Parashat Mishpatim

Many times, we can discern the importance of a paticular mitzvah (or Divine commandment) by counting the number of times it appears in the Torah. The commandment to care for the stranger appears thirty-six times. This is more than any other.

Questions for Discussion

1.)
How are we to treat the stranger, according to the Torah?
Does this differ with the way people treat them today. Why is that?

2.)
Read Exodus 22:20 and 23:9.
What is the reason given for treating the stranger well?
Why is Egypt mentioned here? Couldn't God have given just as good an example without mentioning it?

3.)
Early Rabbinic commentators taught that the word for stranger "ger" can also be translated as "convert." Is there any qualitative difference in the lessons drawn by each translation?

4.)
Do you think the commentators thought that by reminding the people that we all were slaves would ensure that all Jews would treat "the stranger" fairly?

Nehama Leibowitz, a modern commentator says that for "the enlightened," reminding them of our past may be enough. However, she says that these shameful, hurtful experiences do not ensure proper behavior. As proof she shows that people who have suffered abuse often tend to repeat the abuser's behaviour as a response to their own powerlessness. Some of those people cannot be reached by reason alone, and must be made to see that they will pay a high price for improper behavior. This is why at times God tells the people of the high price they will pay for breaking the commandments.

Nachmanides says that the reminder, "you were strangers in Egypt," shows which side God will take when oppression occurs. God will stand with the oppressed.

To Rashi, the oppressed will answer by reminding the oppressor of the hurtful past suffered by the Jewish people. In this way we will be shamed into proper behavior.

5.)
How does this commandment apply to the situation in Israel today?
Do the threats presented by certain Arab countries justify oppression?
If Israelis are exempted from this commandment, just who then is the stranger?

Some Jews say that the word ger should only be translated as convert, thus removing the commandment to remember totally from this discussion. Does this mean that we are to "remeber the convert, because you were converts in the land of Egypt?"