{"id":56137,"date":"2019-05-25T23:11:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T20:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=56137"},"modified":"2019-05-25T23:11:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-25T20:11:12","slug":"immigration-a-perspective-from-biblical-narrative-and-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/immigration-a-perspective-from-biblical-narrative-and-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration: A Perspective from Biblical Narrative and Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"56137","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56138,"related_cahpter":"226","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"As we count up to Shavuot we are excited to share new, exclusive content  from a collection of essays: \u201cGleanings: Reflections on Ruth\u201d edited by Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern of YU, published by Maggid\/Koren. We\u2019re grateful to be able to share selected excerpts from a wide array of writers, leading up to Shavuot and the reading of the Megillah.","content":"<p>Biblical legislation encompasses approximately thirty-six instances in which it explicitly applies a particular law to the stranger, the alien, the ger. Many of those instances relate to the nature of the civic duties of strangers, and of the duties of citizens and of the state toward them.<\/p>\n<p>But who exactly is this ger, this stranger whose rights and duties are being codified in the Torah?<\/p>\n<p>Jewish tradition always understood that the term \u201cger\u201d was in fact a multi-vocal term having two distinct meanings. On one hand, the term \u201cger\u201d was a reference to the non-Jewish resident alien in the Land of Israel, in contrast to its Jewish citizens. On the other hand, the term \u201cger\u201d appeared to be a reference to a non-Jew who had converted to Judaism and thereby became fully a member of Jewish society. The commonality of these two groups is not difficult to understand \u2013 they are all immigrants: some are geographic immigrants, the others are spiritual immigrants. It is striking that the Torah chooses to use the same word to describe both of those groups, as if reminding us that the vulnerabilities of the two groups in their disparate attempts to assimilate into a new and different world are ultimately quite similar. In the perception of the established \u201ccitizen,\u201d and in the newcomers\u2019 perception of themselves \u2013 they are strangers, immigrants from a different reality. It is in this spirit that I understand the brief comment of Rashi to Ex. 22:20: \u201cEvery use of the word \u2018ger\u2019 refers to a person who was not born in that country, but came from a different country to reside there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But how then was the application of the law to be determined? Could one argue that all of the Torah\u2019s legislation related to the ger was applicable to both categories of immigrants? The direction of Jewish understanding of these passages was that Revealed Oral Law had determined that some of these laws pertain solely to converts, others pertain solely to non-Jewish resident aliens, and yet others to both categories. While some of the attributions were clearly and unequivocally accepted in Jewish law, others were subject to intense debate and shifting consensus over the centuries\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Torah clearly desired to prevent immigrants from having to suffer varied forms of emotional abuse such as those described in the biblical narratives of Genesis \u2013 being demeaned verbally, being made to feel helpless in the defense of their persons, their families, and their property, being subjected to jealousy, suspicion, and hatred. It achieved those goals by its legislation which criminalized such conduct and even forbade the underlying destructive feelings. The Torah attempted to achieve these goals not only by threat of punishment for criminal vio\u00adlation, but by generating a powerful awareness that upholding these protections was itself a profound spiritual value \u2013 that in some signifi\u00adcant way it is precisely in the protection of the stranger that the most ultimate values of the divine will are achieved, that in the protection of \u00a0the stranger one can best fulfill the essence of what the Lord our God desires and requires of us for our own benefit.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55486,"id":55486,"title":"judges-ruth-gleanings3","filename":"judges-ruth-gleanings3.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/judges-ruth-gleanings3.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/struggles-storytelling-and-salvation\/judges-ruth-gleanings3\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"judges-ruth-gleanings3","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55288,"date":"2019-05-14 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The Days of the Judges\u2026","main_caption":"Immigration: A Perspective from Biblical Narrative and Law","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Counting up to the Book of Ruth","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":55486,"id":55486,"title":"judges-ruth-gleanings3","filename":"judges-ruth-gleanings3.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/judges-ruth-gleanings3.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/struggles-storytelling-and-salvation\/judges-ruth-gleanings3\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"judges-ruth-gleanings3","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55288,"date":"2019-05-14 13:26:00","modified":"2019-05-14 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