Submitted by Joseph Poole, Aug 8, 2007 13:21

Mr. Halking makes a fundamental error in his article, "The Fact of Jewish Particularity." He asserts that Orthodox Judaism is alone in its "particularist" docttine that God is more "interested in "one small family of the human race than in all the others combined." To be fair, both Christianity and Islam assert that only their adherents can achieve grace with God. And actually, in contrast to these and practically all other religions--and contrary to Mr. Halkin's claims--Judaism asserts that one does not have to be Jewish in order to achieve grace with God. Rather, to achieve grace with God (i.e., a place in the world to come), a non-Jew must merely lead an ethical life by following the Noachic Code. Jews, on the other hand, have special obligations (the 613 mitzvot), such as kosher dietary laws, that they must meet in order to achieve such grace. In other words, according to Jewish law, Jews actually have a greater burden to bear in order to achieve the same benefits as non-Jews

Therefore, in direct opposition to Mr. Halkin's claims, Judaism is actually alone among major religions in assigning a place of righteous to its nonadherents.

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