בס”ד

WEEKDAY DAVENING INFORMATION Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday (2/8) (2/7) (2/6) (2/5) (2/4) (2/3) שבת פרשת משפטים SHABBAT PARSHAT MISHPATIM Earliest Talit 6:09 AM 6:08 AM 6:07 AM 6:06 AM 6:05 AM 6:04 AM 27 SHEVAT/FEBRUARY 2 Haftorah is Jeremiah 34:8-22 & 33:25-26. We Shacharit 8:15 AM 6:15 AM 6:00 AM 6:00 AM 6:15 AM 6:25 AM Gedolah 12:36 PM 12:36 PM 12:36 PM 12:37 PM 12:37 PM 12:37 PM .אב הרחמים bless Adar Rishon. Don’t say Mincha - Maariv 5:00 PM 5:10 PM FRIDAY NIGHT CANDLE LIGHTING - 4:55 PM Shkia 5:16 PM 5:17 PM 5:18 PM 5:20 PM 5:21 PM MINCHA - 5:00 PM Tzait 6:01 PM 6:02 PM 6:03 PM 6:05 PM 6:06 PM TZAIT - 5:58 PM Maariv Only 8:20 PM 8:20 PM 8:20 PM 8:20 PM SATURDAY HASHKAMA - 8:15 AM SHACHARIT MAIN - 9:00 AM Shabbat Oneg at the Greene home this Friday night, 40-19 Marie Ct., LAST KRIAT SHEMA - 9:38 AM at 8:00 PM. ’s topic: “What's Nava's Hebrew this year? MINCHA - 4:45 PM The Halachic Battleground of Adar 1 & Adar 2”. SHKIA - 5:15 PM SHABBAT ENDS - 6:00 PM Super Bowl Shabbat kiddish lunch is this Shabbat, February 2. ————— THANK YOU to Randi Spier for organizing this; to our cooks CONGREGATION AHAVAT ACHIM Lisa Brenenson, Evi Dworkis, Melanie Kwestel, Aliza & Richard 18-25 SADDLE RIVER ROAD Mayer, Chana Shestack, Randi Spier and Shelly Winchester; FAIR LAWN, NJ 07410-5909 and to our sponsors: Final Score and Winner ($180) - Kestler; 201-797-0502 3rd Quarter ($118) - Garfunkel and Spier; Halftime ($72) - WWW.AHAVATACHIM.ORG Bernstein, Brenenson, Greene, Plotnick, Wechsler, K&A Wigod and S. BULLETIN INFORMATION Wigod; 1st Qtr ($54) - Agress, Dworkis, Goldberg, Greenbaum/ TO REQUEST A BULLETIN Goldman, Joseph, Katter, Kor, Lewissohn, Mayer, Racenstein, ANNOUNCEMENT (BY 7:00 PM Riskin, Rojas, Santacruz, Sonnenblick & Winchester. WEDNESDAY) OR DEDICATE A BULLETIN FOR $36 ($54 W/PHOTO), is jointly sponsored by the Garfunkels EMAIL [email protected] for the Yahrzeit of David’s father Yehoshua Falik Ben and the Agresses for the Yahrzeit ע”הMoshe HaCohain ————— .ז”לof Stephen’s father HaRav Chaim ben Yehoshua

Mazel Tov to Esther & Chaim Felberbaum on the arrival of their Molad for Adar Rishon is Monday, Feb. 4, baby girl Tziporah. יגדלוה לתורה ולחופה ולמעשים טובים .PM & 15 Chalokim 11:57 .May they raise her to , marriage and good deeds ראש חדש אדר א׳ יהיה ּּביום שלישי ויום רביעי הבא עלינו ועל כל ישראל לטובה. Mazel Tov to Dina & Elliot Greene on the birth of a grandson to The shul is looking for a new person to Allison & Bryan Goldberg. יגדלוהו לתורה ולחופה ולמעשים טובים ויכניסוהו לבריתו בזמנו ובעתו .become Chair of the hospitality committee Speak to Aryeh or Arnie as soon as possible May they raise him to Torah, chupah and good deeds, and may to volunteer. he be entered into the covenant of Abraham.

Rabbi Ely Shestack President Aryeh Brenenson

1 Ahavat Achim Future Events ע”הKiddush Gita Cooperwasser Information Youth Program Feb. 3 to 10 - Diaper Drive To sponsor a Youth groups start at Feb. 6 - Special Membership Meeting Kiddush ($1000/$613/$318, plus 10:00 AM! Feb. 9 - Suedah Shlishit is sponsored by scotch) email Gail at Contact our Youth Director Fern & Oded Strich upon the conclusion ע”ה [email protected]. Aliza Kaplan to discuss our of shloshim for Adam Strich . If you are around when the Rabbi children’s youth Feb 10 - Lizard Guy Event, sponsored by your assistance in programming at Kira & Andrew Wigod ,”על המחיה“ says Feb. 15 - NCSY Friday Night Lights clean up would be appreciated. [email protected]. Feb. 15 - Kiddush is sponsored by Esther & Chaim Felberbaum in honor of their Adult Education Tot Shabbat baby girl Tziporah. 10:40 AM, with the Feb. 23 - Comedy Night starring Eli GEMARA - On Winter Shabbat reading often Lebowicz and Ari Ginsburg. Hiatus. featuring a surprise story teller. Mar. 1 - Friday night Oneg DAYTIME TORAH VOYAGES - Mar. 9 - Yachad/Yavneh Shabbaton Thursdays at 1:00 PM. Stay & Play May 4 - Dr. Avivah Zornberg Scholar in FUNDAMENTALS OF JEWISH Next together will Residence THOUGHT - After Kiddush. be in the spring on May 11 - Suedah Shlishit sponsored by Kira & Andrew Wigod in honor of PEREK ON THE LAWN, Pirkei April 6. See you then. Mental Health Awareness Month Avot Periodic Shiur. June 1 - 2nd Annual Baruch Crawl Teen Hashkama June 1 - Youth Taking Over Seudat Community Events Feb. 16 Shelishit in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, Feb. 2 - Escape Room Experience, Mar. 23 sponsored by Kira & Andrew Wigod working with friends to solve physical May 11 June 8 - Suedah Shlishit sponsored by Eli Ben ע”הpuzzles, riddles, and electronics and locks. June 22 Zezon in memory of Shlomo (שלמה בן אליהו - זזון נלב"ע ז סיון תשס”ד) Dinner will be served. Shomrei Torah, Eliyahu Sat night, at 7:30 PM. Cost is $45 per Pirkei Avot June 22 - Suedah Shlishit sponsored by person. RSVP to [email protected]. Eli Zezon in memory of Baroch ע”ה Teen Learning ברוך מפציר בן שמואל) Feb. 9 - An Evening of Song and Mafzir Ben Samuel (- נלב"ע כ"ד סיון תשנ”ט AM. For 10:40 Soul - A Musical Melave Malka, details contact Ben sushi and refreshments will be served. at [email protected]. Notice of Special Membership Meeting Anshei Lubavitch, Saturday night, at 8:00 A Special Membership meeting will be held PM. There is no charge for this event and on Wed., Feb. 6, 2018 at 8:35 PM following Maariv. The agenda is to vote on the reservations are not required. proposed hiring of a security guard for Shabbat morning and other high attendance occasions on an ongoing basis at the cost of approximately $15,000 per year, with the Points To Ponder expense to be covered by a Security Fee to be 1st - What does the Torah provide as a system in lieu of Aflac and Medical insurance? charged to all members of approximately 3rd - What reason does the Torah give for not mistreating a widow or orphan? $150/year. Expense and fee for the rest of 5th - What is the final law in the covenant of this week's parsha? What happens afterward? this fiscal year will be pro-rated. 7th - According the simple reading of the text - when do the Jewish people say "naaseh As provided in the Constitution, those v'nishma", we will do and we will heed. Is the pshat more or less significant than the ? physically unable to attend the meeting(s) may be allowed to vote by proxy in the

containing all the laws from this week's parsha. week's this from laws the all containing discretion of the President. Absentee ballots

7th - The Jewish people recite naaseh v'nishma after hearing Moshe read the book book the read Moshe hearing after v'nishma naaseh recite people Jewish The - 7th shall be permitted only for those members

consequences. who notify the President in writing, at least

5th - Not cooking a kid in its mother's milk. After that there is a statement of the the of statement a is there that After milk. mother's its in kid a cooking Not - 5th seven (7) days prior to the meeting that they

3rd - Hashem will heed their cry and get angry at the oppressor (v.22) (v.22) oppressor the at angry get and cry their heed will Hashem - 3rd will be unable to attend the meeting in

work and for his recovery (v.19) (v.19) recovery his for and work person: 1) because they will be outside of the

1st - The one who commits the damage is obligated to pay the injured for his time unable to to unable time his for injured the pay to obligated is damage the commits who one The - 1st New York Metropolitan area; or 2) due to an

Answers to Points To Ponder Ponder To Points to Answers unavoidable work-related conflict.

Shirley Vann has dedicated this week’s Covenant & Conversation (used with permission .ע”הof the Office of Rabbi Sacks) in memory of her beloved mother Necha bat Yitzchok 2 IN ADAR RISHON WE REMEMBER . . . HEBREW CANDLE EVENING NAME DATE OF DEDICATOR RELATIONSHIP Perry Leeb 1 February 5 Alice Banner/ Mother Jane Kirschenbaum

Osias Garfunkel 3 February 7 David Garfunkel Father Louis Tabatneck 6 February 10 Naomi Levine Husband's Cousin Charles Cooperwasser 10 February 14 Seymour Wigod Uncle Bert Vann 10 February 14 Avi Vann Father Pearl Iroff 10 February 14 Renee Freund Grandmother Elaine Goldstein 13 February 17 Mitchell Goldstein Mother Herman Klein 14 February 18 David Garfunkel Grandfather Morris N. Matkowsky 15 February 19 Charles Matkowsky Father Helen Garfunkel 16 February 20 David Garfunkel Grandmother Pearl Gelb 17 February 21 David Graber Cousin David Wigod 19 February 23 Seymour Wigod Uncle Doris Rotberg 21 February 25 Ellen Chass Mother Fred Diamond 22 February 26 Lisa Eis Father Morris Levine 22 February 26 Naomi Levine/ Father in Law/ Kenny Levine Grandfather Avraham Schaeffer 26 March 2 Mimi Weinraub Father Hebrew dates above are a reference to Adar (if the passing was in a non-leap year) or Adar I. Common practice for those that passed in Adar (during a non-leap year) is to observe the yahrtzeit in Adar I, but it is proper to say in Adar II as well, although other yahrtzeit practices sometimes undertaken (e.g., fasting, davening for the amud, lighting a candle, avoiding weddings, etc.) are not kept during Adar II except for those that actually passed in Adar II.

Social Hall ע”הSUPPORT YOUR SHUL David Schwitzer Scrip Please contact Ben Lang at Donate a Sefer, etc. Scrip is available from Men’s Club. Email [email protected] to book the David Social Hall for an event or ע”הThe shul has Siddurim & Machzorim ($36) David at [email protected]. Pay Schwitzer and Chumashim ($54) available to be using Paypal ([email protected]) special occasion. $250 per simcha donated. Please contact Jeff Safier at or use Discover, MasterCard or Visa - email (members)/$325 for Associates/$400 paid robynsafi[email protected] for details. [email protected] for details. in advance for non-members, plus the cost of any additional clean up (plus a $150 Yahrzeit Plaques Mishebayrach security/cleaning deposit refunded when Memorialize a loved one with a plaque for Contributions to the shul after a the social hall is returned in the condition it $300 (for members, or $450 for non- Mishebayrach can be via Paypal to started in). Private caterers must be members). We will endeavor to send you [email protected], or via approved in advance by the Rabbi. written notice of an upcoming yahrzeit, MasterCard, Visa or Discover by sending mention his or her name during the public info to Steve Winchester (contact him at Cards Yizkor and list the yahrzeit in the bulletin [email protected]). If b y check Want mitzvah cards, contact Eita Latkin at once a year. For more information, email indicate on its face “Aliyah Donation.” 791-8940 or [email protected]. Cost is Larry at [email protected]. $3 per card. Also can be ordered in bulk - Honoraria ten cards for $25, which you send out Men’s Club The available Honoraria list will be yourself privately. Please contact Elliot Greene at provided upon request by contacting Steven [email protected] to join the Plotnick at [email protected]. SUPPORT YOUR SHUL Men’s Club.

3 2nd Annual Comedy night featuring Eli Lebowicz MISCELLANEOUS & Ari Ginsburg is Saturday, Feb. 23, at 8:30 PM (doors open at 8:00 PM). Wine and cheese will be Ahavat Achim Membership/ served. Cost is $15 if RSVP is received by Friday, Hospitality February 22, or $20 at the door. RSVP to Contact Arnie at [email protected] for [email protected], and please consider being a membership details. For Shabbat hospitality sponsor for $100 (includes four reserved seats). Thank you to contact Melanie at [email protected]. our sponsors so far: Dina & Elliot Greene, Shelly & Steve Winchester and Randi & Arnie Spier. Bikkur Cholim/Chesed Committee Memorial Scrolls Trust is gathering holocaust-saved Sifrei Torah If someone needs a visit/assistance, contact loaned to various congregations, including to Ahavat Achim Sara at [email protected] or Mary over 40 years ago, at Reform Temple Emanu-El in New York Lisa at [email protected]. City, on Tue., Feb. 5, at 6:00PM. To attend or volunteer to transport our Torah, email Ben at [email protected]. Personal Announcements Various life cycle events related to members 1 in 3 U.S. families struggle or have struggled with are announced in the bulletin (e.g., births, the need for diapers. Please donate diapers by bar and bat , weddings and deaths, dropping them off at Ahavat Achim, as follows: as well as travel to/from Israel to study). We Sunday, Feb 3, 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM also welcome new members. Other Sunday, Feb 10, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM personal announcements are not Monday - Friday, during Shacharit or 7:00 - 9:00 PM (except on Shabbat). appropriate except as part of the bulletin’s Teen volunteers are needed, and this would be a great way to earn chesed dedication (a $36 cost - $54 with photo). hours for school. For additional info, e-mail [email protected]. Numbers & Info ERUV – To subscribe for updates, email Ahavat Achim Presents: [email protected]. Check status at The Lizard Guys https://groups.io/g/fairlawneruv or call You can help Ahavat Achim's finances and it won't cost 201-254-9190. youJoin a cent! us Just for make a yourfun regular show Amazon with purchases at lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs & bugs! https://smile.amazon.com/. After a one-time set up MIKVAH – 201-796-0350. At Shomrei Raffledesignating CongregationPhoto Booth Ahavat Achim of FairColoring Lawn Torah, 9 PM–10:30 PM, Motzei Shabbat as your preferred charity, nothing more to do except from 1¼ hours after Shabbat ends for 1½ make your regular Amazon purchases. hours. Kaylim Mikvah: Sun. 10 AM-3 PM • Sunday,Amazon February will donate 10, 0.5%2019 of 2-4 the PM price of your TWITTER: AhavatAchimFL eligible AmazonSmile18-25 purchases Saddle to Ahavat River Achim. Rd Fair Lawn, NJ 07410 FACEBOOK: facebook.com/groups/ ahavat.achim/ INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/ Price for Admission: Bring a diaper donation to be distributed by ahavatachimfl/?hl=en Jewish Family & Children's Services of Northern NJ FLICKR: flickr.com/photos/ ahavatachim/albums Can't make it, but still want to donate? e-mail [email protected] Shul Calendar RSVP to [email protected] for the chance to win a raffle prize! To add events to the shul calendar email Larry at [email protected]

Shirley Vann has dedicated this week’s Covenant & Conversation (used with permission .ע”הof the Office of Rabbi Sacks) in memory of her beloved mother Necha bat Yitzchok

4

בס״ד

CONGREGATION AHAVAT ACHIM’S ONEG SHABBAT LECTURE SERIES Will Continue on Friday, February 1st At the Home of Dina & Elliot Greene 40-19 Marie Court At 8:00 PM

The Rabbi’s Topic will be: What's Nava's Hebrew birthday this year? The halachic battleground of Adar1& Adar 2 Please join us for an enjoyable evening of learning with Rabbi Ely Shestack, friends, and refreshments.

The next (& Last) Oneg for this year will take place March 1st at the Shul.

Ahavat Achim Presents: The Lizard Guys

Join us for a fun show with lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs & bugs!

Raffle Photo Booth Coloring

Sunday, February 10, 2019 2-4 PM 18-25 Saddle River Rd Fair Lawn, NJ 07410

Price for Admission: Bring an unopened diaper donation to be distributed by Jewish Family & Children's Services of Northern NJ *sealed inner packs from a larger box are acceptable*

Can't make it, but still want to donate? e-mail [email protected]

RSVP to [email protected] for the chance to win a raffle prize! Community Diaper Drive at Congregation Ahavat Achim

1 in 3 U.S. families struggles with diaper need Benefiting families in need with Jewish Family & Children's Services of Northern NJ

Diapers must be in an unopened package, including inner packs from a larger box, as long as it is sealed Drop Off Diapers at Ahavat Achim 18-25 Saddle River Rd, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410 February 3-10, 2019 Sunday, Feb 3 8-9 AM Sunday, Feb 10 2-4 PM Monday-Friday 6:15-7AM Monday-Thursday 7-9 PM Or e-mail [email protected] to arrange another time

בס"ד

מִּשְׁ פָּטִ ים תשע”ט Mishpatim 5779

COVENANT & CONVERSATION: FAMILY EDITION Covenant & Conversation: Family Edition is a new and exciting accompaniment to Rabbi Sacks’ weekly Covenant & Conversation essay, aimed at connecting older children and teenagers with his ideas and thoughts on the parsha. To download the accompanying Family Edition to this Covenant & Conversation essay, please visit www.RabbiSacks.org/CCFamilyEdition or subscribe toRabbi Sacks’ free mailing list via www.RabbiSacks.org/Subscribe.

Loving the Stranger

There are commands that leap off the page by their sheer moral power. So it is in the case of the social legislation in Mishpatim. Amid the complex laws relating to the treatment of slaves, personal injury and property, one command in particular stands out, by virtue of its repetition (it appears twice in our parsha), and the historical-psychological reasoning that lies behind it:

Do not ill-treat a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in Egypt. (Exodus 22:20)

Do not oppress a stranger; you yourselves know how it feels to be a stranger [literally, “you know the soul of a stranger”], because you were strangers in Egypt. (Ex. 23:9)

Mishpatim contains many laws of social justice – against taking advantage of a widow or orphan, for example, or charging interest on a loan to a fellow member of the covenantal community, against bribery and injustice, and so on. The first and last of these laws, however, is the repeated command against harming a ger, a “stranger.” Clearly something fundamental is at stake in the Torah’s vision of a just and gracious social order.

If a person was a son of proselytes, one must not taunt him by saying, “Remember the deeds of your ancestors,” because it is written “Do not ill-treat a stranger or oppress him.”

The Sages noted the repeated emphasis on the stranger in biblical law. According to Rabbi Eliezer, the Torah “warns against the wronging of a ger in thirty-six places; others say, in forty-six places.”1

Whatever the precise number, the repetition throughout the Mosaic books is remarkable. Sometimes the stranger is mentioned along with the poor; at others, with the widow and orphan. On several occasions the Torah specifies: “You shall have the same law for the stranger as for the native-born.”2 Not only must the

1 Bava Metzia 59b.

2 Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22; Numbers 15:16, 29.

Loving the Stranger 1 Mishpatim 5779 stranger not be wronged; he or she must be included in the positive welfare provisions of Israelite/ Jewish society. But the law goes beyond this; the stranger must be loved:

When a stranger lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The stranger living with you must be treated as one of your native- born. Love him as yourself, for you were strangers in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Lev. 19:33–34)

This provision appears in the same chapter as the command, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Later, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses makes it clear that this is the attribute of God Himself:

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are strangers, for you yourselves were strangers in Egypt. (Deut. 10:17–19)

What is the logic of the command? The most profound commentary is that given by Nachmanides:

The correct interpretation appears to me to be that He is saying: do not wrong a stranger or oppress him, thinking as you might that none can deliver him out of your hand; for you know that you were strangers in the land of Egypt and I saw the oppression with which the Egyptian oppressed you, and I avenged your cause on them, because I behold the tears of such who are oppressed and have no comforter…Likewise you shall not afflict the widow and the orphan for I will hear their cry, for all these people do not rely upon themselves but trust in Me.

And in another verse he added this reason: for you know what it feels like to be a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. That is to say, you know that every stranger feels depressed, and is always sighing and crying, and his eyes are always directed towards God, therefore He will have mercy upon him even as He showed mercy to you [and likewise He has mercy on all who are oppressed].3

According to Nachmanides the command has two dimensions. The first is the relative powerlessness of the stranger. He or she is not surrounded by family, friends, neighbours, a community of those ready to come to their defence. Therefore the Torah warns against wronging them because God has made Himself protector of those who have no one else to protect them. This is the political dimension of the command. The second reason, as we have already noted, is the psychological vulnerability of the stranger (we recall Moses’ own words at the birth of his first son, while he was living among the Midianites: “I am a stranger in a strange land,” Ex. 2:22). The stranger is one who lives outside the normal securities of home and belonging. He or she is, or feels, alone – and, throughout the Torah, God is especially sensitive to the sigh of the oppressed, the feelings “God is especially sensitive to of the rejected, the cry of the unheard. That is the emotive the sigh of the oppressed, the dimension of the command. feelings of the rejected, the cry of the unheard.” Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar (Ohr HaChayim) adds a further fascinating insight. It may be, he says, that the very sanctity that feel as children of the covenant may lead them to look down on those who lack a similar lineage. Therefore they are commanded

3 Ramban, commentary to Exodus 22:22.

Loving the Stranger 2 Mishpatim 5779 not to feel superior to the ger, but instead to remember the degradation their ancestors experienced in Egypt.4 As such, it becomes a command of humility in the face of strangers.

Whichever way we look at it, there is something striking about this almost endlessly iterated concern for the stranger – together with the historical reminder that “you yourselves were slaves in Egypt.” It is as if, in this series of laws, we are nearing the core of the mystery of Jewish existence itself. What is the Torah implying?

Concern for social justice was not unique to Israel.5 What we sense, however, throughout the early biblical narrative, is the lack of basic rights to which outsiders could appeal. Not by accident is the fate of Sodom and the cities of the plain sealed when they attempt to assault Lot’s two visitors. Nor can we fail to feel the risk to which Abraham and Isaac believe they are exposed when they are forced to leave home and take refuge in Egypt or the land of the Philistines. In each of the three episodes (Genesis chapters 12, 20, 26) they are convinced that “In this series of laws, we their lives are at stake; that they may be murdered so that their are nearing the core of wives can be taken into the royal harem. the mystery of Jewish existence itself.” There are also repeated implications, in the course of the Joseph story, that in Egypt, Israelites were regarded as pariahs (the word “Hebrew,” like the term hapiru found in the non-Israelite literature of the period, seems to have a strong negative connotation). One verse in particular – when the brothers visit Joseph a second time – indicates the distaste with which they were regarded:

They served him [ Joseph] by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians. (Gen. 43:32)

So it was, in the ancient world. Hatred of the foreigner is the oldest of passions, going back to tribalism and the prehistory of civilisation. The Greeks called strangers “barbarians” because of their (as it seemed to them) outlandish speech that sounded like the bleating of sheep.6 The Romans were equally dismissive of non-Hellenistic races. The pages of history are stained with blood spilled in the name of racial or ethnic conflict. It was precisely this to which the Enlightenment, the new “age of reason,” promised an end. It did not happen. In 1789, in revolutionary France, as the Rights of Man were being pronounced, riots broke out against the Jewish community in Alsace. Hatred against English and German immigrant workers persisted throughout the nineteenth century. In 1881 in Marseilles a crowd of ten thousand went on a rampage attacking Italians and their property. Dislike of the unlike is as old as mankind. This fact lies at the very heart of the Jewish experience. It is no coincidence that was born in two journeys away from the two greatest civilisations of the ancient world: Abraham’s from Mesopotamia, Moses’ and the Israelites’ from Pharaonic Egypt. The Torah is the world’s great protest against empires and imperialism. There are many dimensions to this protest. One dimension is the protest against the attempt to justify social hierarchy and the absolute power of rulers in the name of religion. Another is the subordination of the masses to the state – epitomised by the vast building projects, first of Babel, then of Egypt, and the enslavement they entailed. A third is the brutality of nations in the course of war (the subject of Amos’ oracles against the

4 Ohr HaĤayim, commentary to Exodus 22:20.

5 See Moshe Weinfeld, Social Justice in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1995).

6 The verb barbarízein in ancient Greek meant imitating the linguistic sounds non- Greeks made, or making grammatical errors in Greek.

Loving the Stranger 3 Mishpatim 5779 nations). Undoubtedly, though, the most serious offence – for the prophets as well as the Mosaic books – was the use of power against the powerless: the widow, the orphan and, above all, the stranger.

To be a is to be a stranger. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this was why Abraham was commanded to leave his land, home and father’s house; why, long before Joseph was born, Abraham was already told that his descendants would be strangers in a land not their own; why Moses had to suffer personal exile before assuming leadership of the people; why the Israelites underwent persecution before inheriting their own land; and why the Torah is so insistent that this experience – the retelling of the story on Passover, along with the never-forgotten taste of the bread of affliction and the bitter herbs of slavery – should become a permanent part of their collective memory.

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 “Why should I not I not hate the stranger? Because the stranger is me. hate the stranger? Because the stranger Shabbat Shalom is me.”

Loving the Stranger 4 Mishpatim 5779