Why did G-D allow non Jews to be born in circumstances whereby they might never have heard about the Torah

Question

According to Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, non Jews cannot do complete Teshuva, instead their Teshuva only prevents negative judgement against them in

Furthermore, non Jews get punished for doing what they think is right without acknowledging the G-D of Israel and the Torah of Moses

[SOURCE: - Rabbi Yaron Reuven says that according to the Rambam a person goes to Gehinnom for doing a a righteous deed if he does not acknowledge that he is doing it because G-D told him to do it - and I assume that this should include the acknowledgement that G-D is the G-D of Torah revealed to Moses on Mt Sinai as Maimonides wrote in the Law of Kings ch. 8.11.]

In light of these, why would G-D create groups like Australian aborgines in periods of history when they had no chance of learning about the Torah? By doing, so wasn't G-D condemning them to Gehinnom without a test [as the culture and time period made access to the Torah a near impossibility], given that non Jews cannot reincarnate according to a question I read here (which cites a text called Minchas Yehuda by Rabbi Yehuda Hachayat... So we cannot say that such individuals are reincarnations of those that rejected the Torah, making their Teshuva difficult or impossible as a punishment)?

This would imply that certain non Jews were/are born in societies where knowing that righteousness for them consists of doing the seven commandments of Noah while knowing that G-D commanded them through the Torah of Moses is near impossible, and therefore Gehinnom for such individuals is guaranteed as they would follow their natural inclination to do good without knowing about the Torah.

This is seemingly against the infinite justice of G-D, and as for the reasoning that the nations are punished like that for the sin of having rejected or deviated from the Torah is that not punishing the descendants of the ones that rejected or introduced deviation, essentially against Rabbi Tovia Singer's claim that the innocent are not punished for the sins of the wicked?

Answer 1

OP says:

In light of these, why would G-D create groups like Australian aborgines in periods of history when they had no chance of learning about the Torah? By doing, so wasn't G-D condemning them to Gehinnom without a test [as the culture and time period made access to the Torah a near impossibility]...

I answer:

The Gemara teaches in Avodah Zara 3a:

אין הקב"ה בא בטרוניא עם בריותיו

The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not play the tyrant against His creations.

In its broader context, the Gemara there is explaining why in the future, He will give the nations "one last chance" to do a mitzvah and gain reward, even though the general rule is that one can only do mitzvos in This World, not in the World to Come.

However, it seems to me obvious that if He is not a tyrant, then He must judge each individual human being in light of what He knows the real capabilities of that human being to have been. The more difficult it was for a given person to learn His Torah, the more leniently that person must be judged. Of course, this is a judgement that only He can ultimately make.

And as for the comments of Rav Ovadaiah Yosef, zatzal, to which you made reference, to the effect that the possibility of repentance is a matter of mercy and this mercy is reserved for Jews, I think this must be a reference to non-Jews who could have learned Torah and served Him knowingly.

But those who did not have such an opportunity, simple justice dictates dictates that they be held to a standard of behavior no higher than they could actually have maintained. Since this is not mercy, but justice, it stands to reason that this applies to non-Jews as well.

I should also note that Rav Yosef's interpretation is just one possible interpretation of the words of Chazal upon which he comments. I do not personally agree with his interpretation, but even so I am trying to answer the question "as it is," focusing on how Rav Yosef might respond if he were here with us.

Answer 2

What R'Ovadiah may be referring to is a concept that complete teshuva is mastery over ones evil inclination such that one will never repeat the sin again. In that case, one's mitzvah of teshuva gains the absolute value of the sins one did. What you say he says non Jews get is just regular teshuva. Note that teshuva may be a mitzvah. As such, a non Jew can't get credit for performing it

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4134855/jewish/You-Will-Return-to-the-Lord-Your-G-d-The-Commandment-of-Teshuvah.htm

As for Yaaron Reuben, he is known to be a hothead and even Rambam is a bit of a maverick and not for the weak-minded. We'd need to read him very carefully if he says people go to gehinnom for mitzvot without specific intent to serve God. We say "the ways of the Torah are pleasant". If someone likes matza and eats more than the minimum for enjoyment, he goes to hell? Does Sugihara, a Buddhist, go to hell for saving Jews in the Holocaust without thinking about Hashem as he frantically wrote his visas and throwing them from the train?

As for R' Tovia Singers assertion that people aren't punished for other's sins, he wants to disprove the notion that Jesus can't accept the sins of others. We know people do die for other's sins because of the plague that came when David counted the Jewish people or the descendants of Saul that the unrim vthumin said to hand over to the Gibeonites for execution because of a transgression of Saul.

But it could be that my objections are wrong and God has the world set up in a way we perceive to be unfair.