One of the most striking features of the Torah is its emphasis on love of and vigilance towards the gear, the stranger.

Don't oppress a stranger. You yourselves know how it feels to be strangers because you were once strangers in Egypt.

For the Lord your God is God of Gods and Lord of Lords, the great, mighty and awesome God who

shows no partiality excepts no bribes.

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the stranger residing among

you, giving them food and clothing.

You are to love those who are strangers for you yourselves.

We're strangers in Egypt. The sages went so far as to say that the Torah commands us in only one place to love our neighbor,

but in 36 places to love the stranger.

What is the definition of a stranger?

Clearly the reference is to one who isn't Jewish by birth.

It could mean one of the original

inhabitants of the land of Canaan. It might mean one of the mixed multitude who left Egypt with

the Israelites, or it could mean a foreigner who's entered the land seeking safety or a livelihood.

Whatever the case, immense significance is attached to the way the Israelites

treat the stranger. That's what they were meant to have learned from their own experience of exile

and suffering in Egypt. There were strangers, they were oppressed, therefore they knew how it

feels to be a stranger. They were not to inflict on others what was once

inflicted on them. The sages held that the word gear might mean two things. One was

Gert-Sedek, a convert to Judaism, who had accepted all the commands and obligations. The other was

the Gertoshov, the resident alien,

who hadn't adopted the religion of Israel, but who lived in the land of Israel. Bahar spells out

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