Ger toshav (pl.
geirei toshav,
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
: גר תושב), according to
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
and the
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
, is a
GentileThe term Gentile refers to non-Israelite tribes or nations in English translations of the Bible, most notably the King James Version....
who is a "resident alien", that is, one who lived in the ancient kingdoms of
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
under certain protections of the system, considered a righteous Gentile.
There are two kinds of
ger toshav. A formal one is a Gentile who has made certain legal statements in a
beth dinA beth din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Land of Israel...
(Jewish rabbinical court).
Ger toshav (pl.
geirei toshav,
HebrewHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...
: גר תושב), according to
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
and the
TorahThe term "Torah" , refers either to the Five Books of Moses or to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts...
, is a
GentileThe term Gentile refers to non-Israelite tribes or nations in English translations of the Bible, most notably the King James Version....
who is a "resident alien", that is, one who lived in the ancient kingdoms of
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
under certain protections of the system, considered a righteous Gentile.
There are two kinds of
ger toshav. A formal one is a Gentile who has made certain legal statements in a
beth dinA beth din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Land of Israel...
(Jewish rabbinical court). There are three opinions (
Avodah ZarahAvodah Zarah is the name of a tractate in the Talmud, located in Nezikin, the fourth Order of the Talmud dealing with damages...
64b) as to what those statements promise:
- To abstain from idolatrous
Idolatry is usually defined as worship of any cult image, idea, or object, as opposed to the worship of a monotheistic God. It is considered a major sin in the Abrahamic religions whereas in religions where such activity is not considered a sin, the term "idolatry" itself is absent...
practices (detailed in ).
- To uphold the seven Noahide Laws
The Seven Laws of Noah , often referred to as the Noahide Laws, are a set of seven moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God to Noah as a binding set of laws for all mankind...
.
- To uphold all the 613 mitzvot
The 613 Mitzvot are statements and principles of law and ethics contained in the Torah or Five Books of Moses...
, except for the prohibition against eating neveilos (kosher animals that died by means other than ritual slaughter).
The definition used by all authorities is the second. In all cases, the statement is a formal sign that the Gentile is on a righteous path, and as such, they must by law receive certain legal protections and special charity/financial aid from the community.
The second kind of
ger toshav is an informal one, namely someone who has not sworn anything to a
beth din (Avodah Zarah 65a). In this case, they are not formally entitled to financial aid by law, but the attitude of a religious
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
to someone who has forgone idolatry is supposed to be much more welcoming (from the perspective of Jewish law) than to someone who has not. Furthermore, the restrictions that pertain to an idolater (in terms of business and doing things that might be aiding idol worship) are forgone.
The procedure has been discontinued since the cessation of the
Yovel (year of Jubilee), and hence, there are no formal
gerei toshav extant today (although it can be argued that a great deal are "informal" ones).
In Noahidism
Nevertheless, Judaism warmly encourages non-Jews to adhere to the Noahide Laws, and some groups, notably Chabad Lubavitch, have set up classes and networks for Gentiles who commit themselves to this legal system (see
Noahide CampaignThe Noahide Campaign refers to a campaign by Orthodox Jews of the Chabad movement to influence all non-Jews to follow the Noahide Laws. This was one of the Mitzvah campaigns of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of Chabad....
). In that sense, it is possible to be a "Jewish Gentile". Others, largely among stricter students of the Rambam, sometimes inaccurately referred to as
Dor DaimDor Daim, sometimes known as Dardaim, are adherents of the Dor Deah movement in Judaism. That movement was founded in nineteenth century Yemen by Rabbi Yihhyah Qafahh, and had its own network of synagogues and schools...
, have devoted a number of websites to issues of importance relating to the
Noahide LawsThe Seven Laws of Noah , often referred to as the Noahide Laws, are a set of seven moral imperatives that, according to the Talmud, were given by God to Noah as a binding set of laws for all mankind...
.
External links