Love the Stranger
The commandment to "therefore love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19) has particular relevance to recent events in the Druse village of Peki'in and how we might view them.
In order to explain what I mean, allow me to begin with a couple of personal memories.
My first visit to the Druse village of Peki'in occurred when I was about eleven years old. I was on a Bnei Akiva trip and the tour guide had one point of importance to make about the village: that there had been a continuous Jewish settlement in the village for almost two thousand years, ever since the Bar-Kochva period. One of the experiences that I guess many visitors never forget is eating one of Raya's paper-thin Druze pita with labbaneh. Many religious visitors stop there, because Raya, an elderly Druse woman, had a special connection with Margalit Zinati who insured that the preparation of the pita was done under supervision of the "Jew of Peki'in". I remember Raya instructing me to join her in stirring the fire, so there would be no doubt of "Pat Akum" (bread baked by a gentile).
About this blog Conservative Currents
Rabbi Avi Novis Deutsch of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary and Rabbis for Human Rights exegete examines Jewish matters.
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