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Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 2 (Negative) -- Prohibition: 50 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 2 - The 365 Prohibitions of the Tora

50 - SHOWING MERCY TO IDOLATERS


Deuteronomy 7:9 -- “Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”
Numbers 25:8 -- “And he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.”

“In the interests of peace” mipnei darchei shalom the sages decreed that even idolaters who conform to none of the laws known to civilized humanity are to be treated in all respects with kindness and consideration: we are to visit their sick, bury their dead as we bury the dead of Israel, and support their poor as we support the poor of Israel – “for, behold, it is said, The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. (Psalms 145:9), even as it is said of the Torah: Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. (Proverbs 3:17).”*

* Mishneh Torah, Shoftim, Holchoth Melachim X, 12

As to those modern nations whose religion is derived from the Torah, and who believe in the Creator, in the Divine Revelation of the Law and in the sacredness of the Scriptures, we are enjoined to promote their welfare to the utmost of our ability, to intercede on their behalf in our prayers, and to behave towards them in all secular relations as if they were linked to our faith. Judaism regards them as ultimately destined to embrace fully the “Yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the Commandments”.*

* Reponsa of Maimonides, Peor ha-Dor, No. 50; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, 156: 1; Choshen Mishpat, 266:1, Be’er ha-Golah; ibid., 425: 5, Be’er ha-Golah

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