TAAMEI HAMITZVOS – Reasons behind the Mitzvos
“Study improves the quality of the act and completes it, and a mitzvah is more beautiful when it emerges from someone who understands its significance.” (Meiri, Bava Kama 17a)
THE ROOTS OF AMON AND MOAV
Mitzvahs #561-562 (Devarim 23:4-7)
Parashas Va'eira records the births of Lot's two sons, the forebears of the nations Amon and Moav. Centuries later, when the Jewish people left Egypt and passed by the lands of these two nations on their way to Eretz Yisrael, they refused to offer the Jewish people food and drink and Moav even hired Bilaam to destroy them (see also Ramban). This cruel conduct bore evidence of the faulty character of Amonite and Moavite men, but not of the women, because it is not the way of women to go out and bring refreshments for wayfarers (Yevamos 76b). As a result, the Torah commands us in Parashas Ki Seitzei not to allow the male members of these nations to marry into our people, even if they convert. Moreover, while we are usually required to seek peace with other nations, we may not accord this merciful treatment to Amon and Moav. Sefer HaChinuch explains that their cruel conduct revealed them as being despicable in the core and undeserving of our mercy. These Mitzvos thus educate us about the importance of kindness and compassion.
If we explore the history of Amon and Moav, we gain further insight into these Mitzvos. Lot was an orphan; his father Haran died in Ur Kasdim. His illustrious uncle Avraham took him under his wing and shared with him the good fortunes which he merited on account of his righteousness. When Lot's city was conquered by an axis of world powers, Avraham came to rescue him; when his city Sodom was overturned, it was only in Avraham's merit that he survived. Lot's descendants Amon and Moav are not only at fault for lacking compassion, but also for repaying with cruelty the immense kindness that the forebear of the Jewish people dealt to their ancestor (Ramban and Bechor Shor). The Torah refers to an ungrateful person as a naval, a despicable person (Devarim 32:6). Indeed, someone lacking the sensitivity to even recognize the kindness of others is surely rotten at the core. In contrast, the great men of our nation are well-known for possessing a fine sense of gratitude to others, and above all, to Hashem.
The ungrateful streak of Amon and Moav would continue for all generations; the Sages call them "the bad neighbors of Yerushalayim." They relayed to Nevuchanetzar that the Jewish prophets were predicting the destruction of Yerushalayim and urged him to come and conquer it, and they gleefully joined his forces (Sanhedrin 96b).
If we ponder the matter at its roots, it appears that the irreversible spiritual blemishes of these two nations began from the time of their conception. When Sodom and its sister cities were
