Parashat Yitro

SERMON   PARASHAT YITRO    February 6, 2026

Rabbi David Edleson   Temple Sinai  South Burlington, VT

Stranger in a Strange Land

This week’s Torah portion is Yitro, or Jethro, named after Moses’ father-in-law who comes to meet him in the Sinai wilderness after they leave Egypt.  Jethro and Moses seem very close.  They greet each other warmly and then they go have a long, honest conversation together in private.  Jethro is a mentor and confidant for Moses, someone on the outside that can give him honest advice. 

Jethro brings with him Moses’ wife and two sons.  One son is named Eliezer meaning “God is my help.”  The other son was named Gershom, which the Torah explains means “I was a stranger, ger,  in a foreign land.”

In the Hebrew of the Bible, the word ger means stranger, but a more accurate if not poetic translation would be “foreigner,” or “alien,” or “immigrant.” 

In Genesis, when Sara dies and Abraham goes to buy a place to bury her,  he starts by sharing his status saying “גֵּר־וְתוֹשָׁ֥ב אָנֹכִ֖י עִמָּכֶ֑ם”.  I am a resident alien among you.   (Genesis 23:4)

In next week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim, we read:

וְגֵ֥ר לֹא־תוֹנֶ֖ה וְלֹ֣א תִלְחָצֶ֑נּוּ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃ Ex 22:20

This is usually translated “You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,”  but a more accurate translation would be “You shall not wrong or oppress the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.” 

A “ger” in the biblical sense is someone who has come to live among you, who has become integrated into the local economy, and who has shown respect and participation in the culture in which they live.  For example, in the Torah, the “ger” is expected to keep the Sabbath, to make Passover offerings, and participate in the defense against outside armies.  

Such resident aliens are afforded the same rights and privileges as the citizen.  We are also told that what is left over in the fields is for  poor Israelites and aliens alike, and three times -in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers -  the Torah insists we must have one standard of justice for the alien and the citizen alike.  (Exodus 12:49; Leviticus 24:22, Numbers 15:15)

All of Jewish history as strangers in a strange land has deeply reinforced this idea. 

This is why, regardless of what we think American immigration policy should be, or should have been, and even if we believe undocument aliens should be deported, some of the tactics and treatment of citizens and aliens by ICE has hit something deep in the Jewish conscience.   It triggers trauma from our history, and it violates our deepest religious beliefs about what it means to be a human being made in the image of God. 

This is why the Reform Movement, the combined voices of the CCAR, the URJ and the AAC, have issued a strong statement against these violent and brutal tactics, and Temple Sinai has sent a letter to the editors of all the local papers.   I have put copies of both out on the table so you can pick up a copy if you are interested. 

          In Deuteronomy,  the culminating book of the Torah, we are told we must take our legal respect for the stranger one step further.  We are told that not only must we show legal fairness to the alien, we are told that we must love the stranger:

וַאֲהַבְתֶּ֖ם אֶת־הַגֵּ֑ר כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

You must love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

          This is perhaps the hardest of the mitzvot because as humans, we tend to fear or distrust the stranger, to blame the stranger for our problems, to forget our shared humanity.   For all of human history, rulers have used the stranger as the scapegoat to focus the anger of the people upon. 

Sometimes that “stranger” is an immigrant; too often it has been the Jew; sometimes it’s simply our neighbor who votes differently than we do.

Judaism takes the radical position that we can hold onto and value our distinctiveness, our ‘otherness,’ even celebrate it while at the same time insistent that all of us are one human family, and deserving of respect and fair treatment – even love.  

Shabbat Shalom