Q:
You once said that all the goyim are wicked and another time you said there’s a lot of goodness in the nations. How can both be true?
A:
Let me explain something to you. Here is a man who worships idols. Let’s say every morning he gets up and bangs his head on the floor three times before a bronze image. Then he lights some incense and he worships that image. Is he a tzaddik? He’s chayav misah. An oveid avodah zarah is chayav misah. A gentile who worships idols is chayav misah. We don’t have power today but לעשות נקמה בגוים תוכחות בלאומים. Al pi din we’re supposed to punish them. We can’t so we forget about it.
Now suppose however that this oveid avodah zarah is a kindly man who saves a tzaddik. Now what are you going to say about him? That he’s not an oveid avodah zarah? Let’s say he saved a tzaddik—he saved even ten tzaddikim—and now Moshiach came and we’re ready לעשות נקמה בגוים. We’re judging all the goyim and this goy is brought to judgment. What will they do with him? Let him off? They won’t let him off. No.
Suppose a man was a murderer. Will you let him off because he saved tzaddikim? The halachah is you have to kill a murderer. And therefore the oveid avodah zarah is chayav misah no matter what.
Only we understand that he is much better than another oveid avodah zarah. Where is the judgment that’s fair to that? In the Next World. In the Next World there is a difference. Hakadosh Baruch Hu will let him remain in the Next World and he’ll be a shoe shiner for the tzaddikim. As the tzaddikim are going to Har Habayis, oleh regel, this goy will be standing by the road and he’ll shine their shoes. A big zechiyah! He’ll shine their shoes.
But he has to be put to death because he’s a rasha. He’s an oveid avodah zarah.
So therefore both statements are true. But there’s a very big difference between a big rasha and a smaller rasha. And everybody should try to be as little a rasha as possible. Like it says אל תרשע הרבה – don’t be a big rasha (Koheles 7:17). So if a man is mechallel Shabbos with all thirty nine melachos and you persuade him to do only thirty eight melachos it’s a big thing. If he smokes ten cigarettes every Shabbos and you convince him to smoke only nine, it’s a big thing! אל תרשע הרבה.
(November 1985)
