I'm in the fifth year of writing this blog now, can you believe it? Time sure does fly. And these days, when I sit down to write a blog post, I like to look back at previous years' installments of the same Torah portion (since we DO go around and around in a cycle; every year re-reading the same Five Books of Moses), to make sure I don't repeat myself. This week's Torah portion is Shelach-Lecha, and it contains the story of the 12 spies. Now, I'm not going to tell you about that story, because I wrote about it already... in each of the last three years! So if you're interested in three different perspectives on the same narrative, feel free to browse around my old posts.
This year, I'd like to shift our focus to something ELSE in our reading, namely the stranger in our midst. The Torah likes to talk about 'the stranger,' '
ha-ger'; either one who lives among you or just a passing
traveler. And it makes sense that the Torah would address this! We're given all these many laws, governing eating, praying, thinking, sacrificing, living - but to whom do they apply? Is it everyone living within our borders? Because presumably the Israelites are eventually going to conquer Canaan, and there will be non-Israelites living there (think, Arabs, Druze, and Palestinians in modern-day Israel...); so how much of this new law-stuff really applies to them? Or if a merchant on a business trip passes through on a weekend, does s/he have to abide by our laws of Shabbat and Kashrut? These are pretty fair questions, no? So what DOES the Torah say about all of this.
In the Book of Numbers, chapter 15, verses 14-16, we read: "And when, throughout the ages, a stranger who has taken up residence with you, or one who lives among you, would present a gift of pleasing odor to Adonai - as you do, so shall it be done by the rest of the congregation. There shall be one law for you and for the resident stranger; it shall be a law for all time throughout the ages. You and the stranger shall be alike before Adonai; the same ritual and the same rule shall apply to you and to the stranger who resides among you." And I purposely wrote out the whole quote for you, because I think it's significant that the same basic idea is repeated THREE times: You guys are the same! Don't treat non-Israelites any different. Don't keep one standard for Jews and one for non-Jews; don't discriminate between locals and foreigners; don't create a hierarchy within your community, where one person's donation/sacrifice/commitment is valued higher than another's. Don't do ANY of these things!!
Perhaps the reason we need to hear it repeated three times is because it's counter-intuitive. We LIKE to divide into categories, we like identifying an 'us' and a 'them.' It's human nature to create groupings,
and even to fear those who are different. So the Torah tries - desperately - to change our way of thinking. Whether it's the current State of Israel, the government here in the US, or even within our own Jewish communities; we struggle to implement this most essential of Biblical teachings: "You and the stranger shall be alike before Adonai." How can we make this our reality? And not just in society, but in our own minds and hearts as well; each one of us! Is there a way back, a chance that we can return to seeing everyone as equal, and to stop vilifying and demonizing 'the other' (whoever that 'other' may be)? We've got to keep trying, right? Eventually we're going to get it; I know the Torah certainly hopes so.
Maybe three times wasn't repetition enough?
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