The massive wave of migration to Europe and beyond from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries has us scrambling to mount an appropriate and adequate response. The most urgent sort of “response” is in the field of action: what can we Jews do to ease the horrible suffering of these, our fellow human beings? But another kind of response is the one that takes place in the realm of thought: how should we Jews think and talk about our moral obligations toward the migrants? We would like to think that our tradition teaches us something about an earth-shaking challenge such as this, that it offers substantive guidance as to how we should act. And if it does, we would expect to find that teaching and guidance within the resources of the halakhah, that segment of our tradition that speaks most directly to questions of sacred action. Continue reading Thinking Halakhicly About the Refugee Crisis →