Jul 30, 2026 · 52 min · 10 segments
Devoted exclusively to Chapter 10 of Hilkhot Avodah Zarah, this week we dive into the laws regarding Jewish sovereignty and its implications for our relationships with idolaters living in the Land of…
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So we can't make a covenant, a brit, the kind of covenant that we talk about very often with the seven nations.
It says in the Hebrew, and it's not quite translated into the English, the seven nations are, in order that we don't make with them peace, we don't make with them a settlement between them and us, and thereby allow them to worship idols, as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 7, absolutely the territory we're in in the Torah reading, don't make a covenant with them.
Rather, they have to come back from their idolatry, they have to renounce their religion, or we have to kill them.
So this is where we put them up to an ultimatum that says either you have to renounce your religion or you will die.
We're very familiar with all the stories of Christian persecution and Muslim persecution of Jewish communities, which say either you become like us or you die.
And it's probably quite worrying to see that our tradition tells us to do the same to other people.
But the key thing is what's not included in the English, which I think is criminal in this case, which is the Shiv'a Amimim, the seven nations, or a particular group of people.
But there are seven distinct nations that are named in the Torah as being the seven nations of Canaan.
And that's the Hivites and the Yevusites and the Girgashites, etc., And those are the people who we're talking about.
We're specifically talking about the historical encounter between the Jews and the Israelites who invaded the land of Israel and the seven nations of Canaanites who were living in the land of Israel during the invasion.
But the people who live in the land of Israel now, regardless of their religious background, are not the seven nations of Canaan.
So we can't make a covenant, a brit, the kind of covenant that we talk about very often with the seven nations.
It says in the Hebrew, and it's not quite translated into the English, the seven nations are, in order that we don't make with them peace, we don't make with them a settlement between them and us, and thereby allow them to worship idols, as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 7, absolutely the territory we're in in the Torah reading, don't make a covenant with them.
Rather, they have to come back from their idolatry, they have to renounce their religion, or we have to kill them.
So this is where we put them up to an ultimatum that says either you have to renounce your religion or you will die.
We're very familiar with all the stories of Christian persecution and Muslim persecution of Jewish communities, which say either you become like us or you die.
And it's probably quite worrying to see that our tradition tells us to do the same to other people.
But the key thing is what's not included in the English, which I think is criminal in this case, which is the Shiv'a Amimim, the seven nations, or a particular group of people.
But there are seven distinct nations that are named in the Torah as being the seven nations of Canaan.
And that's the Hivites and the Yevusites and the Girgashites, etc., And those are the people who we're talking about.
We're specifically talking about the historical encounter between the Jews and the Israelites who invaded the land of Israel and the seven nations of Canaanites who were living in the land of Israel during the invasion.
But the people who live in the land of Israel now, regardless of their religious background, are not the seven nations of Canaan.
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