“I am full of love for G-d!
I know that my love and yearning has no name.
How can a feeling that surpasses everything:
all goodness, all essence, all existence, be given a name?”

(Orot HaKodesh 4:400)

A great deal of conflict would be resolved in human relationships if both sides understood the proper context for the other sides words or behaviors.

There is a site, I won’t mention it’s name or link to it, that is rabidly anti-semitic.  It pulls out quotes from the Talmud and Mishnah to “prove” how Jews hate gentiles and aim take over the world.  Heaven forbid!

Such hatred lacks far more than proper context.

However, the wondering web surfer who stumbles on this filth need only lack proper context for this hatred to poison his views.

Here’s the proper context for seemingly anti-Gentile statements from the Talmud:

**

“The wise will understand on their own that the gentiles in whose lands we currently reside are not like those who were in the time of the Sages of the Talmud.  The latter were idolators who worshiped the stars and the constellations, and were attached to all forms of abomination.  They knew not God nor recognized His holy words.  But the nations of our day fear God and honor His Torah; doing kindness and justice in their lands, and charity with the Jews who take refuge under their wings.

Heaven forbid that we should either say or write anything disrespectful about them.  Thus, any reference [in this book] to nations, gentiles and people of the world and the like, refers only to those idolators that lived in the time of the Mishnah [and Talmud].”

**

Words in [brackets] were my own addition.

This statement is taken from the title page of a holy book I recently began studying, and it was written about 200 years ago - how much more so is this statement true today!

In the End of Days, Jews and Gentiles will have a God-centered relationship of peace and mutual cooperation toward bringing godlinesss into the world.

Of course, if you find the concept of God threatening, then you’ll find Jews threatening.  Hence anti-semitism throughout the ages.  But if you love God…then you should “love whom your Beloved loves“!

As discussed in the current issue of NoahideNations.com’s Connections magazine, Noahide kiruv is an important concept.

“Kiruv” literally means “bringing close.”  I believe it is distinct form proselytizing in that kiruv aims to bring a person closer to their original spiritual path, rather than “the new and better path.”  For all Jews, this is the path of the Torah & the 613 mitzvot.  For all Gentiles, this is the Toah & the 7 Mitzvot of Noah.

As the Tibetan Dalai Lama said to Israeli travelers who sought his audience,
“‘You come from the most ancient wisdom…the source…You do not need to travel all the way here to seek the truth…You should return to your country and learn your religion well.  Return here if you feel the need, but only after you have done so…’ “¹

Hence Kiruv aims to return people to the source, the most ancient wisdom, the Torah.

If I were a Noahide, and I were involved in Noahide kiruv, I would firstly reach out to people who are already living the Noahide path but don’t realize that they are.

Here is a recent news article from the Jerusalem Post about the Makuya community from Japan.  I have seen them in Israel on several occasions.  Has anyone in the Noahide community contacted these lovely people?

WITH THE women dressed in delicate and colorful kimonos, the group paraded through portions of Beersheba’s Old City, singing Jewish songs in perfect Israeli-accented Hebrew.
Photo: Yocheved Miriam Russo

“A Friend Indeed” Jpost.com March 18th, 2009.

In a world intent on endlessly criticizing Israel, the Japanese Makuya are something else. At least once a year - beginning shortly after the state’s founding in 1948 - a delegation of Makuya makes a pilgrimage to Israel. They have only one objective: to show their support for Israel and - even more unusually - to emphasize their unconditional love for Jews and Judaism.

The Makuya aren’t converts. They aren’t political. They aren’t asking Jews to change anything, let alone convert to their own religious beliefs…(see full article at Jpost.com)

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb of the OU quotes Rabbi Moshe Fuller:

“Some people tell G-d how great their problems are.
I tell my problems how great G-d is.”

Oscar-award winning actor John Voight was awarded the Tzedakah Award by Noahide Nations at this year’s first Noahide World Conference.

Voight said,

“The Seven Noahide Commandments appeal to my own sense of what I feel is a higher purpose, which is to try to get everyone to an understanding of what they’re asked to do, what life’s responsibilities are. These very simple Seven Laws of Noah, are good basics.”

- Jon Voight

Below is an interview with John Voight on Israeli television from May 2008 after he visited the rocket-battered town of Sderot.

Notables:
“G-d says to Abraham: Those who bless you will be blessed, those who curse you will be cursed.  And isn’t that what has happened [in history]?”¹

“All sane people should have a passion for Israel at this time.”

“I’m thinking about the future of our children, about the future of this world that we’re in.”

Sometimes politicians make great statements, even if they have nothing to do with great actions.  Here is a great statement by Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday.

(IsraelNN.com) Against his advisors’ recommendations, President Shimon Peres lit the fourth light of the Chanukah menorah on Wednesday night together with Sderot’s children at a community center of the rocket-ravaged town. “In Gaza, they light missiles. In Sderot, we light candles,” Peres addressed the residents. “From the moment that the missile attacks on Israel will cease, there will be quiet in Gaza and the border crossings will open. The sole responsibility to the situation in Gaza clearly rests on the shoulders of the Hamas,” the President added.

If you are reading this from the comfort of your home, without thought of missiles exploding through your roof, or at your children’s playground…count you blessings,
thank your Creator.
Greet your neighbors.
Hug your spouse.
Kiss your children.
Thank your parents.
Speak to G-d with real words.

In other words, light your “candles” and burst through the dark.

“The turbid, stormy waters of secularity roar and foam,
as they seek to swallow up all that is sacred.

In their quaking enormity,
they inundate nations and peoples,

but the strength of Israel
shall never founder.”

(Ma’amarei HaRe’iyah 150)

“The baser a person, the harder for him to distinguish hatred of evil
from hatred for people who do evil…
The exalted trait of people with lofty souls
is their ability to make this distinction.
Their hatred of evil
is trained solely on the evil itself…
and thus the light of loving kindness
illuminates their wisdom.”

(Orot HaKodesh 4:497)

“When a person diminishes himself and is filled with humility, he draws nearer to his essence and the crux of his soul is revealed to him in all its glory. From its reflection he sees all the heavenly majesty in the depths of his own infinitely great soul.”

(Erpalei Tohar 125)

“Anyone who has been following the progress of the Jewish population in Eretz Yisrael can see clearly how from every step backward came an even greater development for the good, and out of every crisis came a step forward.”

(Rav Kook’s Ma’amarei HaRe’iyah: “Shuvu LeBitzaron”)