@simcha613
it’s a good question, and something dealt with clearly in poskim and sifrei machshava.
In our exile, we are obligated to submit ourselves to the non-Jewish nations around us, honor their laws and pay their taxes. In a similar vein, we are obligated to both show derech eretz in our interactions and humble ourselves in front of those we need to interact with.
That means, practically when interacting with such a doctor, one must give appropriate hakaras hatov and praise as is needed. In your heart and when relating it casually to others, it would be forbidden to praise to the person only one must praise Hashem.
If speaking to a goyishe doctor, you can say “doctor, you saved my life!”. But, you can’t tell your kids that evening “that doctor saved my life!”
If the doctor is an erliche yid, one can praise him only as much as he is keeping torah and mitzvos. So, you can glowingly relate “I even heard him mumbling a ‘yehi rutzon’ as he was putting on his gloves! such yirash shomayim!”, but you can’t tell your kids that evening “that doctor saved my life!”.
How dare you!?
It’s not me, I’m just teaching what the Torah says.
Moshe gave hakaras hatov to inanimate objects, yet you are incapable of thanking a Jews who put themselves into danger to protect you!?
I am capable, but the Torah forbids it. It’s a good question, I could easily speculate answers of the distinction, but I don’t want to add my own thoughts here. For the record, the reason given that even a “tinok sh’nishba” is included in this is that the main concern for praising a rasha is that it will influence you or others to copy their ways.
A) How do you know that they don’t keep mitzvos?
I don’t know, however, the halacha establishes the guidelines, and one must judge according to what they see. This has nothing to do with dinai shamayim which has more resources than basar v’dam.
Do YOU do no aveiros?
Sure, I do a lot, just privately so no one will copy them. Also, a “rasha” that is not part of klal yisroel is NOT anyone who does an avaira, it’s a specific threshold that must be crossed. I haven’t crossed that line, nor come anywhere close to it.
Maybe they are more frum than you?
It could be the imaginary person you are talking about, who is michalel shabbos publicly, is secretly one of the lamed-vavniks. That doesn’t change our obligation to react to their public persona not does it change the halacha.
B) Even if ch”v they are not שומר תורה ומצוות, we can safely assume that the reason for this is that they didn’t have a proper Torah upbringing, they are like Jewish children who were captured by non-Jews, for whom we should be feeling great mercy and compassion.
It doesn’t change this halach, as Rav Chaim Brisker said “nebach an apikorus is still an apikorus”
Do we know how much Hashem values their mitzvos?
A person who doesn’t believe in Hashem or doesn’t believe in the Torah cannot do a mitzvah. Many many seforim express the horrible ramifications of a rasha doing any mitzvah, and how destructive it is for them, for us, and for the world, r”l. The modern heter for engaging rashayim to do mitzvos for kiruv, is off the understanding that if they indeed do tshuva m’ahava, their sins (including the disastrous fake mitzvas they did on the way) will be converted to real mitzvos and reward for them and the world. There has been some disagreement amongst Gedolim regarding kiruv that involves chilonim doing mitzvos while still kofrim.
Rambam writes that we have no idea how much Hashem values a mitzvah. It’s possible for a mitzvah to seem insignificant to us, yet be extremely valuable to Hashem.
He’s not talking about kofrim, obviously, as his psak regarding them is clear in hilchos memarim.
Maybe Hashem values the one act of this uneducated Jew to protect other Jews more than all the mitzvos that you may have done in a manner of מצוות אנשים מלומדה?
why speculate when you can learn Torah?