The Hardest Commandment
鈥淵ou must not hate an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in their land鈥 (Deut. 23:8)
Don鈥檛 hate an Egyptian??
For centuries, the Egyptians had enslaved us. They beat and tortured and eventually tried to exterminate us. Four-fifths of the Torah is taken up with our journey from Egyptian oppression to liberation in the Promised Land. Every year since -- for more than three millennia -- we have retold that story, not merely as a matter of history, but through active, personal identification.
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