The Stranger

 Mishpatim

Ex. 21:1 - 24:18

 

Précis: Having received the Ten Commandments (in the previous parasha), Moses now reveals ordinances (mishpatim) needed to implement a comprehensive system of laws. The first group of commandments (mitzvot) relate to the rights of servants (slaves), followed by rules about murder, crimes against parents, personal injury law, offenses against property, and bailment. A list of moral offenses follows, including seduction, witchcraft, sexual perversion, polytheism, and oppression of the “widow, the orphan, and the stranger among you.” The parasha also includes the command to observe a sabbatical year, the Shabbat, and then lists the requirements for the observance of the pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot). The command not to boil a kid in its mothers’ milk (a key proof text for the laws of kashrut) is mentioned, and at the conclusion of the parasha, we find a ceremony where the People, represented by Moses and 70 elders, have an encounter with the Divine Presence and accept the laws and the Covenant.

 

Ex. 22:20: “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

            How we treat strangers (“the other”) is repeated so often in the Torah that we might say that our tradition is fixated on how we treat them. The Talmud reminds us that the Torah tells us not to wrong the stranger at least 36 times. No other commandment is repeated as often.

            Perhaps this is because of Jewish history. Abraham was a stranger (a “resident alien”) when he settled in Canaan. Jacob spent much of his life with his uncle Laban, and died in Egypt. Joseph’s adult life is in Egypt. Moses and Joshua lead the people who were strangers in Egypt to a land of which they had no knowledge. History is replete with Jews viewed as “the stranger” in many lands during the times in which the Mishna and Talmud were written, and throughout the rest of our historical record.

            But to whom and to what does this verse apply? The Hebrew word for “stranger” in this verse is “ger” which can mean a convert (ger tzedek) or a resident alien (ger toshav). Many commentators refer to the first, more limited interpretation. But the author of Sefer Hahinukh, a 13th century Spanish commentary attributed to Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Barcelona, provides a source for the broader meaning: “The precept applies at all times and places . . . We should learn from this valuable precept to show compassion to anyone not in his (or her) hometown, far from friends, just as we observe that the Torah admonishes us to show compassion to all in need.” His belief was not limited to Jews or non-Jews, nor was it limited to those living legally or illegally in the land. Everyone deserves compassion. That’s to whom this commandment refers.

            What this mitzvah applies to has had a similarly diverse understanding among the commentators. The narrower interpretation posits that it should be understood in economic terms.

            But a broader interpretation suggests this also commands us to avoid all forms of abuse. Nahama Leibowitz points out:

            “[T]he memory of your own humiliation is by itself no guarantee that you will not oppress the stranger in your own country once you have gained independence and left it all behind you . . . On the contrary, how often do we find that the slave or exile who gains power and freedom, or anyone who harbors the memory of suffering to himself or his forebears, finds compensation for his former sufferings, by giving free rein to his tyrannical instincts, when he has the opportunity to lord it over others?” (Studies in Shemot, 384).

           How then are we to treat those who are “strangers” among us? This mitzvah commands us to respect them and afford them the dignity to which all humans are entitled. We are all made in God’s image.