Reading Exodus with Leon Kass: Israel’s Obligations to the Stranger

Once a week for the next few months, Mosaic will be publishing brief excerpts of Leon R. Kass’s new book on Exodus, Founding God’s Nation. Curious about one of the foundational texts of the Jewish tradition? Read along with us. To see earlier excerpts, go here.

This week, Jewish communities all over the world begin their study of Exodus 21:1-24:18, a portion of the text named Mishpatim after its first significant Hebrew word. At the foot of Mount Sinai, Moses enumerates the civil laws that will govern the Israelites. The section ends with the Israelites’ ratification of the covenant, after which Moses ascends the mountain, disappears into mist, and remains there for forty days and forty nights.

One of the ordinances that the Israelites here accept commands them not to maltreat or oppress the stranger, “for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:20). Here, Kass unpacks the meaning of Israel’s duties toward the vulnerable stranger.