06-23-2020, 02:46 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-23-2020, 03:16 AM by sixtynine seventy.)
Hi, I am also a Gentile, but do not identify as a Noahide. I've never lived near many Jews so this forum is helpful for me so far with a question I had. (Here is my history with Judaism: Once as I child I was with my father who was enjoying English-language Jewish religious music on TV. I had no idea what it was, so he explained it to me and told me it was good. Once I sat near a synagogue day-camp at a baseball game. Later on I tried to read Hebrew and estimated it took me about one hour per word. I did not continue working on it. Later still I had a friend who had previously lived in Israel, she told me I was just like the Hasidim because of my strong positions. Later I was accused by a not-nice person I knew who thought I was a Jew. He almost certainly had never seen a Jew in his life, so I would have to do! I think it was on the basis of my looks and that I was intelligent. Which is kind of funny that he tried to be an antisemite but had so little to go off he figured intelligence must be suspect.)
Maybe it is different where you live. I thought it is sort of assumed that many Noahides also follow another religion, and the Noahide movement appears to be meaningful to those who have family members who are Jews. I understand there is an association of Noahides in the U.S. and that they meet from time to time in some places. From your post it sounds like it is different where you live and I hadn't thought about that.
I suppose a similar thing is where people marry into an ethnic church but are from another ethnicity; it puts you at a definite social disadvantage. There are some churches that seek out converts for leadership positions for one reason or another, but not most of them.
So you can see being an outsider as a disadvantage, but it can come with its own advantages. I understand that there are sociological studies of the sort that found that people find outsiders more romantically appealing. Another factor is how people treat you differently as an outsider. I see more welcoming at first. People make an extra effort to communicate because they don't take you and your participation for granted. This is especially helpful if you take work that requires you to move frequently. The flip side is that there is a certain trust factor people have in knowing that that someone has such a strong stake so to speak that betrayal and leaving would be just as painful for the other person as it would be for them. (Because lets face it there are people who join for bad reasons and then betray. You get this in any small town as well, not just in a congregation.)
The level of commitment and study required for the Noahide movement is not very detailed, and I think there is are various good reasons why it is so. If you want something deeper, you will have to keep at it and not expect someone to hand it to you.
As for Nissim; after reading about him; being black is both his advantage and disadvantage in different ways. It is unrealistic for him to expect only good and not bad. But navigating this is tricky. I have lived in a black neighborhood and so I can sort of relate to being different and not having as many relationships. The challenge of navigating the life choices he made looks like it will help him grow more than if he had stayed put in life. His life can be compared to Dr. Rapp's life: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...pp/579634/ in an opposite sort of way.
Maybe it is different where you live. I thought it is sort of assumed that many Noahides also follow another religion, and the Noahide movement appears to be meaningful to those who have family members who are Jews. I understand there is an association of Noahides in the U.S. and that they meet from time to time in some places. From your post it sounds like it is different where you live and I hadn't thought about that.
I suppose a similar thing is where people marry into an ethnic church but are from another ethnicity; it puts you at a definite social disadvantage. There are some churches that seek out converts for leadership positions for one reason or another, but not most of them.
So you can see being an outsider as a disadvantage, but it can come with its own advantages. I understand that there are sociological studies of the sort that found that people find outsiders more romantically appealing. Another factor is how people treat you differently as an outsider. I see more welcoming at first. People make an extra effort to communicate because they don't take you and your participation for granted. This is especially helpful if you take work that requires you to move frequently. The flip side is that there is a certain trust factor people have in knowing that that someone has such a strong stake so to speak that betrayal and leaving would be just as painful for the other person as it would be for them. (Because lets face it there are people who join for bad reasons and then betray. You get this in any small town as well, not just in a congregation.)
The level of commitment and study required for the Noahide movement is not very detailed, and I think there is are various good reasons why it is so. If you want something deeper, you will have to keep at it and not expect someone to hand it to you.
As for Nissim; after reading about him; being black is both his advantage and disadvantage in different ways. It is unrealistic for him to expect only good and not bad. But navigating this is tricky. I have lived in a black neighborhood and so I can sort of relate to being different and not having as many relationships. The challenge of navigating the life choices he made looks like it will help him grow more than if he had stayed put in life. His life can be compared to Dr. Rapp's life: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...pp/579634/ in an opposite sort of way.