DEUT461 [This verse]. It is a mitzvah for us to love the one who enters under the wings of the Shechinah, undertaking to observe all the commands of the Torah. In 36 places the Torah cautions us to love the stranger, and not to mislead him even if only words were involved. God's love for them is greater than the love of Israel. Think of this parable: There are two men -- one loves the king, the other was beloved by the king. Who is greater? Is it not the one whom the king loves? Now the Israelites love the Holy One, and He loves the stranger, as it is written, "and He loves the stranger and gives him bread and raiment." Therefore, it is a mitzvah for us to love the one whom the king loves.... (R. Yehuda Hehasid (died 1217), Sefer Hassidim, p. 116.)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT462 See [[DEUT135]] Deuteronomy 4:37 loved OXFORD 40

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT464 See [[EXOD647]] Exodus 22:20 strangers AMEMEI 282

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT465 See [[EXOD873]] Exodus 23:9 stranger CCCBM 79

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT467 The spirit of philanthropy and consideration for others, which marks most of the provisions of the [Deuteronomic] Code, breathes also from the introductory sections of Deuteronomy. Characteristic of the entire book is the following application of the doctrine of God's impartial justice: "He doth execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the strangers; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:17-19). (Continued at [[GEN65]] Genesis 1:26 likeness COHON 207-8)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT469 While benevolence may be as universal as humanity; the Torah made benevolence a positive religious obligation. God himself "executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the strangers; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" (this and preceding verse). Philanthropy must mitigate the ills that grow out of social inequality and economic distress. As a phase of justice, its practice constitutes a duty both to God and man. What God desires of man, says the author of Isaiah 58, is not a fast of self-mortification, of gestures of woe and of humiliation but a fast which quickens the sense of tzedakah in its double aspect of justice and effective beneficence.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT466 See [[GEN1070]] Genesis 19:9 alien DUTIES 765-7

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT463 See [[DEUT454]] Deuteronomy 10:18 stranger ISAACS 35-6

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT468 What is the Torah telling us about morality? First, that it is universal. The Torah places God's covenant with Noah and through him all humanity prior to His particular covenant with Abraham and His later covenant with his descendants at Mount Sinai. Our universal humanity proceeds our religious differences. This may well be the single most important contribution of monotheism to civilisation. All societies, ancient and modern, have had some form of morality but by and large they concern only relations within the group. Hostility to strangers is almost universal in both the animal and human kingdoms. Between strangers, power rules. As the Athenians said to the Melians, "The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must." (Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 5.89) The idea that even the people not like us have rights, and that we should "love the stranger" [this verse], would have been considered utterly alien to most people at most times. It took the recognition that there is one God sovereign over all humanity ("Do we not all have one father? Did not one God create us?"; Mal. 2:10) to create the momentous breakthrough to the principle that there are moral universals, among them the sanctity of life, the pursuit of justice, and the rule of law. (Continued at [[GEN636]] Genesis 8:21 evil SACKS 13-14)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

DEUT471 See [[DEUT205]] Deuteronomy 6:5 heart DUTIES 13-15

SHOW FULL EXCERPT