The Moabites In Jewish law

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The Moabites In Jewish law

Since the Moabites had opposed the invasion of Canaan, they, like the Ammonites, were excluded from the congregation unto the tenth generation.[35] The Tenth Generation is an idiom used for an unlimited time as opposed to the third generation which allows an Egyptian convert to marry into the community. The Talmud states that only the male Moabite converts were forbidden to marry born Jews, female converts were permitted to marry with only the normal prohibition of a convert marrying a kohen (priest) applying. This law was violated during the Exile, however; and Ezra and Nehemiah sought to compel a return to the law because men had been marrying women who had not been converted at all.[36] As a result, the children were not Jewish, as the religion follows that of the mother. The heir of King Solomon was Rehoboam, the son of an Ammonite woman (who had converted), Naamah.[37]

On the other hand, the marriages of the Bethlehem Ephrathites (of the tribe of Judah) Chilion and Mahlon to the Moabite women Orpah and Ruth[38], and the marriage of the latter, after her husband's death, to Boaz[39] who by her was the great-grandfather of David, are mentioned with no shade of reproach. The Talmudic explanation, however, is that the language of the law only applies to Moabite and Ammonite men (Hebrew, like all Semitic languages, is gendered). The Talmud also states that Prophet Samuel wrote the book of Ruth in order to settle the dispute as the rule had been forgotten since the time of Boaz. Another interpretation is that the Book of Ruth is simply reporting the events in an impartial fashion, leaving any praise or condemnation to be done by the reader.

The Babylonian Talmud in Yevamot 76B explains that one of the reasons was the Ammonites did not greet the Children of Israel with friendship and the Moabites hired Balaam to curse them. The difference in the responses of the two people led to God allowing the Jewish People to harass the Moabites (though not go to war) but forbade them to even harass the Ammonites.

It should be noted that Ruth adopted the God of Naomi, her Israelite mother-in-law, and chose to go back to her (Naomi's) people after her husband, his brother and his father, Naomi's husband, died.

Ruth said to Naomi, "Wither thou goest, I will go; wither thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God". The Talmud uses this as the basis for what a convert must do to be converted. There are arguments as to exactly when she was converted and if she had to repeat this statement in front of the court in Bethlehem when they arrived there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moab