Pride Shabbat D'var Torah on B'-Ha'alotkha – Numbers 8-12
Rabbi Binyamin Biber rav.bibi@verizon.net - 6/12/09
Machar: The Washington DC Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism www.machar.org
This week's Torah portion or parashah
is from the book of Numbers, chapters 8 through 12.
This Torah portion is called B'-Ha'alotkha,
meaning "in your raising up"
and referring to Aaron raising up the large candelabra or m'norah in
the tent of meeting, the space in which the ark of the covenant
supposedly was kept until the Jerusalem Temple was built.
There a few elements in this week's Torah reading that stand out
as being of some special interest to us on this Shabbat
which we celebrate as part of our Pride weekend events.
First, is the concept of equality before the law.
In Numbers 9.14 we find the statement:
"One law shall you have for the stranger & the citizen of the land."
The word "stranger" here in Hebrew is ger,
and refers to a sojourner or resident foreigner.
While there are debates about what exactly is meant by this term,
the idea of equality before the law is clear just the same.
So as the struggle for equal marriage laws continue,
we can note that the idea of equality before the law is expressed in
the Bible, in tension with anti-homosexual bigotry.
Second, there's an interesting reference in Numbers 10.14
to the "flag of camp" – degel mahaneh,
though here the Bible is referring to a shmatah of tribal colors,
while we celebrate our Shabbat with the rainbow flag,
surely the modern "flag of camp."
Third, we find mention of "the mixed multitude" – h'asaphsuph –
in Numbers 11.4, where there is widespread discontent
with the menu of manna everyday,
and an evidently divinely frowned upon
desire for more diverse fare.
This desire is variously rendered in English translations as
"falling into lust" or "lustful craving,"
yet the Hebrew hit-`avu ta`avah just means
they "desired a desire" or "felt an appetite."
And what did they want?
Cucumbers, melons, garlic, leek, onions, and fish the food of the Egyptian working class, not palace fare.
Yet, their simple complaints about lack of variety in their diet
was punished by divine wrath – the usual smiting, alas.
By the way, this is where we get the image
of the "fleshpots of Egypt" –
sharply if flatly contrasted with manna as the bread of freedom.
Nu, why not the spicy humus and fresh pita of freedom?
Fourth, we find in Numbers 11.11-15 Moses kvetching to the deity
about the Hebrews & mix multitude kvetching to him all the time.
So what's new? Jews kvetch! Big deal!
Evidently it was such a big deal that Moses says to the deity,
"This is too much! Just kill me already!"
So God decides it's too tough to find good prophets like Mo,
and therefore appoints a prophet committee of 70 elders
to share in Moses' responsibilities, inspiration, and prophesies.
(11.16-17, 25)
Joshua and others find this a bit off-putting and kvetch to Moses,
of course, but Moses simply says,
"Would that all people were prophets!" (11.29)
Fifth, and strangely enough after this last statement,
Moses siblings Miriam and Aaron kvetch to God –
again, more kvetching about Moses marrying a Cushite woman.
There's debate about who these Cushites were,
but the options are Ethiopians, Southern Egyptians, Sudanese, and
Northern Arabians.
Take your pick.
Anyway, Moses previously married a Midianite woman, Tsipporah,
so you'd think the family would have gotten used to Moses being
open to dating and marrying non-Hebrew women.
Evidently not.
This Torah reading is ironically appropriate for this day, June 12th,
because 42 years ago today in 1957,
the US Supreme Court's Loving vs Virginia decision
which declared unconstitutional
laws banning interracial marriages.
This decision was a landmark of the earlier Civil Rights Movt
just as we are today seeing several states –
by court decisions and legislation –
moving our nation once again toward marriage equality
for all couples.
Finally, let me add a couple notes from the prophetic reading
for this Shabbat from the Book of Zechariah.
There we find another call for equality and harmony,
"You will call everyone your neighbor,
each under their vine and fig tree" (3.10) –
these being signs of abundance and peace.
Likewise, we find an inspiring vision
proclaiming that constructive change
"Not by might, and not by power, but by a spirit" that unites us all.
Such a spirit of positive change is growing in our nation
and in the world. Let us all do our parts in helping it spread
and bring the much needed progress we all desire.
Let me turn now to a few more points
that reach beyond this week's Torah portion
and relate to our topic of LGBT rights and liberation.
The single "word of Torah" - d'var Torah –
which has impacted the lives of queer people
is also one of the most misunderstood and misused.
The word is "to'evah" - most often translated as an "abomination" or
"abhorrence" - something loathed.
It is also found in its plural forms - "to'evot" and "to'avot."
Its root letters are tav / ayin / vet.
There are no words like "homosexual" or "homophile"
in biblical Hebrew specifically meaning sex or love
between people of the same sex.
The Bible refers not to identities,
but only to particular behaviors in particular contexts.
To'evah is used frequently in the biblical book of Leviticus
in reference to many prohibited activities –
from eating certain foods (Lev 20.25)
and engaging in certain sex acts (Ezek 16.25, 36, & 52)
considered "ritually unclean" to having certain diseases (Psalms 14.3 & 53.4),
from idols (Lev 19.4, Deut 7.26) and idolatrous sacrifices (Psalms 106.40)
to King David's taking a census (1 Chronicles 21.6).
The prohibitions of same-sex contact between males
in Leviticus 18.22 and 20.13 are surrounded by a large variety
of other prohibited activities involving rituals, idols, fortune-telling,
menstruation, castration, sexuality, diet, agriculture, clothing,
cutting the hair or skin, and interpersonal behavior.
Shortly after each of the prohibitions of sex between males
are passages giving an over-arching rationale for these various laws.
The text attributed all of the mentioned acts
to the previous inhabitants of Canaan who were killed or expelled
from the land specifically because they engaged in these acts
(Lev 18.24-30 & 20.22-24).
The laws aim to set the Hebrews "apart from the other peoples"
(Lev 20.24 & 20.26) so they will belong to and serve Yahweh exclusively.
These and other similar laws were believed to foster and
maintain the proper order of the universe,
while not abiding by them created chaos and danger.
Interestingly, many of them relate to fertility beliefs
regarding humans and agriculture.
The biblical covenants between Yahweh
and the Hebrew patriarchs and Moses all relate to promises
of fertility and land. Not following the laws
of the agreed upon covenants result in great misfortune,
including the loss of offspring, fertility, and land.
When Adam and Eve disobey Yahweh, he takes the Garden of Eden
and immortality away from them, cause Eve to bear children in pain,
and Adam to endure the hardship of work.
When the peoples of Canaan and later the Hebrews
act in ways Yahweh disapproves,
he makes the land of Canaan "spew them out" (Lev 18.24-28 & 20.22).
Due to the various uses of the word to'evah,
and due to the contexts in which it is used,
most modern scholars view to'evah as describing an act prohibited
because of being linked - even if mistakenly –
with other non-Hebrew Near Eastern peoples
and their cultural and ritual practices.
Curiously, there is no clear prohibition of sex between females,
nor is all same-sex contact between males prohibited.
The eminent biblical commentator, Rashi,
living in 11th century France, wrote that Leviticus 20.13
forbids males from engaging in anal sex,
comparing the act to inserting " a painting stick into a tube."
The 2nd century commentator Bar Kapparah is cited
in the Babylonian Talmud as claiming that the word to'evah
comes from the phrase "to'eh `atah ba`" –
meaning "because of it, you go astray" (N'darim 51b).
While not an accurate account of the origins of the word,
his interpretation was accepted and built upon by others
who saw sex between men not as itself sinful,
but rather as distracting men from procreative sex
linked to the fertility covenants (Pesikta Zutarta; Sepher ha-Hinnukh 209).
The Hebrew Bible even contains passages
approvingly describing a male touching the genitals of another male
in an oath-taking ritual.
In Genesis 24.2, Abraham's servant touches Abraham in this way,
and in Genesis 47.29, Joseph touches Jacob as he makes an oath.
The phrase is "sim-na` yadkha tahat y'rekhi" –
meaning "please put your hand under my loin."
"Loin" here means the "seat of creative power"
according to modern biblical translation scholars
Brown, Driver, & Briggs,
and according to 15th century Portuguese scholar and statesman
Abravanel who describes this oath-taking act as involving
touching the penis where circumcised to link the oath
with the covenant of the circumcision.
The circumcision itself is linked to ancient fertility practices,
making the head of the penis appear without a foreskin
as it does when erect and ready for procreation.
There's also the matter of Jonathan and David,
both apparently bisexual, both married with children,
David having a number of wives.
In 1 Samuel 20:41, one reads that they "kissed one another
and wept with one another, until David enlarged."
The Hebrew term for "enlarged" is "higdil" –
a transitive verb indicating an action occuring.
David grew erect from kissing Jonathan.
I'm not making this up, folks! It's in the Bible!
David is the king claimed by traditional rabbinic Jews
as the ancestor of the messiah, and by Christians, therefore,
as the ancestor of Jesus. So, I'd just like to say that
"If getting turned on by women and men is good enough for David,
it's good enough for me!"
2 Sam 1:26-27 provides a sad ending to this love story, though.
After Jonathan's death in battle, David mourns him saying
"Very wonderful was your love to me, more than the love of women."
This may be David's attitude in the moment of his loss,
or his general attitude; we never find out.
He also went for the womenfolk with plenty of passion.
Variations in marriage and family form are found
in the descriptions of the multiple partners of Abraham, Jacob,
Moses, and kings David and Solomon, for ancient examples,
and in the continuing acceptance of polygamy
among Yemenite Jews even today.
Thus, the variations in intimacy and family forms
which queer relationships engender are rooted
in the celebrated diversity stretching from antiquity to the present.
In medieval Spain, leading rabbis wrote homoerotic poetry,
even as they guided and represented their communities.
I will mention just a few of them. Ismail ibn Nagrela ha-Nagid
was the president of the Jewish community of Spain,
and served as the "vizier" or prime minister
and military leader of Granada under the Berber king Habbus.
Nagrela was an authority on religious law, Halakhah.
He lived from 933 to 1055 CE.
Solomon ibn Gabirol was a philosopher,
and wrote the famous religious poem "Keter Malkhut"
among other works. He lived from 1021 to 1056.
Yehudah Ha-Levi was a poet and philosopher.
He wrote the famous Kuzari disputation,
and lived from 1075 to 1141.
Moses ibn Ezra wrote some of the "s'lihot" prayers
of forgivenenss. He lived from 1055 to 1135 CE.
An excerpt of his poem "The Treacherous Fawn" reads:
"Night and day I was alone with him.
I took off his clothes and he took off mine.
I sucked at his lips and he suckled me."
(printed in Twice Blessed, p 89; Chaim Shirman, translator; see bibliography)
Surprising words from a rabbi? Not in those days!
Their Muslim contemporaries were much the same.
These were married men, leaders of their communities,
who were also sexually attracted to
and apparently sexually active with other men.
Some tolerance and even celebration of such diversity
was found in several times and places.
The Muslim Golden Age of Spain and North Africa is one example,
as indicated by the afore-mentioned homoerotic rabbinical poets.
Many Muslims, Christians, and Jews of this Golden Age
drew inspiration from the Classical Hellenistic and Roman Periods from the 4th century BCE through the 4th century CE –
from the time of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander
to the time of Emperor Constantine
and the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity.
Some snippets from the Classical Periods:
Socrates is charged with and executed for corrupting the youth,
not for sleeping with the young men,
but for questioning the existence of the gods;
nude wrestling tournaments are all the rage;
Sappho is writing about swinging both ways on the Isle of Lesbos;
and then there's those little phrases that say so much –
"doin' it Greek style" and "when in Rome...." Need I say more?
In his book Christianity, Social Tolerance, & Homosexuality,
John Boswell wrote that
Most societies... which freely tolerate religious diversity
also accept sexual variation, and the fate of Jews and Gay
people has been almost identical throughout European
history, from early Christian hostility to extermination in
concentration camps... even the same methods of
propaganda were used against Jews and Gay people picturing them as animals bent on the destruction of the
children of the majority. (p 14; in Rogow, p 79)
Much more could be said - and will be said –
on the issues of tolerance and diversity,
and on the issues of sexuality, religion, and politics –
all the things one is often warned to avoid discussing,
particularly when first meeting a lover's family of origin.
Among our kind of "family," however,
these topics are certainly not avoided,
but are rather the subjects of our open and amusing intercourse.
Isn't it divine?
A last word for this d'var Torah - this word of instruction.
An alternate form of to'evah is "ta`avah."
This alternate form has the root tav / `aleph / vet –
it has a different silent middle letter. No big deal.
Except that it also has an alternate meaning:
it is translated as "abomination," "abhorrence," and such,
but also as "a longing or desire."
In Psalm 119.20, "ta`avah" is used to mean "a longing" –
for Yahweh's commands no less!
In Hebrew, "berakh" can mean "he blessed" or "he cursed."
So it is that our queer sexualities can be encountered
as longings for love like any other - or sadly misperceived
as loathesome by so many who have been misled.
Nevertheless, we know in our hearts that our love is "divine."
Our love is a "b'rakhah," a "blessing"
in the earliest sense of the word: it is a "strengthening" for us.
Through our love, we will transform the curses of abhorrence –
of ignorance, fear, and hatred - into blessings of strength –
of knowledge, courage, and love.
May all once cursed with fear and loathing
be now blessed with solidarity and love.
May it be so. May we all help to make it so. Amen.