Question:
How can we understand the Rashi at the end of Parshas Pinchas which says that the 70 parei hachag represents the Umos Haolam which will be destroyed. How can it be that innocent nations (like America) could ch”v fall? Especially, since we have nevuos in Yeshayah about the Umos Haolam, in the days of Moshiach, acknowledging and praising Hashem?
Answer:
The parei hachag were brought in regard to the overseeing angle “the sar” of the 70 nations. Besides the 70 parei hachag that were brought were for the 70 nations that were around before America existed, although America is from the descendants of those nations, “America” is not one of the 70 nations. Secondly, the parei hachag were brought as a protection for the nations, as the gemora says (Succah 55b), that if the nations would know how much they gained by the bringing of the parei hachag, they would never have destroyed the Bias Hamikdash.
Regarding the judgment of the nations l’asid l’avo. The gemora in the beginning of Sanhedrin talks at length, that l’asid lavo, H-shem will declare, that any nation that feels that it deserves reward should come forward and it will be given it’s just reward. America is definitely a “medina shel chesed” a merciful country, and every nation will get its just reward, but only H-shem knows how to pass judgment, and it isn’t for us to get involved.
Regarding the symbolization that he nation are diminishing, see Chazon Lamoed pg. 184, and others that explain the gemora that Rashi is quoting, that this that Umos Haolam are “misma’atim v’holchim”- decreasing, refers to the fact that now they are at their height and Yisroel is low, however l’asid lavo, they will go down and become subservient to Yisroel, which will be their tikkun, and their way of serving H-shem.
