This sheet on Deuteronomy 23 was written by Jamie Weisbach for 929 and can also be found here
This chapter contains a set of prohibitions I find deeply troubling: the ban on Moabites and Ammonites from “entering the community of Hashem” – that is, from converting and freely marrying into the Jewish people. The prohibition is justified as a response to their ill-treatment of the Jewish people, but at the end of the day, I struggle to understand how the Torah could write people off solely on the basis of ethnicity.
The Mishnah in Masechet Yadayim 4:4 tells a story of a time when this law was challenged:
On that day, Judah the Ammonite convert came and stood before them in the Beit Midrash and said, “What am I to enter the congregation?”
Rabban Gamliel said to him, “You are prohibited.”
Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “You are permitted.”
Rabban Gamliel said to Rabbi Yehoshua, “But the Torah says: ‘An Ammonite and a Moabite cannot enter the community of Hashem even to the tenth generation.’
Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “Are the Ammonite and the Moabites in their lands? Sancheriv the King of Assyria has already scrambled the peoples, as it says: ‘I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the mighty number of their inhabitants.’”
Rabban Gamliel said to him, “But the Torah says: ‘And afterwards I will return the captivity of Ammon,’ and they have already returned.”
Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “The Torah says: ‘And I will return the captivity of Israel,’ and they have not returned.”
They immediately permitted him to enter the community.
This narrative could be read as overturning the prohibition on Ammonites purely on technical grounds, and not engaging with the moral question of discrimination. However, I think the Mishnah here is actually doing something much deeper than that.
This Mishnah challenges the coherence of any ideology that views ethnicity as fixed, static, and unchanging. Ethnicity simply doesn’t work that way; the winds of history and empire and migration make it simply impossible to assert that one ethnicity can be banned for all time. The Torah’s prohibition can’t be enacted, not just because it would be cruel, but because it would be incoherent.
The Gemara Tractate Berachot 28a records that the day that Judah the Ammonite Convert was permitted to enter the community was a day where the walls of the Beit Midrash were expanded to include hundreds of people who were previously excluded, leading to a massive outpouring of Torah and insight.
I hope we can all come to see the wisdom of striving for greater inclusion in our communities, and to reap the benefit of the wisdom and Torah that it generates.
The Mishnah in Masechet Yadayim 4:4 tells a story of a time when this law was challenged:
On that day, Judah the Ammonite convert came and stood before them in the Beit Midrash and said, “What am I to enter the congregation?”
Rabban Gamliel said to him, “You are prohibited.”
Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “You are permitted.”
Rabban Gamliel said to Rabbi Yehoshua, “But the Torah says: ‘An Ammonite and a Moabite cannot enter the community of Hashem even to the tenth generation.’
Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “Are the Ammonite and the Moabites in their lands? Sancheriv the King of Assyria has already scrambled the peoples, as it says: ‘I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the mighty number of their inhabitants.’”
Rabban Gamliel said to him, “But the Torah says: ‘And afterwards I will return the captivity of Ammon,’ and they have already returned.”
Rabbi Yehoshua said to him, “The Torah says: ‘And I will return the captivity of Israel,’ and they have not returned.”
They immediately permitted him to enter the community.
This narrative could be read as overturning the prohibition on Ammonites purely on technical grounds, and not engaging with the moral question of discrimination. However, I think the Mishnah here is actually doing something much deeper than that.
This Mishnah challenges the coherence of any ideology that views ethnicity as fixed, static, and unchanging. Ethnicity simply doesn’t work that way; the winds of history and empire and migration make it simply impossible to assert that one ethnicity can be banned for all time. The Torah’s prohibition can’t be enacted, not just because it would be cruel, but because it would be incoherent.
The Gemara Tractate Berachot 28a records that the day that Judah the Ammonite Convert was permitted to enter the community was a day where the walls of the Beit Midrash were expanded to include hundreds of people who were previously excluded, leading to a massive outpouring of Torah and insight.
I hope we can all come to see the wisdom of striving for greater inclusion in our communities, and to reap the benefit of the wisdom and Torah that it generates.
(ד) לֹֽא־יָבֹ֧א עַמּוֹנִ֛י וּמוֹאָבִ֖י בִּקְהַ֣ל יְהֹוָ֑ה גַּ֚ם דּ֣וֹר עֲשִׂירִ֔י לֹא־יָבֹ֥א לָהֶ֛ם בִּקְהַ֥ל יְהֹוָ֖ה עַד־עוֹלָֽם׃
(4) No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the LORD; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of the LORD,
Jamie Weisbach is a fellow at Yeshivat Hadar.
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