Listening Beyond Familiar Voices

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”— Deuteronomy 6:4

“You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”— Deuteronomy 10:19

We instinctively trust voices that sound like our own.

Most people listen most carefully to what feels familiar—people who share our background, our experiences, our assumptions, or our way of seeing the world. Familiarity creates comfort. Difference often creates caution.

The Torah moves in the opposite direction.

Again and again, Israel is reminded:

“You were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

“You were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

This memory carries responsibility.

The command to love the stranger is not presented as an abstract moral principle. It grows out of historical memory. Israel is told to remember what it felt like to be vulnerable, displaced, dependent, and without power.

Memory becomes the foundation for empathy.

People who remember being strangers are called to make room for strangers.

In the Torah, the stranger often lives without full security or belonging. The stranger exists at the edge of society and can easily be ignored, excluded, or mistreated.

The Torah repeatedly insists that such people must not be forgotten.

Listening becomes most difficult precisely where........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)