Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Of parents and people

Of Biblical laws that we might find offensive, two examples can be found in this week’s parashah.

The first, well-known, example: An illicitly conceived child (one born of adultery or incest) can never enter the Israelite community, nor his descendants, until the tenth generation.

Why, it has often been asked, should a child innocent of any wrongdoing suffer, together with generations of his progeny, for an act of his parents?

The second, less-known example: A Moavite can never enter into the Israelite community, nor his descendants, until the tenth generation. We are told that this is because the Moavites did not meet the Israelites, with food and water, after they left Egypt, and because their king later hired Bil’am to curse them.

Again, one wonders why these children are made to suffer for the actions/inactions of their parents and, like the child born of an illicit union, are to be excluded “forever” from being a part of the Israelite community.

Yet these passages, indeed commandments, do not serve as our tradition’s final word on this subject.

The Scroll of Ruth celebrates a Moavite woman whom an Israelite marries. And, not only does this woman come into the Israelite community, but she converts and becomes an Israelite herself. When her husband dies, this woman, Ruth, marries a leading member of the Israelite community, Boaz, and it is from this union that King David, their great grandchild emerges.

On the basis of the above-cited laws of our parashah, King David should not be a member of the Israelite people, let alone its king, just as Ruth should not be in or part of this community.

On top of this, Boaz is a descendant of Perez who is born of an illicit union of Judah and Tamar (Tamar is his daughter-in-law).

And, on top of that, Moav is the son of Lot (the nephew of Avraham) through Lot’s illicit relationship with his daughter.

So, King David is a descendant of an illicit union on both his mother and father’s side and, therefore, to be doubly barred from the Israelite community. As well, he is to be excluded from this community as he is of Moavite ancestry.

But even as our parashah would write David out of our history, it us gives cause to welcome him as well.

This week’s Torah reading says: “Parents should not be punished on account of their children, nor children on account of their parents”.

For our people, the word of law cannot and should not blind us from the way of love and justice.

Indeed, it is the descendant of King David, the Messiah, that is to bring a world of universal peace and brotherhood in which no one, due to parents or people, will be excluded.