Atheists vs Converts to other religions

A frequent argument raise by “messianic jews” as to why they should be accepted is “Jews accept atheists and people that do not accept the Torah as divine as being Jewish, therefore they should accept us!”  The obvious difference here is that the atheist and people who do not believe in the divine origin of the Torah are not following Judaism, but they are NOT following another religion either.  The Torah makes this distinction quite clearly.

To show this, let us look at the place where we see the convert from Judaism to another religion being removed form the community:

Shmot (Exodus) Chapter 12 v43

מג. וַיֹּאמֶר יְ־הֹוָ־ה אֶל מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן זֹאת חֻקַּת הַפָּסַח כָּל בֶּן נֵכָר לֹא יֹאכַל בּוֹ: 43. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover sacrifice: No estranged one may partake of it.

and later in the same chapter:

47. The entire community of Israel shall make it. מז. כָּל עֲדַת יִשְׂרָאֵל יַעֲשׂוּ אֹתוֹ

Who is the estranged one here?  The Torah uses the term בֶּן נֵכָר Ben Nacher.  Now a nacher is any non-Jew.  Now obviously the “Ben Nacher” here is not the actual son of the non-Jew, after all, they are not allowed to eat it because they are a nacher themselves!  Thus the meforshim understand the “Ben Nacher’ to be the Jew who has converted to another religion, as the person who converted the Jews is considered to be their “father”, thus making the Jewish convert the Ben (son of) the non-Jew.  Thus the Jewish convert to another religion is not allowed to eat from the Korban Pesach.

The later verse emphasises the point that the person who does not eat from the Korban Pesach is not a member of the Jewish community- the ENTIRE community of Israel will make it- thus the fact that the Jewish convert to another religion cannot make it means that they are no longer a part of the community and are thus not considered to be part of the Jewish people!

When it comes to atheists, they would be guilty of violating the commandment to recognise that G-d is One and the creator and ruler of the heavens and the earth.  But, where that commandment is stated, it is not stated that somebody who does not so believe is outside of the community.  The Torah forbids idol worship, forbids the making and creating of idols, forbids Jews from following other religions- but we don”t see a specific punishment or removal from the community of the person who denies the existence of G-d and all other divinities as well!

So, an atheist will hjave to account for their disbelief when they die and face the heavenly court, but their is requirement that we seperate them from the community while alive.  If they try to get others to abandon their belief in G-d- then we have grounds to act against them- and against such people there have been Rabbinical bans (cherem- a form of excommunication) in the past- such as was enacted on Spinoza.

Thus we can see why Jewish communities act to remove “messianic jews” and other Christian missionary groups who deceitfully try to portray themselves as Jewish from the community, but do not act against members of the community who are atheists.  For one their is a Torah requirement to remove them form the community- for the other, no such Torah requirement exists