Here is a thread from my Covenant & Conversation essay on #Mishpatim called "Loving the Stranger". You can read it in full here: bit.ly/2MIzHwh & download the accompanying Family Edition here: bit.ly/2FZIQQv. #ShabbatShalom
It is terrifying in retrospect to grasp how seriously the Torah took the phenomenon of xenophobia, hatred of the stranger.
It is as if the Torah were saying with the utmost clarity: reason is insufficient. Sympathy is inadequate. Only the force of history and memory is strong enough to form a counterweight to hate.
The Torah asks, why should you not hate the stranger? Because you once stood where he stands now. You know the heart of the stranger because you were once a stranger in the land of Egypt. If you are human, so is he. If he is less than human, so are you.
You must fight the hatred in your heart as I once fought the greatest ruler and the strongest empire in the ancient world on your behalf. I made you into the world’s archetypal strangers so that you would fight for the rights of strangers – for your own and those of others…
…wherever they are, whoever they are, whatever the colour of their skin or the nature of their culture, because though they are not in your image, says God, they are nonetheless in Mine.
There is only one reply strong enough to answer the question: Why should I not hate the stranger? Because the stranger is me.
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