You shall faithfully observe all My laws and all My regulations, lest the land to which I bring you to settle in spew you out. You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. For it is because they did all these things that I abhorred them... You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine.

 (Vayikra 20:22,23,26)

 

The Election of Israel - a Moral Challenge with a Universal Goal

And I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine If you hold yourselves apart from them then you will be Mine, but if not, you belong to [become subject to] Nebuchadnezzar and others like him. Rabbi Eleazer ben Azariah said, "Whence do we know that one should not say, 'My soul loathes swine's flesh,' or 'I have no desire to wear clothes which are a mixture of wool and linen,' but one should say, 'I would , indeed, like them, but what can I do since my Father in heaven has imposed these decrees upon me?' Because Scripture states: I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine, which means that your separation from them should be for My sake - that one should keep aloof from sin and take upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven."

(Rashi on Vayikra 20:26, following Silbermann translation)

 

So that in no wise does Jewish thought look on the choice of Israel as a rejection of the rest of humanity. It regards the choice of Israel only as a beginning, only the restarting of the spiritual and moral rebuilding of Mankind, only the first step to that future where In that day many nations will attach themselves to the Lord and become My people, and I will dwell in your midst (Zechariah 2:15), where many nations will attach themselves to God, and become His people, and Israel's sanctuary will not only be the central heart of Israel but the center of Mankind who have found their way to God.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Vayikra 20: 26, following Levy translation)

 

This devar-Torah is presented in honor

of Eliasaf, son of Shelomit and Yossi Kanotopsky

and in honor of all his family upon his Bar-Mitzvah.

For you were strangers in the land of Egypt

Pinchas Leiser

The holiday of Pesah, the season of our liberation, ended a week ago, and it reminded us of the foundational experience of our exodus from bondage to freedom. Of course, that is not the Torah's only commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. We observe many different commandments which mention this great foundational event of our history. Indeed, the month of Nisan is the first of months - some say that the world itself was created in Nisan. It is also said that, "They were redeemed in Nisan, and their future redemption shall occur in Nisan." The Exodus from Egypt is commemorated in different contexts, and even towards different ends. In the parasha of Aharei Mot, we are warned not to commit practices such as those of the land of Egypt.

On the other hand, the phrase for you were strangers in the land of Egypt appears four times in the Torah, serving as a moral and psychological argument that must guide our treatment of the strangers among us.

In parashat Mishpatim, we read:

You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Shemot 22:20)

You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourself been strangers in the land of Egypt. (Shemot 23:9)

In our own parasha:

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I the Lord am your God. (Vayikra 19:33-34)

And in the book of Devarim:

For the Lord your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, providing him with food and clothing. You must love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Devarim 10:17-19)

Some exegetes explain that the stranger referred to by the Torah is a ger tzedek, a convert to Judaism. However, it is not necessary to accept this interpretation; in fact, it may make more sense to assume that these verses are talking about an alien who lives among us. After all, the second half of the verse, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt, must be understood in this way; we did not convert to the religion of ancient Egypt, rather, we lived as aliens there. In addition, the whole notion of conversion to Judaism as it is known to us was developed later in our history.

We, then, are commanded by the law of the Torah to treat the stranger fairly, not to deceive him, and even to love him. We must do this because it is incumbent upon us to walk in the ways of the Lord, Who does justice for the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. The Torah finds it necessary to take the opportunity to remind us that we were also strangers, and so we know the feelings of the stranger. Various commentators have related to this statement in different ways. The RaMBaN offers us a well-developed theory:

The correct interpretation appears to me to be that He is saying: "Do not wrong a stranger or oppress him, thinking as you might that none can deliver him out of your hand; for you know that you were strangers in the land of Egypt and I saw the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed (Shemot 3:9) you, and I avenged your cause on them, because I behold the tears of such who are oppressed and have no comforter, and on the side of their oppressors there is power (Kohellet 4:1) and I deliver each one from him that is too strong for him (Tehillim 35:10). Likewise you shall not afflict the widow and the fatherless child (Shemot 22: 21), for I will hear their cry, for all these people do not rely on themselves but trust in Me." And in another verse He added this reason: for you know the soul of a stranger, seeing that you were strangers in the land of Egypt (23:9). That is to say, you know that every stranger feels depressed, and is always sighing and crying, and his eyes are always directed towards God, therefore He will have mercy upon him even as He showed mercy to you, just as it is written, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage (2:23), meaning that He had mercy on them not because of their merits, but only on account of the bondage [and likewise He has mercy on all who are oppressed]. (RaMBaN on Shemot 22:20, Chavel translation)

The RaMBaN emphasizes that God will seek justice for every persecuted person, out of divine sympathy for the oppressed. On the other hand, Rabbi S. R. Hirsch contrasts Egypt's tribal morality with the Torah's universal ethic:

As aliens, you had no rights in Egypt; that was the root of the slavery and troubles which afflicted you. Therefore - such is the formulation of the warning - you must take care not to base human rights in your state upon any other foundation than pure humanity, which dwells in every human heart inasmuch as a person is human. Any neglect of human rights opens a door to arbitrariness and human persecution - which were the roots of Egypt's abominations. (Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Shemot 22:20)

These unambiguous words did not appear in a "Betselem" manifesto, nor in an advertisement of the Association for Civil Rights; they were written 150 years ago by one of Germany's great Torah leaders. They awaken wonder and enthusiasm; I would be happy to hear more statements like this from our contemporary rabbis.

Why, then, are such voices so rare today? Why do troubling phenomena of exploitation and discrimination against aliens occur in Israeli society?

There may be many reasons, but it might be that one source of our lack of moral sensitivity is connected - quite paradoxically - with the Jewish People's own experience of the Holocaust and persecution in many lands. One might understand - but perhaps not justify - a lack of openness in a victim who has difficulty shaking off his own identity of victimhood. We may have left the diaspora, but we have not removed the diaspora from within us, and we have failed to take full responsibility for what happens in our own society.

It should be noted that these commandments, which require fair and equal treatment of strangers, are part of the parasha Kedoshim tehiyu (You shall be holy). Holiness involves self-overcoming and restraint, but it can exist only in a society based upon justice.

Prof. Nehama Leibowitz, z"l, demonstrated that the expression fear of the Lord occurs in connection with the treatment of members of minority groups, of alien peoples, since, quite naturally, the stranger is weak and depends more upon the good graces of the regime than does a citizen who belongs to the majority group.

We should welcome the new awakening of social initiatives - involving rabbinical participation - which battle social injustice and discrimination. However, there is still room to raise up a great outcry against the humiliating treatment of the strangers among us, and for the situation to be redressed. These aspects of holiness and fear of God are always worthy of consideration, all the more so in the days between Yom HaShoah and Yom HaAtzma'ut.

Pinchas Leiser, editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

 

 

Do not hate your brother in your heart

Throughout Scripture, both hate and love are attributed to the soul, because they are independent of intellect and choice; rather, they are produced by the soul itself, as in the hated of David's soul (II Samuel 5:8), and tell me of he whom my soul loves (Shir HaShirim 1:7), etc. And a person has no control over that which is implanted in his soul, to change his love to hate or his hate to love. God did not command us to do the impossible; here the Torah only warns us of the hatred of the heart. The word heart is always used in connection with freely willed activity and the mind's judgment; it is forbidden for one to decide in his heart to hate him.

(R. Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio's commentary on Vayikra 19:17)

 

 When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him

One is also prohibited to wrong a stranger in the diaspora. The expression in your land appears in order to explicate the nature of this wrong: When you dwell in the land, which I have given to you as a possession, you might say, "It was given to us as an inheritance," and you will not be considerate of the stranger who dwells among you, since he has no part or portion in it. You will wrong him with words that humiliate and degrade him. Similarly, the expression to wrong is always used by Scripture to speak of the action of the powerful against the weak, those who benefit from the disadvantage of the weak.

(R. Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio's commentary on Vayikra 19:33)

 

The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you - Then and Today

Withholding the payment of wages demoralizes employer as well as employee. The employer loses sensitivity to the sin he is committing, so much so that one may hear justifications for such behavior, as if the employer has a right to "borrow credit" in this way in order to maintain his business. When an employee waits a long time to receive his wage, he feels as if his work goes unrewarded, and he will reach the conclusion that his efforts to support himself through his own labor are pointless. The original Jewish conception views the withholding of wages as being prohibited by the Torah. The Sages, who understood the matter deeply, compared it to a capital crime. The Gemara says: "You shall pay his wage on that very day... for he is poor and sets his soul upon it (Devarim24:15) - Why did he climb up the stool, hang on to the tree and risk death, if not to obtain his wage?...When anyone withholds a hired laborer's wage, it is as if he had taken his soul [i.e., life] from him" (Bava Metziya 112a).

(Moshe Unna z'l, a member of Kevutzat Sdeh Eliyahu,

formerly the Chairman of the Law and Justice Commmitee of the Kenesset,

as quoted by Prof. Nehama Leibowitz in her Iyyunim Hadashim BeSfer Vayikra, pg. 244)

 

Between Holocaust and Remembrance Day and Independence Day

The Holocaust as punishment? As a necessary stage towards redemption? Are we even capable of knowing?

Many very grave things have been said about the Holocaust in the past: some claimed that the Holocaust was an instrument, a kind of price which the Jewish People had to pay for the creation of the State of Israel. Some said that the State of Israel serves as a compensation for the Holocaust. Some also said that it was the only way to cause Jews, in fact to force Jews, to move to the Land of Israel. These are very grave statements, and it is difficult to listen to such things...

There is no achievement in the world and no blessing in the world that can serve as compensation for the burning of those myriad victims who never tasted of sin. Any talk about the State of Israel being created in its wake is confused talk. Neither the actual State of Israel, which must occasionally bleed for its continued existence, nor even the ideal State of Israel of each man under his grapevine and his fig tree can even begin to justify what the Jewish People went through during the years of the Holocaust.

(From Rabbi Yehudah Amital's article, Af al Pi SheMeitzeir U'Meimeir Li,

which appears in Moshe Maya's book, Olam Banuy VeHaruv U'Vanuy,

published by Sifriyat Hegyonot - Hotza'at Tevunot, of Mikhlelet Ya'akov Hertzog

by Yeshivat Har Etziyon - the book is warmly recommended.)

 

 

 

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