Ger Toshav:
In recent years articles have appeared in Jewish newspapers reporting on the large number of non-Jews joining synagogues, sitting on the shul Boards, and raising Jewish children. Various synagogues and Temples are dealing with this dilemma in different ways. Sometimes the non-Jews receive membership, sometimes the non-Jews receive aliyot (calling up for Torah reading), and in some cases they are also allowed to hold office.
At the same time though, -some are not...the picture is anything but consistent, and in most cases the non-Jew is accepted uneasily. The time has come to wrestle with this situation and address how to acknowledge non-Jews as part of our communities including ways to welcome them, while drawing our boundaries of difference. The ancient category of Ger Toshav, in Scripture) "resident alien"- may offer a solution; it has been applied at various times throughout Jewish history. Background and Sources:There are five places where Ger Toshav is mentioned in the Torah. They are:
Exo 12:45 “A sojourner (תושׁב Toshav) and a hired servant does not eat of it.
Lev 25:6 ‘And the Sabbath of the land shall be to you for food, for you and your servant, and for your female servant and your hired servant, and for the stranger (ולתושׁבך and the Toshav) who sojourns with you
Lev 25:40 ‘But as a hired servant, as a settler (כתושׁב Toshav) as an he is with you, and serves you until the Year of Jubilee.
Lev 25:47 ‘Now when a sojourner or a settler (גר ותושׁב Ger and Toshav) with you becomes rich, and your brother with him becomes poor, and sells himself to the settler or sojourner with you, or to a member of the sojourner’s clan,
Lev 25:55 ‘Because the children of Yisra’ĕl are servants to Me, they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim. I am יהוה your Elohim.
This term Ger Toshav is translated as "temporary resident", "landed immigrant", "resident alien" in other words someone who has a "green card" and is accepted into the society except for a few key privileges. The first reference to Ger Toshav (Exodus 12:45) is found among the discussion about who may eat of the Passover sacrifice. The Gerrim Toshavim and employees/laborers are forbidden. In Leviticus 25:6 however, Elohim is "discussing" the rules of the Sabbatical year, and with it a promise of abundance. We are obliged to share our food produced during the Jubilee year with our slaves, our hired laborers, our guests and all that live with us (Gerrim Toshavim). This implies that these "foreigners" are an integral part of our communities.
Lev 25- 55 lays out the rules for what to do if an Israelite comes upon hard times. Lev 25: 35 states that "if one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an stranger or resident alien, so he can continue to live among you." It goes on to say that this means "do not make him work for you, do not take interest from him, but let him live with you." (Lev 25:40) gives us more information about a Ger Toshav by defining further what to do if an Israelite falls on hard times."If your brother falls on hard times and sells himself to you do not impose a slave's work on him, he shall be [treated] like a guest or hired man and work until the Jubilee year." In other words the assumption here is that the community of Israel accepts and welcomes the stranger and resident alien and that our own brethren deserve to be treated as well.
However in Lev 25:47 a barrier is created between an alien and an Israelite by a description of what to do for a fellow Israelite:
If some stranger or settler among you grows rich, and your brother falls on hard times, and is in difficulties with him and sells himself to him, to his stranger or settler among you or to one of your descendents, he shall enjoy the right of redemption after sale, and one of his brothers may redeem him.
This passage indicates that Israelites are not to be at the mercy of any strangers. What is interesting here in all of these cases is that the Torah assumes that there are a number of different types of people that live in our communities, slaves, laborers, and resident aliens (Ger Toshav). They are accepted fully in some respects, but not others.
Further to this discussion in Numbers 15, Elohim is talking to Moses describing what the Israelites should do when they finally enter the land. They are to bring sacrifices for payment of vows and/or voluntary gifts to one of the feasts. Numbers 15:14-16 spells it out clearly,
Further to this discussion in Numbers 15, Elohim is talking to Moses describing what the Israelites should do when they finally enter the land. They are to bring sacrifices for payment of vows and/or voluntary gifts to one of the feasts. Numbers 15:14-16 spells it out clearly,
Num 15:14 ‘And when a stranger sojourns with you, or whoever is among you throughout your generations, and would make an offering made by fire, a sweet fragrance to יהוה, as you do, so he does.
Num 15:15 ‘One law is for you of the assembly and for the stranger who sojourns with you – a law forever throughout your generations. As you are, so is the stranger before יהוה.
Num 15:16 ‘One Torah and one right-ruling is for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.’ ”
In effect what this is saying is that the strangers are bound by our laws and are accepted in some way as part of our communities.
Zechariah, the prophet, makes a statement regarding the nations that will come to worship Elohm:
Zec 14:16 And it shall be that all who are left from all the gentiles which came up against Yerushalayim, shall go up from year to year to bow themselves to the Sovereign, יהוה of hosts, and to observe the Festival of Booths.
Zec 14:16 And it shall be that all who are left from all the gentiles which came up against Yerushalayim, shall go up from year to year to bow themselves to the Sovereign, יהוה of hosts, and to observe the Festival of Booths.
Zec 14:17 And it shall be, that if anyone of the clans of the earth does not come up to Yerushalayim to bow himself to the Sovereign, יהוה of hosts, on them there is to be no rain.
Zec 14:18 And if the clan of Mitsrayim does not come up and enter in, then there is no rain. On them is the plague with which יהוה plagues the gentiles who do not come up to observe the Festival of Booths.
In their book, the Path of the Righteous Gentile, Chaim Clorfene and Yaakov Rogalsky explain, "during the periods when the Jewish people lived in the Holy Land, their responsibility for teaching the Gentiles the seven commandments were generally fulfilled. During the 410 years that the first Temple stood and the 420 years that the Second Temple stood, Gentiles who wanted to dwell in the land of Israel had to agree to fulfil the Noachide laws and had the right to enter the Holy Temple and offer sacrifices to G-d." (p16)
In the Rambam's discussion of the matter in the Mishnah Torah, we find in K'doshim, Laws of Forbidden Relationships14:7 the definition of a Ger Toshav is a person that was a former heathen who has since forsaken the worship of idols and agreed to observe the seven Noachite commandments. Ger Toshavim are not circumcised or immersed. Rambam further states that this category only applies during the time when the Jubilee Laws are in effect. This implies that the Jews are under their own sovereignty and have the power to issue visas and make the rules, so to speak. (Another example of a law that applies only when Jubilee is in effect is laws of ritual purity.) The return to a time when Jubilee laws are in effect are considered almost as the days of the Mashiach, in other words they do not apply in our time is said but…. .
Rambam clarifies for us (Mishnah Torah, Laws of Kings 8:11.) that the people living by the seven universal Noachite commandments agree: #1. not to worship idols, #2. not to curse G-d, #3. not to kill, #4. not to steal, #5. not to engage in sexual immorality, #6. not to eat the limb of a living animal, and #7. to establish courts of law to enforce them. "They become one of the Chasidei Umot ha-olam, the Pious ones of the Nations, and receive a share of the eternal world" (p. 41) Although the Children of Noah only accept the commandments for the Seven Laws, nothing prevents them from observing most of the 613. The ones that are forbidden to them are: observing/resting on Shabbat and Holy days like the Jews; Talmud or Halachic study that pertains to the Jews worship of G-d; receiving and aliyah or writing a Torah scroll; using or making tefillin; posting a mezzuzah. (Laws of Kings 10:9) (Clorfene and Rogalsky cite the commentary of Radvaz on 10:10 as well)p42) According to Baba Kama 38a, when "one of the Children of Noah engages in the study of the Seven Universal Laws, he is able to attain a spiritual level higher than the High Priest of the Jews, who alone has the sanctity to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem." (p43) In other words a Ger Toshav can live in some ways as a Jew, and can achieve a very holy state if they take their responsibilities seriously.
Please read what Rabbi Eliezer Melamed says about it:
"Make His Deeds Known Among the Nations" by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed
The Yeshiva Hesder Har Bracha was established in the Jewish year 5753 (1992) by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the Rabbi of the community, with the goal of developing people imbued with Torah combining ‘derech eretz’, and the ability to influence the Jewish nation in all walks of life. The Yeshiva was founded in the community of Har Bracha, located on the peak of Mount Gerezim in the Samarian mountain range.
Think about it when you Pray: Isa 11:13 And the envy of Ephrayim shall turn aside, and the adversaries of Yehuḏah be cut off. Ephrayim shall not envy Yehuḏah, and Yehuḏah not trouble Ephrayim.
The rabbis teach that when there is something between you and HaShem. That it is 'It-suph'. So you cannot do Torah and believe in Yeshuah. But can it be revealed that if you believe that Yeshuah is the Living Torah, His Word (YHWH). Who became flesh? Basic on Torah and the rest of the Tenach is Messiah? And more: Gal 3:29 And if you are of Messiah, then you are seed (in Greek: Not spiritual Israel or something like that but:
(G4690
σπέρμα
sperma
sper'-mah
From G4687; somethng sown, that is, seed (including the male “sperm”); by implication offspring; specifically a remnant (figuratively as if kept over for planting): - issue, seed. (Not spiritual but like my own seed, my son and daughter (flesh)) Are you from Messiah?)
of Aḇraham, and heirs according to promise.
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