[Avodah] Torah precheit?

[Zev Sero]

On 08/11/17 07:57, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> 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.
> 

If all they claimed was to have once had a navi, whose nevuah didn't 
contradict our Torah in any way, then perhaps we might accept it as 
valid.  But if they were to claim to have had their own matan torah I 
think we would have to reject it.  It's fundamental to our faith that 
matan torah was an event that could only happen once.   It's also 
fundamental that Hashem chose avraham from *all* humanity, and us from 
*all* the nations, so if someone else -- on this planet or any other -- 
were to make such a claim we could not accept it.

as for how Hashem could leave them without a Torah to guide them, how 
are they different from any remote people who had no contact with anyone 
who had even heard of the Torah until the 19th or 20th century?   If the 
New Guinea Highlanders (some of whom have *still* never had any contact 
with the world outside their valleys) could wait until now to hear about 
the Torah, why can't the Tau Cetians, or whoever, wait until the 25th or 
30th century?  (assuming the 6000 years thing to be some sort of 
metaphor, of course, or there won't be a 30th century.)

-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all