Letter to the Editor
A letter responding to a previous article on the concept of the ger (stranger/sojourner) in Jewish law, noting inconsistencies in the term's usage in the Torah, and discussing the inclusion of the ger in the Covenant as described in Deuteronomy 29, with reference to the work of scholars Krauss and Yehezkel Kaufmann.
It is easier to solve the contradictions, anomalies, and vague references if one deals with Scripture alone. When one [encounters the terms] ger tzedek and ger toshav, it is more difficult. Mr. Krauss provides many answers to puzzles which compel the Encyclopedia Talmudit, in its article on Ger, to admit that there is no consistency in the meaning of the word in the Torah. Sometimes it is ger tzedek and sometimes it is ger toshav.
What surprised me, however, was that, while Krauss does cite Deuteronomy 29 where Ger is mentioned along with the other categories of Israelites standing before the Lord in the last speech of Moses, he ignores the fact that, in this case, we have not only the question of including the “stranger” in certain mitzvot, such as the pourings on the altar, and even in the fasting on Yom Kippur, but actual inclusion in the Covenant in general. As Moses says: “levarekhu bivrit.” Krauss assumes that the ger is a non-Israelite, yet how odd that one who was not inducted into brit milah is included in the Covenant of which Moses spoke. What is the meaning of this inclusion?
Yehezkel Kaufmann in The Religion of Israel (Moshe Greenberg abridgement, page 301), solves the problem: “. . . it was believed that the gerim took part with Israel in the covenant when [the Lord] . . .”
Cite this article
. "Letter to the Editor." Jewish Bible Quarterly 37, no. 3 (July – September 2009): 205.
. "Letter to the Editor." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 37, no. 3, 2009, pp. 205.