The Ger, the Stranger And the Convert
WIESEL, ELIE
The Ger, the Stranger and the Convert ELIE WIESEL In the Bible a ger is the stranger who lives among Jews, meaning on Jewish land, in Jewish surroundings, in a Jewish atmosphere; but he has not...
...We must show them compassion, charity and love...
...but he has not adopted the Jewish faith although he has acquired Jewish customs, values and friends...
...Later, the Talmud says, Jewish exile had a similar motivation- While wandering through the world, driven^rom city to city, from village to village, the people of Israel disseminated God's words, God's truth Adapted from From the Kingdom of Memory by Ehe Wiesel Copyright 1990 by Elirion Associates, Inc Reprinted by permission of Summit Books/Simon & Schuster, Inc...
...Those of Shabbat, of holidays, of Yom Kippur—yes, he must fast on the Day of Atonement...
...And Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish explains why: We Jews accepted the law under duress, we had no choice—while the convert comes to God on his own The ger's position was so privileged in the Talmud that Moses objected...
...he is someone special...
...We may not remind him of his past—so as not to embarrass him Anyway, his past is now the same as ours...
...you shall love your fellow man...
...Thus, in talmudic literature, which discourages conversion, the ger as convert is generally praised and even exalted, honored and rewarded...
...One must be as charitable to the ger as to the Levite One must not reject the ger or cause him harm or loss or distress...
...Why compare him to the Levite' Why does he deserve such honor7 God uses the argument of the ger's purity of heart...
...And so he occupies a higher position than the born Jew There are things we may not do to him—or even say to him...
...He was frequently found in the good company of Levites, who rank just below priests...
...Above all, we must not make them fee/ like strangers...
...In Scripture, it develops into almost an obsession It is stressed again and again—persistently, endlessly—that we must love the ger...
...Furthermore, every ger may claim direct kinship with Abraham—the first convert, the father of all converts—whose greatest virtue was to expose other people to his faith The ger is even linked to the messiah, who, as the son of David, will be a descendant of a convert—Ruth Abraham's mission was to attract ger/m—thafs why he traveled so far and wandered so often...
...one must extend more assistance to him—or her—than to the average person...
...We assure him that on Passover eve, at the seder, he may declare—for all to hear-that his fathers and forefathers were slaves in Egypt...
...In other words: We must not treat others the way we have been treated...
...We go so far as to declare that our God favors him over us...
...The Midrash compares him and his wandering to a bottle of perfume- It must be shaken to spread its fragrance...
...What didn't I have to do to persuade the people of Israel to accept my law' I had to free them from bondage, feed them in the desert, protect them from their enemies, impress them with continuous miracles, one greater than the other, one more astonishing than the other—while the ger, the convert, didn't need all these signals— I didn't even call him, and yet he came...
...He is made into a superior person to whom nothing is denied We offer him not only a past—our own—but eternity as well...
...He must not feel left out...
...So much so that in time the term ger came to mean convert or proselyte, a ger tzedelc a just convert, or perhaps a convert to justice, someone who joins our people not lightheartedly, for superficial reasons, but out of conviction, out of belief that despite the suffering and persecutions, or because of them, Judaism is inspired by truth and embodies the supreme quest for justice...
...All the Jewish laws, with very few exceptions, apply to the ger...
...He is protected, perhaps overprotected, by the law He must be given special treatment, special attention, special consideration...
...and you shall love the ger, the stranger...
...and that, like all of us, he was freed by Moses, like all of us, he stood at Sinai and received God's word and law...
...The ger seems to have been a special person, endowed with all kinds of gifts...
...The ger can achieve what God chooses not to do: He—and he alone—can change his past...
...And we are told why: We have all been strangers in Egypt...
...Both ger and Levite enjoy exceptional privileges...
...one must make an effort to understand the ger and make him feel welcome, at home, one must love him—or her The term v'ahavta—and you shall love—is used three times in Scripture And you shall love your God with all your heart...
Vol. 16 • February 1991 • No. 1
