Encore Archive

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Love Your (Gentile) Neighbor

Michael Wyschogrod (Sh'ma 9/175, May 25, 1979)

The problem brought to focus in Michelle Mentzer's article (Sh'ma 9/174) dealing with Jewish attitudes toward non-Jews (goyim) is the great sleeper issue of contemporary Jewish life. It interacts with almost every aspect of the Jewish situation. To a large extent, our attitudes toward gentiles serve as the cement that binds Jews together. At critical moments, we feel that only we care and that non-Jews are indifferent or worse. On the other hand, many Jews join the human race and condemn all group loyalties as dangerous atavisms. The problem of gentiles also goes to the heart of the question of Jewish identity. Is Judaism a set of ideas such that being a Jew is a function of subscribing to these ideas? Since the modern mind prefers the freedom of self-definition, an interpretation of Judaism which makes it available to all who wish to subscribe to its tenets seems very attractive. On the other hand, there is also the matter of birth. In spite of periodic exhortations on behalf of Jewish missionizing, the feeling persists that most Jews are Jews by birth and that this will remain the case in the future. The widespread Jewish conviction that Jews are smarter also plays a role in all this. Such intelligence is partly a function of Jewish culture but also a family (genetic?) trait. What does all this add up to?

There are two foci to Jewish self-definition. Judaism is not a teaching, acceptance of which defines the Jew. If this were so, a Jew who ceases to subscribe to certain beliefs would cease being a Jew and this is clearly absurd. Jewish law rules out all exits from Judaism and so does the opinion of mankind which refers to Spinoza, Marx and Co. as Jews. As Judaism understands it, God fell in love with Abraham and his seed whom he promised to make his beloved people. This people is especially dear to God and for this reason God demands exemplary conduct from it as defined in the commandments of the Torah. Because Judaism is election of the seed of Abraham, conversion to it should not be possible and, in a sense, it is not, though we will return to this point presently. There are, of course, teachings connected with Judaism; the commandments of the Torah are the expression of these teachings. But adherence to these teachings does not make someone a Jew. Only descent from Abraham does. Adherence to the teachings of the Torah distinguishes the good from the bad Jew but does not define the Jew as such.

Conversion Is Also Physical

But isn't conversion to Judaism possible? It is, of course. But conversion to Judaism is properly understood only if we first understand that it should not be possible. It should not be possible because being a Jew means being elected in the seed of Abraham and one either is or is not a descendant of Abraham. How, then, is it possible? Only as a miracle. The gentile who converts to Judaism miraculously becomes seed of Abraham. His conversion is not a spiritual one primarily, but a physical one. He miraculously becomes seed of Abraham. The commitment to accept the commandments coupled with circumcision and immersion for men or immersion for women brings about the miracle.

How can we prove that conversion to Judaism involves a miraculous physical change? Easily. According to Jewish law, a gentile male who converts to Judaism together with his mother, is free to marry her after the conversion. Since, in conversion they have been "born again" (this is the source of this expression), they are no longer mother and son and may therefore marry. It is true that the rabbis prohibit such marriages. But they impose this prohibition only because such marriages are, in rabbinic opinion, biblically permitted. What greater proof can there be that conversion brings about a miraculous physical change? The prohibition against incest is one of the gravest of the Torah and one of the most universal of human taboos. It is rooted in the biological bond between mother and son. If conversion to Judaism biblically erases the incest prohibition, then this can only mean that conversion brings about a quasi-physical change by turning the gentile into seed of Abraham.

Israel Has No Reason To Be Arrogant

It is interesting to note that while Christianity also speaks of being born again in baptism, no Christian author has ever, to my knowledge, advanced the idea that newly baptized mothers and sons are free of the incest prohibition. The reason for this is that baptism brings about a spiritual change. A spiritual change cannot affect the incest prohibition which is rooted in the biological tie between mother and son. But because conversion to Judaism involves more than the spiritual, the biological bond between mother and son is severed in conversion.

I have gone into all these matters to clarify the basic self-definition of the Jew as seed of Abraham joined by those who have miraculously become seed of Abraham through conversion. Understood in these terms, the potential for Jewish arrogance is limitless. If Israel is the chosen people of God, then the significance of the non-Jews is secondary at best. When we add to this the suffering endured by Israel at the hands of the nations, the less than excellent reputation of gentiles among many Jews can be understood.

But now we must turn to the other of the two foci of Jewish self-definition. The election of the seed of Abraham is not for its own sake. Through this election, the nations will be blessed (Gen. 12:2). The single most important statement that the Bible makes about man - that he was created in the image of God - is made not about the Jew but about man (Gen. 1:26). Israel's election is not due to its merit but to the free and undeserved love of God (Deut. 7:7-8; 9:5-6). Israel therefore has no reason to be arrogant. It must be grateful for the undeserved love of election, which has been bestowed on it, and it must remember that the purpose of its election is the salvation of all humanity.

The Jew Must Love The Gentile

Without in the slightest loosening the tie of love that binds the people of Israel together in its election, the Jew must also love the gentile to whom he is tied by the strongest possible bond, the image of God in which gentiles and Jews are created. Since we are commanded to love God, we are also commanded to love the creature who carries God's image. Perhaps here, as a people, we have sinned. The deep fear of the Jew is that by drawing too close to the gentile, his identity and mission as Jew will be weakened. And therefore the rabbis erected all kinds of barriers to intimacy between Jews and gentiles. Such barriers must remain because the mission of Israel is at stake. But across the barriers, we must also love the gentile. Their non-election is not necessarily final. "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner-stone." (Psalms I 1 8:22). God has a way of electing the rejected and we therefore do not know what he has in store for the gentiles.

The love of gentiles of which I speak has nothing to do with missionizing them or in any other way erasing the barrier between Jew and gentile. Pre-messianically (and perhaps even post-messianically) we have different missions. But we must be humble in our undeserved election. Otherwise we turn the blessing into a curse.