NOTES for Exo 12:49

The Law requires of us the same attitude toward every person, regardless of whether he is "one of ours" or a "stranger." This does not mean that God makes no distinctions between people, between His people and other nations. The same Torah describes quite clearly the requirements for those who would like to enter the people of God, become an integral part of it, and receive the right to participate in the religious life of the community: such a person had not only to accept Yahwism as his faith and the God of Israel as his God, but also to follow fully all religious norms and rules, including not only the commandments and moral norms, but also the rules of ritual purity, to which in pre-Christian times everywhere, including Yahwism, great attention was paid.

But another state of affairs was also possible: a sojourner, an outsider who decided to settle among the Jews, had the right to live among them without taking part in Yahwistic religious life, while enjoying all rights except the right to such participation. Naturally, all laws connected with the prohibition of blasphemy and sacrilege applied to him just as they did to the Jews themselves, but in other respects he was free.

It was precisely this norm of the Torah that allowed whole pagan tribes to live on the territory of the Jewish state without accepting Yahwism and while continuing to worship their gods, as happened in the time of David and Solomon. What was this: religious tolerance? Religious indifference toward everyone except one's own people? Probably neither one nor the other.

The Torah never equated paganism with Yahwism, just as it never equated pagans with the people of God. Rather, here there is respect for a person's freedom of choice in the main thing, in what concerns his spiritual life and therefore his religion. It is impossible, and meaningless, to "convert" a person by using the fact that he may simply have nowhere to go.

Besides, the very fact that a pagan is staying on God's land does not yet make him a Yahwist. Faith does not come by itself, and it is better not to mislead anyone in this regard: the one who wants to accept Yahwism must accept it not "automatically" by settling among believing Yahwists, but by making his own choice and joining the community.

In this way the Torah protects human freedom and preserves the purity of the community, freeing it from imaginary "believers" whose faith, when tested, turns out to be nothing but a formality and a desire to be "like everyone else."