Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
A reward to Gentiles for not eating pork?
#1
There is a Midrash which speaks about G-d's response in the future to Gentiles who are expecting to receive a spiritual reward for refraining from eating pork. Many people, even some Rabbis, cite it as a source that Gentiles will receive a spiritual reward for that. But in fact, people who say that are only looking at the first part of the Midrash, but it doesn't say that at all. And when the complete Midrash is read, one finds that it teaches exactly the opposite! It says that Gentiles will not receive a spiritual reward for refraining from eating pork, and even more so, G-d will reprimand them for expecting to receive such a reward.

See Midrash Kohelet Rabbah 1:9 (quoting from the English translation on Sefaria .org):

Quote:The Rabbis say: In the future, the Holy One blessed be He will dispatch a herald and proclaim and say: 'Anyone who has never eaten pig meat, let him come and collect his reward.' Many of the nations of the world who never ate pig meat will come to collect their reward. At that moment, the Holy One blessed be He will say: 'Shall these be rewarded in two worlds? Is it not enough that they enjoyed this world, but they seek to enjoy the world of My children, too?' At that moment, the Holy One blessed be He will dispatch a herald a second time, and proclaim and say: 'Anyone who has not eaten the meat of animal carcasses [neveilah - not killed by kosher slaughter] and mauled animals [treifah - mortally wounded or contracted a fatal illness], repugnant creatures and creeping [creatures - for example, tiny worms or thrips that cling to or burrow into fruit and vegetables, which can be found only by very close inspection] - if he did not eat of his own, he ate another's.'
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)