By: Ezra Nadav

Series Summary: Part 1: Who Is the Stranger? A Modern Reflection

In this first part of a three-part series, we explore the Torah’s moral urgency around how we treat “the stranger”—a term that appears in at least six distinct commandments, all reminding us of our own history as outsiders in Egypt. But who is the stranger today?

This section reflects on two powerful calls from Exodus: not to oppress the stranger, and to remember the soul of the stranger. Drawing from both scripture and contemporary thinkers, it examines how exclusion—especially by those who were once excluded—can become a painful cycle, and how the Torah challenges us to break it.

Through memory and moral clarity, we are reminded that the stranger is not merely someone unknown or different, but someone sacred. To truly honour our history is to transform suffering into compassion—and to build a world where no one stands unseen.

The Torah provides at least six distinct commandments regarding how we should treat the stranger among us:

• “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:20).
• “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9).
• “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34).
• “You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19).
• “You shall not hate an Egyptian, for you were strangers in his land” (Deuteronomy 23:8).
• “Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore, do I enjoin you to observe this commandment” (Deuteronomy 24:22).

Who is the Stranger? A Modern Reflection

What is not always clear is how we, in modern times, define the term ‘stranger.’ In biblical times, the stranger was understood to be anyone who was not a Hebrew. But what does it mean today? Should this term be interpreted literally, applying only to non-Jews? Should it refer to anyone unfamiliar within a particular group or community? Or is it a broader, more fluid concept?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines stranger as: someone you do not know, someone not known or not familiar, someone who has never been in a particular place before (Cambridge Dictionary, 2025). This definition suggests that stranger holds the potential for a multitude of interpretations. A stranger may be someone of a different faith, culture, or ideology. It may be the newcomer, the outsider, or even someone within our own communities whom we fail to truly see.

The Cycle of Exclusion

“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 22:20)

Oppressed people have a knack for spotting others who have or are currently being oppressed. Perhaps this keen perception is due in part because they are often seen as outsiders within their community of origin, they have developed a sort of radar that alerts them to others who have experienced similar experiences (Sacks, 2002). Yet, there is this human impulse, even among the oppressed, to continue to perpetuate the ugly and harmful act of othering. It is especially evident when these communities temporarily forget that they too were once outsiders in an unfamiliar environment.

This cyclical nature of exclusion is one of history’s cruellest ironies. Those who have suffered exclusion, displacement, or marginalization often carry deep scars, scars that should foster empathy, but sometimes, instead, become boundaries drawn against others. Perhaps it is a form of self-preservation, a desire to reclaim dignity by securing a sense of belonging within a new hierarchy. Yet, when the formerly oppressed adopt the same mechanisms of exclusion that once harmed them, they risk severing the very connections that could lead to collective healing.

It is easy to forget, in moments of security or newfound power, the ache of being on the outside looking in. Memories of rejection blur, softened by time or hardened by resentment. But true justice, true liberation, demands a different response. It calls upon those who know the weight of being a stranger to transform their suffering into a radical hospitality, one that dismantles barriers instead of erecting them.

This is why the imperative in Exodus is so striking. It is not merely a call to kindness; it is a demand for moral clarity. It forces us to remember that our own freedom is bound up in how we treat those who stand where we once stood. To other the stranger is to betray our own history, to sever ourselves from the very empathy that makes us human. If we are to break the cycle, we must be willing to see the stranger not as a threat, but as a mirror, one that reflects our past struggles and invites us to build a future of inclusion rather than division.

Seeing the Soul of the Stranger

“You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)

The soul is of great worth. Torah teaches and the Sages help us to understand that each soul is a universe. Each soul is a universe, vast, complex, filled with infinite possibilities. To know the soul of the stranger is to recognize that their existence is not incidental or secondary, but as meaningful and expansive as our own. The Torah’s commandment is not just a reminder of shared experience but a call to deep spiritual and ethical responsibility: to see the stranger not as “other” but as sacred.

The Sages teach that when one saves a life, they save an entire world. If each soul contains a universe, then to disregard, dismiss, or oppress another is to diminish creation itself. This understanding shifts our perspective from mere tolerance to reverence, reverence for the story, the suffering, the joy, and the dignity carried within every person (Heschel, 1962).

Yet, knowing the soul of the stranger is more than intellectual recognition; it is an embodied wisdom. To have once been a stranger means to have carried the weight of loneliness, of uncertainty, of longing for acceptance. It means knowing what it feels like to be unseen or misunderstood. And so, the Torah’s command is not abstract, it is deeply personal. It insists that memory must be transformed into action, that we must be the refuge we once sought, the kindness we once needed.

To know the soul of the stranger is to refuse indifference. It is to acknowledge that the barriers we erect between “us” and “them” are illusions, that the divine spark burns equally within every human being. When we truly see the stranger, we affirm not only their worth but our own, recognizing that our moral and spiritual wholeness depends on how we welcome those at the margins.

Prelude to Part Two: Love, Friendship, and the Limits of Vengeance

If the first commandments asked us to remember the stranger and recognise their soul, the next take us deeper—into the terrain of the heart.

Part Two of this series explores the radical call to love the stranger, to befriend them, and even to reject hatred toward those who once caused harm. These commandments push us beyond empathy into action, beyond tolerance into transformation. They challenge us to see not just the stranger, but ourselves—and the divine—in the space between.

Shalom Aleichem

References and Bibliography

Primary Sources

The Torah:

Exodus 22:20 – “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Exodus 23:9 – “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Leviticus 19:34 – “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Deuteronomy 10:19 – “You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Deuteronomy 23:8 – “You shall not hate an Egyptian, for you were strangers in his land.”

Deuteronomy 24:22 – “Always remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore do I enjoin you to observe this commandment.”

Commentaries and Interpretations

Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a – “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if they saved an entire world.”

Rashi’s Commentary on Exodus and Leviticus – Insights on the treatment of the stranger.

Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings and Wars 10:12 – On the ethical treatment of strangers.

The Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) – “Do not judge your fellow until you have stood in their place.”

Academic and Theological Sources

Berman, J., 2008. Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heschel, A.J., 1962. The Prophets. New York: Harper & Row.

Sacks, J., 2002. The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations. London: Bloomsbury.

Greenberg, I., 2004. For the Sake of Heaven and Earth: The New Encounter Between Judaism and Christianity. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

Lexical and Dictionary Sources

Cambridge Dictionary, n.d. Definition of ‘stranger’. [online] Available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stranger> 3 March 2025.

Modern Ethical and Philosophical Reflections

Levinas, E., 1969. Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.

Nussbaum, M., 1986. The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.