el may be supported
in the Sabbatical year; so Ammon and Moab, which are near, must also be
subject to tithes for the poor, in order that the poor in Israel may be
supported in the Sabbatical year." R. Eleazar, the son of Azariah,
replied, "thou seekest to increase money, but thou only losest souls;
wouldest thou be the cause that heaven should neither send down dew nor
rain, as is said, 'Will a man rob God?' Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say,
Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."(782) R. Joshua
said, "Behold I will answer for my brother Tarphon, but not according to
the sense of his words--Egypt is a new arrangement, Babylon is an old
arrangement; the judgment before us is a new arrangement. Let the new
arrangement be judged from the new arrangement, but let not a new
arrangement be judged from an old arrangement. Egypt is an arrangement by
the elders (of the Sanhedrin), but Babylon is an arrangement by the
prophets--the judgment before us is an arrangement by the elders. Let
therefore the arrangement by the elders be judged from an arrangement by
the elders; but let not an arrangement by the elders be judged from an
arrangement by prophets." They voted and decided "that Ammon and Moab must
pay tithes for the poor in the Sabbatical year." When R. Jose, son of
Dormiskith, came to R. Eleazar at Lydda, he said to him, "what had you new
in the college to-day?" He answered, "they voted and decided that Ammon
and Moab must pay tithes in the Sabbatical year." R. Eleazar wept and
said, " 'The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and He will
show them His covenant.'(783) Go and tell them, be not anxious about your
vote, for I received it by tradition from Rabban Jochanan, the son of
Zachai, who heard it from his teacher, up to the decision of Moses from
Sinai, that Ammon and Moab must pay tithes to the poor, in the Sabbatical
year."

3. On that day came Judah, an Ammonitish proselyte, and stood before them
in the college. He said to them, "How am I to come into the congregation?"
Rabban Gamaliel said to him, "thou art forbidden." R. Joshua said to him,
"thou art allowed." Rabban Gamaliel said, "the Scripture says, 'An
Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD;
even to their tenth generation, etc.' "(784) To him said R. Joshua, "Are
then the Ammonites or Moabites still in their own land? Sennacherib, King
of Assyria, aforetime came up, and commingled the nations, as is said,