Isn’t it? It’s one of the (many) things I really love about my religion. There’s a big category of mitzvot called V’Ahavta l’reyacha kamocha--love your friends like yourself—which includes lots of subcatagories, like returning lost things, visiting the sick, and hosting guests, among other things.

It’s one of the reasons why (I suspect) when N and I went to Scotland a few years ago, we spent the two Shabbats we were there staying at the home of this ridiculously nice family who had never met us before, but when I called them to ask if they could host us for meals (they were the parents of a friend of a friend) they invited us to stay at their house without hesitation.