant Foundation it was later changed to the first Covenant Foundation he organized this with both Jack Saunders and Rabbi Michael cats again it's an organization that serves as a think tank and an organization as a resource to people that are B Noak or potential B Noah in 2005 Israel's controversial nent Sanhedrin there was an effort to reestablish the Jewish high court in Israel uh it has not been accepted by all of jewry but there was at least this attempt it's led by the very esteemed Rabbi Adin Stein alts in 2005 they formed a high Council of B Noah now what would a movement be without politics and controversy so shortly after the formation of this High Council of B Noah a member Billy Jack dial split off from this group and formed his own United noahide Council in 2006 the United noahide Council launched Wiki Noah in 2010 which is a massive online resource about the Lo noahide laws and noahide movement some other recent developments one of the more popular Jewish groups today in the world which is gaining popular popularity is breast love which is aidic movement that in recent years has been getting a tremendous amount of exposure and spread to a great extent through the publication of a book by Rabbi shomar Rush called the garden amuna which was translated into English by Rabbi laser bro and it's become a huge International besteller I think easily over a million copies were sold which tells you that it wasn't only Jews reading this book it attracted a huge non-jewish readership and at the time now various breast websites are offering resources and teachings to non-jews one of these teachers is Rabbi Abraham greenbound and Rabbi greenbound has his own website or several websites that offer teaching not just to Jews and he is closely affiliated with the nativ community in Houston Texas I was there not long ago lecturing it was an amazing noahide Community they just recently got their own space they used to meet in a hotel now they have their own meeting space uh it's led by someone named Rod Bryant who was a former pastor at a large protest church and aside from leading nativ Rod has a weekly radio program on areva now called a light to the Nations which focuses on the noahide movement now one of the most exciting recent developments and this is just had off the press this is only in the last few months but I think one of the most exciting recent developments was the launching of an online program called the noahide laws course which is taught by now is a massive online study program they have programs where people can actually learn and get ordained as rabbis they have many other courses and they recently undertook to develop a program to teach the noahide laws what is unique about this particular program is that there are rabbis and there are rabbis there are rabbis that are rabbis but there are rabbis that were you'd call scholars in Jewish law and the people that are involved with the uh noai laws course are outstanding internationally acclaimed Torah Scholars of the first Rank and it's a course that's being organized by a number of people in tandem in cooperation it's going to be covering almost every relevant area of practical law for B Noah and they are right now online I think they're only in their 10th or 12th session uh but it's going to be a very long course they're hoping after they teach this course for a few times to put together a resource guide that may be published uh but this is really the first time that we've had outstanding outstanding Torah Scholars that are weighing in on the Practical issues of the application of noahide law it's one thing to deal with noahide law in theory but you really need specialists in Jewish law to develop the practice I think many people believe that the noahide movement is a prophetic end time phenomenon the prophet Zachariah in chapter 8:23 and many other scriptures in the Jewish Bible speak of a time when non Jews will turn to the Jewish people seeking spiritual guidance for most of Jewish history this might have sounded like science fiction for most of our history the world has been trying to kill us and we couldn't imagine there going to be a time when people are saying please teach us about God but that has been exactly what's been happening with the emergence of the modern noahide movement I've personally been both inspired and humbled by the people that I've met since my initial meetings with Jay David Davis and Jack Saunders and James tabore back in 1990 in 1991 when this movement was first getting off the ground together with the Jewish educational institution nishma here in Toronto run by Rabbi Benjamin he we brought J David Davis to Toronto in 1996 for a series of lectures and meetings with local rabbis over 400 people came to a program we organized for the Jewish community at Shah shamayim synagogue and then we had a special program for the general non-jewish community at the North York Public Library where over a hundred people enthusiastically received J Davis's presentation we've actually had an ongoing monthly study group of Toronto area B Noah right here for the past five years and I've also been in touch with a small noahide group that is meeting in Montreal I want to let you know that after we developed our own YouTube channel at Jews for Judaism I've been receiving hundreds of emails and Facebook messages from all over the world by non-jews that have been impacted by our YouTube videos many of them are now exploring a noahide path yesterday I actually posted on my Facebook page a short video of Noah study group in the Philippines that is a group that I've been in touch with I just want to end by sharing with you a number of challenges that are facing the noai community today number one many noites today come from Christian backgrounds and they bring with them sometimes baggage the baggage includes an aversion to what they don't see explicit itly taught in the Bible and therefore they have somewhat of an ambivalent attitude toward the oral law and Rabbi Authority this is something ultimately which will have to be worked out I think over time they will lose their allergy I've Speak to many of these former Christians who really have an aversion to the tomet but know nothing about it and often and usually when they expose themselves to these Rabbi teachings they become very impressed and they lose their allergies number two it's critical that the noahide movement develop leadership and receive more support from rabbis and more acceptance by the Jewish Community I must tell you that in the late 90s when I first met them the Jewish Community was a little bit nervous about who these people were were they Christians trying to infiltrate the Jewish Community who are they they seemed weird we had no idea who they were and now now since those early days there's more of a comfort level that's been developing more I I think a growing Acceptance in the general Jewish Community for the noahide movement and as we just saw a few minutes ago an increasing effort by rabbis to support this movement number three today the noahide community is basically a virtual community it basically lives online and for the community to really survive it's going to have to develop real communities brick and mortar flesh Toof flesh communities not just virtual communities one of the greatest problems facing the noahide movement today is that it's a very lonely kind of Life often people that are B Noah might be the only one in their city or maybe one of a handful in their city and it's hard to imagine having a real spiritual life when you're thinking about who am I going to date who are my children going to marry who are we going to associate with who's my community who are my peers and so for this movement to really survive they're going to have to develop communities that have a critical mass when I was in Houston the natif community has approximately a 100 people that's something that we can speak about and it's growing number four it's important for Noak to develop a sense of noahide identity this is especially challenging when noahides are trying to raise children people want to understand clearly who are we how do we self-identify how do we identify to other people do we tell people we're part of the Jewish Community what is our relationship to the Jewish Community are we semi- members members Associates and how are we supposed to tell our children who we are so it's important for Noah to understand what is the identity of B Noah number five a very delicate question but how much Jewish practice should and can noahides take on you should know that many B Noah are drawn to Jewish practice to following practices of Judaism and the question is how much of this practice should they take on and can they take on for example things like prayer rituals Shabbat holidays muuza Etc these are complex issues that are only now being addressed by competent rinic authorities for the first time in history a thousand years ago 500 years ago great rabbis were not being asked these questions but now these are questions that are being asked you know it's funny in some Jewish circles they speak about you know what's going to happen when we send religious Jewish astronauts to the Moon and what happens on the spacecraft how do they pray and what are the so those are questions that are now are theoretical and people sometimes like to think about it but the questions facing noahides are actually practical questions that are being dealt with right now as we speak finally one of the greatest challenges to the Noah movement is the tendency within the Noah Community to convert to Judaism I remember being at a meeting of B Noah and interested rabbis in New York in the early 1990s and I met there vendel Jones and vendel Jones said to me you know Rabbi we lose our best kids to yides kite we lose our best kids to Judaism and it's true his two children converted to Judaism so part of this is I believe a result of frustration in the B Noak movement because when you're living an isolated lonely life where there isn't a lot of resources and Leadership and it doesn't seem to be a large community so people get lonely and I think they feel all right being a noahide is not working I'm going to convert to Judaism but this is a question which is a tremendous challenge to the B Noak they face this drain of people within the movement who ultimately convert to Judaism and it's not clear how that is going to ultimately work out I believe that this movement has a tremendous amount of potential and can be a huge benefit to our community as fellow Travelers on the road towards World Redemption we don't have many friends in the world we've always been a very isolated people think about the potential of having hundreds of thousands if not millions of Gentiles who associate as B Noak saying we stand with you as fellow Travelers on your journey I personally pray for their success e for

Channel: Jews for Judaism

Views: 97,708

Keywords: jews for jesus, jewish christianity, jewish christian, jesus for jews, christian jews, jewish messiah, messianic, hebrew-christian, yeshua hamashiach, jewish jesus, jewish christians, messianic congregation, christian jew, messianic prophecy, jesus jews, messianic jews, jonathan bernis, the real messiah, tovia singer, outreach judaism, yeshua, Noachide, Noahide, Gentiles, Righteous Gentiles, Jewish, Judaism

Id: 5O1ve4Hs4Po

Length: 47min 39sec (2859 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 06 2014