This week’s Torah portion introduces a primary value that undergirds Jewish ethics as well as a less noted specific strategy for conflict resolution. Classic rabbinic texts don’t speak as clearly on this subject as do three eloquent contemporary teachers: Rabbis Amy Eilberg, Marc Gopin, and Michael Strassfeld, neiroteihem ya’eeru (may they long continue to enlighten us). Their teachings provide insights into healing conflict at this time of fear and fracture.
Parshat Mishpatim imparts upon us the idea that our experience of oppression over centuries in Egyptian exile, according to our sacred history, must impact our behavior for all time. The two texts that express this value have a subtle difference between them: “You shall not wrong nor oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:20) and “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the inner life of the stranger (nefesh hager).” (Exodus 23:9) Is there a difference between them?
Noting that one or the other version appears 36 times in the Torah, we might conclude that this repetition proves its centrality. Someone may logically argue that this mitzvah is so challenging to human nature that it requires repetition. The experience of being othered in any form, whether as a minority or an immigrant, can either cause us to use our experience to identify with the oppressor or stand with the oppressed. Where we should stand is hinted at in another verse, “God will always seek out those being pursued/othered.” (Ecclesiastes 3:15)
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Rabbi Michael Strassfeld raises an interesting question in his weekly online commentary. While we are to remember that we were enslaved in Egypt every day, and we focus on that remembrance in the Passover seder, the Torah seems to put a greater emphasis on our experience as gerim (strangers) in contrast to avadim (enslaved people). Michael teaches:
Our text does not instruct us to free the enslaved because we were enslaved. It reminds us that we were strangers in the land of Egypt… I want to suggest that the foundation for social justice in Judaism is that we were strangers in Egypt. Our story is an example of how vulnerable to persecution strangers are. … No one alive has not experienced the alienation that comes from feeling like a stranger.
The Torah asks us not to take advantage of that vulnerability.
The texts in Mishpatim call on us to use the memory of being othered to identify with those with a similar status. Rather than reproducing the patterns of domination and subordination that the Jewish people experienced in ancient Egypt and throughout our history, we should create a society in which hierarchies of supremacy are absent.
But what about our relationships beyond the vulnerable members of our society, namely with those perceived to be our enemies? Parshat Mishpatim includes a mitzvah that is sometimes classified as avoiding pain to living non-human creatures (tsaar baalei chayyim), but it can also be applied to conflict resolution: “If you see the donkey of your enemy struggling with its burden and your instinct is not to help out, you must nevertheless assist him (your enemy) in adjusting the burden.” (Exodus 23:5)
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In his seminal work on religion’s role in conflict and conflict resolution, “Between Eden and Armageddon,” Rabbi Marc Gopin explicates this verse as illustrating one of several essential peacebuilding strategies. By performing this mitzvah, we create an experience of cognitive dissonance, causing our enemy to question the assumptions of conflict between us. He sees us as concerned not only about respecting his property — the previous verse in Exodus — but also that we are willing to work together to help both him and his struggling donkey.
This strategy is naturally more effective as an ongoing and consistent action. Many of us have participated through Rabbis for Human Rights in supporting Palestinians in the West Bank by replanting olive trees that have been uprooted, aiding in the olive harvest, protecting access to Palestinian-owned land, and rebuilding homes that have been destroyed as a result of discriminatory building policies. Aside from the humanitarian basis for these actions, we demonstrate that we follow traditional Jewish values such as kindness and concern for gerim, creating cognitive dissonance at first, but ultimately building trust and solidarity.
One of our most profound and practical teachers in this area of interpersonal and political peacebuilding is Rabbi Amy Eilberg. In the introduction to her powerful book of applied Musar teaching, “From Enemy to Friend,” Amy quotes two classical texts that exemplify and extend the teaching of Parshat Mishpatim in the areas we explored:
Who is the hero of heroes? One who makes an enemy into a friend. (Avot deRabbi Natan 23)
Return evil with good and your enemy will become a devoted friend. (Quran 41:34)
Rabbi Gerry Serotta has led a justice-rooted rabbinate for over 50 years. In addition to his roles as campus and congregational rabbi, he served as Chair of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (now T’ruah) between 2000-2008. He participated on the initial board which led to the creation of the Jewish Fund for Justice and also served on the boards of DC Jews United for Justice, The Shalom Center, and Tikkun Magazine.
On May 20, 2025, T’ruah will honor Rabbi Serotta with the Founder’s Award at the T’ruah gala. To purchase gala tickets or make a donation in Rabbi Serotta’s honor, click here.