[Avodah] Vayichad Yisro - Disparaging Non-Jews

[Michael Orr via Avodah]

On 02/03/2016 09:13 PM, Michael Orr via Avodah wrote:

ZS:
> If this is the case today then surely it must have been even more so
> in Chazal's day, when giyur was so popular that historians tell us at
> one point 10% of the Roman empire was Jewish. And yet they limited the
> proverb to the presence of a known ger. Kal vachomer nowadays.

MO:
As per my previous point, they do not limit this principle of proper
speech to an actual known ger but include speech to the issue/zera of
a ger up to the 10^th generation.

ZS:
> You have avoided addressing my objection: if today this must include any
> audience, whether it includes a known ger or not, then how much more so
> in their day, so why did they limit it in this way? Why did they say
> "before a ger", if they meant "before anyone, because you never know
> who's a ger"? And if they didn't mean that in their day, then how can
> you say that in our day, when we have fewer gerim than they did?

MO:
Even assuming that there were many halachic gerim in the days of
Chazal,which has been questioned, there would still be settings where
the people spoken to all have known Jewish yichus, and the principle
set out in the proverb would not be applicable then, by all opinions.