Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge

[Noachide]

Three types of people are in the category of a “scorner”:

(a) one who maintains that there is no prophecy at all and no communication of knowledge from God to the hearts of individuals;

(b) one who denies the prophecy of Moses our teacher;

(c) one who maintains that God does not know the actions of people. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 163)

[Noachide]

Three types of people are in the category of a “denier of the Torah”:

a) one who maintains that any of the commandments from the Torah scroll, or any of its text, are not from God (even if he nevertheless observes some or all of the commandments that are possible for him to observe, doing so because they seem to him to be logical or beneficial). This applies even if he holds that some of the commandments in the Torah came from Moses himself (from Moses own intellect) instead of being from God;

b) one who maintains that the Oral Torah and its explanations of the Torah’s commandments originated not from God, but rather from Moses himself or from some other person(s). This applies even if he says that the Written Torah and its commandments were from God;

c) one who maintains that God replaced any of the commandments He gave through Moses with another later commandment, or that His original Torah and commandments were later nullified. (This includes those who say that the “original” Torah which was given through Moses was true and from God, but it was later nullified, changed, or replaced). (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 163)

[Noachide]

The category of one who causes large numbers of people to sin includes:

(a) those who cause the people to commit a severe sin, like Jeroboam in the Book of I Kings, who caused the Ten Tribes to worship idols;

(b) those who cause the people to commit even a slight sin, even if it is only the nullification of a positive command.

These include both those who force people to sin, and those who entice them to sin and lead them astray. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 164)

[Noachide]

One who cruelly imposes fear upon large numbers of people is one who persecutes the community oppressively until they are very afraid of him, and he intends for this to enhance his own status, with no intention for increasing the honor of God. (This has often been the case for dictators or idol-worshipping kings, and it is similar to the category of those who bring large numbers of people to sin.) (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 164)

[Noachide]

This principle is a fundamental concept and a pillar of the Torah and its mitzvot, as these verses state: “See, I have set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing that you will heed the commandments of the Lord, your God, … And the curse, if you will not heed the commandments of the Lord, your God,” implying that the choice to do good or bad, according to your desire, is in your hands. The Creator does not compel or decree that people will do either good or bad. Rather, that is left to a person’s own choice. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 166)

[Noachide]

If God were to decree that an individual would be righteous or bad, or that there would be a quality that draws a person by his essential nature to any particular path of behavior, way of thinking, attributes, or deeds (which many of the fools believe are preordained by astrology), how could He command us through the words of His prophets such thing as, “Do this,” “Do not do this,” “Improve your behavior,” or “Do not follow after your own wickedness”? According to their mistaken conception, from the beginning of a person’s creation, it wold be decreed upon him, or his fixed nature would draw him, to a particular quality that he could not depart from. If this were so, what place would there be for the entire Torah? According to what judgment or sense of justice could retribution be administered to the wicked or reward bestowed the righteous? This was expressed by Abraham when he conversed with God: “It would be sacrilege to You … to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so the righteous should be like the wicked. It would be sacrilege to You! Will the Judge of the entire earth not perform justice?” (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 166)

[Noachide]

There are many verses in the Torah and the Books of the Prophets that appear at first glance to contradict the principle of free will for human beings, which is fundamental. Thus, many people err on account of those verses, and they think that a person’s heart is not given over to him to direct it toward any path he desires. They also wrongly think that the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees upon a person to do good or commit evil. Therefore, it is important to explain a fundamental principle, on the basis of which the correct interpretation of those verses can be understood. This is the principle of how God may punish a person during his life in this world for freely choosing to commit bad actions.

When a person consciously and willfully transgress against God’s Law, it is proper for God to give a punishment, as explained. The Holy One, blessed be He, knows how to perfectly determine the correct and just punishment for an unrepented sin. The same applies to the people of a country who transgress collectively. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 168)

[Noachide]

It may be that a person will commit such a great sin, or so many sins, without repenting, that God will then respond by not granting him an opportunity to repent from the bad ways that he has freely chosen to follow. Then when the sinner eventually dies, his soul will be “cut off” because of the seriousness of the unrepentant sins that he committed against God. This is implied in the words of the Holy One, blessed be He, which were related by Isaiah: “Fatten the heart of this people, harden its ears, and seal its eyes, lest it see with it eyes, hear with its ears and understand with its heart, so that it will repent and be healed.” Similarly, it is stated, “But they mocked the messengers of God, scorned His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the anger of the Lord mounted up against His people until there was no remedy.” This verse means that the people willingly sinned and multiplied their iniquity until it was determined by God to hold back their repentance, which is referred to as the “remedy”. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 169)

[Noachide]

In conclusion, the Almighty did not decree that Pharaoh would oppress the Israelites, or that the Canaanites would perform abominable sexual acts and idolatry, or that the Israelites would worship idols. They all repeatedly committed great sins in open defiance of God on their own initiative, until God finally responded by restraining their repentance when it came time for Him to judge and punish them. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 171)

[Noachide]

Likewise, we find David’s statement: “God is good and upright, therefore, He instructs sinners in the path. He guides the humble in the path of justice and teaches the humble His way.” This means that God shows people the path of Truth, to encourage them to repent to Him. (This is seen many times in the Hebrew Bible, when God sent His prophets to inform people of the correct path, and how to be righteous and repentant). It was for that purpose that the words of Moses, the greatest of the Hebrew prophets, were recorded for the posterity of all mankind. Furthermore, it implies that God grants people the ability to learn and understand what He expects from them. This ability is present in everyone who is intellectually and mentally sound, so that as long as a person follows the ways of the wisdom and righteousness that are set out in the Hebrew Bible, he will desire them and pursue them. This may be inferred from the statement of the sages of blessed memory: “One who comes to purify himself is assisted [by God]; i.e., he finds that God is helping him in his effort to purify his ways. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 171-172)

[Noachide]

The retribution for the wicked is that they will not merit this eternal life of pure good and revealed Godliness. Rather, their souls will eventually be cut off from their source of spiritual life from God, and thus automatically die, in a similar fashion as the beasts that have no afterlife. This is the meaning of the Divine punishment known as karet (“cut off”) for specific severe sins within God’s Law, which appears many times in the Torah with the statement: “that soul shall ‘surely be cut off’ (hikaret tikaret).” Regarding the repetition of the verb in that verse, the Oral Tradition explains: hikaret means to be cut off in this world, and tikaret means to be cut off in the World to Come. After the souls that are judged to receive karet become separated from their bodies in this world, they will not merit to have the resurrected life of the World to Come. Rather, even in the World to Come they will be cut off. For Gentiles, the sins that incur karet are unrepented deliberate transgression of any of the specific Seven Noahide Commandments, or willful rejection of the fundamentals of acceptance of the One God and the Torah of Moses. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 174)

[Noachide]

It is written in the Talmud, “In the World to Come, there is neither eating, drinking, nor sexual relations. Rather, the righteous will sit with their crowns on their heads and delight in the radiance of the Divine Presence.” Maimonides gave the following explanation:

“… the phrase, ‘their crowns on their heads,’ is [a metaphor, implying] that they will know the [inner meanings of the Torah] knowledge that they grasped [during their lives] … This will be their crown. [Further support that the ‘crowns’ will not be physical is found in the prophecy:] ‘Eternal joy will be upon their heads.’ Joy is not a physical entity that can rest on a head. Similarly, the expression ‘crown’ used [there] by the sages refers to knowledge [which is a spiritual concept]. What is meant by the expression, ‘delight in the radiance of the Divine Presence’? They will know and grasp the [hidden] truths of Godliness …” (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 175)

[Noachide]

The future World to Come has never been seen except by God Himself, as Isaiah declared (64:3), “No eye has seen it but Yours, oh God.” Its actual state of being was therefore left open to differences of opinion. By explaining the words of the Talmud in a completely spiritual context, Maimonides was bringing support for his opinion that the ultimate World to Come will be entirely spiritual, and that the righteous who merit it will exist there only as purified souls with no physical bodies, after a temporary period of physical resurrection. However, other Rishonim sages – including Nachmanides (see Sha’ar HaGmul) and Ra’avad (see his commentary on Mishneh Torah, ibid.) - as well as the Chassidic masters, strongly disagreed and maintained that in the ultimate World to Come, the Essence of God will be revealed eternally to the righteous while they exist as souls living in their resurrected physical bodies, in the physical world. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 175)

[Noachide]

There is no way in this world to accurately grasp and comprehend the ultimate good that the soul will experience in the World to Come. We only know the good we can experience now, and that is what we desire. In contrast, the future ultimate good is overwhelmingly great and cannot be compared to the good of this world, except in a metaphoric sense. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 176)

[Noachide]

How very much did David desire the life of the World to Come, as implied by the verse: “Had I not believed that I would see the goodness of God in the land of the living!” This was also implied by Isaiah’s statement:”No eye has ever seen, O God, except for You, what You will do for those who wait for You.” By this he meant that the future good, which was stored away by God for those who serve and wait for Him, has never been able to be perceived by the vision of any prophet, because it is too exalted to be perceived by any created being in the present world. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 177)

[Noachide]

Torah: The Hebrew word Torah means “instruction”. This is the revelation of God’s will and His ways to human beings, teaching the way by which they can make the world into a place that is worthy for His Essence to be dwelling in, openly and permanently. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 177)

[Noachide]

Repentance: This word in Hebrew is teshuvah, which literally means “return”. It is the process by which a person recognizes his true spiritual standing – how he has distanced himself from God – and he is therefore motivated to correct himself and his ways to thereby restore the bond of his soul with his Creator – as the verse implies: “And the spirit will return to God Who gave it [within a person].” This means that a person’s spirit [his soul] will return to its connection with God, its Creator, to achieve the closest bond it can have with the Divine Presence while living within this world. About this process of personal repentance, the prophet said, “Let the wicked abandon his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts; let him return to God, and He will have compassion upon him; and [let him return] to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Teshuvah in its essence – coming personally closer to God – applies at all times, and even to a person who has never sinned. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 178-179)

[Noachide]

Gehinom and Gan Eden : These are the spiritual Purgatory and the highest spiritual Paradise, respectively, and both of them have numerous levels. These are where a departed may receive its due punishment and cleansing from unrepented sins, or its due spiritual reward, after being judged by God.

At a time in the future, Gehinom will end and the souls in Gan Eden will return to physical bodies in the World to Come. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 179)

[Noachide]

The Throne of Glory: This is the spiritual manifestation of God’s kingship over the creation. By making this known and famous worldwide through the visions He granted to His Biblical prophets, God rightfully demands that in every generation, mankind in general – and every individual – must recognize His omniscient Kingship, and accept the yoke of His commandments that He gave in His Torah (those for Jews and those for Gentiles). (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 179)

[Noachide]

The Holy Temple: This is God’s House – His chosen place for the most open revelation of His Divine Presence in the world. The spiritual bond of the creation and its Creator is consummated through the service in the Holy Temple, which He commanded in Leviticus. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 179)

[Noachide]

The name of the Messiah: The Messiah (Moshiach in Hebrew) will be Jewish by birth and a direct patrilineal descendant of King David’s son Solomon. He will be chosen by God to teach all people to fulfill God’s will, and to rectify the world so that mankind as a whole will serve only God – as it is written, “And God shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall God be One, and His Name One.” Moshiach will complete the purpose of creation – the process which was begun by the righteous Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – to spread the knowledge of the Oneness of God to all people throughout the world. (Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge by Rabbi Moshe Weiner and Dr. Michael Schulman, Ask Noah International, 2017, p 180)

[Noachide]

Here I finish quoting this great book. It was a pleasure. I enjoyed every moment. If I find some good book and have some free time I will quote again.

[Hrvatski Noahid]

Here I finish quoting this great book. It was a pleasure. I enjoyed every moment. If I find some good book and have some free time I will quote again.

Well done, brother! May HaShem bless you for your great work!

[Noachide]

Well done, brother! May HaShem bless you for your great work!

Thank you, brother! Quoting Seven Gates of Righteous Knowledge made me really happy.