For
July 30 Part 2
For a link to the video discussion:
Some More on Male /Female
Again, go back to my earlier discussion: We can’t understand
Adam and Eve without understanding the pagans.
The image of woman in Judaism can only be understood in the
context of the attitude of ancient societies, especially in the Middle East,
towards women. This, in turn, is rooted in the philosophy of the world.
Forget the myth of the original matriarchal society in which
women ruled fairly and justly. It is just that- a myth.
The ancient gods were humans expanded and writ large- male and
female, bound up in sex, heterosexual, transsexual, transspecies, anything and
everything was seen in this binary of the universe.
From this perspective, we see how males, in writing their
interpretations of the world, look at females.
Go back to these Greeks, and how the gods punish man by creating
Pandora:
…and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel
longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the
Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. .. For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth
remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness... But the woman
took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered all these and
her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men.
Hindu sources:
From a classic Text, Mahabharata, Hindu cvilizations greatest
epic, compiled around the same time as Hesiod, and the same time as the first
of the Biblical Prophets.
How women were created by the Grandsire Brahman . . .There is no
creature more sinful, O son, than women. Woman is a blazing fire. …She is the
sharp edge of the razor. She is poison. She is a snake. She is fire. She is,
verily, all these united together
The puissant Grand sire( Brahama) having ascertained what was in
the hearts of the deities, created women. . .
Those, however, that sprang from this creation by Brahman with the aid
of an illusion became sinful. The grandsire bestowed upon them the desire of
enjoyment, all kinds of carnal pleasure. Tempted by the desire of enjoyment,
they began to pursue persons of the other sex. The puissant lord of the deities
created Wrath as the companion of Lust. Persons of the male sex, yielding to
the power of Lust and Wrath, sought the companionship of women… they are living
lies.
As for our neighbors, and closest relatives, the Canaanites:
Ancient Semitic female deities were just tough: Here is Anath (
a name that appears in the Bible “ Shamgar ben Anath”, a great hero like
Samson. She appears in Egypt, in the Jewish settlement of Elephantine, as the
consort of God!
Don’t mess with her: Tale of Aqhat
Anath
gluts Her liver with laughter.
Her heart is filled with joy,
For Anath's hand is victory.
For knee-deep She plunges in the blood of soldiery,
Up to the neck in the gore of troops.. . ..
She washes Her hands in the blood of soldiery,
Her fingers in the gore of troops.
This image is identified as " Asherah", Anath's counterpart in the Canaanite Myrths. Look at the skulls
Let’s put first things first.
The Bible’s Israelite/Hebrew
women are all righteous, but the men- not so. On the other hand, the trouble
makers are pagans- but some of the saints are also!
( Admittedly, Amos is upset at the wives of the wealthy,
“Parot HaBashan, Cows of the Bashan ( over-fed) who oppress the poor and destroy
the needy, and Ezekiel complains about the women who mourn the pagan Tammuz,
but that’s the exception).
Some Biblical premises:
Understand it is not our concept of equality- can’t read 21st
century concepts into the past-but we can extrapolate from past principles to
the future:
1)
Ezer Kenegdo
2)
Men and women jointly bound in the
covenant at Sinai
3)
Civil and criminal laws apply to
both, with an understanding that the male has the economic poser and with it,
the economic obligation.
4)
Filial Piety- to both parents-
Honor father mother; Fear mother father
5)
From Proverbs -image of wisdom as
female, as the first creation, mother as source of Torah and teaching, just as
father is. Eshet Chayil- woman as provider and strength of household.
In Rabbinic thought, contrary to Christian, sex is not the
original sin. It precedes it:
Rabbi Yoḥanan bar Ḥanina says: Daytime is twelve
hours long, and the day Adam the first man was
created was divided as follows: …. In the seventh, Eve
was paired with him. In the eighth, they arose to the bed two, and
descended four, i.e., Cain and Abel were immediately born. In the ninth, he was
commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. In the tenth, he sinned.
…(Sanhedrin 38b)
Unity
of all humanity:
Various
creation myths:
Greek-
after the flood- the equivalent to Noah and his wife throw stones over their
backs as they walk, and humans are created out of the individual stones—no
inherent relation from stone to stone. Thessalian Greek origin myth—they are
created out of ants to be fierce warriors.
Rabbinic
dictate on commonality and uniqueness of each human being
Mishnah
Sanhedrin 4:5
How
did they admonish witnesses in capital cases? …Therefore but a single person
was created in the world, to teach that if any man has caused a single life to
perish from Israel, he is deemed
by Scripture as if he had caused a whole world to perish; and anyone who saves a single soul from Israel, he is deemed
by Scripture as if he had saved
a whole world.
[in some texts, which may be older, it does not have “ from Israel”.
The admonition here is because the court had the right to judge only Jews, not
non-Jews ( prerogative of the Roman government), hence specifying Israel.]
Again [but a single person was created]
for the sake of peace among humankind, that one should not say to another, “My
father was greater than your father”.
Again,
[but a single person was created] against the heretics so they should not say,
“There are many ruling powers in heaven”.
Again
[but a single person was created] to proclaim the greatness of the Holy Blessed
One; for humans stamp many coins with one seal and they are all like one
another; but the King of kings, the Holy Blessed One, has stamped every human with the seal of the
first man, yet not one of them are like another.
Therefore
everyone must say, “For my
sake was the world created.”
Text
in Quran: Following story of Cain
& Abel, which reflects a Rabbinic midrash:
That is why We ordained for the Children of
Israel that whoever takes a life—unless as a punishment for murder or mischief
in the land—it will be as if they killed all of humanity; and whoever saves a
life, it will be as if they saved all of humanity.)Al Maida 5 32).
All
humanity share a common moral obligation-7 Mitzvoth Bnai Noach- 7 Noachide
Laws.
תנו רבנן שבע מצות נצטוו בני נח
דינין וברכת השם ע"ז
גילוי עריות ושפיכות דמים וגזל ואבר מן החי
The
Sages taught in
a baraita: The
descendants of Noah, i.e., all of humanity, were
commanded to observe seven mitzvot: The mitzva of establishing courts of judgment; and the
prohibition against blessing, i.e., cursing, the name of God; and
the prohibition of idol worship; and the prohibition against forbidden
sexual relations; and the prohibition of bloodshed; and the
prohibition of robbery; and the prohibition against eating a limb
from a living animal.
Commentary of the Meiri on Sanhendrin
47
Any Noahide
that we have seen has accepted upon himself the seven Noahide laws is one of
the righteous people of the world and is included in the category of "religous
people" and has a share in the world to come
(ה) וכן חסידי אומות העולם, יש להם חלק לעולם הבא.
(5) The righteous of the non-Jews also have a portion in the
World to Come
Even
on idolatry, we do not forcibly stop them:
אין רוב עובדי כוכבים מינין סבר לה כי הא דאמר ר' חייא בר אבא
א"ר יוחנן נכרים שבחוצה לארץ לאו עובדי עבודת כוכבים הן אלא מנהג אבותיהן
בידיהן
Chulin
13b
The
Gemara asks: But don’t we see that there are? The Gemara answers: Say the majority of the
people of the nations of the world are not heretics,
and with regard to slaughter[referring to shechitah=who may be a shchet] one
follows the majority. The Gemara notes: Rabba bar Avuh holds in accordance
with that which Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says:
The status of gentiles outside of Eretz Yisrael is not that of idol
worshippers, as their worship is not motivated by faith and devotion. Rather, it is a
traditional custom of their ancestors that was transmitted to them.
Nature of the Human Being:
An old teacher of mine told me his
father’s explanation of Jacob’s ladder: Sulam mutzvav artza- The ladder is
stuck in the ground, but rosho magai hasmayma- The head reaches up to the
heavens.
Turn between two lovers- oy li meyitzri voy lli me yotzri.
Freud-
tri=partite human mind- id- ego-superrgo- transposition into modern language of
“ yester hatov”- the good
inclination, and “ Yezter hara” sitting on each shoulder, with the self in the
middle.
The concept of freedom of choice:
God to Cain, when he is upset: Chet rovetzet tachat
If you do well, shalt you not be accepted?
and if you do not well, sin crouches at the door, and to you shall be its
desire. Yet you may/will
rule over him.
(Timshel- key word in Steinbeck-East
of Eden)
U
bacharta bachayim- You shall/can choose life(Deut 30:19)
Hakol tzafui -ve;hareshut nitnah
הַכֹּל צָפוּי,
וְהָרְשׁוּת נְתוּנָה
,
וּבְטוֹב הָעוֹלָם נִדּוֹן.
וְהַכֹּל
לְפִי רֹב הַמַּעֲשֶׂה
Avot 3:15
Everything
is foreseen yet freedom of choice is granted, And the world is judged with
goodness; And everything is in accordance with the preponderance of works.
[alternate reading- Hakol Tazun-
Everything is hidden]
Kabbalistic concept- the human being, as manifested in the Jew, is
responsible to bring redemption by tikkun, by raising the Nitzotzot Hakosh- the
sparks of holiness, that are buried in the physicality of the universe. Each
mitzvah raises that redeems that spark and returns it to God. This is the
concept of the human being created for a higher purpose.
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