David Curwin is a writer living in Efrat. He writes about Hebrew language, issues on his site Balashon, and has published articles about Jewish thought in Tradition, Hakirah and Lehrhaus. THE CRIES OF OUR RIVALS DAVID CURWIN Throughout the Bible, the people of Israel are beset by foes. Some oppress them, and others attack them in battle. Much of biblical history can be classi- fied by who was persecuting or assaulting Israel at that point in the story. The very nature of the biblical narrative ensures that we never forget how we were treated by these adversaries. Therefore, it is surprising that in the book of Deuteronomy, we have com- mandments that instruct us to treat those same nations charitably: And the LORD said to me: Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war. For I will not give you any of their land as a possession; I have assigned Ar as a possession to the descendants of Lot (Deut. 2:9) You shall not abhor 1 an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land (Deut. 23:8) Just a generation before, the cruelty of the Egyptians to Israel was so ex- treme that God intervened with unprecedentedly harsh punishments. And the relationship with Edom and Moab was not much better. Edom (the nation of Esau, Jacob’s brother) belligerently rejected Israel’s polite request to pass through their land (Numbers 20:14-21), and Moab hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel in the desert (Numbers 22-24). So why are these nations de- serving of divine limitations on our enmity toward them? There appears to be a common thread that explains why we are obligated to take such compassionate attitudes toward these three nations. PARALLELS BETWEEN EDOM AND EGYPT Before we get to Moab, let’s look at Edom and Egypt, since they appear in the same verse. At first glance, their mention in that verse might be nearly coincidental. While Israel is forbidden to abhor both nations, perhaps the rea- sons are unrelated. The verse mentions the Edomite being “your brother,” whereas regarding Egypt, “you were a stranger in their land.”