Original Torah: Ancient Words in a Modern Light

How do religious people enhance their capacity for feeling compassion?

They would engage in a deepening of their relationship with God, because all that is good in us is a reflection of the divine. As we grow in intimacy with God and so become more God-like ourselves, we will begin to reflect those attributes. It is why we say, “Be compassionate as your heavenly father is compassionate.”

As you grow closer to God, you become more aware of God’s concern for the other. You realise that this spirituality is not a lonely journey. It is about growing in a relationship with a community. You then realise that your own humanity depends on that of the other. In Genesis God makes it clear to Adam that it is not good for him to be alone.

You have spoken of the African concept of “ubuntu”, that “a person is a person through other persons”. Is this key to compassion?

You are human because of your relationships. I am because you are”

This is the idea that you cannot be human in isolation. A solitary human being is a contradiction in terms. You are human precisely because of relationships; you are a relational being or you are nothing. I am because you are. As you grow in your relationship with God, you find this has repercussions on your relationships with others. Hence the two fundamental laws in Christianity: love God and love your neighbour.

In your work on reconciliation in South Africa and Northern Ireland, you encourage victims and perpetrators to talk about their own suffering in order to encourage feelings of compassion. Why is this important?

The word compassion means “suffering with”. You want to enter into the other’s pain, their anguish, passion and suffering. In my reconciliation meetings, when the perpetrator talked about his own upbringing in a deprived and poor home, the victim who was listening to them was almost always affected. We had one case in Northern Ireland where the victim said that if he had been brought up in the circumstances in which the perpetrator had been, he was certain he too would have done what this guy did. It is about trying to get someone to understand how the other turned out to be who they are.

From issue 2549 of New Scientist magazine, 29 April 2006, page 48

This quote from the end of Metsora sums up a section on sexual impurity. The Torah recognizes five source of sexual impurity: abnormal and normal sexual flows of men and women as well as intercourse. But why the dire warning “lest they die through their uncleanliness”? The table below summarizes theses states.
15:32-33 Torat ha Zav

There are five basic contacts that transmit impurity. The portion doesn’t seem to mention directly touching the person. You may become impure by sitting or lying on something he or she lied on, but touching the bedding or article sat or lied on, or contacting their fluids.

The first thing to notice is that both men and women need to bring two birds to sacrifice 7 days after the stopping of their sexual flow. However, for men, this is only true if his flow is unusual. For ejaculation with or without a woman, he may wash and be clean that evening. The exception to this is if he has sex with an impure woman. In that case, he acquires her state of impurity.

Now, a little word on language. The word here for sexual flow is zav. Zav is one of the words used to describe the bounty of the Promised Land. It is a land oozing (zav) with (goat) milk and (date) honey. It’s not a flow like a waterfall or a brook, but rather it is a kind of seeping presence.

For a man, a state of zav is always a sickness. A normal seminal emission for a man is called “shikhvat zera / the seed of laying “. A woman’s flow is described as “zov dam” either at the time of her “niddah” or not. Zov dam means something like “blood ooze”. It doesn’t sound nice, but unfortunately there’s really not a word for it besides “flow”, which isn’t accurate.

By the time of the Mishnah, a woman who had not yet immersed in a mikveh mayim to cleanse herself of her menstrual impurity was called a Niddah. However, in the time of the Torah, niddah was a state of infirmity, not a name for the woman herself. There have been various attempts to explain what Niddah means. A common understanding as advanced by Prof. Moshe Greenberg is that Niddah is from NDH meaning to exile or exclude. Hence, a Niddah would be a woman excluded from relations with her husband.

I opened this dvar with the verse “You shall put the Israelites on guard against their uncleanliness” (15:31). The Hebrew from this verse is ambiguous. The word vehizartem was translated by NJPS as from the room ZHR, means to warn, put on guard. But doing so assumes the Torah is speaking in a kind of slang, by dropping the H in ZHR, which it does occasionally do. However, there is no need to add the H to the word, as it may be understood with the root NZR meaning to separate or remove. (The Targum translates it accordingly as veTaFriShuN).

This understanding gets at the heart of the Biblical view of sexual impurity. The Torah not only sees menstruation as an infirmity, but it sees any discharge as putting you in a kind of diminished state. Later in Leviticus we read that the priests could have no disabilities or flaws when serving God (21:16-21) and that even the animal offerings has to be pure and flawless (22:20-26). Verse 15:31 continues “that they not die in their impurity, and that they impurify My Sanctuary which is among them”. In other words, having a sexual discharge is just as serious an imperfection before God as a priest with too long legs or an animal with boils. It diminishes you.

It makes me uncomfortable that the Torah views anything sexual as dirty. I see it as natural and good. Moreover, the implications of this worldview on having egalitarian congregations today is clear: The impurity of women is more severe and longer lasting than that of men. If the priest can’t be sexually impure, how can we have a sexually impure woman lead the services?

The obvious response is that we’re all impure today. Without a Temple to bring our offerings to, we cannot complete the expiation process. Even if, theoretically, women spend more of their lives Toraitically (deoraita) impure than men, it is of no matter. We cannot accept the Torah’s system of rendering normal processes impure. In addition, what other diseases are there that make you impure? I can only think of Tsaraat which we don’t have today. Why focus on sexual discharges exclusive of other diseases?

Normally, I try to find a value in even outdated Torah values. Perhaps there is something to only being permitted to have sex with your wife for half the month. Perhaps it can rejuvenate your lust. But, in my opinion, sexual taboos can only lead to harm.

Just think of all the Orthodox men and women out there who don’t even touch each other just because they might end up having intercourse during the woman’s period! It must be at least half of women out there who don’t even want to have sex when menstruating. And because of this, these people won’t dance at weddings or even have mixed seating so that families can sit together. Do we need to be so afraid of sex?

In the more liberal communities, these laws have even less relevance. We understand that sexual discharges don’t make you a bad person. We understand that it is more important to emphasize that people have sex as couples in loving relationships, than that we try to enforce abstinence. If the relationship is respectful and mature, that is enough.

I don’t believe that I am off topic here. If we are to take the values in this portion of the Torah to heart, then we are engage in a paradigm that views sex as especially dirty. And given that a healthy sexuality is a part of a healthy lifestyle, I have to say to the Torah: Let us celebrate life and not death. The ritual of mikveh mayim to celebrate rebirth is wonderful. We shouldn’t see the menstruation itself as an infirmity. Let us celebrate the body in its normal routine. And let us celebrate love as we are fortunate to find in our lives.

הריני מחזיק/ה מחדש החמץ ההפקר שהפקרתי ובערתי ברשותי. כל חמץ ושאור שסלקתי יהא לי להשתמש בה ולהנות בה כל ימות השנה

Hareni mahzik/a mehadash hehametz hahefker shehifkarti vebiarti bereshuti. Kol Hametz ve seor she silakti yehe li lishtamesh bah velehenot bah kol yemot hashana.

“I hereby take possession anew of the ownersless hametz that I abandoned and removed that is in my domain. All hametz and leaven that I put away will be mine to use and enjoy all the days of the year.”

Prerequisites:
Taxonomy of Jewish pluralism
Hilchot Pluralism, Part I
Hilchot Pluralism, Part II
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To end the suspense now, I’m not going to solve any major unsolved problems in this post.
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Yes, a service led by men and women is better (from the perspective of greater inclusion) than a service led only by men. But it is no more egalitarian. Being “mostly egalitarian” is like being “a little pregnant”.
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I’m also not going to solve the issue of instruments on Shabbat. A service either uses instruments on Shabbat or it doesn’t; I can’t think of any other options.
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In Stage 3, the problem arises when looking at the long view. While it may be acceptable for everyone to go without instruments for any one particular instance, it becomes unacceptable (from a Stage-3 identity perspective) if people are forced to never pray with instrumental music. So the best achievable solution is what we already have: pray together (without instruments) some of the time, and pray separately (with and without instruments) some of the time. In my world, this is achieved by attending multiple independent minyanim that meet on different weeks.
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(Disclaimer: I’ve never been to JITW, and never been to a minyan with a trichitza.)

The idea is simple: divide the prayer space into three sections, one non-gendered, one women-only, and one men-only.

I note this was the original construct in Orthodox shuls going egal. See Ginzberg

See the rest there.

My point here was that Judaism should not be making claims it can’t support; rather once a so-called Jewish claim is conclusivly disproven Judaism should retreat gallantly to claims that have not or can not be disproven. As a people, we should embrace the idea that no authentically Jewish idea could ever be proven wrong;

Interesting idea. It’s kind of Kantian Phenomena and Noumena. Faith in Judaism is a noumenon.

Rabbi Ohad Tohar-Lev, who heads the Israeli program at Lindenbaum (Bruria), a yeshiva for young women aged 18 to 22, said that he fears the article will encourage more young religious people to have sexual intercourse before marriage.

In other words, the women thought sex was forbidden until marriage. They didn’t know that the actual prohibition is to have sex with a menstruant who hasn’t yet immersed in mikveh mayim. If simply knowing this encourages them to have sex, you need to work on their values.

“It legitimizes licentiousness,” said Tohar-Lev, who, as a head of an institution that prepares religious women for army service, is considered liberal.

Since when is it licentious for a couple to have sex simply because they’re not married? Maybe I got the word wrong

“There are certain laws that are best kept secret. Zohar’s article will give some young people the justification they were looking for. Nobody wants to be a sinner.”

Ah, yes, control the information, control the people. Works every time. Good thing Judaism isn’t a religion that encourages learning. And, pardon me if I’m wrong, but won’t going to the mikveh mayim before having sex make you not a sinner?

Y., 21, a student at Lindenbaum, said that she has single religious friends who already know about Zohar’s solution and have used it.

Where did they find a mikveh mayim that let them do this? Most are controlled by the Orthodox

“The woman simply goes to a mikve before having sex and that’s it.”

But Y. said that many of her friends, while committed to orthodoxy, do not adhere to the rules of nida.

“I do not know whether they have intercourse. But I see them touching one another.”

Note, see above. You can touch a women when she’s Niddah. Shemirat Negiyah is a pious humra of shemirat derekh hiba which etc. You just can’t have sex with her. Seriously, these girls are supposed to be educated and they don’t know the rules that regulate their own bodies?

Today, I thought I’d write about some questions I have regarding Jesus, Easter, and science. As a Jew brought up partly in Jewish day school, I don’t really know how most Christians reconicle the beliefs of Christianity with what we know in science today.

I wouldn’t say that I am a particularly dogmatic person. I eat legumes on Passover, drive on Shabbat, and believe in complete egalitarianism in religion. And this poses no problem for my Judaism, because Judaism isn’t a dogmatic religion.

But, as I understand it, being a Christian requires you to believe that Jesus was born without a human father, was the (half) son of God, and that when he died, he was resurrected. Given what I’ve learned in science classes, I thought I would try to explain these scientifically. I also ask for your comments and corrections.

• She had sex with a man and hid that from the public
• She waded in water in which men had recently ejaculated and became thereby impregnated
• She had an XXY chromosome and when her egg was formed XY, it somehow began dividing on its own and formed a fetus.
• She had an X chromosome egg and God miraculously gave her a Y chromosome sperm, thus feritilizing the egg. This Y chromosome was human in any other way, in that if we took a blood sample from the Shroud of Turin, we could clone Jesus.
• God impregnated himself as a fetus in Mary assuming an arbitrary genetic code for himself.

Again, these are just the possibilites that occur to me. Please suggest others.

Ressurection

Regarding the Resurrection. It is well-understood that Jesus died on the cross. At this moment, the trinity was down to two, the Father and Holy Ghost, because the Son was dead. At somepoint, Jesus’ wounds healed themselves and his heart and lungs restarted on their own and he escaped from the cave, after moving a large boulder, for a few days before disappearing again. From what I understand, the important point here is not that he was healed and resurrected, but that he did it himself.

Please comment whether this is how the resurrection is commonly understood by religious Christians.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Getting Fired for Drinking on the Job

9:22 Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he stepped down after offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being. 23 Moses and Aaron then went inside the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the Presence of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. And all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces.10:1 Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before the Lord alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them. 2 And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them; thus they died at the instance of the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when He said: Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people.” And Aaron was silent. 8 And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: 9 Drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons, when you enter the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die. This is a law for all time throughout the ages, 10 for you must distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean; 11 and you must teach the Israelites all the laws which the Lord has imparted to them through Moses.

Distinguishing: Holy and Profane, Clean and Unclean

This is a great parashah to talk about because there is so much going on. There is the formal beginning of the priestly cult in Judaism, God’s “firing” of two of the priests, a hint at the negatives of drunkenness (though the command is to Aaron, only), and the teaching of the dietary laws as a system of purity.

Distinguishing: Dietary Laws

I’d like to talk a little bit about the language used in the dietary laws and what is here and what isn’t. There is no mention here of eating blood, kosher slaughter, centralized cult, or boiling a kid in its mother’s milk. The Torah, here, is only interested in which animals are “clean” to touch or eat and which are unclean or abominations.

Why are some animals detestable שקץ (Fish, Birds, Insects) while others just unclean טמא (swarming lizards, animals). Practically, both are forbidden to eat, but only the unclean animals make you unclean when you touch them. When this list is repeated in Deut. 14, these distinctions are no longer made. This means that for Leviticus, the animals are forbidden for ritual reasons, whereas in Deuteronomy, it’s more dietary.

Distinguishing: Shabbat

It is interesting, that the dietary laws here are indirectly tied to Shabbat.

11:44 For I the Lord am your God: you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth. 45 For I the Lord am He who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God: you shall be holy, for I am holy.

Deut. 5:15 Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

Leviticus 19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. 3 You shall each revere his mother and his father, and keep My sabbaths: I the Lord am your God.

Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have done violence to My law, and have profaned My holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and the common, neither have they taught difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Ezekiel 44:23 23 They shall declare to My people what is sacred and what is profane, and inform them what is clean and what is unclean. 24…They shall preserve My teachings and My laws regarding all My fixed occasions; and they shall maintain the sanctity of My sabbaths.

What is particularly interesting about this parallel, is that for many Orthodox Jews, the first thing they assess to see if someone is “observant”, is if they keep Shabbat and Kashrut. And as forms of outward observance go, I agree that they are important, though perhaps not al pi halakha (to the letter of the law). In any case, these parallels attest to the importance of Kashrut as a fundamental Jewish practice.

Distinguishing As Seeing God

One of the themes of the Torah is that we, the Jewish people are different. We are special. But this specialness isn’t inherent. Perhaps God chose our ancestors for their good qualities, but what makes us special, is the special relationship we have with God. That relationship ensures that we see things differently than other people.

I began this dvar with a section titled “Getting Fired for Drinking on the Job”. In the Bible, punishments were much more extreme than they are today. Nadav and Avihu were killed because they served God in the wrong way. But just because we no longer expect the death penalty for publically neglecting our traditions, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider our tradition less seriously. The principle is that the tradition should be respected in public.

Nadav and Avihu didn’t see that God deserves special fire to show his elevated status. Priests must be sober while dispensing their duties to be able to discern the holiness of their acts. The everyday act of keeping kosher and the weekly act of keeping Shabbat are ways of seeing God in our everyday lives.

Being a good person is the goal in many religions. In Judaism, we take the extra step to limit our food and allocate our time in order to step back and recognize how big the world is, how small we are, and how grateful we should be.

Also see an article on kitniyot (legumes) [Hebrew, Full Text] on Pesach
and a Reconstructionist article on Kashrut.
Also see my new webpage