“The Alien in Your Midst”

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The biblical term ger, or its compound form ger toshav, is generally rendered “resident alien.” Hence one might think that it always refers to a non-Israelite. However, this is not its meaning in Genesis and Exodus. Abraham declares to the residents of Hebron, “I am resident alien among you” (Genesis 23:4). Moses in Egypt also admits, “I have been a ger in a strange land” (Exodus 2:22; see Genesis 15:13). Indeed, from a divine perspective the people of Israel has the status of a ger on its own land: “For the land is Mine, and you are but aliens resident with Me” (Leviticus 25:23). Moreover, according to the testimony of the Psalmist, “I am only an alien in the land” (Psalm 119:19): all human beings are but tenants on the earth, charged with the responsibility “to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15).

How does the ger differ from other persons in our society? He is neither the Israelite native (Hebrew ‘ezrah) nor the foreigner (Hebrew nokhri). True, the ger is also of foreign origin, but there the distinction ends. The foreigner is either a visiting merchant or mercenary (see 2 Samuel 15:19); he is attached to his homeland and intends to return to it. The ger, on the other hand is a resident alien; he has uprooted himself (or has been uprooted) from his homeland and has taken permanent residence in the land of Israel.

By the same token, the historical ger must be distinguished from the ‘eved, the slave. He is a free person with the same civil rights as the Israelite. There is, however, one notable exception. The ger may not own landed inheritance (subsequently reversed by the prophets, see Ezekiel 47:21–23). In an agricultural economy, such as ancient Israel’s, this meant that the ger had to work for an Israelite farmer as a hired hand. Moreover, having severed his ties with his original home, he had no family to turn to for support. Thus, deprived of both land and family, he was generally poor, listed together with the Levite, the fatherless and the widow among the wards of society (see Deuteronomy 26:12) and exposed to exploitation and oppression (see Ezekiel 22:7).

To be sure, some resident aliens managed to become rich (Leviticus 25:47) and to achieve high social status: note the cases of Doeg the Edomite (1 Samuel 21:8), Zelek the Ammonite (2 Samuel 23:37), and Uriah the Hittite (2 Samuel 11:3)—all high officers in the royal court or army. However, though they totally assimilated into Israelite society, even to the point of being zealous worshipers of Israel’s God (a matter emphasized in the Doeg and Uriah accounts), they retained their ethnic label and were not reckoned as Israelites. The parade example is Ruth the Moabite. When she entered Israel’s land with her mother-in-law, Naomi, she declared herself a foreigner (Ruth 2:10). Eventually she became a resident alien, a ger, but not an Israelite. Even after her marriage to Boaz, an Israelite “of substance” (Ruth 2:1), she probably retained her alien status. In the long run, marriage was the only way the ger could become an Israelite: not the ger himself or herself, but only the progeny—of the third generation, according to the rigid scruples of Deuteronomy (23:2–9).

Let it be emphasized that in biblical times, religious conversion was not an option. Though the notion that one joins a people by adopting its faith is an Israelite invention (which to this day remains unique to Judaism, since nowhere else does conversion also convey nationhood), it is now clear that it was not a biblical experience but the creation of the following period. Thus when Ruth declares to Naomi, “Your people shall be my people, your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16), she was only fulfilling the law of cause and consequence: by casting her lot with the people of Israel, she automatically accepted the God of Israel. This “conversion,” however, did not make her an Israelite.

The implications of the biblical ger in the socio-political sphere are far reaching. Every nation (at least among the western democracies) has an equivalent status to the ger: the permanent resident. Such a person is granted the same rights and responsibilities as the citizen except the right to vote. The Torah, however, mandates for the ger more than equality under the law. The Torah first calls on Israel to remember the Egyptian experience: “You shall not oppress a ger, for you know the feelings of the ger, in having yourselves been gerim [plural] in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). How is one to empathize with him or her? The Torah then tells us: “You must befriend (va’ahavtem) the ger, for you were gerim in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19); “You shall love (ve’ahavta) him [the ger] as yourself for you were gerim in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34).

Each of the many uses of the term ger in the Bible is pregnant with consequences for our time. First, as the Psalmist reminds us, we are all gerim on God’s earth. The unprecedented concern over ecological matters proves that even 048nations have awakened to the biblical premise that we have no right to pollute the earth’s environment or squander its resources: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that it holds” (Psalm 24:1).

As Americans we are fully aware of the flood tide of Hispanic aliens pouring across our southern borders. To be true to the biblical command, we must “love” the gerim by reaching out to them, befriending them, admitting them into our hearts and lives.

For the State of Israel, the issue of the ger is critical. The situation there is the reverse of Genesis. Israel began as gerim in the land. Today the true gerim are the Israeli Arabs. They have thrown in their lot with the Jews of Israel, and according to recent polls, even if a Palestinian state is formed on Israel’s borders, they are determined to remain loyal citizens of the State of Israel.

From the perspective of the Torah, the treatment of the ger is frought with universal consequences. It is the acid test of democracy, it challenges the moral integrity of the human soul.

The biblical term ger, or its compound form ger toshav, is generally rendered “resident alien.” Hence one might think that it always refers to a non-Israelite. However, this is not its meaning in Genesis and Exodus. Abraham declares to the residents of Hebron, “I am resident alien among you” (Genesis 23:4). Moses in Egypt also admits, “I have been a ger in a strange land” (Exodus 2:22; see Genesis 15:13). Indeed, from a divine perspective the people of Israel has the status of a ger on its own land: “For the land is Mine, and you are but aliens […]