- Atonement
-
- Moshe Ben Chaim
-
- Question: How do we make atonement for our sins now that
there is no spilling of blood? Also what of the Gentiles? How do they
atone for their sins since they are not Jewish?
-
- Reply: Whether one is Jewish or not, God recognizes any
individual who abandons wrong, cleaving to what is right.
"Right" being that which the Torah defines. Gentiles are
bound to follow the Torah - the 7 Noachide commands. If they do not,
God punishes them as well. If they do, God rewards them as well.
-
- God does not favor the Jew over the Gentile. What God desires is
modesty and adherence to His system. We see this clearly as all Jews
today pray, using the words of King David, a descendant of a gentile -
Ruth the Moabite. Ruth begot King David and King Solomon - two of our
greatest figures. Had God favored the Jew over gentile, could He not
find a Jewess to be the matriarch of the Kings? Evidently what God
desires is a person who abides by the concepts and morals of the
Torah, Jew and Gentile alike. Ruth followed truths of God, and
therefore was selected by God for her essential role in mankind's
development.
-
- Both Jew and Gentile alike have prayer and should ask God for
forgiveness. God will most certainly hear both equally, as we say in
prayers, "...because you hear the prayers of all mouths".
Ruth is a perfect example of how God recognizes a non Jew.
-
- Regarding sacrifices, they cannot exist without the Temple. In place
of sacrifices, the Rabbis instituted prayer. In the time of the
Temple, gentiles were able to bring sacrifices as well as Jews.
-
|