My question is somewhat simple: is there an honorific for particularly righteous, deceased non-Jews? Related: is זכרונו לברכה ever used for non-Jews? I don't recall ever having seen this.
EDIT: I mean honorifics appended to the end of the name.
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rotten, I've heard or seen, "of blessed memory," if I'm not mistaken.– Seth JCommented Jun 25, 2013 at 20:56
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Related: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/6309– msh210 ♦Commented Jun 25, 2013 at 23:03
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To address the related question of "Zikhrono Livracha", I don't see what would be wrong with saying "Alav/Aleha HaShalom" (peace be upon him/her).– LeeCommented Jun 26, 2013 at 14:43
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1@lee there'd be nothing wrong with that as it's not even a Jewish honorific. It just happens to be Hebrew– Double AA ♦Commented Mar 14, 2017 at 11:45
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1 Answer
By looking at the source we can understand the answer. OB"M or ZT"L comes from the pasuk (Mishlei 10:7) "The mention of a righteous man is for a blessing" Assuming that only a Jew can achieve the level of "Tzadik" that Mishlei is refering to, it seems that the honorific would only apply to Jews. [Non Jews can achieve the level of Pious Among the Nations at most see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_gentiles#cite_note-SSMH27-4 ]
NOTE: If you are writing/speaking in a forum where the honorific is used for non-jews then I believe that it should be used for derech eretz purposes.
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6"Assuming that only a Jew can achieve the level of 'tzadik'" seems like a pretty big assumption. On what do you base it? Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 14:36
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did you read the link I added ? Non-Jews can be come "chasiedi umot haolam" but not Tzadik and even then its not clear if that is possible in this day and age according to all opinions.– erammCommented Jun 26, 2013 at 15:16
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5@eramm Your link doesn't mention Tzaddik. As counter-examples, we know Noach was a Tzaddik (Gen 6:9), and Avraham called the righteous of Sodom "Tzaddikim" (Gen 18:23). Plus we know that Iyov and Nebuchadnezzar are called Eved Hashem, which is seemingly even higher than Tzaddik (though it might not be a linear hierarchy.)– Double AA ♦Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 15:39
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that is the point even though the link deals with a non-jew who is performing all the mitzvot that he possibly can they are still only called "chasiedi umot haolam".– erammCommented Jun 26, 2013 at 16:29
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@danno I suspect he means post-Mosaic non-Jews. – Double AA♦ 19 hours ago so that explains Noach and Sodom– erammCommented Jun 26, 2013 at 16:34