Reuven Chaim (Rudolph) Klein is an alumnus of Emek Hebrew Academy and Yeshiva Gedolah of Los Angeles. He received semikhah from Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch and Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Lerner. He is currently a fellow at the Kollel of Yeshivat Mir in Jerusalem. He lives with his wife and children in Beitar Illit, Israel. THE INIQUITIES OF AMMON AND MOAB REUVEN CHAIM (RUDOLPH) KLEIN When barring Ammonites and Moabites from marrying Israelites, the To- rah says: An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation shall none of them enter into the assembly of the Lord for ever; because they met you not with bread and with water on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Aram-naharaim (Deut. 23:4-5). This passage explicitly states that the Ammonites and Moabites are to be ostracized because they met you not with bread and with water on the way, when you came forth out of Egypt. However, another passage in Deuterono- my seems to contradict this. When Moses requested permission from Sihon king of Heshbon to pass through his land and buy food and water, he sup- ported his request by noting that the Edomites (the children of Esau) and the Moabites had already allowed the Israelites to do so. Moses said: 'Thou shalt sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me water for money, that I may drink; only let me pass through on my feet; as the children of Esau that dwell in Seir, and the Moabites that dwell in Ar, did unto me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the land which the Lord our God giveth us' (Deut. 2:28-29). This contradicts the assertion above that the Moabites met you not with bread and with water. In fact, there is another problem with the second passage: it seems to con- tradict the Torah's account of the encounter with the Edomites in the Book of Numbers. There, the Torah mentions that after the Israelites requested per- mission to pass through Edomite territory, Edom said unto him: 'Thou shalt not pass through me, lest I come out with the sword against thee' (Num. 20:18). Yet Moses told Sihon king of Heshbon that the Israelites had been granted permission to pass through Edomite territory. Rashi, in his commen- tary to Deuteronomy 2:29, resolves this question by explaining that when Moses said, as the children of Esau . . . did unto me, he did not mean that the Edomites had allowed the Israelites to pass through their lands, but was only