For our Torah Talk this shabbat we’ll be reading texts from across Jewish history about our obligation to treat “the stranger” justly because we have been strangers and know their experience. Download the text study sheet.

כי גרים הייתם – כמו שמפורש לפנינו ואתם ידעתם את נפש הגר. כי גרים הייתם – ולפי שצרתו מרובה עונשו מרובה.

Due to your personal experience of such a status [being a stranger], you, better than anyone else, know that seeing that the oppression of strangers is a great wrong, the punishment for violating such a commandment is equally harsh.

Rashbam on Exodus Chapter 22:20 composed in Middle-Age France (c.1120 – c.1160 CE)