Unless a generous donor can sponsor us to maintain this site’s hosting and domain services (about $120 a year), iHeartNoahides will soon go offline and unavailable indefinitely.

I have backed up the entire site, and therefore could reupload it all at a future time…like when I’ve completed graduate school and paid off my loans (ugh)…but honestly, who knows when that will be.

Since my first post on July 24th 2008, iHeartNoahides has received over 10,000 visitors!  Many Google searches with the keyword “noahide” in them lead people to iHeartNoahides where they find lots of information and links.  This is so, even despite having ceased to add to the site in summer 2009.

If you are feeling generous, please contact me, Daniel, at NoahGear@gmail.com

Blessings,

Daniel

(Orot HaKodesh 4:400)

The People of Noah

*********

Righteous Gentile Gets Israel Burial
Jun/17/09

Oscar Schindler by his RG tree.

(IsraelNN.com) The ashes of a Polish man who hid and saved 12 Jewish escapees from the Warsaw Ghetto in an apartment he rented for them were buried in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv Tuesday along with those of his wife. Two of the people Jerzy Wunsche saved in 1943, Yosef Atlasowicz and Miriam Sherman, attended the funeral. Sherman, who was a baby at the time, was raised by Wunsche for three years after World War II ended before he handed her over to the Jewish Agency.

When Wunsche died a year ago his family discovered his will called for him to be buried under the tree planted in his honor at Yad Vashem. His wife Zofia’s wishes were to be buried beside her husban. When burial at the museum proved impossible, Atlasowicz and Yad Vashem arranged for the couple’s burial in the portion of the Kiryat Shaul cemetery reserved for righteous gentiles. “He was a very modest man,” said Wunsche’s son John. “He thought what he was doing was normal, and that everyone should have done it.”

Here are two reasons not to use the word movement, and two reasons to use a different word: community.  The Noahide community.

Reason #1 not to use “movement”

Random House Dictionary defines a movement as:

a diffusely organized or heterogeneous group of people or organizations tending toward or favoring a generalized common goal: the antislavery movement; the realistic movement in art, etc.

The word movement does not accurately portray what is going on here.

(bottle rocket flying into the night)

What we have are human beings seeking out the G-d of Israel in order to live a lifestyle in accordance with G-d’s Will and Wisdom, the Torah.  This is a lifelong journey for the individual, and an eternal journey for mankind.

Yet the word movement connotes what our Sages called “ahavah sh’teluya ba’davar” - a love that depends on something.

“Any love that depends on something, when that thing ceases, the love will cease. But if it does not depend on anything, it will endure forever…” (Avos 5:19)

A movement depends on attaining their goal.  The civil rights movement.  Boy did it move! They changed America.  And now where are the people marching in the streets?  Where are the speeches across America?  There are none (no major ones) because the goals were achieved - American law was changed forever.

Are the Noahides part of a movement, then?

I say no.  You are not riding a bottle rocket that will fizzle out and pop.  Heaven forbid!  You are builders, not rocketeers.

Reason #2 not to use “movement”

The word movement, in my opinion, is far too synonymous with “religion.”  As pointed out in the Noahide Nations Radio Show (I believe they did, forgive me if I’m wrong), and quoted from Rambam, it is forbidden for Gentiles to create new religions or create new religiously obligatory practices, such as moving the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first day (Sunday), etc.

Hence, voluntarily wearing “Noahide tzitzit” may be okay and even praiseworthy according to the Rav Yoel Schwartz and the guidelines he gave for how to go about it.

The danger, however, is if, ch”v two generations from now Noahide descendants coming to believe that to be a Noahide one is obligated to wear “Noahide tzitzit.” Not only would that be false, it would be forbidden to hold such doctrine!

Although it is sometimes necessary to use the word “religion” or “theology” to describe what it is that guides your life, the word “movement” sounds like a “new hip religion” - as opposed to more appropriate use of these terms by the Oklahoma Bnai Noah Society:

Noachide theology is the same as the theology of Judaism. However, non-Jews are not required to accept all the details of this theology to the extent that Jews are. Observant Noachides are the Non-Jews in Judaism. Just as the Priests, Levites, women etc… have particular Laws given to them at Sinai, so do Noachides have particular Laws and together we all make one True Universal Religion, walking in the Ways of our Creator. [emphasis added -iHN]

We see the the word “movement” is not only inaccurate, but is also a potential stumbling block to the less learned person considering the Noahide community.

Reason #1 for using “community”

Like I said, Noahides are building.  They are building a life they want to live, they are building homes to raise children with values from the Torah, they are building a future world of peace amongst all peoples.  These are not transient goals that fade with time.

The word “community” better describes the building that is going on, which is really the essence of avodas Hashem - service of G-d.  They are not actions that will fade away with the attainment of longterm or short term goals.  Rather, they are actions that will blossom over time.  A community grows.  A community blossoms.  A community branches out and forms other like-minded communities.

(a beautifully built, peaceful garden)

This is what I see happening…not a bottle rocket movement.

Reason #2 to use “community”

Although I quoted the OKBNS above, I think it important to clarify what they said in the last line:

…together we all make one True Universal Religion, walking in the Ways of our Creator.

Let us not make the terrible mistake of thinking that “walking together” means intermarriage between Bnei Yisrael and Bnei Noach, Heaven forbid.

Of course every Noahide knows that would be against the Torah.  But it’s important to make sure we don’t inadvertantly sew seeds that could later on lead to big problems of intermarriage, ch”v.  If we lead ourselves to such a mistake, everything will be for not.

However, if Noahides are a community of people, and Jews are another community of people, then we have two distinct entities that also share common goals, values, and purpose.  Separate communities.  Similar values.

In Conclusion

(Distinctly different communities, working toward shared goal.)

We see that the word “community” is much more empowering and visionary than the transient word “movement.”  Community connotes geographic base, and growth such as with school systems and social networks. Additionally, the word community better ensures that the Noahide path is not adultered into a new religion. And finally, the word community clarifies Bnei Noach as a distinct entity, separate from the Jewish communities with whom they cooperate toward the common goal of walking in the Ways of our Creator.

Addendum

Why has the word movement been used?  I have some thoughts.  Mostly I think it just happened.

9pm EST, 8pm CST, 6pm PST at:

http://okbns.org/VY_Discussion.html

The weekly discussion group with Rabbi and Rebbetzin Dov Yitzchak is based on the “Service From the Heart; Renewing the Ancient Path of Biblical Prayer and Service” with approbation from Rabbis Yoel Schwartz and Yechiel Sitzman, Jerusalem. And “The Divine Code” by Rabbi Moshe Weiner, in the Noah Chat room. Tuesday nights at 9ET for two hours.

see above link for more details

What is the single most important next step for Noahide communities?

The number one response was “Child & Youth education”

Having said that, iHN excitedly presents our exclusive interview with Kristine Cassady, Co-Founder, President, and Administrative Director of N.O.A.H. : Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers.

All bold and italics and links were added by me, the editor of iHN.

It is my honest opinion that N.O.A.H. is laying the foundation for establishing real, non-web-based Noahide communities around the world.  Of course, it first begins online, as you will read in the interview.

Wishing you well, dear readers!
Happy Pesach.

- Daniel

p.s. my offer to hear your story and present it on iHN still stands.

*************
March 2009

Can you start by telling us about N.O.A.H.: Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers?

N.O.A.H. is a subsidiary organization of Noahide Nations created to meet the needs of Noahide parents and children.

Although our name seems to limit our scope to homeschooling, our desire is to assist all Noahide families. It is a common opinion that parents who use public or private schooling options are not homeschooling their children; however, N.O.A.H. would like to challenge Noahide families to think differently.

We believe all Noahide parents are in fact homeschooling for a portion of their child’s education- the most important element of their education, actually, which is spiritual awareness and growth. After evaluating the need for Noahide specific material, a small group of three homeschooling mothers, including myself, came together under the Noahide Nations’ banner to devise a solution to the problem of limited resources for Noahide parents. The result was the foundation of N.O.A.H.: Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers. www.NoahideHomescool.org

What services will N.O.A.H. offer?

The services we offer are closely tied to the goals we have set for the organization, which are multifaceted.

We feel there is a great need for Noahide specific Torah-centered material, so we have devoted part of our organization strictly to curriculum development for Torah related topics- emphasizing the Noahide perspective, including Parsha lessons and the feasts and festivals.

To maintain the highest standards possible, all of N.O.A.H.’s curriculum will be written from an observant orthodox viewpoint, but geared toward a Noahide audience. We believe rabbinical oversight is an important element and will have rabbinical approval of our curriculum material prior it becoming available to members.

We also believe strongly in the need for establishing meaningful relationships within the global Noahide community and will offer community building services like separate online forums for parents, teens, and elementary aged students, featured articles written by fellow Noahides on relevant education or parenting topics, and a service we are really excited about- our individualized notification to members of other member families within their region. This notification process will allow families to build (form) small groups of support and begin the process of the true community building we all know is needed. A core ingredient of attaining our organization’s goals is our Education Department which is responsible for creating the curricula, classes, and resources for N.O.A.H.’s members, and lead by Elisa Jay.

Will you only focus on the spiritual education of children or branch out?

Our primary goal, at first, is to fill the very real “hole” in resources available to Noahide parents regarding Noahide spiritual growth, understanding, and lifestyle. We hope to achieve this by the on-line classes and original Noahide Torah curriculums I mentioned earlier; as-well-as offering printable activity sheets for each of the 7 Laws, Torah lesson plans, creating original children’s books, and forming a Noahide appropriate book list. We are putting a lot into N.O.A.H. and are really excited to see where it could go.

So, all of that to say, once we have produced enough material to get parents going on the spiritual front, we will venture out into the academic fields. Our Educational Director (and Vice-President), Elisa Jay, has already started to create an ancient world history curriculum that incorporates the Torah timeline and corresponding Jewish calendar dates. She also has plans for a high school level science program that will introduce Torah science and how it applies to all the different disciplines within the currently accepted scientific arenas.  It will be a process and take time to develop these resources.

Some of our other future academic goals include writing Noahide specific guides for the Humanities, such as literature, art, and music, and establishing a high school level course in political science and psychology from the Noahide viewpoint.

I just want to reiterate to your audience that all material created by N.O.A.H. will have orthodox rabbinical approval prior to becoming accessible to members.

How will people access all of these amazing resources?

As our title implies, our organization is based solely in cyberspace and all of our resources will be available at our website: www.NoahideHomeschool.org.

Our website is divided into three separate spaces; one is the Home site mainly for parents/ adults to access family related material and support.

The second section is our Student Zone which is dedicated to students age 13- 18 years old.  Age appropriate Torah-centered educational material, printable documents, and a link to the teen community are all found in the Student Zone.

Our third area, the PlayScape, is set-up for students ages 5- 12 years old to use along with their parents, preferably.  Again, it will have age appropriate Torah-centered educational material, activity pages, and a link to the N.O.A.H. community forum for them to connect with other Noahide students.

Now, the public will have access to the Home site, but both of our student spaces are password protected and we have created a social network for our community forum site which allows parents to monitor where the students are while giving the students a place of their own to get to know fellow Noahide youth, you can visit the N.O.A.H. Community at www.NoahideHomeschool.ning.com.

So, membership to N.O.A.H.: Noahide Online Association of Homeschoolers will allow people full access to all of your services?

Yes and there is an additional benefit…it is all free to the public!

What can you tell anyone interested in helping N.O.A.H?

We are currently seeking illustrators, experienced curriculum developers, professional educators, or others with a passion for Torah and children.

I would also like to mention to our Jewish friends, please let the Gentiles in your community know about us and the work we are doing to bring Torah truth to the Gentiles in our communities.  As we know, there is a lot of confusion out there and well-meaning people are wondering around without proper direction and basing their faith on misinformation.  Noahides need all the help we can get to spread the truth of Torah-centered living–so if a gentile comes to you for direction–please let them know about us.

You may contact me at KristineCassady@NoahideNations.com if you wish to volunteer your time or talents to our organization.  I’d love to hear from you.

The Noahide and Jewish readers should take to heart that Noahides have had a G-d-centered relationship with the Jews for millenia.  This is not a “new” phenomena.

In my opinion, this perspective is far more empowering to Bnei Noach than pretending that the Noahide-Jew relationship is a novel concept.  Rather, you are part of a great chain of people who similarly strove for G-d against all odds.

What is novel, is that humanity is steadily approaching the redemption.

-iHN

*******

Mesopotamia, origin of seventy nations

Following the flood, humanity was still one united body, living in one place, the area now known as Mesopotamia or Iraq, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flow through a fertile plain. Here the people had settled and given birth to children. Their state of security was so great that they began to consider themselves the masters of all creation, ready to challenge G-d Himself for supremacy. They saw their own unity as the key to this, and they did not commit the sins of banditry and sexual infidelity (bestiality) for which the previous generation had been condemned. They were kind and loving to one another, but they grew arrogant as a group and decided to build a high tower, the Tower of Babel, from which to gain an access to heaven.

(Natural History Museum - London. w/permission)

This was a form of idolatry (violation of the Covenant of Noah), and their punishment from the heavenly court was that their languages should be confused. They would no longer understand each other as before. This was the origin of separate languages as we now have them; seventy basic tongues were established, from which all of today’s languages descended. This was also the number of the actual nations of the non-Jewish world before they were subdivided and intermingled.

Because of their newly acquired linguistic differences, the people began to quarrel over the building of the tower and they were forced to abandon the project. They decided to move away from this central place, and they re-assembled in different locations depending on which language they spoke. Thus, the families of the earth became settled in their separate locations. While this was going on, the Seven Laws in all their detail were being taught from an academy in Jerusalem established by Shem, the son of Noah, and his grandson Eber. Anyone who wanted was free to come and learn. However, various temptations and the distances between the peoples were increasing. Soon the nations developed idolatrous cults of their own, based on the mistake of early stargazers who thought that since the stars and planets were serving their Creator, it was proper to worship them instead of Him. It is from these stargazers that would later come all various forms of astral/solar worship which would become the very foundation for almost all Gentile idolatrous religions.

Shem and Eber were scholars of the whole Torah, as it is known to the Jews today, but in their time only the Seven Laws had actually been manifested as commandments for the people to observe and keep; the rest remained, as it were, “in heaven.”

In these circumstances there arose the first wicked king, Nimrod of Ur, who forced all others to submit to him by making himself an actual object of worship. This was the first instance of a form of tyranny that has never since disappeared, a tyranny over the human spirit as it strives for truth and for the freedom to express it. The solution came through the efforts of one man, whose descendants developed into the Jewish people themselves, still today the prime target for all such wicked rulers. This man was Abraham, born in Ur into a family of idolaters, who arrived by his own reasoning at the conclusion that only the Creator Himself should be worshiped and served, and that His name must be made known to all humankind.

Nimrod tried to kill Abraham for speaking out against his ruling cult, but Abraham was miraculously saved. Then G-d told him to leave the land of his birth and to travel to “a land which I shall show you.” This was the land of Israel, the Holy Land, which G-d gave to Abraham and his descendants as an inheritance, as a place in which to keep all of His commandments in the Torah and thus to be close to Him.

Abraham studied at the academy of Shem and Eber

There Abraham studied at the academy of Shem and Eber, and he acquired great wisdom. He traveled with his wife and his flocks and herds, offering hospitality to people and discussing the concepts of divinity with them, each according to his level. Sarah, meanwhile, instructed the women. Abraham wrote books and devoted all his wealth to doing kindness to everyone who needed it. He brought others to the understanding of the the Seven Laws, by which he himself was bound, but his efforts for the spreading of this awareness earned him a much higher reward; his descendants were to be given the privilege of keeping the whole Torah in the Jewish manner.

After they had passed many years without children, Abraham’s first wife, Sarah, gave birth to Isaac, in whom Abraham’s wisdom and his blessings were to be continued. Sarah had previously allowed Abraham to take a second wife, Hagar, in order that he might have a son. Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, in whom Arab and Moslem leadership originated. Ishmael challenged Isaac for the entire succession; though he was not found worthy for this, his greatness continued, and he died righteous and esteemed.

Isaac continued Abraham’s work in his turn, never leaving the Holy Land all his life. His son, Jacob, completed the original task by fathering twelve sons and taking them to live in Egypt at G-d’s command. These twelve men became the fathers of the Jewish people. Jacob was also challenged for the succession by his twin brother, Esau. Western power and success, as dramatically revealed in the rise of the Roman Empire, originated in Esau. Jacob knew the unworthiness of Esau and captured his truth by impersonating him before their father, later also escaping his brother’s revenge.

Children of Israel in Egypt

Contrary to what some might say it can be shown that when Jacob brought his family to Egypt, the observance of the Seven Laws was well known as seen in the Egyptian’s Negative confession (remember most of the Laws of Noah were negative). After Jacob’s twelve sons died, an evil king of Egypt, the pharaoh, set out to enslave the Jewish people, to destroy their spiritual and ethical concepts, and to restrict their independence of thought. Thus the situation remained for hundreds of years. But G-d saw their sufferings, and He remembered the relationship of divine love that He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At an appointed time, He brought them out of Egypt among great plagues and wonders, through the hand of the chosen prophet, Moses, whom He had found worthy to teach and to lead them.

Moses led the Jews out into the Sinai Desert, and they gathered at a small mountain where Moses ascended to G-d before the eyes of them all. He remained there receiving the whole Torah from G-d through his prophetic faculties, and then he came down to teach it to them. Thus, the Jewish people were established as they exist today, charged with keeping the entire body of the divine commandments (the reiterated Laws of Noah plus those added over and above them which makes up the Covenant of Moses [613]).

This event took place in the year 1312 B.C.E. (Before Common Era). At this time, during which the whole world was aware of what was happening, the state of the Garden of Eden was restored to humanity. (This state was to be lost again through other sins and errors of judgment.) The other nations were again given the Seven Laws that had been told to Noah, and the Jews were given the duty of teaching them. From then onward, all non-Jews who kept the Seven Laws were known by the Hebrew title of Chasidei Umot ha-Olam or “righteous of the nations.”

Thus the Jews were brought out of the desert and restored to the land of Israel, the place whose nature was fit for wisdom and for the observance of Torah law. There they obeyed the commandments to set a king over themselves to rule according to the Torah and to build a Temple on the original altar site in Jerusalem for the offering of sacrifices as the law prescribed. In these ways they performed the task of linking all of earthly creation to its origin in heaven.

While the Jews lived on their land, with the Temple in their midst, they had a high level of spiritual awareness. Prophecy was a constant factor in their lives. These centuries also saw the rise of other empires: Greece, with its scientific and artistic excellence, and Persia and Babylon, with highly developed sorcery cults of a kind that has now disappeared. The Greek world produced many truly great thinkers, such as the philosopher Aristotle, but its cult of beauty also led many people to a self-indulgent way of life, immoral and idolatrous.

Greek influence in conflict with Torah

Thus, inevitably, through this Gentile Greek influence as well as others, there were elements that came into conflict with Torah and the world of Jewish learning. During the early years of the Second Temple, these forces mounted an all-out campaign to conquer the land of Israel and to force the Jews away from the Torah. These Greeks opposed the Torah as much because of the Seven Laws as from any concern over the life led by the Jews themselves. They wanted to pollute Jewish wisdom with impure concepts to the point where it would lose the capacity to influence non-Jews in favor of Noachide practice. They sent troops into the Holy Temple itself in an attempt to destroy its altars and to contaminate the sacred olive oil used for lighting the lamps. This was no act of random destruction: this oil and its light correspond in the Temple service to the maintaining of pure Torah wisdom.

However, the Cohanim, the priestly branch of the Jewish nation who were devoted to the Temple service, rose in armed revolt against the invader. With divine help, they gained a military victory. On re-entering the Temple, they discovered one single flask of oil that had remained sealed against contamination. It contained only enough oil for one day, but they trusted in G-d. In a further miracle, the light lasted eight whole days until more pure oil could be prepared. This was the origin of the present-day Jewish festival of Chanukah, where lights are lit for eight days in perpetuation of the miracle.

The victory over the Greeks did not merely secure the Jewish nation against an invader but also restored Torah to its place and maintained the entire moral order of the world. The Jews had also won the ability to teach the Seven Laws without interference, and through the succeeding years their influence grew. A movement arose among Greeks and other nations to abandon Greek culture and seek Torah enlightenment instead.

In Temple times

In Temple times, the non-Jews who formally took on the duty of observance of the Seven Laws were given the right to live in the land of Israel alongside the Jews, sharing in its divine insights and joys together with them. Both within the land and outside it they formed large communities in association with the synagogues. By the time of the rise of Imperial Rome they had become so prominent that the Roman government gave them special status in law, with the influence of their beliefs felt all across the empire. These were later called “G-dfearers.”

They were known as “G-dfearers,” yirei shamayim in Hebrew. In Italy and other western regions of the empire they were called by the Latin equivalent metuentes. In the Greek-speaking lands to the east, where they were much more numerous, they were known as phoboumenoi (fearers of the One) or theosebei (worshipers of G-d). A memorial tablet found in the synagogue of Aphrodisias in Turkey in 1976, commemorating donors to charity, has two separate groups of names: one is of Jews, but the other is of Greeks, such as “Polychronios,” “Apianos,” and “Athenagoras,” and it is headed with the words, “and also these Fearers of the One….”

A similar inscription has also been found in the synagogue of Sardis, this time with three groups of names: born Jews, full converts to Judaism, and observers of the Seven Laws. The “Fearers” are mentioned many times by the Roman commentators and historians, often with sarcasm and mockery of their closeness to the Jewish world and its ideas.

Under the Roman Empire

Josephus records how each city in Syria from which the emperor had expelled the Jews still had its population of Greek “sympathizers.” He also describes the large non-Jewish community associated with the synagogue of Antioch, which was then one of the largest cities in the world. The biographer Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, describes how the great lawyer-politician defended a free Roman accused of abandoning the pagan religion of the state in favor of “Jewish practices,” making clear that the accused had not in fact become a Jew (but a G-dfearer).

The satirists Petronius and Juvenal derided non-Jews who “act the part of the Jew,” mocking at their reluctance to be circumcised even after accepting Jewish truth upon themselves. Talmudic sources speak of a non-Jewish king named Lemuel who was reproached by Rabbi Hanina for unseemly behavior with the reminder, “Your father was a Fearer of Heaven.” The Noachide observers were often well-educated people, sometimes members of the Roman aristocracy, and they endured and answered the pagan wits with great patience and intellectual distinction. The Roman Emperor Antoninus, who enjoyed a close friendship with the Jewish sage Rabbi Judah the Prince, was thought to have established that relationship on the basis of a personal adherence to the Seven Laws. Josephus also mentions a King Izates, who underwent a Jewish “conversion” without being circumcised after discussions with a Jew named Ananias who lived within his kingdom of Adiabene in Mesopotamia. These Gentiles lived happy and fruitful lives, filled with the knowledge of truth, realizing their non-Jewish potential before the eyes of everyone.

It is often claimed that “ten percent of the empire” was Jewish, but the number of Jews who emerged from that period into more recent times does not bear out the contention that all these millions had converted in full. By far the majority of them were Noachide observers, non-Jews who had rejected paganism and formed an association with the Torah that gave them a status of their own.

These were times which saw a great moral development in the non-Jewish world, as the absurdity of the old pagan ways became obvious to everyone. Public and private morality became the dominant issue in people’s lives, as it is to a great extent today. While the Jews were established in the Holy Land, with the Temple at its heart for all to see, there was no mistaking the source from which the necessary ideas had to come. Similar developments were taking place also in the Persian Empire, and even in India and China, because the fame and glory of the Temple were known in all parts of the world. At this time the Hindu religion was led away from its early idolatry toward acknowledging the single Creator as it does today. The Buddhist ideology also arose to take the Far East onto a higher level than it had known before.

As these developments proceeded, the Roman state became the scene of a considerable struggle between non-Jews who stood fast by the Seven Laws and early church leaders who wanted the public to settle for a new religion that was based on Jewish themes but incorporated elements of Greek idolatry into its framework. The writing of the New Testament in Greek, based on the deeds of a certain Jew who was believed by many to be linked to messianic concepts, was intended to further the aim of the latter group. When the church made its bid for official domination, it was offering to reconcile the widespread desire for idolatrous concepts with the equally widespread desire for pure truth.

In time, there was a clear division between these two tendencies at all levels of life and politics. At its peak the struggle led to the brief but eventful reign of the Emperor Julian, known to Christian history as “the Apostate.” He was a remarkable man, only twenty-four years old when he came to the imperial throne in the year 361, determined to give a moral basis to the crisis-ridden government in a very short span of time.

Last Attempt under Julian the Emperor

Julian was a cousin of the emperor, raised far away from the Roman court surroundings, and his early education had been mainly in Greek philosophy. Though he was considered an outsider in Roman politics, or perhaps because of it, the Emperor Constantius recognized his keen intelligence and gave him an important military command in the war against the tribes in what is now Germany. Against all the odds, he succeeded in battle and aroused the jealousy of the emperor, who ordered him recalled.

Julian’s friends in Rome, aware of his moral and intellectual potential, rose up in revolt when they heard of his recall and proclaimed him emperor. Before the situation could develop into a full-scale civil war, Constantius died, leaving Julian as his only legitimate successor. The young man came to the throne with no ties to any of the powerful established forces of the state, whose greed and arrogance were tearing the fabric of society apart. His philosophical training had brought him close to Jewish ideas and to the Seven Laws at the exact time when their relevance was greatest.

Though the Christian bishops were pressing hard for their faith to become the sole official doctrine, Julian refused them and proclaimed constitutional freedom of religion. He allowed pagan temples to function, along with synagogues and Christian churches, but his policy in government was based on spiritual values that were intended to raise the tone of life above the level of interfaith competition. He reduced the taxes that burdened the working people and kept inflation down by banning price rises and stemming the flow of gold across the empire’s borders. He completed the war with the aggressive German tribes, realizing that the state would never become stable until its borders were secure. The support of the “G-dfearers” maintained his prestige, and the quality of the social fabric began to improve.

However, the senatorial class soon felt their privileges were being threatened, and the church sought to win them over as allies for the Christian cause. Propaganda was spread among the poor, alleging that the Jews and their adherents were planning to exploit them even more, and this was helped by the power which Julian’s policies had given to the bureaucrats who administered the reforms. Within two years the emperor’s position was under threat; he had gone for high moral stakes, but the empire itself was so unstable that chaos had risen against him.

In order to win final military security, he led an army to the east against the Persian Empire, the last strong power that posed a danger to Rome. His legions reached the Persian capital itself, going further than Roman armies had ever gone before. However, he retreated from the task of mounting a siege in the heat of summer. As the army marched away, he was hit by a stray arrow and died on the sand. Thus fell the last official advocate of the Seven Laws until modern times, a man whose courage was brooked only by the most elemental forces that menace the rule of law. (Rabbi Bindman, The Seven Colors Of The Rainbow, Resource Publications, Inc. San Jose, California, 1995, p. 8-18).

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“!

“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)