[Avodah] Why didn't the other nations accept the Torah?

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 05:11:29PM +0300, Marty Bluke via Avodah wrote:
: However, the Medrash has an obvious question. All of the examples of Torah
: prohibitions given by the Medrash, are also prohibited by the 7 mitzvos of
: Bnei Noach. The Bnei Eisav were already prohibited from murder so how would
: accepting the Torah make things worse for them? The same goes for arayos
: and stealing, these were already prohibited to them anyway so why does the
: medrash specifically pick these as examples for Torah prohibitions?

I raised this and a second question in
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/parashas-lekh-lekha-5756>:
Hashem's answer to each of the nations is strange. Why choose the one
sin their forefather was known for? Is that how you would do kiruv,
starting with the hard stuff?


   By comparing this medrash to the opening pasuk in this week's parshah,
   [Lekh Lekha,] we can get a better understanding of the point of
   the story.

   "Hashem said to Avram, `Go for yourself from your homeland, from your
   birthplace and from your father's house to the land which I will show
   you'." (12:1) The first sentence recorded in the Torah of the Jewish
   mission on earth is a commandment for Avram to leave his home and
   his father.

   Avram didn't say, "I can't worship G-d because my very substance
   his idolatry, because my father, Terach, manufactures idols". Hashem
   orders Avram to leave the culture that made him, to leave his father's
   sphere of influence, and he does.

   Avram's reply was "And Avram went, just as G-d told him". (12:4)
   If Hashem said he could change, rise above Ur Casdim to become fit
   for both the land of Israel and the father of the people of Israel,
   then he goes.

   Is man a creature of fate or of destiny? Is his future foretold,
   etched in rock, unchangeable? Or can he rebuild himself into something
   greater than he was?

   Clearly the Torah insists on the latter. The very key to accepting
   the Torah is to be committed to use its ideas and its mitzvos to
   improve and to grow.

   This was the failing ascribed to the other nations in the medrash. They
   saw a given flaw in their national character as their substance,
   immutable. Hashem wasn't asking them about a particular prohibition,
   but about their commitment to leave their "father's house". If they
   do not believe they can change, what purpose can getting the Torah
   serve them?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 46th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        6 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Netzach sheb'Malchus: How can some forms of
Fax: (270) 514-1507                         "unity" be over domineering?