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Parshat Ekev
1998
People are Strange
Your Torah Navigator
A favorite line for those who are anxious to show the universal themes in the Torah is "So you are to love the sojourner?" The verse, according to this translation states that we?re supposed to love anyone who is temporary among us. The Hebrew word ger can also mean someone who has converted to Judaism. Much of rabbinic literature declares that the verse must be referring to newcomers and not sojourners. Read the verse both ways and see how the meaning changes.
Deuteronomy 10:19-21
19 So you are to love the sojourner, (newcomer) for sojourners (newcomers) were you in the land of Egypt;
20 Yhwh your God, you are to hold-in-awe, him you are to serve, to him you are to cling, by his name you are to swear!
21 He is your praise, he is your God, who did for you these great and awe-inspiring (acts) that your (own) eyes saw.
Your Torah Navigator
The translator defines the Hebrew word Ger as sojourner which would mean that anyone who is among you temporarily, you are obliged to love because you know what it is like, for all our families were strangers in Egypt. Similarly, we are to hold in awe the Holy One because we also have some fairly awesome shared experiences with Him.
It is interesting to note that this verse commands us to love the ger while God gets held-in-awe.
The rabbinic tradition understood that the word ger did not mean sojourner but one who had left a familiar community only to join one where they were not known. According to the rabbis, the ger referred to here, is the newcomer, not the sojourner.
If we define ger as the rabbis have, "for newcomers were you in the land of Egypt", are the rabbis saying that we, in Egypt settled there with the intent of belonging and becoming Egyptians, but our ancestral qualities made us easy targets, vulnerable new "Egyptians" to be exploited by the old guard, the in group?
In fact, the reason for the Egyptian experience is so that we may never say to a newcomer that we hold ourselves to be superior, because we all have the stigma of being new and not readily accepted. In other places in the Torah we are told not to oppress or defame the newcomer. Here, however, we are given a positive commandment to love.
One does not love another by refraining from exploiting her. Love here means that we must single them out for special treatment, just as their love of all things Jewish caused them to single us out and choose to leave their family traditions in order to join with us.
The rabbis could understand why such a commandment would we brought if ger meant newcomer, it was less clear why we would be obliged to do the same for someone who is just passing through.
Either way, the message is an empathic one. Both interpretations say that a sense of common vulnerability should evoke a feeling of love, not acceptance or tolerance, but love. In social situations, the newcomer or sojourner can either be made to feel that she is welcomed or she can be ignored. We are told by the verse that the fact we were once sojourners or newcomers should make us feel affection toward the new faces. We are obliged to get in touch with those feelings and project love on everyone who is feeling new, vulnerable and alone.
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