Parshas Lech Lecha 5777

QUESTION:
 
Why were such great personalities like Unkolus born gentiles, wouldn't they have been greater if they would have been born Jews?
 
ANSWER:

You could ask, why wasn't Avrohom Avinu born a Jew? Avrohom was born a Ben Noach and not a Jew? The answer is, it was his test and he passed the test and that's what made Avrohom great. It was the asoro nisyonos, the ten tests that Avrohom passed that made him great. The great people who came to us from the outside, who came under the wings of the Shechina, are especially beloved because of that.

    There's a mitzva in the Torah to love a ger, there's a special mitzva of loving the ger. The Rambam says, ahavas ha'ger she'buh vi'nichnas tachas kanfei Hashechina, he came and entered under the wings of the Shechina. What's the Rambam telling us, what a ger is? We know what a ger is! The Rambam is telling us why it's a special mitzva to love a ger; he came on his own, and that's what made Unkolus so great. 

    Unkolus had so many obstacles. He was born in a royal house, he was a nephew of Domitian. Domitian, the wicked man who was even a rosho in the eyes of his fellow Romans, and surely he was the enemy of the Jews. 

    Nevertheless Unkolus persisted in his ways. Therefore it was for him a benefit that he was given the opportunity of breaking through the barriers and coming under the kanfei Ha'shechina.


Good Shabbos To All

This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210