Kindness and Judgement must go together

This is something I saw over shabbos that I wanted to share:

The Torah explains why someone from Ammon and Moav cannot enter the Jewish nation with two reasons: First, they didn’t offer bread and water to us when we left Egypt. Second, they hired Bilaam to curse us.

Now, these two reasons are vastly different in their levels of severity. Cursing a nation into oblivion is much, much worse than not offering them food! Why are they said in that order? And why even include the reason about the not offering food? When convicting a man of murder, we don’t include that one time he didn’t stand up for his victim when he entered the room.

The answer to this reveals something basic, yet crucial, in G-d’s ways, the Torah’s ways, and how we are supposed to live as well. It is this: True and honest judgment, in its proper form, is built upon a foundation of kindness and sensitivity to others. When we try to implement any system of rules and guidelines that does not take into consideration any warmth or kindness, it is doomed for failure.

That is what Sedom tried to do. They forbade any type of charity or hospitality to be done, which in turn caused them to become the cruel, immoral nation that they became. But it started from a neutral source. They simply thought that allowing charity would cause the receivers to become lazy, and that it would increase theft, since people would expect the money of others to come to them. So it actually began from a good intent. But it was majorly flawed, because it lacked KINDNESS and WARMTH.

That is the lesson the torah is teaching us with the reasons given for Ammon and Moav’s unlawful entry into our nation. That because of their basic instinct to not show compassion or kindness to others, by not giving us bread and water on the road, they then, understandably, became corrupt enough to desire the termination of an innocent group of people.

This shows us how important it is, to G-d and the Torah, that we make our own personal justice systems built upon warmth, hospitality, and kindness. Only then will it endure and flourish.