[Avodah] Chinese repression in Tibet - al pi Torah?

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, April 13, 2008 3:09 am, RSBA wrote:
: OTOH, atheism is lechoreh, 'shev-v'al-taaseh', while AZ is a
: 'kum-asei'- which is far more serious.

The whole question arose because the atheists are actively suppressing
religion. It's not that they simply don't believe in the Borei, it's
that they actively preach and promote his non-existence.

: In the Aseres Hadibros there is a mitzvas asei of "Onoychi Hashem
: Elokecho' and a mitzvas lo saseh of "Lo yihyeh lecho elohim acherim".
: Presumably one would get s'char for at least keeping the 2nd.

Assuming for the moment that the 10 diberos were relavent to benei
Noach, the polytheist who believes in a Creator keeps the first, but
not the second. It's a tie.

But the issue is the 7 mitzvos, for which the equivalent of the 2nd
diberah is far far looser. The polytheist may be ahead.

And here, no one has established to my satisfaction that my co
worker's "library" (2 books) misrepresents his religion. AISI, they
might be very showy in worshipping 'saints' -- people who realized
their unity with the all -- complete with offerings, effigies, etc...
but the books they present to US believers do not claim to have
multiple deities.

In fact, they claim to not touch the topic of deity altogether. I
asserted on my own that this all, a singular indivisible absolute
infinite, qualified as a deity in our book, even if not in theirs.

And so, I have no strong reason to believe they got much further than
Dor Enosh (and perhaps even arguably less far), which might not be
beyond Tosafos's heter of shituf.

The trappings of paganism are divorced from actual beliefs of
polytheism. You might say they alone are assur to a ben Noach --
although I can't think of the issur -- but one can't start making
deductions from that that just because they have icons they have many
gods.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
http://www.aishdas.org     - Rav Yosef Yozel Horwitz, Alter of Novarodok
Fax: (270) 514-1507