Q:
If a gentile praises his Creator, but he has a misconception of what that means, is he fulfilling his purpose in this world? Is he from the chassidei umos ha’olam?
A:
So we have to explain as follows: אין הקב”ה מקפח שכר כל בריה – Hakodosh Boruch Hu will not deny reward to anybody. However, there’s a great difference between the Am Hashem and the good gentile. ולא עשה כן לכל גוי – Other nations will not have the same privilege as we do.
And don’t say it’s unfair. Because Hakodosh Boruch Hu does not owe anything to anybody! If you’re created in this world, if you’re given a body and you’re given enough food to sustain the body, be happy. You have no claims on Hashem that He should give you something in the World to Come. Why should He give you? This world is enough for you. It’s more than enough. Did you do anything to earn the right to live in this world? It’s a matnas chinam! So what do you want, to be paid in the Next World too? So Hashem owes nobody anything.
Why does he give the Am Yisroel Olam Haba? כל ישראל יש להם חלק לעולם הבא. Only because of Avrohom Avinu. אל תירא אברהם שכרך הרבה מאד. Your reward is very great. It’s because of him that his descendants merit the World to Come.
So we have no reason to think that anybody should have a claim on Hashem. We also have no claim; only He told us that so we expect it but nobody else has a right to expect it.
Chassidei umos ha’olam, that’s something that’s very difficult to be. חסידי אומות העולם יש להם חלק לעולם הבא but it’s not so easy to be.
Now, if a non-Jew is worshipping another concept of a deity, Hakodosh Boruch Hu gives him certain credit, a certain virtue, because he’s thinking of a Creator. And he’s correct in that concept only since he has so twisted it by applying it to some false name, so it’s deducted from his virtue. After all, he’s not praying in the right direction; so he’s not an oived Hashem—he’s oived avodah zara, a strange service.
Now suppose somebody is not worshipping idols. Let’s say an Indian who’s worshipping the Great White Spirit, the Great Spirit, whatever it is. He’s not worshipping any sticks or stones, any idols—he’s worshipping the Great Spirit. He gets more reward because he’s not an oived avodah zara. He’ll get more reward. But nobody gets full reward to be a chossid umos ha’olam unless he worships Hashem Elokei Yisroel! You understand how difficult that is?! A goy has to worship Hashem who is Elokai Yisroel. That’s the condition. If he doesn’t understand that Hashem הוא ה’ אלקינו – He’s ours, בכל הארץ משפטיו – and whatever He does in the world, He does only because He’s ours, then he’s not fulfilling the condition.
If there’s a volcano erupting in the South Sea Islands, He’s doing it because of Am Yisroel. If there’s a flood in India, that flood is because of Am Yisroel. You have to understand that clearly. הוא ה’ אלקינו – He’s ours, בכל הארץ משפטיו – all the judgments, all over the world is only for us. If there’s an explosion on a comet way out in space, it’s for us.
Now to be a chossid umos ha’olam, you have to understand that! And that’s why it’s not so easy. Now if somebody does understand that—he knows that the world is managed by Hashem Elokei Yisroel—then if his conduct is in accordance with his theories, with his beliefs, he can be a candidate for a chossid umos ha’olam.
January 1988
