[Avodah] Torah precheit?

[Akiva Miller]

.

R' Micha Berger asked:

> Is there on some planet far away, an intelligent alien
> species with their Am haNivchar? How would the Torah be
> manifest to them? And if they didn't have a Migdal Bavel
> like event, did Hashem do that whole Mamlekhes Kohanim
> model, with castes within the alien Am haNivchar, or
> castes with everyone "nivchar"? Would they have a
> Holy Land?
>
> If we made contact with these creatures, would we
> recognize their perception of the Torah as another
> expression of Yahadus, or would it be too alien?

My focus is on the word "too" in the phrase "too alien". I feel that
while such beings would indeed be extremely alien to us, the degree of
alien-ness is absolutely irrelevant to the question at hand: Any
mashehu of alien-ness (I suspect) puts them outside the pale.

In our modern way of thinking, in which "Eretz" means not only this
planet but the entire physical universe, and in which "Shamayim" does
NOT include planets and stars but only the metaphysical universe, -
Why would martians have a different status than any other foreigners?

I can easily see a discussion of whether the martians count as people
or as animals, but that is a separate issue. The issue here is that if
they claimed to have some sort of Revelation from the One True G-d,
then would we accept it as being another facet of the Shiv'im Panim
LaTorah? And my answer is: What would we say if a group of earthly
*humans* claimed to have some sort of Revelation from the One True
G-d? Would we accept *that* as being another facet of the Shiv'im
Panim LaTorah?

My guess is that our response would be: That's very nice, and you are
a sincere group of righeous Bnei Noach... and then we'd pretty much
ignore them. Not out of malice, but because their message is not
directed towards us.

Here's a litmus test for whether or not I am close to correct: If I'm
not mistaken, when a person claims to be a Navi, there are specific
tests for whether or not he is believed, and if he passes those tests,
and he has a message from Hashem for us, then we are obligated to
follow that message. Is Jewishness among those criteria? If Ovadia had
not converted, would his nevua be any less true or any less
obligatory?

> If we made contact with these creatures, would we
> recognize their perception of the Torah as another
> expression of Yahadus, or would it be too alien?

I suppose one answer might be: The word "Yahadus" is too restrictive.
Try replacing it with "Ratzon Hashem".

Akiva Miller