A Jewish View on Immigration

(1) Sarah’s lifetime—the span of Sarah’s life—came to one hundred and twenty-seven years. (2) Sarah died in Kiriath-arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan; and Abraham proceeded to mourn for Sarah and to bewail her. (3) Then Abraham rose from beside his dead, and spoke to the Hittites, saying, (4) “I am a resident alien among you; sell me a burial site among you, that I may remove my dead for burial.” (5) And the Hittites replied to Abraham, saying to him, (6) “Hear us, my lord: you are the elect of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of us will withhold his burial place from you for burying your dead.” (7) Thereupon Abraham bowed low to the people of the land, the Hittites, (8) and he said to them, “If it is your wish that I remove my dead for burial, you must agree to intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar.

(21) This land you shall divide for yourselves among the tribes of Israel. (22) You shall allot it as a heritage for yourselves and for the strangers who reside among you, who have begotten children among you. You shall treat them as Israelite citizens; they shall receive allotments along with you among the tribes of Israel. (23) You shall give the stranger an allotment within the tribe where he resides—declares the Lord GOD.

R. Joshua b. Levi also said: [The necessity for] the heifer whose neck is to be broken only arises only arises on account of the miserly of spirit, as it is said: 'Our hands have not shed this blood.' But can it enter our minds that the elders of a Court of Justice are murderers?! The meaning is, 'the man found dead] did not come to us for help and we dismissed him, we did not see him and let him go (--- i.e. he did not come to us for help and we dismissed him without supplying him with food, we did not see him and let him go without escort.) - Source and Translation from 'Shavuot Text Study: Judaism and Immigration Justice by Ben Greenberg

(4) No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the LORD; none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of the LORD, (5) because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey after you left Egypt, and because they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Aram-naharaim, to curse you.—

(Source quoted by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir at www.ou.org)

(5) על דבר may be translated BECAUSE OF THE WORD — i.e. because of the advice which they gave you in order to entice you into sin (Siphre).

(6) בדרך IN THE WAY — when you were in a state of exhaustion (Siphre).

(4) They pour a second cup [of wine] for him. And here the son questions his father...He begins [answering the questions] with [the account of Israel’s] shame and concludes with [Israel’s] glory, and expounds from “My father was a wandering Aramean” until he completes the whole passage.

(5) Rabban Gamliel used to say: Whoever does not mentioned these three things on Passover does not discharge his duty, and these are they: the Passover-offering, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs. [The] Passover-offering [is offered] because the Omnipresent One passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt. Unleavened bread [is eaten] because our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt. [The] bitter herb is [eaten] because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors in Egypt. In every generation a person must regard himself as though he personally had gone out of Egypt, as it is said: “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying: ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.’” Therefore it is our duty to thank, praise, laud, glorify, exalt, honor, bless, extol, and adore Him Who performed all these miracles for our ancestors and us; He brought us forth from bondage into freedom, from sorrow into joy, from mourning into festivity, from darkness into great light, and from servitude into redemption. Therefore let us say before Him, Hallelujah!