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<font size=3>The quote below is from pages 225 - 226 of Rav Hirsch's
essay <b>Talmudic Judaism and Society</b>. Rabbi Hirsch wrote this
essay in 1884 at the request of Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Spektor (1817-1896),
founder of the renowned Yeshiva of Kovno and acknowledged spiritual
leader of Russian-Lithuanian Jewry. <br><br>
<b>The Sages of the Talmud are the teachers of probably the only religion
that does not claim that it alone holds the key to salvation. Instead,
they teach that the righteous of all nations have a portion in the world
to come (Sanhedrin 105a). According to the Talmud, the Mosaic Law is
eternally binding only upon the people of Israel. All others are regarded
as wholly righteous in the eyes of God as long as they obey the seven
Noachide laws. In this spirit, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 59a) comments in
connection with Leviticus 18,5 that a non-Jew who observes the laws given
to him by God is an equal of the High Priest, for it is written:
"Keep My statutes and My social ordinances which <i>man </i>[not
only Jews] must carry out and through which he gains life."
Likewise, Isaiah 26,2 does not read "Open the gates so that priests
and Israel may enter" but" ... so that a <i>righteous nation
</i>that keeps the faith may enter." In Psalms 118,20 we do not read
"This is the gate of the Lord; priests, Levites and Israel shall
enter into it" but " ... the <i>righteous </i>shall enter into
it." In Psalms 33, I we are not told "Exult, 0 priests, Levites
and Israel, in the Lord" but "Exult, 0 <i>righteous ones,
</i>in the Lord." Finally, the Psalmist (Psalms 125,4) does not pray
"Do good, 0 Lord, to the priests, the Levites and to Israel"
but "Do good, 0 Lord, to the <i>good." <br><br>
</i>All the foregoing makes it clear that God's nearness, bliss and
salvation is promised to every person who loyally and scrupulously
carries out the duties laid down for him by God. As one Talmudic sage
explicitly states: "I call heaven and earth to witness, be a man a
Jew or a non-Jew, man or woman, manservant or maidservant-only according
to their actions will the spirit of holiness rest upon them" (Tanna
de be Eliyahu on Judges 4,4) <br><br>
</b>The entire essay may be read at
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/talmudic_judaism_society.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/talmudic_judaism_society.pdf<br>
<br>
</a><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Yitzchok Levine </font></body>
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