# Love the Stranger as thyself -Or not-? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 11, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014 "2014-10-11T01:12:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tooldtocare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tooldtocare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tooldtocare)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/21 "2014-10-12T19:30:15Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > _Like you, I’m too old to care._ You gave me a laugh and for once in a great while a smile Thank you _panache45_ May you and yours have a great day and beyond (:- ---
**Author:** ![tooldtocare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tooldtocare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tooldtocare)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/22 "2014-10-12T19:43:58Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > \*People are strange when you’re a stranger > Faces look ugly when you’re alone > Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted > Streets are uneven when you’re down \* You are one unhappy camper. Open your shades, pull back the curtains, feel the warm sunshine, it is a beautiful world out there. You only go around once, do it with an open heart and the warmth will stay with you for eternity and beyond just a suggestion, take it or leave it. The choice is yours to make and yours alone to make (:- ---
**Author:** ![tooldtocare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tooldtocare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tooldtocare)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/23 "2014-10-12T19:53:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > _What if I don’t like myself very much?_ I recently jumped off my second story balcony and just cracked a few bones Threw myself down a steel stare-way and just wound up binding my ring finger 90 degrees sideways. I straighten my finger, so what now do I do to do the deed. 10 stories will do the trick if I can just find that open ten story window sooner than later (:- ---
**Author:** ![tooldtocare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tooldtocare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tooldtocare)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/24 "2014-10-12T19:57:11Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Welcome to the SDMB, **tooldtocare**. This topic is better suited to our Great Debates forum, so I have moved it thither for you. thanks ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2014, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/25 "2014-10-12T21:55:06Z")
> [@tooldtocare](#): > > You are one unhappy camper. Open your shades, pull back the curtains, feel the warm sunshine, it is a beautiful world out there. > > You only go around once, do it with an open heart and the warmth will stay with you for eternity and beyond > > just a suggestion, take it or leave it. The choice is yours to make and yours alone to make > > (:- **tooldtocare** can’t be that old if they didn’t recognize the lyrics. I therefore surmise that they are really **tooyoungtomatter**. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Schindler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Alex\_Schindler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Schindler)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/26 "2015-11-11T00:06:10Z")
Not sure what’s more depressing, the fact that an antisemitic kook keeps posting variations on the same drivel on this forum, or that he didn’t recognize a Doors classic… ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Schindler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Alex\_Schindler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Schindler)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/27 "2015-11-11T00:21:48Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > For the record, the original term translated as “Stranger” in the OP is the Hebrew word “” (“ger”), which in the context of the Bible refers to non-Jews living among Jews (or as we would say today, religious and ethnic minorities). It does not refer to the residents of foreign countries. That’s similar but not precisely what means in biblical Hebrew, either. You’re pointing to what gave rise to the rabbinic (and modern) meaning, which is something like “proselyte” or “convert”, but it actually does mean something quite close to “resident” irrespective of religion. Thus Hebrews were “gerim in the land of Egypt.” Note the root (you’re Israeli so I need not stress the for you, but other readers may be interested). When later rabbinic Hebrew texts distinguish between a and a - a “ger of righteousness” and a “settler ger”, respectively – they are using the same word that refers to “resident aliens” to refer to two types. Namely, those who’ve adopted Jewish religion in toto, and those who simply live among Jews and abide by the laws of the land. In biblical Hebrew the second one, ger toshabh, is almost an oxymoron, because the root of “ger” means temporary dweller and the root of toshabh means settled resident. Either way, the word’s semitic root refers not to religion but to residence. So it’s neither “non-Jew” nor “convert to Judaism” etymologically ; the word for the latter actually appears toward the end of Meghillath Esther and, predictably, it’s - the reflexive ‘to auto-Judaize’. Same as the verb (to reside, as in biblical - what Joseph’s brothers say in Egypt, ‘we have come to sojourn in the land’, as distinct from coming to settle permanently). See also Arabic (neighbor) for a common cognate with no religious connotation at all. King James and other translations have popularized “stranger”, but while it’s implicit in the context - a ger is a resident who is not necessarily “at home”, which is why the Bible admonishes special sensitivity on their behalf - it’s not a literal translation at all. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Schindler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Alex\_Schindler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Schindler)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/28 "2015-11-11T00:23:34Z")
Weird, the Arabic and Hebrew text I included in that post isn’t appearing on my screen now. I’ll have to edit later with transliteration ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014/29 "2015-11-11T05:11:48Z")
> [@Alex\_Schindler](#): > > Not sure what’s more depressing, the fact that an antisemitic kook keeps posting variations on the same drivel on this forum, or that he didn’t recognize a Doors classic… Why did you refresh the zombie topic, only to complain about it? Should’a left it in its shallow grave. (I wouldn’t know a Doors song if you played it for me…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/love-the-stranger-as-thyself-or-not/701014.md?page=1)