{"id":51434,"date":"2019-03-17T17:31:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-17T15:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=51434"},"modified":"2022-10-09T14:09:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T11:09:11","slug":"moabites-ban-them-then-welcome-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/moabites-ban-them-then-welcome-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Moabites: Ban Them. Then Welcome Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[391,500,337,453],"acf":{"old_id":"51434","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"176","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"We have earned and learned nothing if by banning others for their cruelty, we become like them","content":"

The Bible is nothing if not a complex and nuanced masterpiece. Generations of commentators explore the nooks and crannies revealed by the granular incompatibilities and the delectable hints offered by the suggestive words of Scripture. None more than in this chapter.<\/span><\/p>\n

In what looks like utterly clear language, the tribes of Israel are ordered to never welcome a Moabite or Ammonite, and to show them no compassion: \u201cNo Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted in the congregation of the Lord; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation (23:4).\u201d That\u2019s pretty harsh, although the Torah goes to some lengths to make sure we understand that this exile is not about ethnicity or blood or religion or culture. It is simply about a breathtaking level of cruelty that renders them incompatible with the Biblical idea that greatness is a reflection of <\/span>tzedek <\/span><\/i>(justice) and <\/span>chesed <\/span><\/i>(lovingkindness). \u201cBecause they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam\u2026 to curse you (23:5).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So here comes a cruel exclusion to respond to cruelty. Because the Moabites were heartless, so show them no heart. There may be value in establishing this kind of moral consequences: evil begets evil. A good lesson to learn. But not a good one to implement, because if we act like the Moabites, we become Moabites. Cruelty is as cruelty does.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does our tradition resolve this challenge? Well, the rule is on the books, forever. This measure of harshness and marginalization deserves itself to be marginalized and isolated. But the reality has to be elsewhere: love trumps hate. So our tradition records, despite the rule, that the ancestor of the messiah, the ultimate symbol of redemption and love, is the descendent of just these Moabites. Through Ruth, great heroine of <\/span>chesed<\/span><\/i>, we birth King David, who is himself the ancestor of the Messiah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moabites: cruelty that deserves to be banished. Moabites: distant ancestors of our own salvation and of the world\u2019s redemption. Perhaps what we are taught is to cultivate a complete rejection of their behavior (we are, multiple times, commanded to love the alien and to have one law for alien and stranger alike) by putting the entire people under <\/span>herem<\/span><\/em>\/a ban, and then by tracing our own salvation to one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: <\/span><\/p>\n

By Gustave Dor\u00e9 – David and the Ammonites<\/a>, 1866\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":51435,"id":51435,"title":"Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites","filename":"Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/moabites-ban-them-then-welcome-them\/dt23-david_attacks_the_ammonites\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt23-david_attacks_the_ammonites","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":51434,"date":"2019-03-17 15:31:05","modified":"2022-01-10 07:14:39","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":642,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1-300x241.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":241,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1-768x616.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":616,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":642,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":642,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":642,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":642,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Dt23-David_Attacks_the_Ammonites-1-523x420.jpg","home_baner-width":523,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Moabites: Ban Them. 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