Reply To: Is every Yid a big tzaddik?

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akuperma
Participant

MenachemShmuel: If you use the halachic definition then you have a problem since a great many Jewish women have been assimilated (perhaps they went OTD, perhaps they were enslaved), and over the millenia, a not inconsiderable number of goyim are actual Jews (one Jewish girl enslaved during Roman times has a tremendous number of descendants scattered throughout Europe and the Middle East) . That is in addition to the fact that in recent times (the last 200 years), most members of the frum community have gone OTD, and within a generation are then absorbed in the larger population. Most Jews living today, based on the halachic definition, think they are goyim, and they are in no way tsaddikim.

I suggest limiting the use of the word “Yid” to refer only to the small minority of Jews who identify as Jews, and keep at least some of the mitsvos (particularly Shabbos and Kashrus, which more than anything set us apart for the goyim) and by doing so show great mesiras nefesh even if they don’t realize it, so that my answer to the original question is that “Yes, all Yidden are great tsadikkin”.