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accusation that the talmud privileges Jews over non- Jews. Clearly cog-
nizant of this challenge, Moyal historicizes the choice of that line as
the fātiḥa (opening words) of Pirkei avot.^71 he insists that this opening
was selected “during a period of successive acts of oppression and per-
secution against the Israelite nation” because “it promises the grace of
another world to this world’s most oppressed people, those lacking in
all human rights [al- ḥuqūq al- bashariyya].” he is not content, however,
merely with historicizing the fātiḥa; he seeks to disprove the charge
that “the Israelite religion” claims “a monopoly on the blessing of the
world to come and eternal salvation.” On the contrary, Moyal insists,
“the Israelites have opened the gates of heaven to all of humanity as
long as they follow the ways of moral excellence and kindness.” after
all, he explains, this one talmudic line does not negate another that
says, as Moyal puts it: “anyone who has merit from among the nations
of the world has a share in the world to come.”^72 this statement, as
Moyal renders it, seems to be based on a line not from the talmud
but from the tosefta (Sanhedrin 13:2), and, more so perhaps, on Mai-
monides’s famous formulation ḥasidei umot ha- ʿolam yesh lahen ḥelek
le- ʿolam ha- ba (the righteous of the nations of the world have a share
in the world to come).^73 Just as Judaism does not discriminate against
gentiles in the world to come, Moyal seems to imply, Jews do not dis-
criminate against gentiles in this world.
Moyal emphasizes Jews’ obligation to treat all of humanity kindly
in his commentary on a line of Pirkei avot attributed to the sage hillel.
“Be of the disciples of aaron,” hillel is reported to have said, enumer-
ating the particular qualities he considered to be associated with the
priestly brother of the biblical Moses. One of the traits hillel ascribes
to aaron is “a lover of creatures.”^74 In his phrase- by- phrase discussion
of this mishnah, Moyal expounds on this line as follows: “ ‘a lover of
creatures’: not excluding foreigners (al- ajānib), for if this were not so,
then [hillel] would have said ‘a lover of your brethren’ or ‘a lover
of your countrymen [muwāṭinīka]’ as they say in those instances in
which they wish to specify [only] members of the Israelite nation.”^75
Moyal presents this egalitarian, nondiscriminatory perspective not as
(^71) the term fātiḥa, which Moyal uses here, has obvious qurʾanic resonance as the
name used for the first sura.
(^72) Mūyāl, at- Talmūd, 58– 59.
(^73) Maimonides uses this phrase several times in his writings; e.g., Hilkhot Teshuva
3:5/13, in Maimonides, Sefer mishneh torah, vol. 1. On this Maimonidean phrase, see
Nehorai, “Ḥasidei umot ha- ʿolam yesh la- hem ḥelek le- ʿolam ha- ba”; Korn, “Gentiles, the
World to Come, and Judaism.”
(^74) Moyal’s arabic translation renders this muḥibban li- l- khalq.
(^75) Mūyāl, at- Talmūd, 80.