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I have a friend who is very interested in and fascinated by, Jewish practices and the beauty of them. He is a former Catholic and holds absolutely NO beliefs from Christianity anymore. He has known Orthodox Jewish people and worked closely with them for over 30 years and understands about Noahide Law which I have told him. He wants to come closer to Judaism and Noahidism and will be visiting on a business trip during Sukkot. he is a truly righteous person and I say this for many reasons. He wants very much to see a sukkah and see a Lulav and Esrog. I was told by an Orthodox Rabbi that this was fine and in keeping with us reaching out to those who want to know more about Judaism and the Noahide religion. How can we be a Light to them if we exclude them? That does not seem right and it goes against what the Rabbi told me some 25 years ago. Does anyone have an answer?
What exactly is the question?
Jews don’t proselytize. And we discourage conversion.
Converting someone isn’t being a light unto the nations. You refer him to a rabbi who deals with these things, if you feel that he’s sincere. I heard a rabbi say that the reason why the number of converts have gone up is because there’s a divine force that is replacing the reform, those who intermarry, and other secular Jews, with converts who seriously take up Judaism. If you go to AISH Jerusalem or Ohr Somayach, you’ll find converts who learn gemara 8 hours a day. And some of these converts know a lot of tanach, from when they were raised as christians.
The Maasei Hashem explains that Avraham Avinu what shown the stars. Didn’t he see it himself? This is what Hashem told him. You will be lighting up the world like the stars by spreading Emunas Hashem around the world. If they keep the seven mitzvos , we should not exclude them but respect them. There is a question if shutaf is forbidden by a non-jew. Also, they follow their religion as a custom and not a belief.
Coolgramma,
I don’t think anyone above answered your question
This is how I understand your question “how can you be a light when you try to discourage converts
My answer is “try holding onto a light and see what happens, you get burned”
A light means they should try to emulate us not that they should be us
We have LEDs.
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