א"ר חמא ברבי חנינא מאי דכתיב (משלי יח, כא) מות וחיים ביד לשון וכי יש יד ללשון לומר לך מה יד ממיתה אף לשון ממיתה אי מה יד אינה ממיתה אלא בסמוך לה אף לשון אינה ממיתה אלא בסמוך לה ת"ל חץ שחוט לשונם
Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Death and life are in the hand of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Does the tongue have a hand? Rather the verse comes to tell you that just as a hand can kill, so too a tongue can kill. If you were to claim that just as the hand kills only from close by, so too the tongue kills only from close by, therefore the verse states: “Their tongue is a sharpened arrow” (Jeremiah 9:7). The tongue kills like an arrow that is fired from a bow, at a great distance.
"Because of the Cushite woman" Regardless of whether Moses' wife was Ethiopian or Midianite, the objection to her, it is implied was ethnic. Strikingly, the rabbis raise no objection to her Cushite origin but, to the contrary, defend her, claiming that Moses refused to have sexual intercourse after his descent from Sinai....
"Snow White Scales" Rather, scaly as snow. According to the rabbis, the chief cause of leprosy is defamation or slander. If Cushite means Ethiopian then the whiteness of Miriam would be a fit punishment for objecting to Moses' dark-skinned wife. However, the simile of snow indicates the flakiness associated with the disease, not whiteness.
כי אשה כושית לקח. לפי הפשט משמעות כושית גויה. אלא שנתגיירה. וכסבורים אהרן ומרים דמש״ה פירש משה ממנה. משום שאינה לפי כבודו של משה. שתהי׳ אשתו שלא מיחוסי ישראל. ודברו בזה שמכ״מ אינו נכון. אחר שכבר לקח וידע שהיתה גויה ולא הטעתו. וא״כ אינו ראוי לצערה ולפרוש ממנה.
According to the simple meaning of the text, a gentile black woman. But who had converted. And Aaron and Miriam thought that this was why Moshe separated himself from her. That his wife was not of Israelite lineage. And they were saying that under no circumstances is this proper. After he had taken her and knew she was a non-Israelite and she didn't deceive him. Therefore it's not fair to make her sad and separate himself from her.
1. What is meant by this statement?
2. How are hands murderous? How can speech be as murderous as hands?
3. When was the last time you spoke out against injustice?
How do you react to the phrase "silence is violence?"
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| If a person of learning participates in public affairs and serves as judge or arbiter, that person gives stability to the land... But if a person sits in their home and says to themselves, “What have the affairs of society to do with me?... Why should I trouble myself with the people’s voices of protest? Let my soul dwell in peace!”—if one does this, they overthrow the world. [translation by Hazon] |
מַלְכָּהּ שֶׁל תּוֹרָה, בְּמִשְׁפָּט שֶׁהוּא עוֹשֵׂה, מַעֲמִיד אֶת הָאָרֶץ... אִם מֵשִׂים אָדָם עַצְמוֹ כִּתְרוּמָה הַזּוּ שְׁמוּשְׁלֶכֵת בְּזָוִיוֹת הַבָּיִת וְאוֹמֵר: מָה לִי בְּטוֹרַח הַצִּבּוּר ?מָה לִי בְּדִינֵיהֶם? מָה לִי לִשְׁמוֹעַ קוֹלָם? שָׁלוֹם עָלֶיךָ נַפְשִׁי! הֲרֵי זֶה מַחֲרִיב אֶת הָעוֹלָם.
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2. What does this text say about the relationship between power and responsibility?
רַב וְרַבִּי חֲנִינָא וְרַבִּי יוֹחָנָן וְרַב חֲבִיבָא מַתְנוּ: בְּכוּלֵּיהּ דְּסֵדֶר מוֹעֵד כָּל כִּי הַאי זוּגָא חַלּוֹפֵי רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן וּמְעַיֵּיל רַבִּי יוֹנָתָן. כׇּל מִי שֶׁאֶפְשָׁר לִמְחוֹת לְאַנְשֵׁי בֵיתוֹ וְלֹא מִיחָה — נִתְפָּס עַל אַנְשֵׁי בֵיתוֹ. בְּאַנְשֵׁי עִירוֹ — נִתְפָּס עַל אַנְשֵׁי עִירוֹ. בְּכָל הָעוֹלָם כּוּלּוֹ — נִתְפָּס עַל כָּל הָעוֹלָם כּוּלּוֹ.
וּבְמָקוֹם שֶׁאֵין אֲנָשִׁים, הִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִהְיוֹת אִישׁ:
In a place where there are no men (nobody is acting like a human being,) strive to be a man.
2. What are the values this text offers that are meant to guide "a person’s actions toward his neighbors and acquaintances, all of his commercial activity, and all social and political institutions"?
3. How are we, as a society, measuring up to Ramban's standards?
2. If we truly followed this dictum, how would our daily behavior change? How would our government policies change - foreign and domestic?
3. What other social justice themes emerge from this text?
והחזקת בו - אל תניחהו שירד ויפול ויהיה קשה להקימו, אלא חזקהו משעת מוטת היד. למה זה דומה, למשאוי שעל החמור, עודהו על החמור אחד תופס בו ומעמידו, נפל לארץ, חמשה אין מעמידין אותו:
Do not let him slip down until he falls completely, for then it will be difficult to raise him; rather, strengthen him as he begins to fall. To what is this comparable? To a burden upon an donkey. While it is still on the donkey, one person can hold it and set it in place. If it falls to the earth, even five people cannot set it back. [AJWS translation]
1. How do R. Yehuda Nesiah and the Rabbis each understand the role of leadership?
2. How are societies influenced by their leaders, and how are leaders influenced by their societies?
As a Jew of Color, I Back Black Lives Matter But Not Its Approach to Israel, Which Erases Jewish Experience
It would be easy to subsume one of my identities to serve the other, but I choose instead to build bridges
BY
No one can deny the Black Lives Matters Movement is crucial, as hardly a day goes by in the last weeks and months without a Black life expiring before our very eyes on social media. However, I can’t help but wonder if, as BLM extends its focus internationally, many Jews of Color, and particularly Black Jews, are being expected to choose BLM over Israel and their Jewish experience. That would be a tragedy.
That same spirit drives me now. As a Jew of Color, I cannot support BLM’s platform in its entirety. I choose discomfort. BLM has the potential to create a dialogue which advances its noble vision of “a world in which the full humanity and dignity of all people is recognized.” The international stage is now open for BLM to advocate policy changes for the lawful and dignified treatment of Black people worldwide. But meaningful change requires creating an atmosphere where dialogue is welcome, not one that shuts it down, as groups like the BDS movement seek to do in boycotting Israel and the Jews who understand the significance of its existence. Change does not come from weaponizing Jewish suffering like the Holocaust and turning it against the Jewish state by wrongly accusing it of genocide. Rather, BLM’s powerful vision will be realized through an open atmosphere
| Translation | Original |
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Prayer is our greatest privilege. To pray is to stake our very existence, our right to live, on the truth and on the supreme importance of that which we pray for. Prayer, then, is radical commitment, a dangerous involvement in the life of God. In such awareness we pray…We do not stand alone...God is present wherever men are afflicted. Where is God present now? We do not know how to cry, we do not know how to pray! Our conscience is so timid, our words so faint, our mercy so feeble. O Father, have mercy upon us. Our God, add our cries uttered here to the cries of the bereaved, crippled, and dying over there. Have mercy upon all of us. Help us to overcome the arrogance of power. |
2. What power dynamics does he address?
3. What themes emerge from this text?