Open Door

Sometimes we want to shut the door on the world and get a moment's peace. With all the pressures we live under, that's perfectly fair.
But in life, open doors are almost always more valuable than closed doors. In many societies it would be unthinkable to lock one's door. In Jewish communities it was a mark of honour to leave the door open and lay an extra place at the table so that the poor should feel welcome. It's really fear which stops us doing so now.
Maybe it's fear, too, or plain insularity, which often prevents us from opening our doors to those who are different from us. How frequently are our houses, schools, places of work really places of meeting?
We all know the commandment, first stated in the Torah then repeated by Jesus: "Love your neighbour as yourself". The trouble is that many of us practise it as if it read: "Love your neighbour who is like yourself". But that isn't what the Scriptures say.
Last year, we invited Muslim friends for an Iftar meal, with which the fasts of the Islamic month of Ramadan are concluded. We ate in our Sukkah, a hut roofed with leaves in which Jewish people live during the festival of Tabernacles. It was a lovely occasion, full of food, laughter and questions: "What do Jews do when..?" "How do Muslims celebrate if..?" Today Ramadan and Tabernacles again coincide.
When our doors are shut to people different from ourselves, we cease to be a society and become a proximity of semi-ghettos, where distrust and fear inevitably grow.


God, help us to open the doors of our homes and offices, school rooms and meeting rooms, minds and hearts to many and different people.

Radio 4 Jonathan Wittenberg