“The human capacity to injure other people is very great precisely because our capacity to imagine other people is very small.”
Elaine Scarry
look down from heaven and see;
take note of that vine,
(כא) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יי אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה נְטֵ֤ה יָֽדְךָ֙ עַל־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וִ֥יהִי חֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם וְיָמֵ֖שׁ חֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ (כב) וַיֵּ֥ט מֹשֶׁ֛ה אֶת־יָד֖וֹ עַל־הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וַיְהִ֧י חֹֽשֶׁךְ־אֲפֵלָ֛ה בְּכָל־אֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם שְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת יָמִֽים׃ (כג) לֹֽא־רָא֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אָחִ֗יו וְלֹא־קָ֛מוּ אִ֥ישׁ מִתַּחְתָּ֖יו שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וּֽלְכָל־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל הָ֥יָה א֖וֹר בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָֽם׃
YHWH said to Moshe: Stretch out your hand over the heavens, and let there be darkness over the land of Egypt; they will feel the darkness! Moshe stretched out his hand over the heavens, and there was thick darkness throughout all the land of Egypt, for three days, a man could not see his brother, and a man could not arise from his spot, for three days. But for all the Children of Israel, there was light in their settlements.
וימש חושך ויסיר את החשך הטבעי של לילה. כי אמנם חשך הלילה הוא אויר מוכן לקבל האור, והוא חשוך בהעדר האור בלבד. אמנם זה החשך יהיה אויר בלתי מוכן לקבל האור לרוב עביו, ולא יפול עליו העדד האור בהיותו בלתי מוכן אליו, ולפיכך לא ראו איש את אחיו כי לא הספיק לזה אור נר ואבוקה:
They will feel the darkness: In general, darkness is not a substance that can be felt; it is merely the absence of light. That is why light has the ability to banish darkness. However, the darkness in Egypt was a separate entity; one that was tangible -the darkness was felt. Thus, no light was able to banish it.
Even Ha-Ezel:
A man could not see his brother, and a man could not arise from his spot, for three days: The greatest darkness is when a person does not see his fellow, and does not participate in the distress of others. "A man could not see his brother" ––they did not feel the other's distress. Their senses were dulled - "a man could not rise from his spot." This is what our Sages meant when they stated in Exodus Rabbah that "the darkness was as thick as a golden denar" (a certain coin). Running after the golden denar increases one's egocentrism, dulls his eyes, and makes it difficult for him to feel the distress of others.
Eshkol Ma'amarim:
And there was thick darkness throughout all the land of Egypt, for three days: If a person does not see his fellow, or does not want to see him, there is darkness in the world.
Chidushei HaRan Al HaTorah 2:1:1:
A man could not see his brother: The darkness increased until no one could see another person, so no two people partnered together due to the great difficulty, as the verse says "no one saw their brother." This is the result: when I do not feel the pain of my friend, I dull my senses--as the verse says "no one was able to arise from under it" which means that there is no overcoming it.
Questions For Discussion:
1. What are the embodiments of darkness that prevent people from seeing one another?
1. What does darkness that is so thick, it can be felt, look like? What does it feel like?
2. How can we be a light that pushes away darkness?
4. What does the world look like when we don't see one another? How do we feel when we think that others don't see us?
We Were Once Strangers Too!
Now when there sojourns with you a sojourner in your land, you are not to oppress him; treat him like a native-born (citizen) among you. The sojourner that sojourns with you; be-loving to him (as one) like yourself, for sojourners were you in the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your God!
LOVE HIM LIKE YOURSELF: The nations of the ancient world would only love their own people, and they would defraud other peoples because they saw them as despicable foreigners. Therefore, it says here, that you need to love him like yourself, and act toward him just as you would want. You should act towards him as you would want other people to act toward you if you were a foreigner. This is in accord with what is written several verses earlier (Leviticus 19:18): "Love your neighbor (re'ah) as yourself"
לא תונו Do not oppress him:— This implies oppress him with words (cf. Rashi on Exodus 22:20) — do not say to him, “Yesterday you were an idol worshipper, and now you come to study the Torah which was given from the mouth of the Almighty!” (Sifra; Bava Metzia 58b, 59b.)
A stranger, you are not to oppress: you yourselves know (well) the feelings of the sojourner, for sojourners were you in the land of Egypt.
(יט) וַאֲהַבְתֶּ֖ם אֶת־הַגֵּ֑ר כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
(19) You should love the stranger; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You are not to hate an Edomite, for he is your brother; you are not to hate an Egyptian, for you were a sojourner in his land.
לא תתעב אדמי Do not hate an Edomite wholeheartedly, although it would be proper for you to hate him because he came out against you with the sword (Numbers 20:18—20).
Questions for Discussion
1. Why do the ancient Israelites place so much emphasis on the stranger (there are 36 separate commandments regarding the stranger)?
1. When and where have you felt like a stranger?
3. What does love for the stranger look like in a culture where the word "stranger" has somewhat of a negative connotation (i.e. stranger danger)?
4. Why should we be commanded not to hate those who are seemingly are enemies?
5. How did the Israelites think about their own security in relation to the values of welcoming the stranger? Does their view translate into the modern day?
How Do We Show Ourselves as Refugees from Egypt?
בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים, שנאמר (שמות יג), והגדת לבנך ביום ההוא לאמר, בעבור זה עשה יי לי בצאתי ממצרים.
In every generation we must see (lirot) ourselves as though we have personally gone out of Egypt, as it is said: “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying: ‘It is because of what Adonai did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.’”
(ו) בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לְהַרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא בְּעַצְמוֹ יָצָא עַתָּה מִשִּׁעְבּוּד מִצְרַיִם
(6) In each and every generation, a man is required to show (l'harot) himself as though he himself went out now from the slavery of Egypt
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Faith in the Future, p.78:
The Hebrew Bible contains the great command, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18, #5), and
this has often been taken as the basis of biblical morality. But it is not: it is only part of it. The Jewish sages noted that on only one occasion does the Hebrew Bible command us to love our neighbour, but in thirty-seven places it commands us to love the stranger. Our neighbour is one we love because he is like ourselves. The stranger is one we are taught to love precisely because he is not like ourselves.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Loving the Stranger http://rabbisacks.org/covenant- conversation-5768-mishpatim-loving-the-stranger/
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 color of their skin or the nature of their culture, because though they are not in your image – says G-d – 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.
Another taught: "The holy blessed one said to the Torah: 'Let us make the human...' She [Torah] replied, 'This human will be short of days, full of conflict, and fall into the hands of sin. And even if you are patient with it, it will be as if it never came into the world.' God replied, 'Is it for naught that I am called 'slow to anger and full of compassion?' God gathered the dust [of the first human] from the four corners of the world - red, black, white and green. Red is the blood, black is the entrails and green for the body. Why from the four corners of the earth? So that if one comes from the east to the west and arrives at the end of her life as she neared departing from the world, the land will not say to her, "The dust of your body isn't mine. Go back to where you were created." Rather, every place a person goes, a part of them is from there and a part of them is returning there.
Until the End of Strangeness
"By harm she meant not only personal injury to the friend the lover the coworker the parent (the city the nation) but also the stranger; she meant particularly the stranger in all her or his difference, who, because we were strangers in Egypt, deserves special goodness for life or at least until the end of strangeness."
From Grace Paley, Midrash on Happiness
Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist.
On the Refugee Crisis by Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks
You would have to be less than human not to be moved by images of the refugee crisis threatening to overwhelm Europe: the scenes in Budapest, the 71 bodies found in the abandoned lorry in Austria, the 200 people drowned when their boat capsized off the coast in Libya and, most heartbreaking of all, the body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, lifeless on a Turkish shore: an image that will linger long in the mind as a symbol of a world gone mad.
This is the greatest humanitarian challenge faced by Europe in decades. Angela Merkel was not wrong when she said: “If Europe fails on the question of refugees, its close connection with universal civil rights will be destroyed.”...
...I used to think that the most important line in the Bible was “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Then I realised that it is easy to love your neighbour because he or she is usually quite like yourself. What is hard is to love the stranger, one whose colour, culture or creed is different from yours. That is why the command, “Love the stranger because you were once strangers”, resonates so often throughout the Bible. It is summoning us now... Wars that cannot be won by weapons can sometimes be won by the sheer power of acts of humanitarian generosity to inspire the young to choose the way of peace instead of holy war.
Based on the commentators' explanations, how would you translate ger?
Who today qualifies as a ger ("stranger") in America? What special obligations does that status create?
Who today qualifies as a ger ("stranger") in Israel? What special obligations does that status create?
Thinking about legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and refugees, which of them would be considered "strangers"?
שאלה לא"א הרא"ש ז"ל יהודי שרוצה ללכת לכפר לדור שם להרויח וא"ל אנשי אותו כפר קמפסדת לחיותינו ורוצים להרחיקו מעל גבולם. תשובה אין יכולין למנעו דלא קאמר תלמודא אלא אדם הדר בעיר הזאת ובא להעמיד רחיים או חנות במקום אחר ואינו שייך במס שלהם יכולין בני אותה העיר לעכב עליו אבל דבר פשוט הוא שאדם יכול לגור בכל מקום שירצה ואין בני העיר יכולין לעכב עליו וכי קנו אותו הראשונים בחזקה:
15. A question to my lord and father the Rosh: A Jew who wants to go to a town to live there to earn money. And the people of the town say, “You are decreasing our livelihood,” and wish to distance him from their border.
Answer: They cannot prevent them for the Talmud only talks about a person who lives in a different town and is coming to set up a mill or a store in a different place and they are not included in their tax, the citizens of that town can prevent them, but it is an obvious thing that a person can live wherever they want and the citizens of the town cannot prevent them. Did the original settlers acquire the land through legal purchase?