The Sifri (Vezois HaBerachah) on the pasuk: ה' מסיני בה – “Hashem comes forth from Sinai” says: Hashem offered the Torah to all the nations of the world, and they didn’t want to accept because it is written in the Torah, “Do not kill”, “Do not commit adultery”.
The question is, “Do not kill” and “Do not commit adultery” are two of the shevah mitzvos Bnei No’ach, and the non-Jews had to keep them anyway. If so, what difference did it make to them, and why didn’t want to accept the Torah? (The Chida, Pesach Einayim 76b, Kli Chemda, Vezois HaBerachah, Meshech Chochmah and others ask this question)
Answers:
Tosfos in Sanhedrin (75a) cites two opinions in regard to whether a non-Jew must give up his life to avoid committing an aveirah. According to the opinion that holds they are not obligated to do so, we can understand why they didn’t want to accept the Torah. True they had to keep the shevah mitzvos Bnei No’ach, but they weren’t prepared to give up their lives to do so.
With this we can answer a question on the Gemara in Yevamos (47b). The Gemara says that when Rus was on the way to becoming Jewish, they said to her “by us Jews, it’s forbidden to serve avodah zorah”. The Mitzpeh Eison asks: A non-Jew also isn’t allowed to serve avodah zorah? According to the above, we can answer: True a non-Jew isn’t allowed to serve avodah zorah, however, they are not obligated to give up their lives in order not to do so. By becoming Jewish, however, one must be prepared to give up his/her life.
The Madanay Asher suggest another answer: When Klal Yisroel accepted upon themselves Torah and mitzvos, they did it with all the fine details. When they accepted “Do not steal”, they accepted gezel sheinah [stealing sleep], geneivas da’as [stealing peoples mind, i.e., tricking people] etc. and when they accepted “Do not murder”, they accepted not to embarrass others etc. The nations of the world were happy to accept the basics, but they were not interested in all the extra fine details.
