Jonathan Siegel: Parashat Emor

This week’s sedra, Parashat Emor, includes the verse

מִשְׁפָּט אֶחָד יִהְיֶה לָכֶם כַּגֵּר כָּאֶזְרָח יִהְיֶה כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם
(Vayikra 24:22)
You shall have one law for the stranger and for the citizen, for I am the Lord your God. 

This statement is a part of a series of statements throughout the Torah about the stranger—which in this Biblical context means a non-Israelite foreigner who resides with the Israelites. The Torah says that you should not wrong a stranger, that you should not oppress a stranger, that you should aid the poor even when they are a stranger; last week in Parashat Kedoshim we read that we should love the stranger as we love ourselves. Why? These verses often state why, saying, as they did in last week’s parasha:
כִּי גֵרִים הָיִיתֶם בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם
Because you were strangers in Egypt

But in the pasuk from this week, we get a different justification - כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם
Because I am the Lord your God.

Now this may not sound quite like a justification, but more of a stamp of authorit. In fact, in many other places in Vayikra when a law is stated, it is followed by ‘אֲנִי ה or אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם . But this here is a little different.

כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹקיכֶם
The word כִּי is added, which means “because”. This is the justification, the why. Rashi makes it clearer:  He says it means אֱלֹקי כֻּלְּכֶם , I am the God of ALL of you. Just as I attach my name to you, so do I attach it to the strangers.

We’re instructed to treat the stranger with equality under the law – not only because we empathize with them as a result of our own history, but also because in God’s eyes the stranger is equal to us. And, therefore, the only way to act holy with strangers is to treat them the same as we treat ourselves. 

I’ll conclude quoting the words of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zichrono livracha, who was writing at the time about xenophobia:

“The Torah asks, why should you not hate the stranger? Because you once stood where he stands now. You know the heart of the stranger because you were once a stranger in the land of Egypt. If you are human, so is he. If he is less than human, so are you. You must fight the hatred in your heart as I, God, once fought the greatest ruler and the strongest empire in the ancient world on your behalf. I made you into the world’s archetypal strangers so that you would fight for the rights of strangers – for your own and those of others, wherever they are, whoever they are, whatever the colour of their skin or the nature of their culture, because though they are not in your image, says God, they are nonetheless in Mine.”