Reference for Sanhedrin 206:18
מרחקת את הקרובים
It has been taught: R. Nathan said: From Gareb<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A town supposed to be the seat of Micah's image in Shiloh. [Gareb has been identified with Kirbat Gharaba, Horowitz, op. cit. p. 144.] ');"><sup>33</sup></span> to Shiloah is a distance of three mils, and the smoke of the altar<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'wood pile (on the altar).' ');"><sup>34</sup></span> and that of Micah's image intermingled. The ministering angels wished to thrust Micah away, but the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, 'Let him alone, because his bread is available for wayfarers.' And it was on this account<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Sc. Micah's image, which his neighbours permitted. ');"><sup>35</sup></span> that the people involved in the matter of the concubine at Gibeah<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Judges XIX. ');"><sup>36</sup></span> were punished.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Forty thousand of those who went to war against Benjamin being slain. ');"><sup>37</sup></span> For the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, 'Ye did not protest for My honour, yet ye protest for the honour of a woman.'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit. 'flesh and blood'. ');"><sup>38</sup></span> R. Johanan said on the authority of R. Jose b. Kisma: Of great [importance] is the mouthful [of food given to wayfarers], since it alienated two families from Israel, as it is written, [An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord] … Because they met you not with bread and water in the way, when ye come forth out of Egypt.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Deut. XXIII, 4f. ');"><sup>39</sup></span> R. Johanan, stating his own views, said: It alienates those who are near, and draws near those who are distant; it causes [God's] eyes to be averted from the wicked, and made the <i>Shechinah</i> to rest even on the prophets of Baal; and an unwitting offence in connection therewith is accounted as deliberate. 'It alienates those who are near,