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Fellowship in a non-Torah community
#5
Hi all,

There are some things I'm having difficulty understanding and dealing with which seems linked to this topic.

Where I live and work, I am generally surrounded by people who reject G-d altogether or worship an idol. Where I work, there is not one person around me who I interact with that respects G-d. For the most, He is simply irrelevant. Sometimes when I hear some of their statements about religion, or the strange image of the god they reject in their minds, it starts to alter my view of them to where I can't really get along with them. When I spoke with one person about the his view of religion, the way he declared his disrespect for the god he rejected just made me dislike him. In other ways, he's a nice fellow, but because it's difficult for me to deal with someone who disrespects G-d, I can still be civil, but I find it difficult to like him. It's a bit like someone disrespecting my wife. I love her so I take it personally when they disrespect her.

I'm asking a range of questions but I hope you can help and guide me, as I don't want to do a disservice to the Most High by acting wrongly to the people around, not pursuing peace because I take their stance as offensive.

1) What is a "wicked" person as stated in an earlier post?
2) I feel estranged and possibly become somewhat bitter about a secular society in which I live because their view is exactly that: secular, i.e., godless and denigrating of religion and G-d. Is this wrong? How do I deal with this righteously?
3) What is a "fool" speaking in Torah terms? I know there are several Hebrew words that are translated as the english word "fool", but I also know that the english word "fool" doesn't seem to convey the same meaning as the Hebrew words, like ksil and naval. Am I in the place to judge people as fools? Is it just a case that the people around me are simply misguided because of society, like something that Rambam said about Karaites, being like children raised in captivity (I know I've got that wrong, but I hope you know what I'm referring to)? I need to know this because there is a proverb that says not to answer a fool (ksil) according to his folly and yet to answer a fool according to his folly (I do understand that this is not contradictory). How do I deal with the different types of fools that the Hebrew Bible speaks of?
4) Is it wrong of me to judge a person? When I say judge, I don't mean becoming a judge to determine their right to life. I mean to discern and form an opinion in order to guide my actions with regards to how to view and deal with others. I know scripture still advocates some sort of judgment because it speaks of "asot mishpat", doing judgment, in Micah 6 and a verse in Psalm 15 can be interpreted as "in whose eyes a vile person is rejected," and you have to determine who is a vile person. Torah Law says to judge righteously, as in Proverbs 21 that speaks of loving "tzedakah" and "mishpat" is more precious to HaShem than sacrifices. tzedakah seems to understood as "righteousness" and mishpat as "judgment." Plus, in the 7 Laws, there is a law against anarchy or about "dinim" (courts of law), which I believe has implications for how we judge even in our individual lives, especially in this time when there is no Torah government. When I look in The Divine Code, the laws of Dinim seems to cover family life, so I think it is wider ranging that just government, right? How would I know if someone is a fool if I am not allowed to judge? So how and when do I, as a Noahide, judge anything or anyone?

I know that these may be big questions, but sometimes I find it just has hard to deal with the people around me as it is to deal with myself, and dealing with something as troublesome and unruly as myself is hard enough to deal with.

Thanks for whatever help and guidance you can give.

Shalom
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Messages In This Thread
Fellowship in a non-Torah community - by noodle - 03-19-2008, 10:19 AM
RE: Fellowship in a non-Torah community - by amenyahu - 01-04-2011, 06:42 PM
RE: Religion and community - by Director Michael - 03-21-2008, 07:55 PM
RE: Religion and community - by Director Michael - 03-21-2008, 06:34 PM

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