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Ask Rabbi Miller: Wouldn’t Onkelus Have Been Even Greater If He Had Been Born Jewish?

6/24/2016

 
Picture
From It Is Forever (#R12) 

Q: Why were such great personalities, like Onkelus, born gentiles, wouldn't they have been greater if they had been born Jews?

A: You could ask why wasn't Avraham Avinu born a Jew? Avraham was born a ben Noach, not a Jew. The answer is it was his test and he passed the test and that's what made Avraham great. 
​
It was the ten tests that Avraham passed that made him great. The great people who came to us from the outside, who came under the wings of the Shechina (Divine Presence), are especially beloved because of that. 

It was his test and he passed the test
In the Torah there's a special mitzvah to love a ger (convert), as the Rambam says “ahavas hager, sh’ba v’nichnas tachas kanfei hashechinah — he came and entered under the wings of the Shechinah.”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 mitzvah to love a ger: He came of his own, and that's what made Onkelus so great.

Onkelus had so many obstacles, he was born in a royal house. He was a nephew of the Domitian, Domitian the wicked man who was even a rasha in the eyes of his fellow Romans; surely he was an enemy of the Jews. And nevertheless Onkelus persisted in his ways. For him it was a benefit that he was given the opportunity of breaking through barriers and coming under the kanfei hashchinah.

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  • Home
  • Listen
    • Free audio and video
  • Members' Area
    • Membership
    • Read
    • Hashem >
      • Coming Close to Hashem
      • Fear of Hashem
      • Greatness of Hashem
      • Loving Hashem
      • Bitachon
      • Emunah
      • Hashem's Kindness
      • Know What to Answer
      • Olam Haba
      • Rebuke and Instruction
      • Suffering
      • Teshuva
    • Perfection >
      • Free Will
      • Greatness of Man
      • Happiness
      • Midos
      • Perfection
    • Torah and Mitzvos >
      • Mitzvos
      • Perek Chelek
      • Pirkei Avos
      • Shir Hashirim
      • Shmoneh Esreh
      • Torah
    • Shabbas and Yom Tov >
      • Chanuka
      • Exile (Tisha B'Av)
      • Pesach
      • Purim
      • Receiving the Torah (Shavuos)
      • Shabbas
    • Marriage and Parenting >
      • The Jewish Home
      • Marriage
      • Raising Children
    • Mussar >
      • Cheshbon Hanefesh
      • Chovos Halevavos
      • Mesilas Yesharim
      • Orchos Tzadikim
      • Shaarei Teshuva
      • Tomer Devorah
  • About/Contact
    • About Rabbi Avigdor Miller ztl >
      • Remembering Rabbi Avigdor Miller ztl
      • Rav Avigdor Miller, zt”l: Klal Yisrael's Rebbe
      • Hagaon Hatzaddik Harav Avigdor Miller
      • Who owns Rabbi Miller's work?