THERE ARE COINS AND THERE ARE COINS
In this week’s Parsha, Mishpatim, the Torah states “Do not hurt the feelings of the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” The ‘stranger’ referred to in this verse is the convert. The person who was born to Italian parents who chose to become Jewish.
Why does the Torah not give a sharper reason “for you must be kind to strangers”. The implication is that one might feel justified for not being sensitive to the feelings of the stranger. What justification could there be?
The Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh explains that the neshama of the Jew comes from a higher spiritual source than that of his non-Jewish neighbor. It is for this reason that we have many more obligations and restrictions. There is nothing at all wrong for the non-Jew to eat beef that was not slaughtered properly whereas the Jew may not. The Jew is required to wash his hands according to the halachic specifications when he wakes up in the morning and his non-Jewish neighbor has no need to. The Jew’s neshama is more delicate and he must care for that sensitivity.
Much like the difference between rare coins and other coins. One must avoid touching rare coins with bare hands and he should certainly not throw them into his pocket to bang around with other coins. Rare coins must be handled with great care while ordinary coins require almost no care at all. The nature of finer material is that they have stricter requirements for their care. The Jewish neshama is certainly no different.
There is a natural lack of self confidence that most foreigners have. They feel that they do not belong and they see themselves as inferior in their new environment relative to their neighbors. This inferiority complex becomes com-pounded when they recognize that their neighbors’ neshama is superior to their own.
In truth, however, once our Italian friend converts and he enters into the covenant of HaShem by accepting His Torah and following the proper protocol he is now a complete Jew with the very same neshama as every other Jew. There is no difference whatsoever.
Perhaps we can shed a new insight on our verse. Let us rephrase the verse. “Do not allow the stranger to have bad feelings about his inferior neshama because you, too, were strangers in the land of Egypt”. The Torah is reminding us that the Jewish neshama which we have was accorded to us only after we ourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt. Egypt, explains the Ohr HaChaim, was a land which sullied the neshama of its inhabitants. When we were living in Egypt our neshamos were not on the refined neshamos that we currently have. It was only at Mount Sinai that we acquired this neshama. It was at Mount Sinai that we entered into the covenant of HaShem and accepted His Torah and followed the proper protocol that we received our Jewish neshama. There is no justification for any member of our people to feel that his neshama is superior to the neshama of the convert. We are all connected to the Source.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind