Monthly Archives: June 2022

Rabbi Shai Cherry

By Rabbi Shai Cherry

Parshat Naso

Full disclosure: I love Torah. Deeply. Even at its worst.

Our parshah describes a marriage gone sideways. The visual image of this scenario in the wilderness is a wind of jealousy sweeping over the husband (Num. 5:14). He suspects his wife of infidelity, but he cant prove it. He accuses, and she denies. What are the options?He could divorce her. Thats radical after all, her denials might be genuine. Plus, divorce requires paying the woman a divorce settlement as stipulated in all marriage contracts.They could talk. But theyve tried talking. He accuses and she, once again, denies. The wind of jealousy continues to blow. No teapot is safe from a tempest.

He could publicly accuse her of a secret tryst. She will be mortified, and if she is found innocent of wrongdoing, he will be humiliated as well. The elimination of doubt, however, makes the ordeal worthwhile.

He brings her to the Jerusalem Temple, and a priest mixes water, dirt and the dissolved ink of an incantation. The priests use of the four-letter name of God quickens the conditional curse of the bitter waters. The woman says, Amen. Amen. She drinks from the goblet with all eyes upon her.

Should she be innocent, she will be blessed with child. But should she have been unfaithful, the waters will turn bitter as they enter her defiled vessel. Her moral impurity will poison her from the inside out. Whatever seed that might be within will be expelled, and shell be rendered infertile forever.

And they live happily ever after. The end.

Maybe shell belch from the yucky water. Shell feel vindicated, and hell feel like a jerk and buy her chocolates and flowers to make it up to her.

Whats to love about this? The Torah figured out a way to keep the couple together by allowing the husbands jealousy to blow over. If the wife really had been unfaithful, she gets off easy. The punishment for adultery, when it can be proven, is death. The Mishnah brings in its own deus ex machina.

Lets say Betsy, her neighbor, heard the headboard banging against their common wall. Both Betsy and the adulteress might wonder: Are these bitter waters just psychodrama therapy? The Mishnah anticipates such a question by revealing that if the adulteress had a whole slew of good deeds under her belt, so to speak, the effects of the bitter waters might be suspended for up to three years.

But now the rabbis are in a pickle. If women know of that exemption, some might become righteous sluts. But if they dont know, some might suspect that the ordeal is just for show. As I said, I love Torah!

If we pull back the camera to see how other ancient Near Eastern cultures deal with their jealous husbands, well notice that their water ordeals involve rivers and drowning. Even though the bitter waters are ugly, there was uglier.

When I declare my love for Torah, sometimes what I mean is that I love how the rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud interpret the Torah in ways that make it seem like theyre just as bothered with the patriarchy and misogyny of certain texts as I am.

The Mishnah begins its explanation with its own act of interpretive magic: The rabbis transform the Torahs jealousy into a warning that the husband issues his wife against being secluded with a certain man, Ploni.

This warning, to have legal force, must be issued in front of two witnesses. In order for the husband to bring his wife to the priest in Jerusalem, not only must she be warned, but there must be additional witness that she then secluded herself with Ploni. She was warned, and she persisted.

The Mishnah neutralizes the overreactive husband and gives the woman the opportunity to avoid the ordeal. For me, that was the obvious injustice that the Mishnah needed to address. It is the next act of interpretation that makes me so proud to be an heir to this radically righteous tradition.

What about Ploni? The paramour goes unmentioned in the Torah, but the rabbis drag him back in, kicking and screaming. The Torahs Ploni gorges on forbidden fruit without consequence. But in the Mishnah, if the woman was guilty, so was Ploni, and he suffers the same consequences at the same time. Gender parity through gender parody.

It boggles my mind when my rabbinic colleagues argue their point by saying, But, it is written and leave it at that. What is written is a snapshot of how Jewish values were applied in that moment in that place. Our job as rabbis, and as Jews, is not to idolize the text by turning it into an object of stone but to plant its values in our soil. The rabbis knew that for the Torah not to become petrified wood, it had to be a Tree of Life.

Rabbi Shai Cherry is the rabbi of Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park and author of Torah through Time: Understanding Bible Commentary from the Rabbinic Period to Modern Times and Coherent Judaism: Constructive Theology, Creation, and Halakhah. The Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia is proud to provide diverse perspectives on Torah commentary for the Jewish Exponent. The opinions expressed in this column are the authors own and do not reflect the view of the Board of Rabbis.

Continued here:

What Will We Do with a Rotten Torah? - Jewish Exponent

PODCAST Hello Rapids fans! This week on Holding The High Line, we check in on Rapids 2! The guys talk about the USMNT going into Nations League and what it means for the World Cup. Red talks about going to the Rapids 2 game on Saturday, how the team is playing, and whats not working. We try to diagnose and figure out if MLS Next Pro is/will be better than an affiliation with a USL Championship team. Then we discuss how Colorado should handle the final six games with Auston Trusty and the transition of losing him.

Holding The High Line is an independent soccer podcast focused on the Colorado Rapids of MLS and a member of the Beautiful Game Network. If you like the show, please consider subscribing to us on your preferred podcatcher, giving us a review, and tell other Rapids fans about us. It helps a ton. Visit bgn.fm for a bunch of other great podcasts covering soccer in North America.

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Matt Pollard is the Site Manager for Last Word on Soccer and an engineer by day. A Colorado Convert, he started covering the Colorado Rapids as a credentialed member of the press in 2016, though hes watched MLS since 96. When hes not watching or writing about soccer, hes being an outdoorsman (mostly skiing and hiking) in this beautiful state or trying a new beer. For some reason, he thought that starting a podcast with Mark was a good idea and he cant figure out how to stop this madness. He also hosts Last Word SC Radio.

Mark Goodman, the artist formally known as Rapids Rabbi, moved to Colorado in 2011. Shortly thereafter he went to Dicks Sporting Goods Park, saw Lee Nguyen dribble a ball with the silky smoothness of liquid chocolate cascading into a Bar Mitzvah fountain, and promptly fell head over heels in love with domestic soccer. When not watching soccer or coaching his sons U-8 team, hes generally studying either Talmud or medieval biblical exegesis. Which explains why he watches so much MLS, probably. Having relocated to Pittsburgh in 2019, he covers the Pittsburgh Riverhounds of the USL for Pittsburgh Soccer Now.

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken, Last Word on Soccer.

Read more from the original source:

Holding The High Line: Rapids 2 in focus, Auston Trusty leaving - Last Word On Sports

Warning: The following contains graphic imagery and language.

Last week, I conducted an informal survey: I asked five Ashkenazi friends and five Iranian-Jewish friends in Los Angeles if they had heard of Kristallnacht, the antisemitic pogrom that occurred in Germany in 1938. All of them said yes.

I then asked if they had heard of the Farhud, a deadly pogrom against Iraqi Jews during June 1-2, 1941, in which hundreds were murdered and raped. Out of ten friends in Los Angeles, nine of them had not heard of the Farhud.

And then, a strange thing happened: I asked ten friends in Israel if they had ever heard of the Farhud, given that hundreds of thousands of Israelis have grandparents or great-grandparents of Iraqi Jewish descent. Nine of them also responded that they didnt know what it was.

Im not an Iraqi Jew (Im a neighboring cousin from Iran), but as of the 81st anniversary of the Farhud last week, Im on a mission to expose as many Jews and non-Jews to the atrocities that were committed against this once-vibrant community as a result of a heinous combination of Muslim antisemitism and Nazi propaganda.

The Farhud (pogrom in Arabic) occurred in Baghdad during the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Muslim Iraqi mobs screamed Cutal al yehud (Slaughter the Jews!) and butchered nearly 200 Jews (some estimate that number is closer to 1,000). Hundreds were raped; over 1,000 were injured and over 900 homes were destroyed. The Farhud was the closest Iraqi Jews came to experiencing their own mini version of a genocide. One thing is certain: Jews who survived the Farhud were traumatized for the rest of their lives.

Shortly before the Farhud, assailants had compiled a list of Jewish homes and businesses. Jewish leaders begged local authorities for mercy, but to no avail. Jews were beheaded; Jewish babies were slaughtered (some Jewish family threw their babies over rooftops, hoping they would be caught in blankets below to save them); murderers waived severed limbs and other body parts, including in one case, the breast of a young Jewish woman (who had been raped). Perpetrators raped Jewish girls at a local school. Six girls were actually abducted to a village nine miles away.

Learning about the Farhud is not for those with weak stomachs. But here are some key facts about this dark moment in the history of Middle Eastern Jewry that everyone should know:

Nazism Found An Enthusiastic Partner In Arab Nationalism

The Middle East and North Africa were an enormous hub of Nazi activity, and that included actual SS boots on the ground (particularly as far as Nazi masterminds who collaborated with Egyptian leaders were concerned). Many of us have seen the infamous 1941 photo of Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, in conversation with Adolf Hitler.

Hundreds of Libyan Jews starved to death in Italian-controlled Libya during the Holocaust; most Jews in Cyrenaica were sent to the Jado concentration camp (250 kilometers south of Tripoli). Hundreds were sent to camps in Europe. The Nazis had a long-term strategy for the Middle East, and that included propagandizing Berlin as a friend of downtrodden Muslims everywhere. If they could successfully align with fanatics in the region, Nazi leaders surmised, they might convince jihadists to actually fight Germanys enemies (beyond Jews).

Before the Farhud, the Nazis began to broadcast Radio Berlin in Arabic throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Hitlers Mein Kampf was not only translated into Arabic, but printed in a local Baghdad newspaper, thanks to Fritz Grobba, Germanys charge daffaires in Baghdad. In 1933, he bought Al-Alem Al Arabi (a Christian Iraqi paper) and published Arabic translations of Mein Kampf in installments.

Whereas the Nazis had Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend), Iraq created the Futtuwa, a pre-military youth movement that was active in the 1930s and 1940s. These youth attended the Nazi rally in Nuremberg in 1938; when they returned home, they popularized a chant in Arabic: Long live Hitler, the killer of insects and Jews.

For further information on Nazi activity in the Middle East, I recommend reading Nazis, Islamists, and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Barry Rubin and Wolfgang G. Schwanitz (Yale University Press, 2014).

Where Theres Anti-Zionism, Jews Will Always Be Killed

Im particularly fascinated by one aspect of the Farhud thats worth sharing: In 1941, seven years before the establishment of the modern State of Israel (which antisemites continue to use as justification for isolating, defaming and attacking Jews today), Muslim Iraqis who led the pogroms accused Iraqi Jews of being Zionist sympathizers in the conflict between Jews and Arabs in then-Mandatory Palestine. They also accused Iraqi Jews of working with the British in colonizing Iraq. Does any of this sound familiar? Im reminded of post-revolutionary Iran (1979-today), whose regime identifies Zionism as a capital offense. Maybe thats why every few months, theres a story about a Jewish leader in Iran denouncing Israel publicly or proudly attending an anti-Israel rally.

Heres the worst part about Iraqs history of violent antisemitism today: Whereas other Arab countries, including the former behemoth of Arab nationalism, Egypt, have made peace with Israel, two weeks ago, Iraqs Parliament passed a law criminalizing relations with the Zionist entity. Anyone who violates this new law, including businessmen, faces life imprisonment or even the death sentence. The government said it was only reflecting the will of the people. Hundreds gathered in Tahrir Square (yes, it shares its name with the famous Tahrir Square from Egypts 2011 revolution) in central Baghdad to celebrate the passing of the law.

Hows that for progress 81 years after the country shamefully allowed for the mass slaughter of its ancient Jewish population in Baghdad? Even the regime in Iran had the decency to criminalize Zionism over 40 years ago, rather than today.

For The Last Time, Jews Are Not White.

I can nearly guarantee that certain American celebrities who believe that the Holocaust was a white-on-white crime dont know that Nazism spread its hideous tentacles throughout the Middle East.

I can nearly guarantee that certain American celebrities who believe that the Holocaust was a white-on-white crime dont know that Nazism spread its hideous tentacles throughout the Middle East. Ive also never believed that Jews are white (if thats the case, why are we the target of white supremacists?), but I challenge anyone who weaponizes race against Jews by calling us white and privileged to see photos of brown-skinned Iraqi Jews running out of their destroyed homes in 1941 and screaming in horror, and to tell me that these Jews are white (or privileged).

And then, theres the deeply offensive and untruthful argument that Israel ethnically-cleanses Palestinians. Do you know which once-thriving Jewish population was actually driven out completely from the Arab Middle East? Iraqi Jews. And if you want to get technical, Libyan Jews. And Syrian Jews. And Yemenite Jews.

Three to five Jews remain in Iraq, from a former population of over 135,000 before the Farhud (including 90,000 who lived in Baghdad). Forty or so Jews remain in Syria; while six Jews are still in Yemen. These are estimates and some of the numbers might actually be smaller.

Not a single Jew remains in Libya. Im not a mathematician, but something about that wreaks of ethnic cleansing.

Anyone who knows even minimally about Jewish history knows that modern-day Iraq was one of the most important epicenters of Jewish learning. The Babylonian Talmud was completed there, and Jews have had a continuous presence in the region since they were brought there as captives after the Babylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judea in the sixth-century BCE. That means that for nearly 3,000 years, Jews lived in present-day Iraq. Again, only three to five Jews remain there today.

The Farhud not only marked the beginning of a mass exodus of Iraqi Jews from the country, but tragically, it also marked the end of an ancient Jewish community.

The Farhud not only marked the beginning of a mass exodus of Iraqi Jews from the country, but tragically, it also marked the end of an ancient Jewish community.

I shouldnt have been surprised that my Israeli friends had not heard of the Farhud. A recent poll found that half of Israelis that were polled knew about Kristallnacht; only seven percent had ever heard of the Farhud. That, in itself, is another tragedy.

For more information on the Farhud, read Edwin Blacks The Farhud Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust (Dialog Press, 2010).

Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker, and civic action activist. Follow her on Twitter @TabbyRefael

Read more from the original source:

Have You Ever Heard of the Farhud? - Jewish Journal