As explained, it is also a mitzvah to reach out and befriend any person who traveled from one place to another. It is especially a mitzvah to do this for an Ashkenazi Jew traveling among Sephardim or a Sephardic Jew traveling among Ashkenazim and the like, for such people become very dejected because of their inability to express their needs or to show their true stature. The traveling Jew might be knowledgeable in Torah but because of communication difficulties he may not be able to express himself or have the confidence to speak up. Towards such people it is proper to be most understanding and it is considered a great mitzvah.
It is not like what many of the simple people say that “let the Sephardi go to the Sephardim and the Ashkenazi go to the Ashkenazim — each kind should care for their own kind — as if we are two separate nations, Heaven forefend! Anybody who says such things “has disgraced the battalions of the Living God” (cf. I Shemuel 17:36), for it is a disgrace for us, Bnei Yisrael, the unique people on earth, that we be divided; for we are all the children of one father, He is one God for all of us, our Father, and we share the same Torah and one Law. So why should we betray each other? And if the languages of the countries we come from are different — what of it? What difference is there between an Ashkenazi and a Sephardi or any other background? Heaven forbid that we should make any such distinctions! On the contrary, the differences between us are only reason to do more for each other, to have compassion and to assist anyone who speaks a different language, because of the mitzvah of loving the stranger, as explained. “He Who is merciful to others, mercy is shown to him by Heaven, while he who is not merciful to others, mercy is not shown to him by Heaven” (Shabbos 151b). May Hashem reward one who does good sevenfold.
