Unchosen II

You may remember my November 2005 post No This Is Not Tobypalooza (Defending Uncle Ishmael). In it, I took on the anti-Yishma‘eil attitude common in the Jewish world today (seemingly due to our conflict with his spiritual/biological/eponymous descendents) and typified by DovBear's archnemesis Toby Katz.

In my continuing quest as a Dati ‘Olami Jew to express the Torah's darkhey no‘am for Jew and Non-Jew alike, let us now turn to the famous midrash about God offering the Torah to Other Nations before forcing it upon Beney Yisra’eil like an overturned barrel. (mount sinai as shotgun wedding, or even rape? maybe topic for another post...)

Sifrey (Devarim 343) on Devarim/Deuteronomy 33:2 —

Another explanation:
And then he said, 'God came from Sinai...' —

When the Holy, Blessèd Is He, revealed himself to give Torah to Israel, it was not to Israel alone that he appeared, but also to all the nations.

First he went to the children of ‘Eisav.
He said to them: "Do you accept the Torah?"
They said, "What's written in it?"
He said, 'Do not murder!'
They said, "Lord of the World, the whole being of these people — their father guaranteed them on nothing but the sword, as it says and by your sword you shall live. How could we accept the Torah?"
And they did not want to accept it.

Then he went to the children of ‘Amon and Mo’av.
He said to them: "Do you accept the Torah?"
They said, "What's written in it?"
He said, 'Do not commit adultery!'
They said, "Lord of the World, the whole being of these people comes from nothing other than a drop of sexual immorality, as it says and so the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. How could we accept the Torah?"
And they did not want to accept it.

Then he went to the children of Ishmael.
He said to them: "Do you accept the Torah?"
They said, "What's written in it?"
He said, 'Do not steal!'
They said, "Lord of the World, the whole being of these people is that they survive on nothing other than theft and robbery [or: their father was a lêstês, a bandit], as it says and he will be a wild donkey of a man. How could we accept the Torah?"
And they did not want to accept it...

People usually read this midrash to say 'look at how immoral those nasty g–––m are! they were offered the Torah and rejected it because they didn't want to have to stop doing horrible sins!'
Of course, just as in the case of the 'Dos iz nit Tobypalooza' midrash, a careful reading of the text proves them wrong.
Do Edom, ‘Amon and Mo’av, and Yishma‘eil reject the Torah because they were bloodthirsty, horny, and klepto? No. They wanted to accept the Torah, but they felt that accepting it would be giving up their identity.

‘Eisav was blessed by his father — Yitzhhaq — to live by his sword. He was a man whose entire life was on the edge of death. War was literally his blessing and his birthright. Accepting the Torah would have meant rejecting ‘Eisav/Edom's national identity, and Yitzhhaq's blessing.

‘Amon and Mo’av were descended from Lot's incestuous relationship with his daughters. They didn't reject the Torah because they thought forbidden sex acts were too much fun to give up, they rejected it because they would have been rejecting their identity. It would have been a disgrace to their ancestors who, after the destruction of Sedom, believed they were the last humans on the planet and only wanted to sustain the species.

Yishma‘eil, like his nephew ‘Eisav, was given a destiny which his descendents would not relinquish. Accepting the Torah would have meant rejecting not an ancestor's blessing but a divine mandate — Hagar was told by an angel of God that her son would be a 'wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him'. This was the role he was given. His descendents could have changed their ways, but that would have meant trading in their own blessing for that of Isaac.

It's not about sin. It's about honor.