[Avodah] RSRH on the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Ghetto

[Yitzchok Levine]

The following is from Rav Hirsch's commentary on Bereishis 14: 12

They also took Lot and his movable property — [he 
was] the son of the brother of Avram — and they went, for he was an inhabitant
of Sodom.

The ghettoes that isolated us worked not only to our disadvantage,
but also to our advantage. Those who lived within the ghetto walls were
shielded from many evils to which those outside fell victim during the
Middle Ages. Jews were not considered good enough to become judges
or law-enforcement officials, or to join the retinues of knights. They were
not permitted to participate in tournaments, and they took no part in
world affairs. But neither did they have a part in the torturing, slaughtering,
strangling or incineration of their fellow men. They were often
the victims, but never the victimizers. Their hands were not stained with
human blood, and when fate caught up with the emperors and their
armies, the Jews remained safe in their ghettoes. They should be happy
that they were called to the arena of world affairs only now, when the
nations of the world are at least trying to act justly and humanely. 
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