[Avodah] Love the ger - who?

[Richard Wolpoe]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Michael Makovi <mikewinddale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> It seems impossible to deny that the word "ger" doesn't mean, strictly
> speaking, a convert, but rather anyone who is a stranger or foreigner
> or alien. Indeed, Avraham and Moshe call themselves gerim, and we are
> described as having been gerim in Egypt, and obviously no conversions
> were involved.
>
> Mikha'el Makovi


this point ws brought to my attendtion jsut last night in my restaurant by a
relatively new Ba'al Teshuva. he expressed great mis-givings about how
Rabbis {meaning today's rabbis not hazal per se]  can be trusted when they
morph the meaning of a word like Ger to mean something else. and he quoted
some of the above. The fellow is NOT a scholar and know very little but he
has found these kinds of transmigrations of the word disturbing.

I had no answer for him.  I could probably muster some sophisticate answer
that would satisfy the scholarly types but not one that would  help  him.


-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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