The Torah portion we read this coming Shabbat starts with the story of Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, giving him some tips about refining his leadership model, delegating, becoming more effective in his leadership.
Then, fast-forward. The people Israel are hanging out at the base of Mt. Sinai, while God gives instructions to Moses. This translation is misleading; there’s no “warning” and no “staying pure.” God tells Moses to קדש the people—to make them holy, sanctified, set-apart.
It’s clear from the verb that Moses needs to do a thing to them. So then Moses goes back, and he does it! He קדש them. Sanctifies, makes holy, sets apart, something. It’s still not clear what the action is, but he does it. Plus the clothes washing thing. There’s no warning.
And then *record scratch* he keeps talking.
“Don’t go near a woman.”
God didn’t say that.
Suddenly, Moses is only addressing men. Women have gone from being subjects—part of the people—to objects. Who are sexual temptations who must be avoided.
In one sentence, Moses simultaneously cuts women out of Revelation and turns them into sexual objects.
Women aren’t the ones being told to prepare for Torah, here, after all. They’re just a problem.
Traditional commentators make sense of all this by suggesting that קדש is a command for Israel to attain a state of ritual elevation/purity, akin to where they must be to offer sacrifices in the Temple. Since seminal ejaculation would imperil that status, that’s what God meant.
Only problem is that קדש is not that state. We have a word for that. טהר.
Moses dumped his human stuff into his command from God. His ideas about gender and power and hierarchy and who matters and sex and whatever else. He twisted a command from the Holy One to suit his agenda.
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So, who wrote the Torah, anyway? (And what was their agenda?) (Specifically, Deuteronomy.) 1/7
During the reign of the Judean King Josiah (640–609 BCE), a scroll was “found” stashed away in the Temple. 2/7
To 📷GREATLY📷 oversimplify things, King Josiah claims to have “found” (but his people probably actually wrote) Deuteronomy. So, what was his agenda? Basically, "One God! One Temple!" 3/7
In honor of Indigenous Peoples' Day, we are revisiting the *extremely* complicated question of Jews and colonialism. Jews have not been part of colonial projects in the way that colonizing nations have. But we have been, often, part of them. It's both/and. (1/8)
Jews have been simultaneously settlers and refugees. But those two things do not cancel each other out. For Jews, the idea of Zionism sprouted from the fact that Jews were deeply unsafe, of looking for a place that pogroms could not touch — literally. (2/8)
AND, we also have to name that not all of the ways the power functioned around the establishment of the State of Israel were equal. (3/8)
1,200 people were murdered a year ago today. And that bloodshed then begat so, so much more bloodshed. (1/7)
I speak of this one day, today, but I do not forget every other day—and all the horrors—that have been in this last year, nor can any of us. (2/7)
We all, as a collective, as a people, as a world, and as those forging a new future, cannot offset the atrocities that have been caused, but we can annul the severity of the decree. We can change tomorrow. (3/7)
I AM SO SICK OF BINARY THINKING AND BINARY THINKERS
Eg! One can condemn the Israeli govt’s atrocities AND Hamas WHILE mourning all dead innocent who didn’t ask for this WHILE not abrogating one’s power analysis AND demanding a better future for everyone in the region (which doesn’t require eliding disproportionate harm/impact OR)
Asking what justice might look like. One can be pro civilian, pro children and anti-anyone who murders children. Without dropping a power analysis AND ALSO demanding a more whole future for everyone. One can stop regarding human life like we’re dealing with sports teams.