Earlier this year, when we were dealing with the issue of a path to citizenship for the so-called Dreamers, children brought to this country by illegal immigrants, I wrote “Let My People Stay.” In my essay, I compared the discussion about immigration to that of abortion. I claimed that America may secure its borders, but it cannot ignore the life that developed in its womb, of people willing to leap forward through a bloody door in order to give their families better lives.
This week, it became clearer how antiquated immigration laws can tear through the flesh of families, ripping a limb from a living animal. While America is trying to protect its borders, as have many other countries in the world, America has to remember to protect its spiritual and ethical borders as well.
When Noah and his family left the Ark after the flood, they started a new world. At that point they were given seven basic laws of human conduct that no man or woman should violate. Six of these laws were already given to Adam, the first human being. The Tosefta — the earliest complete rabbinic version of these seven laws lists them as follows: to have an adjudication process, no idolatry, no blasphemy, no sexual immorality, no bloodshed, and no robbery. The seventh law, the prohibition against tearing and eating the limb of a living animal, was given to Noah when, after the flood, humankind was permitted to consume meat. “However, flesh with its life-blood [in it], you shall not eat.” (Gen. 9:4) The Noahide Laws apply to all of humanity and human matter.
Genesis previously tells us that a family is one flesh: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24) A family is one flesh. It doesn’t matter how “tender” the shelter is. The most common reason immigrants leave their home country is to give their children a better life. Of course, there are exceptions: In cases of criminality and other risks, tough immigration laws are necessary to enforce.
The Mishnah tells us that Rabbi Chanina, the Deputy High Priest, says: “Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear of it, man would swallow his fellow alive.” (Avot 3:2). It’s important to have a strong government, but strong nationalism is good only when it can contribute to the global efforts. Like LGBT and other marginalized populations, these immigrants can become the “unlikely harbingers” with a unique message of social justice — marginalized for a while, like the Israelites in Egypt, but not forever.
The USCJ, in partnership with all the major American Jewish movements throughout the United States, joined the JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs) and the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen. At the end of his letter, David Bernstein, president and CEO of the JCPA, wrote the following: “There are proven alternatives to the incarceration of families fleeing violence that don’t permanently traumatize young children or make people suffer unnecessarily.”
In the brightest day of the year, let us make the darkness of separation disappear. Amen.
—Rabbi Gadi Capela