You make some valid points, especially regarding his ancestry possibly being Jewish. As far as the sheva mitzvos are concerned – you are applying the lens of self to this situation. He wasn’t raised Jewish. Therefore it’s unfair to judge him based on your own beliefs. In today’s world, that’s a fairly reasonable stance. My primary intent in writing this article was to make the point that these assertions of evil or righteousness are *not* ours to make. I didn’t get in to details about his family on purpose – it’s nobody’s business. I actually did fail to mention his religion, but again, I feel that it’s totally irrelevant. Don’t judge others, lest you be judged. It’s the important lesson, hours before Yom Kippur.

Oh, since you asked, I took a look at it. (Didn’t bother before.) The hebrew sign is actually yiddish and hebrew. It’s a parody of a common sign made when a recognizable figure passes on. The large title says “Naflah Ateres Rosheinu”, which means “Our crown has fallen”. The bottom left corner lists the mourners, including “Apple”, “Next”, “Disney” and the rest of the world.

Thanks for taking the time to respond in a critical yet sensible manner. Have a gmar chasm tova.

Best,
Moshe

G’mar Chasima Tova

1. The Talmud states that in the End of Days, the nations of the world will say to Hashem that everything they did, they did so that Israel could learn Torah. (And Hashem will answer that they did it for their own selfish purposes. Yes, Jobs’ technology helped Yidden daven, etc., but this was an incidental result – and not his intention.)

2. The mitzvah to judge one’s fellow favorably applies to Yidden, not to idolaters. This op-ed (deliberately?) omits that Jobs fathered a child out of wedlock and was a practicing Buddhist, thereby violating at least one or two of the Sheva Mitzvos ben Noah. (I don’t know if you consider Buddhism to be avodah zora or not.) I know that Moshe is trying to be sensitive to Jobs’ situation and family life, and that’s appreciated, but it is deceptive to omit facts that not everyone might be aware of.

3. If Jobs WERE a Yid, then he would get a mitzvah every time someone used his products to do a mitzvah (davening from a ipad, e.g.) – even after his death.

4. I read the following on another blog and wanted to share it: The “pancreatic cancer gene, BRCA and its variants, [is] disproportionately common in Jews. So, you have to wonder whether or not Jobs–even on his biological Arab father’s side–had some of the Jewish genes in his past. It’s well known that throughout Middle Eastern history, Jews were forcibly converted to Islam. And, often, we find that people who have high incidence of pancreatic and breast cancer have some Jewish blood in their background. … I wouldn’t be surprised if way back when . . . the Al-Mohad Muslims–who forcibly converted hundreds of thousands of Jews to Islam–forced a conversion of some of Steve Jobs’ biological ancestors. We’ll never know.”

#12 We obviously cannot do 613 mitzvos right now, until the Bais Hamikdosh is rebuilt (may it be speedily in our days).

Can someone please translate, or at least summarize, the image with Hebrew text for me?

May all Israel be sealed in the Book of Life for a good and sweet year, and may we merit the coming of our righteous Moshiach speedily in our days!

We have no idea what our future holds. It would be a pity to leave any stone unturned in pleading our case for ourselves and our families and all our nation whose situation is ever perilous. Gmar chatima tova

Gmar Chasima Tova

Non-the-less, when he goes up to Shamiyim, what will be waiting for him? You don’t get rewarded for being a great inventor or innovator. He will not be דן on his inventions, but rather his actions…”Were you honest in business? …How did you treat your wife and kids? Etc.”.

Let say he comes out with flying colors and his rewards are waiting for him to partake w/o any punishment necessary.

Non-the-less, his reward is NOTHING in comparison to the rewards that each and every one of us has what to look forward to! He was a Goy, which means he only had the potential of 7 mitzvas. We are Yidden and have the potential of 613 mitzvas that contain literally millions of פרטים. Each פרט brings it’s own reward. אשריכם ישראל!!!

גמר כתימה טובה!!!

We all use computers in our lives. We must learn to control it from mis-use.

Gmar Tov.