DEUT1266 The Torah commands nations as well as individuals to be hospitable. Three thousand years before the American Supreme Court ruled that slaves who fled to freedom in the North should be forcibly returned to slavery (Dred Scott decision, 1857), the Torah commanded precisely the opposite [this and preceding verse]. In modern times, this ancient biblical law would seem to mandate granting political asylum (the ultimate act of hospitality) to those fleeing dictatorial and totalitarian regimes [In context, Maimonides understands this law as applying to a non-Hebrew slave of a Hebrew master who wishes to move to Israel (see "Laws of Slavery" 8:9–10). In Onkelos's translation of the Torah, he interprets the verse as referring to a non-Hebrew slave of a Gentile master who flees to Israel. While the Torah, written many thousands of years ago, obviously it did not offer specific legislation for a society such as the United States, it would seem that the ethical upshot of this verse, "You shall not turn over to his master a slave who seeks refuge with you from his master," would apply to a society such as ours, and certainly to the Jewish community in Israel.