Blog Thine Rabbi

“In the end, it all comes down to priorities.” Those were the opening remarks of R’ Gottlieb drasha today. According to polls just released this week, a mere 15% of Jews said that their make-it-or-break-it issue would be the safety and security of the State of Israel. (I’m going to assume EphShap doesn’t read my site since I don’t wish to elicit his ire. No need to start a flame war during Elul.) Healthcare, Social Security, and defense against terrorism, all ranked higher. “We’re really a people of talk,” he said much to his dismay. Putting Israel first is just an abstract ideal. We all talk about which candidate would be best for Israel, etc we don’t translate our words into actions in the voting booth.

He tied his thoughts on the upcoming election into פרשת כי תצא:

לא יבוא עמוני ומואבי, בקהל ה': גם דור עשירי לא יבוא להם בקהל ה' עד עולם. על דבר אשר לא קידמו אתכם בלחם ובמים בדרך בצאתכם ממצריים; ואשר שכר עליך את בלעם בן בעור מפתור ארם נהריים לקללך

It seems that the primary reason the Moavim and Amonim cannot enter the Jewish nation is because they didn’t come to greet us with food and drink when we were leaving Egypt. Let’s think about this for a minute—we were an entire nation. Can you imagine the tremendous cost of feeding millions of people? We’re going to fault them for not going out of their way to be kind to us? For that we will never let them become Jewish? So they won’t be the heads of the chessed committees, but does that bar them from becoming part of us? And then, almost as an afterthought, the כתוב mentions that these were the nations that hired Bilam to come and curse us. Doesn’t that seem like a much more pertinent reason. It’s like you’re trying to dissuade someone about a certain shidduch( there was an aufruf in shul so he was trying to keep with the *theme*) and you say, well, first of all, he jay-walks. And by the way, he once robbed a bank. מה פתאום?

I believe the answer he gave is from the Dubno Maggid. The second reason provided by the כתוב actually serves to elucidate the first one. When Balak hired Bilam to go curse the Jews, he said:

אל נא תימנע מהלוך אליי. כי-כבד אכבדך מאוד, וכול אשר תאמר אליי אעשה; ולכה-נא, קובה-לי את העם הזה

Basically, “Name the price, Bilam. We’re giving you a blank check.” Contrast this to the first scenario. When it comes to doing chessed, suddenly they don’t have the means. But when it comes to cursing the Jews, they will bend over backwards. Their priorities are utterly askew! Such actions indicate that their nature is diametrically opposed to that of Bnei Yisrael, who are intrinsically רחמנים בישנים וגומלי חסדים. Therefore, they can never become part of us.