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

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

On Wed, May 20, 2015 at 05:11:29PM +0300, Marty Bluke via Avodah wrote:
: 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 sowhy does the
: medrash specifically pick these as examples for Torah prohibitions?

Perhaps that was His point: you can't even keep the mitzvos you already
have, so how can you want more?


On 05/20/2015 02:16 PM, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> 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?

Why the premise that the purpose was kiruv?  On the contrary, I think the
medrash's intent is clear, that Hashem did *not* want them to accept His
offer, and thus pitched it in the manner most likely to be rejected.  The
only purpose of making the offer in the first place was so they wouldn't
be able to complain that they hadn't been given the chance.  He wasn't
trying to sell it to them, He was showing them why they didn't want it,
and therefore shouldn't be upset that the Jews were getting it.



-- 
Zev Sero               I have a right to stand on my own defence, if you
zev at sero.name          intend to commit felony...if a robber meets me in
                        the street and commands me to surrender my purse,
                        I have a right to kill him without asking questions
                                               -- John Adams