The Intellectual Relationship: Grasping the Tzitzit

In the secular world, Jews and non-Jews can feel free to relate to each other as intellectual equals. However, in the religious world, this is not so. The proper relationship between the religious non-Jew and the observant Jew is one of student to teacher.  One needs to be careful not to flop this relationship on its head. 

For their part, Jews have a positive obligation to teach the sheva mitzvot (Seven Commandments of Noah) to non-Jews. The flip side is that non-Jews should be looking to Jews to instruct them in Torah in a way that is appropriate.

There is a problem. In the real world, few Jews know much about sheva mitzvot and may be reluctant, for a variety of reasons, to instruct non-Jews at all. Finding a rabbi, let alone an observant Jew, to become your teacher is difficult if not impossible. As a non-Jew, you have a more obvious reason for learning about the sheva mitzvot than your Jewish friends. Over time, it's quite likely you will become more knowledgeable about them than most of the Jews you meet. As this happens, you will become increasingly familiar with other aspects of Torah.  As time goes on, you may notice that you know more Torah, or at least you think you do, than some Jews. So there will be a natural temptation, in your enthusiasm, to become a teacher to Jews. 

This is a good way of getting off track. In the messianic age, non-Jews grab the tzitzit of Jews and learn the commandments from them. (Tzitzit, the knotted cords at the corner of the Jewish prayer shawl, are reminders of the commandments.) For one thing, this puts Jews in their assigned role of being teachers to the goyim. For another, it puts non-Jews in a humble posture, a necessity before we can approach HaShem. And finally, there is something dangerous about reversing these roles. The reason, I think, has something to do with non-Jews being out of the halakhic loop. Certainly non-Jews can study and learn as much as Jews. But once they move from the student role to the teacher role, their learning becomes infused with power that has no halakhic ground. Their insights become a matter of exploring "after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray," as it says in the third paragraph of the shema. 

I don't know, but I think that's why one of the sages warns against teaching Torah to non-Jews. This is interpreted in various ways, one of which is that non-Jews are not supposed to study aspects of Torah that don't apply to them.  Once you move beyond application of Torah to your own life, all you can do is engage in theoretical discussion and teaching to those who can apply it.  This doesn't mean non-Jews should avoid learning Torah, quite the contrary in our opinion, but you need to be careful to stay on the right side of teaching/learning equation. 

– KENNETH GUENTERT

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Copyright © 2004, Schueller House. Revised - 03/16/07

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