Once I had a
friend who was a Freemason. You know,
the Masons? The ‘secretive’ fraternal
order that has been plotting for centuries to take over the world? Or at least, which has been accused of
doing so. Sort of like we Jews
have. Maybe there’s a connection
there? Perhaps the Masons are one of the
Lost Tribes? But I digress…
So I was out with this friend. I knew nothing about the Masons, except that
they were more than a bit secretive about what they do when they get
together. And that their symbol was a
compass with the letter ‘G’ in the middle.
I’d seen the symbol on cars, and decorating rings. My friend wore such a ring.
My friend had an errand to run, one
that required a government clerk to go a bit out of his way: to give him permission to do a renovation to
his house. If I remember correctly, my
friend hadn’t had all the necessary studies done. On the way over, he fretted over whether he
was going to get what he needed from the clerk.
We arrived, we went into the office and we found the person
responsible. He took one look at my
friend’s Masonic ring, and quietly signed the permission. The clerk himself wore a Masonic ring.
Apart from thinking, sign me up! I
thought about the way that the clerk had reacted to my friend once it became
clear that they had a connection. Had I
needed a similar permission and it had been denied, I would have rebelled against
the favouritism shown my friend. I would
have protested, perhaps bitterly, about the unequal treatment. I would have complained to anyone who would
have listened, perhaps for a long time afterwards, about the ‘clannishness’ of
Masons and the very concept of giving favourable treatment to someone based on
some shared affiliation.
Years later, I became familiar with
the verse from Parashat Kedoshim, Leviticus 19:18: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I learned that ‘neighbour’ in this context
means one’s fellow Jew, not necessarily the family next door. It seemed to me that this smacks of
favouritism. Of the kind of clannishness
to which I would object if someone got superior treatment because of some other
affiliation, say being a Mason, that I didn’t share.
In this morning’s Torah reading from Parashat
Behar, in Leviticus 25:35-38, we read about a practical application of the
love we’re commanded to harbour towards our fellow Jew. First, it is important to note that when the
Torah commands us to ‘love,’ it does not mean love as an emotional connection. It is meant in the practical sense: to show a particular regard and commitment to
another person. In this case, we’re
commanded to help our fellow Jew who has come upon hard times. We’re to lend him money, food, whatever he
needs. We are not to distinguish between
the Jew-by-birth and the Jew-by-choice. But
implied, is that it is okay to distinguish between the Jew and the non-Jew. We are not told that we must show similar
charity towards gentiles. We are not to oppress
them, but we can make a buck off them.
If so, this means that clannishness is
okay. That is, the sort of clannishness
that any one of us might find objectionable should we see it used to treat us
less fair that someone else. It’s
okay to favour other Jews. Does that not
imply that it’s okay for others to practice favouritism? Say, for Masons, or Muslims, or ethnic Chinese
to favour their kinsmen? If it’s
okay, even prescribed, for Jews, wouldn’t it be only fair for others to be
similarly un-fair?
Maybe, or maybe not.
Yes, this special regard is commanded
with regard to one’s fellow Jew. To be
ready to help them in a time of financial distress by lending them what they
need without charging them interest. But
while this expression of filial loyalty is not specifically commanded vis-à-vis
the non-Jew, it doesn’t mean that it is not virtuous to extend charity to the
gentile as well. In Leviticus 19:34, we
are commanded regarding the stranger who swells in our land: You shall love the stranger – the foreigner
– as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. So in reality, we are taught that there is
one standard of behaviour toward the person in distress, whether that
person is a fellow Jew or not. The Torah
is not telling us that we can take advantage of a non-Jew in distress: rather, that we must treat them with
compassion as well.
I might add here that we have no
obligation to lend money for free to someone who has discretionary spending, or
investing in mind. This law is only with
regard to someone who has come upon hard times, and lacks basic needs. And it makes sense that, if their own poor
stewardship caused those hard times, then we might provide assistance in
kind. As an example, if a person likely
to go out and spend money on alcohol or drugs, complains that he hasn’t what to
eat, then it follows that we would give them food or a voucher redeemable only
for food, rather than put money in their hands.
This is only logical in a day and age when so many people are in trouble
because of various addictions.
So the main message from these verses
of Torah, is not the rendering of special treatment to Jews over others. Rather, it is compassion for those in distress. We are to look upon those in hard times as
our brothers, whether they are Jews or gentiles. We are not to separate ourselves from them, to
turn them from subjects of our concern to objects of our scorn. It does not mean that we should eschew making
a living when we transact business with one another. It simply means that with some people, our
transactions take on a different dimension than ‘just’ business.
In this way, we remind ourselves that,
as residents of the same city, as citizens of the same land, or as fellow human
beings, we are connected to all those whom we encounter. It is natural to gravitate toward those with
whom we share some obvious affiliation. But
at the end of the day, we are all connected.
Shabbat shalom.
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