613 Mitzvot
Positive Mitzvah 207
Love the stranger

Devarim/Deuteronomy 10:19
Va’ahavtem et-hager ki-gerim heyitem be’erets Mitsrayim.
Therefore love the stranger; for you were stranger in the land of Egypt.

The big question here is who is the stranger, the ger? In Sefer HaMitzvot, Maimonides interpreted this to mean the convert to Judiasm.

- ger sojourner, a temporary inhabitant, a newcomer lacking inherited rights. The root is - to dwell for a time. It has the meaning of staying temporarily.

Shemot/Exodus 12:49
One law shall be to him that is homeborn, (
- ezrach) and unto the stranger (ger) that sojourns among you.’

Vayikra/Leviticus 18:26
You therefore shall keep My statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born (ezrach), nor the stranger that sojourns among you—

Vayikra/Leviticus 19:34
The stranger (ger) that sojourns with you shall be unto you as the home-born (ezrach) among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am YHVH your Elohey.

By this we know that the ger is one who is not a native-born (ezrach). And the ezrach is to treat the ger no different than any other ezrach. The reason given is that we were once ger in the land of Egypt. In Mitzrayim (Egypt), the Jews were oppressed in the land they were dwelling temporarily.

There is a verse that mentions the ger being a convert: "And when a stranger (ger) shall sojourn with you and would keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native (ezrach) of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it." (Shemot/Exodus 12:48). The question that remains is whether the ger remains a ger once he has converted?

It shall happen, that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you and to the strangers (ger) who sojourn among you, who shall father children among you; and they shall be to you as the native-born (ezrach). among the children of Yisra’el; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Yisra’el. It shall happen, that in what tribe the stranger (ger) sojourns, there shall you give him his inheritance, says Adonai YHVH." (Yechezk'el/Ezekiel 47:22-23)

They are counted as ezrach. The context of this happening is during the Messianic Age.

Ephesians 2:11-19
Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth—called the Uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised—at that time had no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life of Yisra'el. You were stranger (ger) to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God. But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood. For he himself is our shalom—he has made us both one and has broken down the mechitzah (dividing wall) which divided us by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create In union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus killing in himself that enmity. Also, when he came, he announced as Good News shalom to you far off and shalom to those nearby, news that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers (ger). On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens (ezrach) with God’s people and members of God’s family.

In Messiah, there is no difference -- there is no more ger, but we are all spiritually ezrach!

A Mizmor by the sons of Korach; a Song.
His foundation is in the holy mountains.
YHVH loves the gates of Tziyon more than all the dwellings of Ya‘akov.
Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God. Selah.
I will record Rachav and Bavel among those who acknowledge me.
Behold, Peleshet, Tzor, and also Kush: "This one was born there.
Yes, of Tziyon it will be said, "This one and that one was born in her;"

Elyon himself will establish her.
YHVH will count, when he writes up the peoples, "
This one was born there." Selah.
Those who sing as well as those who dance say, "All my springs are in you."
(Tehillim/Psalms 87:1-7)

We show love to the ger by showing hospitality:

Iyov/Job 31:32
The foreigner (ger) has not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveler

Shalom v'brakhot v'simcha,
Moreh Chizkiyah Shlomo (Carl)