Please advise how best to describe, and provide best examples/sources of, the Jewish aspect on tolerance. There are so many situations and so wide an application. For example, most people would regard intolerance as a vice (or at least regard tolerance as a virtue), but on the other hand we see and experience such extremism in many spheres, that clearly there must be much ‘behavior’ which should not be tolerated. So how should we act in such circumstances, whether international, national, communal or family/friends?
Hello, I tend to use the term “tolerance” only reluctantly: in a way, tolerance is like saying “You nauseate me but I won’t kill you just yet…” One would hope for more. Still, I certainly understand what you mean with the term and I am very sympathetic to the sentiment.
Perhaps the very greatest indication of the Torah’s expectations of peaceful relations between Jews and non-Jews is the fact that the Torah does not require non-Jews to convert to Judaism. On the contrary, we are required to discourage conversion and to explain that spiritual greatness can be found outside the Jewish people, from within many communities and families.
I will often direct questioning non-Jews away from conversion and, instead, towards a more universal vision of the Torah in Noahidism (see this link).
Within Judaism one can similarly see room for diversity in the fact that there were twelve tribes, each one, we are taught, practicing a subtly different expression of Judaism (one through commerce, another through study etc). Each is necessary and each therefore deserves respect – even given that each also might feel his path is the best.
With all that, there will be times when a person or community’s behavior crosses the line of the acceptable. In our day and age, I think that it’s obvious that a sincere believer must remain loyal to his own beliefs and be unashamed to express them, but at the same time to offer the common decency and respect to everyone with whom he has contact.
I hope this helps.
With my best regards,
Rabbi Boruch Clinton
Ottawa, Canada