The Kindness of the Nations

Babylonian Talmud « seider Neziqin « masekhet Bava Batra 10b:

Rabbán Yohhanan ben Zakai said to his students:
My children! What does it mean that Scripture said tzedaqa teromeim goy, vehhesed le’umim hhatat ("righteousness/charity exalts a nation, and the kindness of the nations is a sin(-offering)")?"

Ribbí Eli‘ezer answered, and said:
"Charity exalts a nation" &mdash this is Israel, as is written, "and who is like your people Israel, one nation in the land."
"And the kindness of the nations is a sin(-offering)" — every act of charity or kindness that the [idolatrous] nations of the world perform is a sin to them, for they only do it to aggrandize themselves, as is said, "that they may offer aromatic sacrifices to the God of Heaven, and pray for the life of the king and his sons"...

Ribbí Yehoshua‘ answered, and said:
"Charity exalts a nation" &mdash this is Israel, as is written, "and who is like your people Israel, one nation..."
"And the kindness of the nations is a sin(-offering)" — every act of charity or kindness that the [idolatrous] nations of the world perform is a sin to them, for they only do it so that their kingdom will endure, as is said, "wherefore, King, let my counsel be acceptable to you, and release yourself from your sins by charity, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; then there may be a lengthening of your prosperity etc."

Rabbán Gamli’eil answered, and said:
"Charity exalts a nation" &mdash this is Israel, as is written, "and who is like your people Israel..."
"And the kindness of the nations is a sin(-offering)" — every act of charity or kindness that the [idolatrous] nations of the world perform is a sin to them, for they only do it to look frum...

Ribbí Eli‘ezer Hamoda‘i says:
"Charity exalts a nation" &mdash this is Israel, as is written "and who is like your people Israel, one nation..."
"And the kindness of the nations is a sin(-offering)" — every act of charity or kindness that the [idolatrous] nations of the world perform is a sin to them, for they only do it to abuse us with it, as is said, "and God brought it, and did as he said; because you sinned to God and did not listen to his voice, and therefore this has happened to you."

Ribbí Nehhunya ben Haqaneh answered, and said:
"Charity exalts a nation, and kindness" — for Israel;
and "the nations, sin(-offering)."

Rabbán Yohhanan ben Zakai said to his students:
Ribbí Nehhunya ben Haqaneh's words look better than my words and your words, for he gives 'charity' and 'kindness' to Israel, and to the [idolatrous] nations of the world, 'sin'.

If he [=RYbZ] also said something, what was it?

We have learned —
Rabbán Yohhanan ben Zakai said to them:
Just as the sin-offering atones for Israel,
so charity atones for the nations of the world.

What the heck is going on here?
Are these illustrious sages making eternal, immutable metaphysical pronouncements that describe or shape the nature of reality for all time? Are Non-Jews really that bad?

Heck no! To She’ol with such thoughts!

Remember — this is Rabbán Yohhanan ben Zakai, who survived the destruction of the Second Temple and the Second Jewish Commonwealth. These are his students, who if they didn't also experience the Hhurban itself, they experienced the harsh hand of Roman rule over Judæa.

Whose answer did RYbZ prefer, beyond all his other students' answers as well as his own?

The meaningless one. Unlike his colleagues, Ribbí Nehhunya ben Haqaneh makes no claims about the actions or motivations of the Nations of the World. He simply out-negatives the other sages with a simple rearrangement of words without regard for grammatical constraints. He assigned the positive words in the sentence to Us, and the negative ones to Them. That's all he did. And in doing so, he expressed the most negative, primal-scream cry of anguish over the Destruction of our world. An association without context and without meaning. (For a contemporary scientific study of this type of positive/negative associative thinking, check out the Implicit Association Tests)

And whose answer is the #2 answer, the runner-up?

It seems to me that it must have been Rabbán Yohhanan ben Zakai's answer, himself. Now I admit that this isn't particularly convincing, but considering the fact that (A) he's the teacher [okay so as a teacher i'm a bit biased ;–)], and (B) he characterizes the final answer as better than both his own and the others', it looks to me like if RNbH hadn't come up with his answer, the final say would have gone to RYbZ himself.

Also, for some reason (*cough*cough*antigoyism*cough*cough*) some people like quoting Ribbí Eli‘ezer's answer as if it were masqanat hasugya, the conclusion of the discussion. So I guess if people are going to quote that negative one as if it were the Talmud's final say on the matter, there should be no problem with me going around quoting RYbZ's original answer as if it were the Talmud's final say on the matter!