The Torah is the world's great protest against empires and imperialism. There are many dimensions to this protest. One dimension is the protest against the attempt to justify social hierarchy and the absolute power of rulers in the name of religion. Another is the subordination of the masses to the state - epitomized by the vast building projects, first of Babel, then of Egypt, and the enslavement they entailed. A third is the brutality of nations in the course of war (the subject of Amos' oracles against the nations). Undoubtedly, though, the most serious offence - for the prophets as well as the Mosaic books - was the use of power against the powerless: the widow, the orphan and, above all, the stranger.