On Differences

On Differences

In his book Intolerance, Henrick Van Loon describes a primitive people who lived in a remote valley surrounded by treacherous mountains.  They had a belief that beyond their home, outside the valley, lived vile and dangerous evil spirits.  If anyone ventured beyond their homeland they would surely perish. 

Once a courageous villager made his way to the outer world.  After along time, he returned and reported what he had found.  When they heard what he had done, the villagers immediately put him to death for blasphemy.

The story has real implications for the way we approach those who voice dissent.  We do not put them to death but often we marginalize them.  We call them “misled” or “deranged” (poor thing!).

In our faith, we encourage questioning.  That is what the Talmudic tradition is all about.  Only by asking thoughtful questions do we arrive at new understanding and real personal  growth.  Here is an example.  In the Torah, it states, “Do not oppress the stranger because you were strangers in Egypt.”  Exodus 23:9

There are four named methods to interpreting any verse in the Torah.  Below they are applied to not oppressing the stranger.

The first is called “p’shat.”  “P’shat” is the obvious meaning of the text.   Exodus 23 indicates that we are not allowed to take people who are “not like us” and treat them as less than equals.  This is especially true where the “others” are a minority and already at a disadvantage, as we once were in Egypt.  Rashi adds that if we taunt the stranger they have every right to respond, “But weren’t you once just like me?”

Additionally, the Hebrew word for stranger is the same as convert.  The verse has the added meaning of respecting those who cast their lot with the Jewish people.  They must be accepted as any born Jew.

The second methodology is called, “remez,” hint.  Every Hebrew letter has a numerical equivalent (called gematria).  “Stranger” has the same value as “limb.”  What this comes to teach us is that a stranger is actually a part of us, a member of the same body.  Why would we hurt ourselves?

Author Naomi Remen describes speaking with a Holocaust survivor.  Here is what he says regarding strangers:  “I say to Him ‘God, is it ok to ‘luuf strangers?’  And God says to me, ‘Yitzak, vat is dis strangers?  You make strangers.  I don’t make strangers’.”

In other words, the word “stranger “is subjective and negative.  Nobody has to be a stranger unless we make them so.

Third is “drash.”  In explaining the verse in terms of “drash,” the rabbis note that the parsha in which this mitzvah comes is right after the one with the Ten Commandments and it begins with the conjunction “and.”  Therefore, they say, not oppressing the stranger is equal to any commandment given at Mt. Sinai.  This is a big mitzvah.

Finally, the last method of interpretation is called “sod,” or secret.  A prominent modern rabbi, Noach Weinberg, has made the observation that the motivating force for Jews is “program or pogrom.”  In other words, it takes a lot to shake us out of humdrum lifestyle.  We do not change easily.  Only when we are challenged do we open ourselves to real growth.  The “sod” of not oppressing the stranger is: When the day comes that the stranger will be one with us, we will be at the portals of the messianic era.

It may be said that arguments for the sake of heaven are the pathways to God.