Who’s Your Rebbe?
The worst aggressors are passive aggressors who perpetrate violence by doing absolutely nothing. When you let wolves take over, you can bet they’ll be coming for you next.
The current news out of Israel illustrates how profoundly vital it is that more non-Jews than ever immediately turn to Hashem and His Torah. Unfortunately I could write that sentence just about any day of the year and it would be true. I could also substitute pretty much any country. Take Denmark for example. That’s correct. Denmark.
Apparently Danish headmasters are now telling some Danish Jews that they should send their children elsewhere for schooling because of the large numbers of Arabs, specifically Palestinians, in some of the schools. They claim they will not be able to keep the Jewish kids safe. Grown adults claim to be incapable of keeping children from attacking minorities in their schools. Gentile to Gentile, this is what I have to say to those Danes: when grown folk, as we say in the South, can not control their children there is something horribly amiss. Number two, sometimes the worst aggressors are the so-called passive aggressors, those who perpetrate violence by doing absolutely nothing. When you throw Jewish children to the wolves, or let the wolves take over, instead of getting rid of the wolves, you can bet the wolves will be coming for you next. Be grown folk and take charge. Or at least have the guts to admit that perhaps you do not want the Jews there in the first place.
I live in Atlanta, GA. If in the year 2009 a school in Atlanta said that African American or Latino students should go elsewhere because the administrators just won’t be able to keep them safe from racist whites or whomever, can you imagine the totally justifiable outcry? Oprah Winfrey would be filming live in the parking lot. But Jews in Denmark. Feh. Next the Danish government will be recommending that Jews all confine themselves to a small part of the country and live behind large stone walls with giant iron gates. To keep them safe. This is what happens to the world when non-Jews do not live by the Seven Noahide Commandments.
But how do we help people to learn about these commandments? How do we live with them ourselves? As the numbers of Bnei Noach grow (I am making the assumption that they are – God willing) we are confronted with a vast array of challenges. There are so many vital issues with which we are confronted it is tough to even rank them in order of importance.
And I do not think it is hyperbolic to say that mistakes we make in these early days, could God forbid, have serious consequences. I am going to go out on a limb and declare that the number one most important issue for us is making sure that we do not stray even one iota from Orthodox Judaism.
iota: noun 1. a tiny or scarcely detectable amount.
How do we do this? It seems to me we must work with Orthodox rabbis. We need to have the guidance of a rabbi as individuals to start with. It is said that one must make for oneself a rabbi. Maybe this means just what it says. If you do not have a rabbi already, then you need to start looking. If it takes awhile, maybe even a long while, do not give up. There are not too many rabbis who are able to help Bnei Noach, often because they are not especially well educated in that area. But even in the five short years I have been a Bat Noach, my impression – and it could just be that – is that increasingly rabbis are willing to help. This makes perfect sense when you think about it. Rabbis are by nature helpful and generous people who want to, by definition, bring people to Torah. Where they see a need for exploration and definition, they will go eventually. This is just my opinion, but I think that when a loving person sees that you are humble, serious, and persistent, they will help you somehow, someway. And I pray to Hashem that He will help anyone who loves Torah and who loves Him.
Once you have your own rabbi, you can build from there. You have a more spiritually attuned person who is well educated in Torah who can get to know you and who can keep you on the correct path. He or his wife can guide you in your Torah learning. They can help you increase the shalom in your life on all levels. They can teach you about different prayer techniques. He or she can teach you about cultural issues that may come up. And they might be able to help you find other Bnei Noach and Jews with whom you can connect. Clearly, you will quickly discover that rabbis do not always come to the same conclusions. But if you stick with your spiritual guide, you will be OK. The basic construct as I have learned it is that you ask your rabbi and do what he says. Your friend will ask her rabbi and do what her rabbi says.
From there we must learn the Torah that is appropriate for Bnei Noach to learn, which as usual varies depending upon the views of your rabbi. Of course one should learn as often as possible with others and with qualified teachers. Some of these teachers might even be non-Jews. Most of them, and to be one hundred percent honest, the ones with which I am most comfortable, will be very well educated Jews and/or rabbis. I love my Bnei Noach friends. I learn a great deal from them. But I always come back to learning from rabbis. My impression is that the same goes for them.
There are myriad ways to learn Torah nowadays. There are live classes you can take through your computer, taught by terrific rabbis and rebbetzins from around the world. You can also approach synagogues and kollels in your town and ask permission to take classes and go to lunch and learns. If you have your own rabbi, he may be able to vouch for you should that be necessary or help you to feel more comfortable approaching someone in the first place. I hate to say it, but you may experience some rejection during this process and it may hurt. I have and I write a column for a Jewish website, know a bunch of people in town, am a somewhat familiar face at this point – to some people it just doesn’t matter. There are times this gets me down, but then there are times where I have so many learning opportunities in front of me I can not even take advantage of all of them. That is the benefit if not quitting.
For example, we were super blessed this week to have Rabbi Gedaliah Fleer in town. Rabbi Fleer is one of the first, if not the first, Westerner to sneak behind the Iron Curtain to get to Rabbi Nachman’s grave site. You can read all about it, and please do, in his book Against All Odds. Through a very terrific rabbi, Rabbi Shapiro, who teaches some of us Bnei Noach in Atlanta, we were able to learn with Rabbi Fleer, who was generous with his time. There may be Torah classes as good as the classes we took, but not many better. Baruch Hashem. Had I quit in frustration, and there have been many times I just wanted to scream in frustration over the lacks- the lack of this, the lack of that- I would not have met my wonderful Bnei Noach study group, Rabbi Shapiro, or Rabbi Fleer. But God loves it when we have emuna, when we send the Evil Inclination packing.
If we stick with the rabbis and show humility, patience, and are politely diligent I truly believe more and more of us will see the truth of Torah. The more Gentiles who see the truth of Torah, the less likely it may be that Israel has to go through such trials. And the safer it will be for little Jewish kids in Denmark who simply want to be able to go to school like every other kid in the country.
Tell us what you think!
Thank you for your comment!
It will be published after approval by the Editor.