Talk:Other religions as Noahide

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Abrahamson 11:10, 4 July 2006 (EDT)

Exercising caution

There is a question whether any existing religion today qualifies to be one of the seventy national faiths. I am not at suggesting all the Christianity or Islam in its present form qualifies to be a noahide faith. Although Rabbenu Tam and his fellow Tosafists did not condemn Christianity as idolatry for non-Jews. It is absolutely certain that these faiths have been damaging and brought endless destruction to the Jewish people. I am not suggesting that there should be a transition from "from Xtianity to Noachide", rather that Christianity and Islam are perversions of the true theoretical Noahide faiths of those nations. That they strayed from their original form. This appears to be quite clear from Rabbi Nachman's story "habaal tefilah". What happens there - instead of replacing their perverse faiths - only the leadership is replaced. Perhaps this implies a historical and scholarly revealing of the core of these faiths. In any case the approach is one of reform (peeling away) rather than replacement.

Again I would only stress that one must be very careful here. We do not yet have a clear definition of who is a BN. If it is possible that some people who pray, live righteous lives, and are nominally part of existing faiths, become confused and are *reduced* in their spiritual observance, the we would be answerable to Hashem in heaven for this, and the punishment would not be light. I would suggest erring on the liberal and tolerant side. If there is a possibility that Christianity or Islam contains good mixed with bad, then it might be against halachah to oppose these religions for non-Jews. If they pray now, and we introduce doubt and confusion, and they stop praying and giving charity we have created a worse situation - and this may be forbidden according to halachah.

--Abrahamson 07:53, 19 September 2006 (EDT)