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Israel’s obligation to Islam?

שו”תCategory: Meta HalachaIsrael’s obligation to Islam?
asked 4 years ago

To Rabbi Michael Avraham, Shalom Rabbi,
A question regarding the laws of the Noahide people that are binding on Israel:
The Gemara states –
“As Rabbi Yossi, son of Hanina, said: Every commandment that was spoken to the children of Noah and repeated at Sinai was spoken to this and that. To the children of Noah and not repeated at Sinai, it was spoken to Israel and not to the children of Noah… On the contrary, since it was not repeated at Sinai, it was spoken to the children of Noah and not to Israel?! So that they know that Israel is a king and that idolatry is forbidden.” (Sanhedrin 51a)
Apparently, the logic of the Gemara is that Israel must always be sanctified beyond the children of Noah. Thus Rashi writes there –
“When they went out from among the children of Noah to be sanctified, they went out, and it was not made easy for them”
Ostensibly, if the Gentiles make a covenant with God, Israel is obligated to it according to this logic.
The question of what constitutes a “covenant” is a serious one here. In my opinion, it does not matter if we go to the “evidence that the Torah is from heaven” of the “repentant” here who show scientific miracles that attack the Torah. It is clear that God has not changed and never will change, and He does not make covenants with groups because He suddenly feels like changing His mind and choosing one group or another and having a sudden revelation, but rather that everything is “from the bottom up.” If the whole of Israel made a covenant with God and agreed to it together, then the whole of Israel is bound by this covenant. God does not have to give his hand to the agreement in a miraculous action against nature, but as long as the agreement reflects the moral norms that God has created in man and in the world, God is considered to have accepted what humans have made between themselves.
Apparently, with all the nations they made a covenant with God, and it binds them as well. The Noahic covenant was not a change in God’s mind, who regretted creating man and returned to him and smelled the fragrance of Noah’s sacrifice, etc., but because Noah and his family constituted all of humanity and they intended to make a covenant with God, the covenant exists “from the bottom up.”
For our purposes, it seems that the only monotheistic religion that truly believes in the uniqueness of God today, besides Judaism, is Islam.
According to the logic of the Gemara, whatever the Gentiles sanctified themselves with, Israel must also automatically be sanctified with, so Israel is supposed to be obligated to the covenant of the Prophet Muhammad. The mere fact that so much of humanity has accepted the covenant, formulated as a covenant with God, as a prophetic dialogue between God and the prophet who mediates between the Muslim nation and God, a binding and existing covenant that we do not want to be annulled at all, since it is truly a work of God, and is positive in itself (let’s leave politics aside), then Israel should seemingly commit to it as well, at least to the extent that this covenant does not contradict the Sinai Covenant.
What is the Rabbi’s opinion on this, and how does the Rabbi see fit to deal with such an argument?
Thanks in advance,
Ofir

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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago

Your formulation is inaccurate, and in my opinion this is not Rashi’s intention either. The claim is that every Jew is a lesser son of Noah. That is, he is first and foremost a human being (the universal level), and then also a Jew (a second, particular level).
For example, even after the Gentiles abandoned their commitment to the Seven Commandments (Deuteronomy 37), the Jews are still obligated on a universal, basic level, and not just on their own level.
Whether all the nations will enter into a new covenant with God is their business. The question of whether the Jews will be included in it should be determined by the question of whether a new universal obligation is created here or not. When I see such a covenant, I can think about it. The covenants of Muhammad or Jesus are not universal in any sense and I see no basis for your argument about obliging the Jews to them.

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