A Selection From My Favorite Jewish Sources
Rabbi Mordechai Levin
Torah, Exodus 22:20-26
You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
You shall not ill-treat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat them, I will heed their outcry as soon as they cry out to Me, and My anger shall blaze forth and I will put you to the sword, and your own wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, do not act toward them as a creditor; exact no interest from them. If you take your neighbor’s garment in pledge, you must return it to him before the sun sets; it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his skin. In what else shall he sleep? Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.
Torah, Exodus 23:1-13
You must not carry false rumors; you shall not join hands with the guilty to act as a malicious witness:
You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong-you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty-nor shall you show deference to a poor man in his dispute.
When you encounter your enemy’s ox or ass wandering, you must take it back to him. When you see the ass of your enemy lying under its burden and would refrain from raising it, you must nevertheless raise it with him.
You shall not subvert the rights of your needy in their disputes.
Keep far from a false charge; do not bring death on those who are innocent and in the right, for I will not acquit the wrongdoer.
Do not take bribes, for bribes blind the clear-sighted and upset the pleas of those who are in the right.
You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.
Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow. Let the needy among your people eat of it, and what they leave let the wild beasts eat. You shall do the same with your vineyards and your olive groves.
Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor, in order that your ox and your ass may rest, and that your bondman and the stranger may be refreshed.
Be on guard concerning all that I have told you.
is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Munster, IN. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, and is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly. In 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City for his years of dedicated service to the Conservative movement and the Jewish community...