“You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Here it says simply and absolutely, “for you were strangers,” your whole misfortune in Egypt was that you were strangers there. As such, according to the views of other nations, you had no right to be there, has no claim to rights of settlement, home, or property. Accordingly, you had no rights in appeal against unfair or unjust treatment. As aliens you were without any rights in Egypt, out of that grew all of your bondage and oppression, your slavery and wretchedness. Therefore beware, so runs the warning, from making rights in your own State conditional on anything other than on that simple humanity which every human being as such bears within. With any limitation in these human rights the gate is opened ot the whole horror of Egyptian mishandling of human beings. [Translation by Uri L’Tzedek. Original in German]
Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. According to Rav Hirsch, why are we commanded not to oppress or wrong a stranger?
2. How does stripping someone of their rights lead to bondage and oppression?
3. Can you think of examples of ways that we oppress strangers today? How does this affect the stranger? How does it affect the oppressor?
Time Period: Modern (Spinoza through post-WWII)