I floated some thoughts on this last year on Avodah, and your feedback
helped me to refine those thoughts, as set out below.
I dedicate this to the memory of my father who left this world 27 years
ago today, when I was 27. His sense of decency and goodwill continues
to inspire me.
I don't pretend to scholarship, but I can perhaps offer a point of
view that has value in helping people see things from a different
perspective. I welcome any further feedback and discussion. I apologize
for any formatting issues in sending this out to the list. I am happy
to send it in PDF format to anyone who requests it. Feel free to share
it with anyone who may be interested or who might benefit from it.
YISRO AND DISPARAGING NON-JEWS
Parshas Yisro is named for Moshe Rabbenu's father-in-law, Yisro. After a
long career as a priest to idolatry, Yisro made a radical life change and
became one of the first converts to Judaism. After Moshe married Yisro's
daughter Tzippora, they lived with Yisro for many years in Midian, until
Moshe returned to Mitzrayim on a divine mission to free the Jewish people.
Immediately following the liberation of the Jewish people from Mitzrayim,
Yisro came out to meet Moshe in the wilderness. After they were reunited,
Moshe recounted to his father-in-law the good that Hashem had done for
the Jewish people, including causing the death of Paroh's entire army
at the sea.
What was Yisro's reaction? The Torah tells us (Shemos, 18:9): "vayichad
Yisro". The simple meaning is "Yisro rejoiced", on hearing this good news.
Rashi brings another interpretation of "vayichad Yisro" from the gemara
(Sanhedrin 94a) where Shmuel says it means that Yisro's flesh "pricked
up" in discomfort, with goosebumps, on hearing of the suffering and
destruction of the Egyptians. The gemara, as quoted by Rashi, immediately
explains and extends this idea: "As Rav [or more likely Rav Pappa --
per Gra and Torah Temimah] stated, this is as the popular saying has it:
'Do not disparage a non-Jew [Aramai] before a ger [convert] unto the
tenth generation'."
The Torah Temimah discusses other places in the gemara and halachah
where the status of a ger continues to the tenth generation of the ger's
descendants, and concludes: "If so, since the status of a ger continues
until the tenth generation, it is prohibited to disparage a non-Jew in
front of him [and his descendants during this time, i.e. to the tenth
generation]."
Rav Steinsaltz in his notes on Sanhedrin 94a cites the Gra who explains
that only after the tenth generation of descendants is the non-Jewish
blood less than a one thousandth, which is the most stringent standard for
bitul/nullification. Alternatively, "ten generations" may be specified
simply to set a very long time frame that would almost always cover
anyone who had a non-Jewish ancestor in living memory.
Whatever the explanation, the reference to ten generations suggests the
need for stringency. Furthermore, the fact that this saying is quoted by
Chazal, and repeated by Rashi, and its precise parameters discussed by
halachic authorities, seems like a good indication that it is teaching
a mussar principle that we are meant to apply in our lives, and is not
to be simply dismissed as an ancient folk saying.
Nowadays, almost any Jewish audience of a significant size, (whether
at a shiur or lecture, in a shul, or any class in a Jewish school)
is quite likely to have gerim or children or grandchildren of gerim
among it. Certainly when we extend those who we must be concerned not
to offend to include all who have any ger forebear within the previous
ten generations, it would have to be assumed that this principle should
be applied when addressing virtually any Jewish setting.
The clearest rationale for this mussar principle is that it is teaching
us to be sensitive to those who have come from outside, and their
descendants, so as to avoid hurting their feelings. At this level it
may perhaps be considered as part of the prohibition of onas devarim
(oppressing with words). This would apply whether or not the offending
statements were true, or partially true. At least we can say with
confidence that this principle, that requires taking into account the
sensitivities of people one is addressing, is part of derech eretz.
But speaking disparagingly about non-Jews is not just likely to hurt the
feelings of gerim and their descendants. Making negative generalizations
about a large class of people (in this case almost the entire human
race!) is also unlikely to be true, and likely to sound crude, not just to
gerim and their descendants, but also to anyone who is uncomfortable with
painting all non-Jews with the same negative brush. Unfortunately, though,
some speakers who have important and insightful messages to deliver to
Jewish audiences, seem sometimes to be unaware what a negative distraction
it is for some people in their audience when they start talking about
"the goyim" in disparaging terms as if non-Jews were a monolithic and
subhuman entity.
Gerim and their descendants who are close enough to real-life non-Jews may
be simply best placed to be able to recognize the falseness and crudeness
of simplistic caricatures and broad-brush negative generalizations. It
is noteworthy that gerim themselves have been on both sides of the line,
so to speak, so they have direct experiential knowledge of what it is
to be a non-Jew and what it is to be a Jew, so they know firsthand the
difference between the two states.
Furthermore, even if there is some truth in certain negative
generalizations, gerim and their descendants may still maintain relations
of hakaras hatov and/or responsibility to non-Jews like their non-Jewish
relatives and community, so as to make total rejection and lack of
concern for them inappropriate and likely to cause offence. And those
bonds of responsibility and hakaras hatov certainly deserve respect,
as part of a Torah-based derech eretz.
Nothing here should be taken to suggest that it is offensive to speak of
the special relationship of the Jewish people to G-d, and the particular
responsibilities of the Jewish people under the Torah, including our
responsibility as Jews (whether Jewish by birth or by conversion)
to maintain our distinctiveness and separateness in accordance with
all the specific requirements of halachah. In the Torah, Hashem says
"Israel is my firstborn son". It should not be offensive to refer to
such distinctness, though of course it must always be expressed in a
sensitive way. Indeed in recent years, even several Popes have referred
to the Jewish people as the "elder brother" of the Christian peoples.
What is problematic is when acknowledgement of proper distinctiveness
and separateness turns into the demonizing or dehumanizing of non-Jews
as a broad class.
This kind of exaggerated negative presentation of non-Jews when it
occurs is often prompted by pure motivations, of encouraging young
Jews to maintain an appropriate separateness and distinctiveness. But
ultimately such a caricaturization of non-Jews, as a way of trying to
protect our children and community, by building psychological walls of
fear and animosity, will likely be counter-productive and undermine the
strengthening of Torah, in at least two ways.
First, if and when our children find out that negative caricatures contain
falsehood, and that there are actually significant numbers of non-Jews
who do not fit the exaggerated negative images, there is a danger that
they will lose trust and rebel against what they see as false teaching,
throwing away much that is true in the process. This is comparable with
the midrash of Chavah being induced to sin as a result of Adam's false
but well-intentioned warning to her that Hashem had forbidden them even
to touch the tree whose fruit was forbidden. When she came in contact
with the tree and nothing happened, she concluded that even eating from
the tree would likewise cause no harm. Exaggerations undermine trust,
and the results are often not good.
Second, the demonization of non-Jews undermines our ability as individuals
and as a community to connect with the uplifting global vision and central
mission of the Jewish people based on the Torah. Avraham was told "all
the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you" (Ber. 22:18). This
was repeated to both Yitzchok (26:3-4) and Yaakov (28:13-14). Our Neviim
teach that the way the Jewish people will bless the world is by being
"a light to the nations". But it is difficult to see how this can come
about, and why Hashem would even want it to come about, if it were
correct that non-Jews are by their nature irredeemable, (incapable of
participating fully in the ge'ula to come). Teaching negative stereotypes
and caricatures about non-Jews as a whole tends to suggest that they are
indeed beyond redemption, and in so doing undermines our will and ability
to fulfill the mission that we have been given to do our part, through
Torah-based conduct, to bring Hashem's ge'ula/redemption to the world.
One further angle is worth mentioning. The way we relate to non-Jews is
part of how we relate to the rest of Hashem's creation. As the Maharal
wrote in Nesivos Olam, 2:50: "A person who loves someone, loves all of
the things which he does. Thus when one loves Hashem it is impossible not
to love his creations. And if a person hates mankind, it is impossible
that he feels love for Hashem who created them."
With all of the above in mind, we can conclude that the Torah's principle
against disparaging non-Jews in any setting where there are gerim or
descendants of gerim, which we learn from the gemara that Rashi cites
in this week's parasha, has at least two purposes. First and foremost,
following this principle will help us to be appropriately sensitive to
the feelings of converts and their families. Secondly, a major benefit
of implementing this principle is to help to inoculate us as Torah
observant Jews from falling into the temptations of crude xenophobia
(fear of outsiders) which would establish in us a mindset inconsistent
with the Torah's noble vision of the role of the Jewish people as a
distinct and separate nation whose refined way of life, and Torah ideas,
will lead to the blessing from Hashem uplifting and redeeming all of
human-kind in a magnificent culmination of creation.
michaelorr@rogers.com