Q&A: Judging a Person by His Own View and a Jew
Judging a Person by His Own View and a Jew
Question
Here are a few questions I’ve been thinking about a lot in recent days, and I wanted to hear your answer about them. My assumption is that you are right that every person should be judged according to his own view. If so:
A Jew who does not believe at all—in what sense is he still Jewish? Is it meaningful to say about him that he is Jewish? After all, from his own perspective, this concept of “Jew” is just a historical mistake of one people.
Is it permitted from a halakhic standpoint (purely halakhically, aside from educational considerations, etc. etc.) to marry him, because he is still Jewish, or not?
Are the commandments he performs actually commandments, and likewise with transgressions? On the one hand, you already said no (a commandment requires faith), but if he is still Jewish, why not? Also, one must distinguish between the person who performs the commandment and the object/result itself—there is a reality of a commandment having been done in the world—so did this non-believing Jew fulfill a commandment in that objective sense? More than that: can a gentile fulfill a commandment in that objective sense? If a gentile commits a transgression, is an actual flaw created in reality because of the transgression he committed? (I assume not, but) why not? After all, the objective reality does not depend on the person?
Would you give pork to a friend of yours who became secular—seriously, I mean not casually; he searched, he studied, and he formed a clear atheist position?
Is a non-believing Jew = an apostate / heretic / sectarian?
Because in Even HaEzer, siman 157, it is ruled that an apostate creates the obligation of levirate marriage and halitzah because he is a full Jew. And likewise the famous Maimonides in the Laws of Repentance regarding an apostate: “Even though they are of Israel, they have no share in the World to Come.”
So is there a difference between a non-believing Jew and an apostate? A heretic? A sectarian?
Answer
A Jew who does not believe is really not Jewish except in the ethnic sense (his mother is Jewish). Halakhically, ethnicity is what determines it.
See my article about causing a secular Jew to sin, where I explain that his commandments and transgressions have no religious meaning whatsoever.
I wrote there that there is no prohibition of causing him to stumble. Actually feeding it to him with your own hands is forbidden, because that is as if you yourself ate it. See Maimonides, Forbidden Foods, Kilayim.
I did not understand the question about an apostate. He creates the obligation of levirate marriage. Does he have a share in the World to Come? Ask the Holy One, blessed be He.
Discussion on Answer
He is indeed obligated in the commandments like any Jew, but he has no ability to fulfill them or transgress them. See the article I referred you to. There is also an article in which I address objections to that article, including these objections of yours.
It is possible that he causes good, but that is not a commandment. In Maimonides’ language at the end of chapter 8 of Kings: he is among the wise of Israel, but not among their pious. But even that is only in an act that has value in itself apart from its being a commandment (the Noahide commandments, moral matters). In other commandments, it seems that his actions have no value if they are not a commandment. One should, however, note time-bound commandments in the case of women, but this is not the place to go into it.
A Jew who believes in God but does not believe that He commanded, or does not think His commands are binding, is like a child taken captive, just like a Jew who does not believe. Maimonides at the end of chapter 8 of Kings makes this depend on belief in the Torah at Mount Sinai, not belief in God.
Do you support this law that marriage must be religious even for secular people, or does this view of yours—that a secular person’s religious acts have no religious significance—imply that forcing a secular Jew into a religious marriage is self-contradictory? Or does the prohibition on feeding him something forbidden with your own hands apply here too—that is, allowing him to marry not according to the law of Moses and Israel?
Quite apart from the transgressions of a secular person, I am against coercion. It is useful for nothing and only causes harm. Allowing someone to marry is not the same as feeding him something forbidden with your own hands.
1a) I didn’t understand why, if halakhically ethnicity is what determines it, then why do his transgressions have no meaning? After all, halakhically he is a Jew just like you and me. Is it permitted to marry him?
And likewise regarding the apostate: if he creates the obligation of levirate marriage, that means that his status does have religious significance; he is still considered a Jew standing under the shadow of Jewish law.
1b) Can you answer the questions about the commandment in the objective sense and the fact that such a Jew’s actions have no religious meaning? After all, even if the person did not fulfill a commandment, in reality he still caused good or damage (if he committed a transgression), didn’t he?
2) A Jew who believes but is not religious—that is, he does not observe commandments, he simply was not educated that way and doesn’t pay attention to it—do his transgressions have religious meaning?