Love the stranger: Burg
Pic: Diego Mitelberg
Loving the stranger
Why does Moses ask his non-Jewish brother-in-law to accompany him to Israel?
There are hundreds of "smaller" stories in the Torah - short, hidden and often ignored. But they created the Israeli mythology we have today.
Conversion Crisis
By Shlomo Avineri
Moral obtuseness and heartlessness lead the way to Rabbinate's decisions on conversion
Four verses in Parshat Behaalotecha make up one such story, a story that should be ringing in the ears of today's rabbinic Judaism.
As Moses takes leave of his brother-in-law, Hovev ben Reuel the Midianite (some commentators say it was actually his father-in-law Yitro, the high priest of Midian), he says, "We are going to the place God has said 'I shall give it to you'."
And he (Moses) makes him an offer: "Come with us and we shall treat you well, for God has spoken of good for Israel."
The brother-in-law refuses politely: "I shall not go; only to my land and my family shall I go."
But Moses is stubborn, and continues to push: "Please do not leave us, for you know our encampments in the desert and you have been as eyes for us. And it shall be that if you come with us, then with the goodness with which God will benefit us, we will do well to you." (Numbers 10: 29-32)
We will deal a different time with Moses' personal life. We will ask ourselves the meaning of his intermarriage, not just outside the Jewish people and faith, but to the daughter of a Midianic priest!
We will take a different opportunity to explain who was this "black woman he took," what color was she exactly, and why Moses' immediate family objected to the whole thing.
And we will ask just what place that non-Jewish woman occupies in the formulation of the Torah and Jewish civilization.
But for now, we will stick to the near-forgotten parting of ways.
Debt of gratitude
Moses owes a debt of gratitude to his non-Jewish relatives. He appreciates their unique contribution to Jewish people's administrative setup. Yitro, and apparently his son, was an advisor who helped Moses through some of his toughest hours as a leader.
Moses apparently knows his nation, 12 tribes who know how to complain but aren't so great at administration. They need an outside culture, an ancient non-Jewish culture in order to govern the new state they are going to create. And he wants to continue the desert tradition in the Promised Land.
It could even be that Moses is afraid of the national isolation, of the ghetto walls going up around those who conquer the land. And he asks to open the nation up to outsiders by using non-Jews, who will be partners in the destiny of the Jewish people.
Moses and his relationship with the Torah's non-Jews should be a metaphor for today's Jews who reject the significance of dialogue.
Rashi speaks
I imagine very few synagogues, Torah classes or weekly newsletters stress the courageous remarks of Rashi (the 11th century French commentator Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki), the greatest of medieval Biblical commentators, who said Moses' stubbornness stemmed from the commandment to love the stranger.
This understanding completely turns the simple reading of the text on its head. On first glance, we read a verse suggesting Moses wanted to thank two people who had helped him by including them in the ultimate destiny of the Jewish people.
But the commentaries explain that, far from doing them a favor, Moses was merely fulfilling a Biblical command.
To all those scrawling graffiti about "transfer" and "expulsion", to all those who fantasize about "death to the Arabs": take a moment this Shabbat to think about one, simple question of faith: why does Moses, the greatest of all prophets, want so badly to bring yet another non-Jew into Israel? Why does he want to add to the nations that already lived here, if not in order to sharpen the Jewish people's sensitivity – the same nation that has sinned more than once by being overly stubborn and by acting with an arrogant lack of sensitivity.
