A Comment Answered

                                                                           בס"ד

I received an excellent comment from one of my favorite readers, who has become a long-distance friend. The concern is for righteous non-Jews, but my reply is as pertinent to Jews as it is to any non-Jew. First the comment:

Anonymous November 22, 2015 at 2:35 AM

Hello Menachem!!!

I would like to ask you two things. First:
Why the Bnei Noach sit as if they were part of Am Israel?! I say this, least the Bnei Noach pello of Brazil, I heard from many that feel like they belong to the Bnei Israel.
For me (and I believe that for many other Bnei Noach), we feel like we're part of Am Israel, even without belonging officially (I mean conversion).

Since I discovered the absolute truth, when I was 13 years old (I'm 27 years old), I have come to love and be faithful Am Israel with all my strength that love and fidelity only grew each day.

I unfortunately still have not converted (after almost 14 years of waiting) because I have no financial conditions, because I am very poor (financially), and in Brazil the conversions cost around $4500 (cost of time of Rav and lessons - in Chabad Lubavitch).

Another question:
Because you think the Bnei Noach are people who belong to the lost tribes?! Please, I know it's a very extensive to be treated here, but I believe it is a great gift of Hanukkah (no size) to the Bnei Noach as I, S.C. and many other hundreds or thousands of Bnei Noach in the world who read your blog. :) Please!!!

My answer to this very special concerned reader and friend:

I could write another book in covering all that you question, but I will try to be concise. First of all, know that as you talk of your love for Am Yisroel, know that all real Jews have a very deep love for you and all righteous non-Jews. The problem is for thousands of years there was no love between us, only persecution, hatred and pain.

The much more important love is that from Hashem. His love is what is important to each one of us, Jew and non-Jew alike. I have mentioned numerous times that this world is the world of testing. Your particular situation is what Hashem has given you because He knows that you need such testing. It is actually good news, since He only give severe tests to those who are worthy of His kindness and mercy. In other words, when Hashem pays this much attention to you, you have to be very special in His eyes. I know from our correspondence over many months that you are very special, as well as many of my readers. The most important thing for you is to have complete faith that Hashem is helping you to a wonderful future, which appears to be imminent. Your testing will not be much longer. I know of several possibilities that would make you very, very happy, but I can't talk about anything until I see the absolute conclusion, especially for individuals like yourself.

The idea of you being a possible member of a lost tribe is my speculation. It is based on the fact that population growth in this world would dictate it. Because we had about 600,000 men (about 2 1/2 to 3 million Israelites) 3328 years ago, who left Egypt, that population would be tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions today. Who are they in the world today? The faithful, the ones who feel the love of Hashem and live to follow His ways. That is definitely not a big number, but when we are looking at 7.3 billion to choose from, hundreds of millions is small. We have a prophecy in Zachariah 13:8 that “Two-thirds of the people in the land will be cut off and die,” which will happen in the end of days, now. Through war, natural disasters, etc, there will only be approximately 2.4 billion people left for the time of redemption and Moshiach. We also know from scriptures that all the wicked will be gone and only the faithful, righteous people will remain. We also know that the wicked are very much ignored by Hashem, since we are on this Earth with this life to perfect ourselves and to achieve the best possible eternity that we can.

Hashem helps the righteous who are destined to a tremendous future. In what form is His help? Testing. As it says at the end of Malachi, the last of the prophets, the righteous will have the toughest times, and wonder why the wicked seem to be thriving. Hashem will judge each individual to see no matter how tough life gets, who stayed faithful to Hashem. The end will be the righteous who worked hard to pass the tests will survive, thrive and reap the reward of a wonderful life beyond our wildest imagination. The wicked, who look like they are getting by easily these days, will be wiped out completely and even punished after they leave this life.

I know I repeat myself, but it all comes down to measure for measure for every individual and even every country. If Brazil is so difficult and so wicked to good people, Brazil will get its just reward or punishment (guaranteed that we are talking about the individual leaders who have caused the evil).

Keep up the good work of turning to Hashem for everything and know the time of change is very soon, B”H.

One last note is that I have never heard of conversion being that expensive even though a proper conversion does take years. My hope is that what the Arizal said is very valid here. He said that anyone who converts for the right reason, a true love of Hashem, is really a Jew from birth. They were Jewish in a previous life, but needed to go through the process of conversion in this life by passing difficult testing. That is how their perfection is achieved. Moshiach will be able to tell each individual that he or she is actually Jewish. The conversion process will not be needed, just a very concise learning program.  This will result in Hashem instilling a higher level of a Jewish soul into the individual; but, if the person had the potential from birth, it is a definite result.  If this sounds different from what Rav Nir Ben Artzi was saying, let me clarify that he was talking about those who may be converting for the wrong reason, such as a love of a spouse rather than a love of Hashem.  Hashem is sorting it all out, and every deserving person will get a deserving future, Jew or non-Jew.

You may be poor financially, but you are rich spiritually and that is the best investment for a very lucrative future.