Why Are Some Moral Mitzvot Directed Only at Fellow Jews?

The Torah’s default assumption is a Jew living among Jews in Israel — exile was never the baseline.

Q. Why are the laws of slander (lashon hara), returning lost objects and most of the moral commandments (“l’chavero”), obligatory only towards Jews?

In general, the Torah addresses our natural normative situation where the Jew lives in the State of Israel in the Land of Israel. Accordingly, the mitzvot are geared towards your Jewish brother, because he is the one who is meant to be around us and preoccupy us. True, we were temporarily punished and sent into exile to live among gentiles for almost 2,000 years, but that’s not the way it used to be, not the way it should be, and not the way it will be from now on, since our return to Israel. In addition, it’s logical that the special super-high standard of morality reserved for brothers [e.g. not to even talk good thinks about a person if someone might add bad things; being obligated to pick up every lost item, advertise it, and actively search until one finds the owner, etc.] is very difficult to observe towards total strangers, and the Torah wants to make sure that the mitzvot are real, practical and do-able, not strained or artificial. Nevertheless undoubtedly, after getting used to a special super-high standard of morality towards brothers, inevitably, one’s moral sensitivity and awareness will surely be higher towards the gentiles, as well- much higher than that which is accepted even in their moral circles and standards. For example, the news recently reported enthusiastically how an orthodox Jew returned a huge amount of money which he found in a desk bought from a gentile.