Am Yisrael chai, good yontif, we damage.

In converting non-observant or less observant Jews, as I do, am I not afraid they will be punished by God for their lapses when it comes to keeping the ritual commandments? Why do I not agree with a great figure like Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who said that in so doing we confer no honor or privilege (z’khut) on converts, who will now be held to account by God for obligations they will not fulfill and that formerly did not bind them? My answer is this: I believe that becoming and being a Jew is itself a z’khut. Carrying on the mission, the covenant, the fate of this people is itself an honor, a privilege, a blessing, and a reward. Despite all the suffering inflicted by other peoples—or by God—on the Jews, there is no higher privilege than being or becoming a member of this family.

Furthermore: I believe with perfect faith that God loves and honors good, serious Jews-whether or not they keep all the mitzvot. I believe that the merit of the mitzvot they do keep, including in the form of good deeds and self-sacrifice, outweighs all the punishments that can be incurred by non-observance, and that God will treat them accordingly. Personally, I also believe that after the Shoah, the threat of hell is not so intimidating: everybody knows that worse than hell was inflicted on living Jews as well as on their children, on their loved ones, and on whole communities. People ready to stand up in defiance of another Shoah need not be deterred by threats of heavenly punishments.

Not only that, but I remain absolutely convinced (despite traditional teachings to the contrary) that just as God did not bring the Holocaust on the Jews because of their sins, so God will not inflict hell on people who, while failing to keep shabbat or other ritual mitzvot, faithfully observe the ethical and interpersonal mitzvot, commit their lives to the Jewish people and its fate, and thereby not only join but advance the purposes and mission of the great covenant.

I would add a final merit. “Whoever rejects idolatry,” the Talmud pronounces, “is equivalent to one who affirms the whole Torah.” Many, if not all, non-observant Jews and even so-called “non-Jewish Jews” do reject idolatry: reject, that is, absolute claims made in the name of such contemporary human-made gods as absolutist faiths and totalitarian systems. This, too, God weighs and appreciates—and so should we.