Avodah Mailing List

Volume 02 : Number 130

Saturday, January 16 1999

• PC Tanach
• shoftim

Just to set the record straight, I quote a response I received. The thing
about Arabs, I think, was explaining Yishmael and "Asara kabbin zima yardu
la'Olam etc." I believe what the person is referring to in "as you write"
is the Pesicha to my manuscript on Shoftim, where I explained the midda of
Cana'an and correlated it to Yishmael (ta'avah).

YGB

Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer
Cong. Bais Tefila, 3555 W. Peterson Ave., Chicago, IL, 60659
ygb@aishdas.org, http://www.aishdas.org/baistefila


---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 15:36:07-0600 
Subject: RE: Wednesday Shiur

Yosef:  To speak in fairness to the students we are discussing, I don't
believe the issue is the nature of ummot Kena'an, concerning which Tanach
is quite explicit, but rather comments about Jews, kin'ah, and Arabs (the
latter I did not hear myself).  Whether people see you as you write I
don't know. 

>>>>I was immensely disturbed by this response. How does one learn, let alone
teach, Tanach, without recognizing and accepting that Hashem denigrates
the nations of Cana'an and expects either their conversion (to Ger
Toshav), expulsion or elimination? Are they not clearly typecast
negatively ("to'eivos") etc. Must we not then attempt to understand the
reasons for that denigration - and the reasons for the ongoing battles
with such nations - many on pure religious grounds?<<<

The first commandment of public speaking is "Know thine audience".  The issue
is not one of religious truth, but of what is a good topic for discussion in a
public forum.  
Secondly, that which applied to the pagan world of Canaan does not apply to
our gentile neighbors in America; why stress the impractical details of war
when there are many other moral messages of Tanach that are relevant to our
daily life?  

-Chaim

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