Proverbs 14:34

"Charity exalts a nation but kindness is sin for peoples."

In BT Bava Basra 10b we read that Rabban Yochanan be Zakkai asked his students what this verse means. Why is kindness called a sin? What is the reason for the contrast between a singular nation and plural nations or peoples?

Image by E|...| via Flickr

Rabbi Eliezer answered that the singular nation is Israel alone. And while kindness may sometimes be shown by gentiles, when they discover that they do not receive the reward for it that motivated them they may regret the act.

It becomes clear that King Solomon is saying that, without the redeeming word of G-d, given as covenant to Israel alone, human beings are still under the sentence of death and even should they do acts of kindness all their acts are still judged as sin, for they are acts done by enemies of their Creator and by rebels against the true G-d.

Inverted World

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Rav Yosef the son of Rabbi Yehoshua took ill and slipped into a coma.

When he revived, his father asked him, "What did you see?"

He answered him, "I saw an inverted world. The uppermost are below and the lowly are above."

His father said, "You have seen a well-ordered world."
(BT Bava Basra 10b)

"For the first shall be last and the last shall be first." (Luke 13:30)

Commentary on The First Commandments

“I am G-d, your G-d, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods beside me.” (Exodus 20: 2-3)

"For the love of Mashiach controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all were dead; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised up again." (II Corinthians 5:14-15)

This "all" who were dead in the death of Adam for whom Mashiach died is Israel. And the death of Adam in which Israel was dead was its captivity in Egypt. That is to say that all t

Israel/Egypt border Image by chingers7 via Flickr

he nations lie in the darkness of Adam's death. So long as Israel remained in Egypt, whether bodily or in spirit, (as in the making of the golden calf), Israel remained in captivity to the power of death. But now Mashiach is come and has died for Israel by the commission of the God of Israel, through which he was sent to redeem her. Therefore let us believe in Israel's new life and with the power of the spirit of everlasting life let us hear and obey the God of Israel, who in union with His Mashiach has brought Israel out of the death of Egypt for time and eternity. For as he is raised from the dead so is Israel being raised from the dead.


Let us walk no longer in the idolatry of our own sight, judging ourselves one way and our fellow human beings another way. For when we judge others by our own experience and not by the Spirit of the God of Israel, we build up in the presence of the Savior of Israel the false god of our own mind, making our own intellect a judge and an god to lead us, even as Israel built the golden calf in the presence of the One who had saved her from the death of Egypt. But He is faithful to save us if we return to Him and walk in the truth of His sacrifice for Israel.