Learning From The Bad To Do Good

As Jews, we have often found ourselves in positions of deference - leaving the slavery of Egypt, we were taught not to mistreat the stranger amongst us, because we were slaves in Egypt.  We might have been taught the lesson, “Do it to him, before he does it to you.”  But that is NOT the lesson of Torah.  BECAUSE we have been slaves, we must remember to help the less fortunate.  It is an interesting lesson, certainly not the assumed lesson.  It’s not turning the other cheek to your enemy, but it might be, as Amos Oz suggests in a recent interview with a German magazine, that we offer peace and statehood to The West Bank, and then infuse them with money and supplies.  Make it possible for the Palestinians of the West Bank to succeed, and then see if the Palestinians of Gaza rise up against Hamas…

Do good.  Sometimes it’s grey, and sometimes it’s complicated, but do good whenever possible.  Shabbat shalom!