Knowledge is Power - G-dly Knowledge is SUPER POWER.
The Talmud says, “A person who does not own (have the rights to) land (to build on it a home) is not (considered) a complete human being.”
Human existence is defined and complete, by the land and the home in which we live.
Giving charity and being kind is as well an essential expression of our character and humanity. The Prophet Micha tells us, “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord demands of you; but to do justice, to love loving-kindness, and to walk discreetly with your God.” This is what defines our unique character traits as people of the book, and as G-ds people.
Although it is a Mitzvah and proper to help others, to give charity, one of the decrees our sages enacted is that a person (on a regular basis) should not give more than a fifth of his possession to charity, otherwise he might become himself a charity case.
Maimonides writes, “this is not piety but foolishness ….we should not have mercy on him. People of this sort and similar ones, our sages have said, “A pious fool is included in those who destroy this world.”
In the same way that it is essential for people to have their own space, be in control, and at home in that space, not feel threatened and at ease, in peace and tranquility, the same applies to the land and the homes in which many people live, which we call a country.
If anyone went shopping for a few hours and left their back door open, and a poor, unclean, hungry, homeless person violated someone’s private property by trespassing the boundary into private territory by coming in to use the facilities, and grab a bite, no one in their right mind would demand the homeowner allow this fellow space in the house for even one night or one hour, for the sake of mercy.
Things become a lot more complicated when the person coming in may have all kinds of diseases and is putting the inhabitants of the house at risk of sickness, or worse. Things become a lot more complicated when the resources this homeless person is using, comes at the expense of the inhabitants of those who are already barely getting enough food themselves.
Our country is a very wealthy and productive one, however our resources are not endless. In our country, we have veterans who deserve the red carpet for putting their lives on the line to protect and defend our ideals of freedom and democracy, and many are sick and hungry. We have citizens of this great country who don’t have health insurance, and barely make enough to get by from one day to the next. We have infrastructure on the brink of collapse.
Sure, I understand we are a country of immigrants, of legal immigrants. Immigrants, who came in through the front door, filled out forms the legal way and were part of acceptable quotas.
Jewish law does not allow one to put themselves in any danger for the sake of doing a kind deed for another. A person has a responsibility first and foremost to take care of themselves, and those who are close to them, before endangering their own lives for others.
In the same way that every person has his own boundaries, and the boundaries of his own property that identify mine from yours, countries are the same way. Countries are like huge homeowner associations and gated communities.
For the safety of everyone in a gated community, we just don’t allow anyone who we have no clue whom they are, to come in and roam around. Especially when we know they are hungry, and looking for a comfortable bed to sleep on, may not have the best character traits and may be sick and unclean. There needs to be a procedure that does not compromise the safety or jeopardize the health of everyone in the community. This is reasonable and the law.
Using this logic, there is no reason anyone would claim it should be any different for our, on a larger scale, gated community, our country, unless the person does not agree with any of the principles enumerated above.
It is the ways of G-d and the ways of blessing to be giving and kind. To lose respect for the importance of one’s own boundaries and identity as a human being, and exposing our own, to unvetted guests, is pious foolishness.
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