Yadayim, Chapter 4, Mishnah 4. Our mishnah opens once again with the words "Bo bayom," on that day, the phrase used throughout these mishnayos to refer to the famous day on which Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah was appointed head of the yeshiva. A whole series of questions was raised and resolved on that day, and here is another of them, this one brought not by a scholar in debate but by a man asking about his own life.
The Question
The Question
The mishnah introduces him by name and by lineage: "Ba Yehudah geir Amoni," there arrived a convert whose family origin lay in the nation of Amon, "ve'amad lifnehem bebeis hamedrash," and he presented himself before the assembled Sages in the study hall. His question was short and personal: "Amar lahem: Mah ani lavo bakahal?" What is my standing, he asked, with respect to coming into the kahal, that is, the general body of Jews into which one may marry?
Some background is needed here. Jewish law does not allow every Jew to marry any other Jew; the nation contains more than one marriage group. One who converts out of the nations of Amon or Moav is kept outside the main group. He is hardly left without a spouse, since there are women whom he is fully permitted to marry, yet the general population remains closed to him. Yehudah's question was precisely whether he himself fell under this restriction.
Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua
"Amar lo Rabban Gamliel: Assur atah." Rabban Gamliel told him that he was forbidden. "Amar lo Rabbi Yehoshua: Muttar atah." Rabbi Yehoshua told him that he was permitted.
Rabban Gamliel grounded his ruling in a verse: "Amar lo Rabban Gamliel: Hakasuv omeir," the Torah states plainly, "Lo yavo Amoni uMoavi," no Ammonite or Moabite is to come, "bikhal Hashem," into the congregation of Hashem, "gam dor asiri," and this holds even in the tenth generation. Scripture itself, then, shuts converts of these two nations out of the general marriage group, and it sets no expiration date of a generation or two.
Rabbi Yehoshua's answer turned on a historical fact rather than on a reading of the verse: "Amar lo Rabbi Yehoshua: Vachi Amonim uMoavim bimkoman hen?" Do Ammonites and Moabites still sit in the lands they once occupied, so that we could point to a given man and establish that he belongs to them? "Kvar alah Sancheriv melech Ashur," the Assyrian monarch Sancheriv had already come up in conquest generations earlier, "uvilbeil es kol ha'umos," and he threw every nation into confusion, carrying whole peoples away from their native soil and settling them elsewhere. Whoever goes by the name of Amon in our day cannot be shown to descend from the Amon that the Torah barred.
To establish the point, Rabbi Yehoshua brought a verse from Yeshayahu in which Sancheriv himself boasts of what he had done. "Ve'asir gevulos amim," I did away with the borders of peoples, "va'asudoseihem shoseisi," I looted their stores of wealth, "va'orid kabir yoshvim," and I brought down those who dwelled in strength. Among the deeds the king takes pride in is the erasing of national boundaries: he tore populations out of their territories and planted them in new ones.
Two More Verses
Two More Verses
Rabban Gamliel had a verse of his own, from Yirmiyahu, in which Hashem speaks of Amon's future: "Ve'acharei chein," and after all this, "ashiv es shevus," I will bring back the captives, "bnei Amon," of the children of Amon. Since the prophet guarantees that the exiled Ammonites will be brought home, Rabban Gamliel reasoned, "uchvar chazru," their return has by now taken place, and Amon is once more a nation one can identify.
Rabbi Yehoshua answered from a verse in Amos, where Hashem pledges concerning His own people: "Veshavti es shevus," I will bring back the captivity, "ami Yisrael," of My people Yisrael. That guarantee stands written in the prophets no less than the one about Amon, "va'adayin lo shavu," and yet Yisrael's exiles quite obviously have not come home. A prophecy that a return will happen is no proof that it has happened. And if the ingathering of Yisrael still lies ahead of us, we surely have no grounds to suppose that Amon has already been restored.
The Ruling
"Hitiruhu lavo bakahal." The conclusion of the discussion was that they permitted Yehudah, the Ammonite convert who had stood before them and asked, to enter the kahal and marry into the general population of Israel. The Torah's exclusion stands, but there is no longer any nation before us that can be established to be the Amon and Moav of which the Torah spoke.