August 8, 2015
WE have recently seen much debate over a key observation in this week's Torah portion:
Deuteronomy 7:12 declares, "And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant and the lovingkindess (ha-hesed) that He made on oath with your ancestors..."
To which the Jerusalem Talmud replies on the word "lovingkiness," "Hesed," "The Rabbis teach, 'Three good gifts the Holy One Blessed be God gave to Israel: they are merciful, they are modest, and they show lovingkindness. How do we know they show lovingkindness, from 'the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant and the lovingkindess (ha-hesed) that He made on oath with your ancestors.'" (Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin, chapt 4 halakhah 1)
All of these qualities are very general, but Maimonides follows up saying that those who show the opposite qualities, "impudence, cruelty and misanthropy," are suspect of not being Jewish and it may not be allowed to marry them! In Maimonides Mishneh Torah, The Book of Holiness (Kiddushin), Treatise One: Forbidden Intercourse, 19:17 Maimonides applies the ruling in great detail and at considerable length:
"All families are presumed to be of valid descent, and it is permitted to intermarry with them in the first instance. Nevertheless, should you see two families continually striving with one another, or a family which is constantly engaged in quarrels and altercations, or an individual who is exceedingly contentious with everyone, or is excessively impudent, apprehension should be felt concerning them, and it is advisable to keep one's distance from them, for these traits are indicative of invalid descent. Similarly, if a man always casts aspersions upon other people's descent -- for instance, if he alleges that certain families and individuals are of blemished descent and refers to them as being bastards -- suspicion is justified that he himself may be a bastard... since whosoever blemishes others projects upon them his own blemish. Similarly, if a person exhibits impudence, cruelty, or misanthropy, and never performs an act of kindness, one should strongly suspect that he is of Gibeonite descent, since the distinctive traits of Israel, the holy nation, are modesty, mercy, and loving-kindness... " ((Yale Judaica Series, Vol XVI, p. 125)
Deuteronomy 7:12 declares, "And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant and the lovingkindess (ha-hesed) that He made on oath with your ancestors..."
To which the Jerusalem Talmud replies on the word "lovingkiness," "Hesed," "The Rabbis teach, 'Three good gifts the Holy One Blessed be God gave to Israel: they are merciful, they are modest, and they show lovingkindness. How do we know they show lovingkindness, from 'the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant and the lovingkindess (ha-hesed) that He made on oath with your ancestors.'" (Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin, chapt 4 halakhah 1)
All of these qualities are very general, but Maimonides follows up saying that those who show the opposite qualities, "impudence, cruelty and misanthropy," are suspect of not being Jewish and it may not be allowed to marry them! In Maimonides Mishneh Torah, The Book of Holiness (Kiddushin), Treatise One: Forbidden Intercourse, 19:17 Maimonides applies the ruling in great detail and at considerable length:
"All families are presumed to be of valid descent, and it is permitted to intermarry with them in the first instance. Nevertheless, should you see two families continually striving with one another, or a family which is constantly engaged in quarrels and altercations, or an individual who is exceedingly contentious with everyone, or is excessively impudent, apprehension should be felt concerning them, and it is advisable to keep one's distance from them, for these traits are indicative of invalid descent. Similarly, if a man always casts aspersions upon other people's descent -- for instance, if he alleges that certain families and individuals are of blemished descent and refers to them as being bastards -- suspicion is justified that he himself may be a bastard... since whosoever blemishes others projects upon them his own blemish. Similarly, if a person exhibits impudence, cruelty, or misanthropy, and never performs an act of kindness, one should strongly suspect that he is of Gibeonite descent, since the distinctive traits of Israel, the holy nation, are modesty, mercy, and loving-kindness... " ((Yale Judaica Series, Vol XVI, p. 125)
You ask yourself, "How can a nation with an ethic like this contain a person who stabs another human being at a Gay Pride Parade, or who burns down the home of an Arab family, murdering their infant son? And the answer is complex.
When modernity began over 2 centuries ago, just as the nations of Europe extended human rights and values to Jews as human beings, which had not existed prior to the French Revolution, most Jews also extended our ethics to those who are not Jewish. Therefore, every person should be treated with modesty, mercy and lovingkindness. Unfortunately, just as there are those who exclude Jews from equal treatment, there are Jews who are also intolerant and even hateful of foreigners. It is those people who have aroused such soul searching in Israel this week.
There are others who are simply criminals, like this week's stabber, but whose criminal insanity may be spurred by rabbis, or others, who preach hatred and violence against those who do not agree with them. I would place in this category those who exclude from the Jewish people anyone who simply does not agree with their theology, and preach hatred against those they perceive as enemies. Such people, some of them rabbis, should themselves be investigated as to whether they are enemies of the Jewish people, as we witness in Maimonides.
And finally, there are those responding to what they see as anti-Semitism, and who, in their fear and sometimes arrogance, seek to protect themselves through isolation. They fear for their safety and for their way of life. While we can understand their fears, they cannot force others to live as they do just because they believe they are correct and are fearful of outsiders. In the modern world, they too must learn to live with sincere diversity and grant to society the same rights granted by society to them.
May we learn in this diverse world to extend these Jewish qualities of modesty, mercy and lovingkindness to all those created in God's image.
Shabbat shalom.
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