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sounds logical, although q_q dont you think that because Judaism isnt much open to non-Jew today the population has gone down? Cause i think if it were open to everyone then many non-Jews would have taken to Judaism. This is actually the problem with Hinduism too, there is no missionizing.
And yes,There should be no interference between two religions. And i do accept your thoughts about this. That we might some how corrupt the purity of the Holy Book by our own principles.
I am glad you see the wisdom or logic in the reason. You mention jewish population..
There is an issue with the jewish population going down, but there is a simpler answer and we don't need to missionize to solve it..
The right wing Orthodox jewish community is growing really fast. They have lots of children.
The liberal leftist jewish community is shrinking. They have "2.4" or less children, and assimilate, marry out, e.t.c.
We don't need to be a massive population..
We are supposed to be a nation amongst the nations.
Now, although I have mentioned wise reasons for us not missionizing.. reasons that apply today.
There is also a historical aspect to it though, of why we didn't missionize for 2000 years. (and it has probably had a psycholoiglca affect)
It is an aside. Because I have already mentioned the reasons why we don't today.. and why we shouldn't..
But historically..
I have heard that in earlier times in history, like prior to christianity, there was alot of missionizing .. (though no doubt if you go back a bit further, to the ancient greeks persecuting us, jews were murdered for practicing judaism, jews practiced it in secret and so certainly no missionizing there!)
The jewish courts nowadays test candidates for sincerity of willingness to convert.. putting them off. I have heard that that may not have always been the case.. and at one point there were many converts.
There is no question that under christian and muslim persecution, and in order to remain in the good books of the host countries we lived in during exile, we couldn't preach. Jews were quiet, fearful for their lives. Infact, Christians would call jews into public debates, and not give the jew the right to free speech. (we still never lost, and infact the brilliant rabbi moshe ben nachman won so clearly, that he was rewarded as the winner by the -christian- king of spain, before he had to flee spain)
The following does not apply to hinduism, but there is some essential history here. I'm sure you'll sympathise with the jewish side here, particularly the christian missionary issue..
I hope the following sentence isn't too offensive to christians, but it's essential to my point.
From a jewish (not christian) perspective, what happened was that people liked some ideas of judaism but not the law, so they removed that bit, and we got Christianity.
It didn't work out well for jews. We were persecuted for 2000 years. Persecution against jews by christians was so terrible that jews were alot better off -under- the muslims. It was a complete tragedy. Only now has christianity become nice again (and in some circles they are only nice to convert us, as if they have one commandment "get the jew").
Jews under christianity were in such hell, that by comparison, living under muslims was freedom! (at the worst times, imagine them holding the cross at jews chanting from the new testament as they burnt jews in fire.. or as jews jumped into the fire rather than convert)
This 2000 year historical reality is likely why the situation is as it is today.. But as you noticed, there is great wisdom in not preaching .. even today when the ruling powers are lenient.
Nowadays we still suffer from people that happily teach judaism to every christians willing to listen. They don't persecute us, but we get judaized christianity which can win jews over. It must be pointed out though, that as bad as todays christian missionaries are. As rabbi Kahane said(in a speech that moved many in his audience to tears), the biggest problem jews face, is not jews for jesus, it's jews for nothing.
And that's another point there. the worst thing is jews that abandon judaism, because that is a really big sin, and so that is a priority.
Preaching of the 7 noachide laws isn't such a problem, and you ask about judaism and should be told about those. Generally though, I think that if gentiles are nice and they have their own religion then they deserve respect, in that if they haven't asked about it, I wouldn't preach anything to them.
This is the case with JTF.. We have many good christians.. a good hindu (you. Maybe more! I don't know). Some good atheists perhaps too - that don't preach their atheism! If they ask, then I would explain the 7 noachide laws.. Even bits of judaism here and there, if they ask. But some of the unwise here just use things as a springboard to teach non-jews as if they are jews, like they hear something from a rabbi - or jewish website- and look for excuses to teach it to the world, which the rabbi never intended. We learn that the Torah is our inheritance and our betrothed, and that's G-d's will. I have read once in a commentary, that to teach it to gentiles would be like causing them to commit theft and adultary. There are certainly discussions of restrictions.. And a concept that we are a nation amongst nations, not trying to become a one world religion. 2 perhaps judaism and the 7 noachide laws.. But but we don't even -push- the latter onto people. And we don't teach Torah to gentiles even if they ask - ther are at least restrictions that are debated, and it's safer for us to be strict. It's not harming us. It would harm us if we disobey jewish law.
It may well be that historically it went wrong as punishment for preaching to gentiles.. Now we are more cautious. I have mentioned reasons that apply even without the historical persecution. Our books are quite clear that we shouldn't. So maybe historically when we did, we were punished. And are today too.
