The fourth aliyah of Parshat Acharei Mot Kedoshim begins, וְכִֽי־יָג֧וּר אִתְּךָ֛ גֵּ֖ר בְּאַרְצְכֶ֑ם לֹ֥א תוֹנ֖וּ אֹתֽוֹ, “When a ger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not taunt him” (Vayikra 19:33). Chazal understanding ‘ger’ to mean the convert, instead of the biblical ‘stranger’ or ‘sojourner’. For this reason, Rashi teaches us that this taunting is against someone who used to be an idol worshipper. On our pasuk, Rashi explains that a person should not say to a ger, אמש היית עובד עבודה זרה ועכשיו אתה בא ללמוד תורה שנתנה מפי הגבורה, “Only yesterday you were an idol worshipper, and now you come to learn Torah, which was given over by the Almighty God!” What makes this verbal taunting so horrible that Hashem places it in our parsha? The issur around לֹ֥א תוֹנ֖וּ, not taunting, has to do first with the shame and embarrassment that comes with reminders of past sins, and second with the implicit statement that we as people are not able to truly grow and overcome our limitations and past selves. Understandably, the word ‘ger’ here can then be expanded to include anyone who feels other, anyone who feels like a stranger. We are prohibited from saying the words Rashi expresses because they fundamentally degrade the process of personal growth and reject the potential for teshuvah. We can certainly all imagine the impulse to dredge up the past as a way of creating shame or hurt-- sometimes against others and sometimes even against ourselves. But to be God’s holy people, we cannot taunt the other-- we cannot hold past mistakes against a person in the present. This is a mitzvah essential to our identities as Jews because it is our foundation of hope.
