Anat

What did God do for non-Jews? The best thing - he left them alone, most of the time. Well, after playing games with Jonah he forgave Ninveh. Non-Jews who stay out of the way have it best.

J-D

God is represented in Jewish Scripture both as rewarding the Jews and as punishing the Jews. I don't think that's exactly the kind of favouritism you're talking about.

greyline

He showed a special interest in them - but not in other humans (as far as we know?). That's really all I mean. I wanted to know if modern Jews still believe that - or more interestingly, what they believe God thinks of non-Jews.

Anat

Non-Jews are thought to be bound by the covenant of Noah. That is the standard God is supposed to be holding them to. Depending on the source and the interpretations it uses that standard can be viewed as rather easy, something all decent monotheists can do, or disappointingly hard - for some reason people are incapable of coming up with good enough monotheistic belief systems and sticking to decent standards of behavior.

premjan

What is the gist of the covenant of Noah?

J-D

The belief in a special contract (covenant) between the Jewish people and God is fundamental to Judaism, and that hasn't changed. A religious Jew is not obliged to have a definite view about God's relations with non-Jews, but I think the view most commonly supported in Jewish tradition is that 'the righteous of all nations have a share in the world to come'.

J-D

Do not murder.
Do not steal.
Do not worship false gods.
Do not be sexually immoral.
Do not eat a limb removed from a live animal.
Do not curse God.
Set up courts and bring offenders to justice.

That's the gist. For more extended discussion, I suggest Googling the terms 'Noahide' and/or 'Noachide'.

greyline

Hey, I like this! Except that #6 is made redundant by #3. But otherwise, this is pretty nice. Yay, I'm allowed to mix my fabrics!