‘The Foreigner Among You Will Rise Above You Higher and Higher While You Sink Lower and Lower’

Quoting Chananya Weissman‘s newsletter:

In much of the English-speaking world, illegal aliens are being given preferential treatment over citizens. We should not need a Talmudic source to teach us that this is absurd, but we live in unusual times.

בבא קמא מב.

אמר רבא יציבא בארעא וגיורא בשמי שמיא

Rava said, The citizen is on the ground, and the foreigner is in the highest heavens!

The Gemara had previously raised the possibility that the owner of an ox that had not previously caused damage would be more liable in some cases of damage than one who had been warned that his ox was harmful. Rava retorted that this was preposterous – as preposterous as elevating foreigners over citizens.

There is more wisdom and decency in an offhand remark in the Gemara than all the world’s governments put together.