Years of Idolatry are Part of your Service to God?
The Torah considers all of Abraham's days as productive. But we know that he was raised as an idolater and only recognized the existence of God at a certain point in his childhood. Are we to count the years in which Abraham served idols together with the years in which he served God?
The answer is yes, because it was precisely Abraham's idol worship that compelled him to actively seek the truth.
As Maimonides writes:"He wondered, 'How can the world run without someone running it?' He continued searching until he found the truth."
The periods of preparation and education in our lives count as part of our periods of accomplishment. With Abraham, we see how even inadvertent periods of negative activity can be counted together with positive periods if we use them as an impetus for positive action.
Many Noahides come from other religions. How should/can one look back on that. Because despite the fact that other religions portray a totally wrong image of HaShem, for many it has been where they learned to seek connection with HaShem. It has been the place where one faced questions that could not or should not be answered in that place. Wanting to find answers made someone find the Noahide way of life.
You don't have to label that period in your life as negative, you don't have to look back on it negatively, because that period in your life brought you to where you are today. It was part of your life education to be who you are now, and from here you learn more and connect more and more with HaShem.
Brought By Angelique Sijbolts
Angelique Sijbolts is one of the main writers for the Noahide Academy. She has been an observant Noahide for many years. She studies Torah with Rabbi Perets every week. Angelique invests much of her time in editing video-lectures for the Rabbis of the Academy and contributes in administrating the Academy's website in English and Dutch. She lives in the north of the Netherlands. Married and mother of two sons. She works as a teacher in a school with students with special needs. And is a Hebrew Teacher for the levels beginners and intermediate. She likes to walk, to read and play the piano.
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