Monday, September 11, 2017

It's really hard to be a גוי

At first glance it would seem to be simple, they have only 7 mitzvos to keep (as opposed to our 613). But in reality their existence is much more complicated for the following reasons:

  1. What are the 7 mitzvos that they need to keep? Guess what, the Gemara in Sanhedrin (57) has a dispute about what the 7 mitzvos are. for example, one Tanna says that castration and כלאים are 2 of the 7 mitvzos. 
  2. They have no gemara, shulchan aruch, poskim to ask any questions. If a גוי has a question about the 7 mitzvos who can he ask? Who even knows the answers? Is there a mesora of psak on these topics?
  3. The Gemara keeps adding on additional things to the 7 mitzvos. For example, a גוי who keeps Shabbos is חייב מיתה, a גוי who learns Torah is חייב מיתה.
  4. All 7 mitzvos are capital crimes by a גוי. If a Jew steals, he returns the money and that is it. If a גוי steals, off with his head. 
  5. None of the regular provisions that apply to the death penalty for Jews that make it basically impossible to kill someone apply to a גוי. There is no need for:
    1. התראה
    2. יתיר עצמו למיתה
    3. 2 witnesses (even 1 is enough)
    4. 23 judges, even 1 judge is enough
    5. There is no disqualification of relatives as witnesses 
  6. One of the 7 mitzvos is Arayos, however, what the definition of Arayos for a גוי is a dispute and very unclear. Some TAnnaim claim that it is the same as for Jews, some have a much smaller list, soem have a bigger list. Rav Huna claims for example that a גוי can marry his daughter. R' Elazar said that a גוי is killed for having anal sex with his wife.  
  7. The Pnei Yehoshua has a famous opinion, that for a גוי marraige if for life. There is no divorce. He claims that since the institution of a Get is written only for Jews it doesn't apply to a גוי. 
In short, it practically impossible to be a God fearing גוי and really keep the 7 mitzvos, the devil is in the details, and the details are simply not well known and decided.

4 comments:

  1. How can a non-Jew be halachically married so that he would need a get?

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    1. The Gemara learns out from the pasuk in Bereishis ודבק באשתו that there is a concept of marriage by non-Jews. How does this happen? When they decide to be together exclusively they are considered married. Many say, that to break up the marraige they just have to separate, however, the Pnei Yehoshua claims that there is no way to break up the marriage.

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  2. I once asked a Rabbi about unequal legal treatment between Jew and Gentile and most often it was against the Gentile. I gave some specific examples. He had absolutely no response. NONE. Being raised in the USA in which all men are equal under the law, this disparate treatment led me to question Orthodox Judaism.

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    Replies
    1. R' Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg (the שרידי אש) wrote the following in a letter to Professor Samuel Atlas:
      The entire world hates us. We assume that this hatred is due to the wickedness of the nations, and no one stops to think that perhaps we also bear some guilt. We regard all the nations as similar to an ass. It is forbidden to save a Gentile, it is forbidden to offer him free medical treatment, it is forbidden to violate the Sabbath to save his life
      ...
      Can the nations resign themselves to such a deprivation of their rights? It is permitted to deceive a Gentile and cancel his debt as well as forbidden to return his lost object. What can we do? Can we uproot our Torah teaching with apologetic formulae or clever deceptions?

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