EXOD637 "You shall not abuse your fellowman" (Vayikra 25:17). The pasuk is referring to verbal abuse, as we have already prefaced (See paragraph 24). Our Sages said (Bava Metzia 58b), "If his fellowman is a repentant, you should not say to him, 'Remember your former deeds'; and if he is the son of proselytes, you should not say to him, 'Remember your forbear's deeds.'" This is what the pasuk says [this verse]: "You must not abuse the proselyte or persecute him"--"Do not abuse"[means] verbally, and "persecuted" [means] financially. The Torah admonishes us in several places regarding the abuse of the proselyte; the reason for this is that he has forgotten his people and his ancestral home and has come to take refuge under the wings of the Divine presence, similar to what the pasuk says, (Rus [Ruth] 2:11), "You left your father and mother in the land where you were born, and you went to a nation that you did not know." The pasuk also says (ibid., 12), "May your reward be complete from Hashem, the God of Yisrael, under Whose wings you have sought refuge." This is comparable to a deer that joins the flock, and once there, it lies together with the sheep, grazing with them; for he has forsaken a spacious meadow to dwell in constricted quarters (Midrash Tehillim 146).