Unscrolled : 54 Writers and Artists Wrestle With the Torah (9780761178743)

by Bennett, Roger (EDT)

  Discharged

  The Lord then briefs the brothers on the tender subject of genital discharge, which is considered unclean. Not only is the infected man to wash his clothing and bedding, but anyone he may have spat on has to do likewise, and any earthen vessel he touched has to be broken. After seven days, the infected individual shall bathe and offer two birds as a sin offering.

  A gentleman who has experienced an emission of semen is to bathe but still remains unclean until the evening. If he has enjoyed sexual relations with a woman, they both will be considered unclean until the evening. A menstruating woman is considered impure for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until the evening, unless it is a man enjoying sexual relations with her, in which case he too is considered unclean for seven days. A woman who bleeds when not menstruating must be monitored; she is considered unclean as long as her discharge lasts.

  God concludes by warning Moses to make sure that the Israelites guard against disease, so they do not die by defiling the Tabernacle.

  Tim Samuels

  Prescription

  Patient: Mr. Levite

  Medication to be collected by: Moses (Levite family friend)

  Condition: Patient claims to be suffering from leprosy. Closer examination reveals merely patches of dry skin around the elbows and knees, and some flakiness around the nose. Probably caused by excessive time recently spent wandering around the wilderness without adequate moisturization. However, patient was insistent on full course of treatment, lest the condition develop into full-blown lesions.

  Treatment: When the symptoms appear to be improving, gather two clean birds (living), cedar wood, something crimson, and a sprig of hyssop. Slaughter one bird, and dip the other bird in the blood, cedar, crimson, and hyssop. Sprinkle the blood on the affected areas seven times and set the living bird free. Wash all clothes, shave off hair, take a long bath, and sleep away from home for seven days. On the seventh day, bathe, and shave off all hair (again), including eyebrows and beard. The following day, sacrifice a lamb and put blood and oil on the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe. If insurance policy does not cover cost of the lamb, Medicare turtledoves or pigeons can be used instead. (All lambs free of charge in Europe, Canada, and other socialist enclaves.)

  Not to be taken with: The following may exacerbate the condition: idol worship, unchastity, bodily violence, profaning God, blasphemy, robbery, usurping a dignity, overweening pride, evil speech, and casting an evil eye. Haughtiness and general immorality are best avoided, too.

  Long-term side effects: Prolonged obsession with obscure cleansing rituals from 1440 b.c. onward could lead to endemic hypochondria among future generations and an absurd though comforting overrepresentation among medical professionals.

  “Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abhorrence.” —Leviticus 18:22

  AHAREI MOT (“After death”)

  Leviticus 16:1–18:30

  The long-suffering brother. after the death of Aaron’s two sons, the Lord warns Moses to forbid his brother from freely entering the Tabernacle’s inner sanctuary, known as the Holy of Holies. Exposure to God’s presence will kill him, unless he is appropriately clothed and has presented a complicated series of sin offerings and burnt offerings, then laid his hands on the head of a goat and dispatched it into the wilderness to carry away the symbolic sins of the Israelites.

  God then commands Moses to make sure Aaron sacrifices only sheep and goats at the Tent of Meeting. Anyone making sacrifices elsewhere is to be cut off from the people. In addition, anyone eating an animal carcass is to be deemed unclean until he has undergone the purification process.

  The Naked Truth

  God then makes clear that Moses must understand that the norms of Egyptian society no longer apply to the Israelites. They are to be careful about nudity and avoid seeing many of their relatives naked, including their father, mother, father’s wife, sister, half sister, granddaughter, aunt, uncle, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law. A man is also to avoid marrying both a mother and her daughter or granddaughter, or a woman and her sister in the other’s lifetime. A man is also forbidden from enjoying sexual relations with a woman during her period, or with his neighbor’s wife. He is also commanded to avoid offering his offspring to a foreign god, or committing bestiality.

  An Israelite is to consider defiling himself as grave an act as defiling the land. The tribes who preceded the Israelites may have committed abhorrent acts, but if those practices are maintained, the land will spit them out, too. Those who commit repulsive acts must be cut off from their people.

  Amichai Lau-Lavie

  becoming a man: my bar mitzvah speech thirty years later

  I grew up Orthodox in Israel. By the time of my bar mitzvah—in April 1982—I was living in New York City, a sweet kid in a polyester suit. A little on the chubby side, perhaps. My dark blond mop of hair covered a pimpled forehead.

  Being Orthodox had its advantages. Chanting my bar mitzvah portion was no problem. I rattled it off with ease. The problem was the speech. There was so much I wanted to say, but my English wasn’t good enough, and anyway, my speech had been written for me by my uncle, a renowned rabbi, who gave me a tired presentation expounding on the laws of charity.

  Thirty years on, I would like to think that if the choice had been mine, and I had been able to summon the courage, this is the speech I would have delivered at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan.

  As I write it, I imagine my forty-three-year-old self as a man in a black suit with a trim beard, standing directly behind that chubby bar mitzvah boy and visible to him alone.

  Esteemed Rabbis, My Dear Parents, Family, and Friends:

  Shabbat Shalom.

  Thank you for coming to celebrate with me on this day on which I become a man. Many of you have traveled very far to get here. My parents and I appreciate it very much.

  My bar mitzvah portion, Aharei Mot, is about laws and limitations. Laws, I understand, are necessary, because without them things go wrong, and people can get hurt. The portion begins with the reminder of what had happened to the two sons of Aaron, the high priest, and how they died by a “strange fire” because they did not observe the law, and were not careful enough when they entered the holy Tent of Meeting.

  There are many different kinds of laws in this portion. These laws, I was taught, were given to us by God so that each of us can live a holy life, as part of a bigger, healthy society.

  I started learning how to chant my Torah portion two years ago, back when we were still in Israel, from a cassette tape. I played it over and over again to memorize the verses by heart. At first, I didn’t think about what the words meant.

  But over time I started paying more attention, and I began to wonder about the meaning of some of these laws, especially the ones about not seeing people naked.

  There is a list, in this portion, of relatives that you are not supposed to see naked.

  I figured out that “seeing someone naked” was a euphemism—a biblical way to talk about “having sex.” But I couldn’t understand why some relatives are on the list and some aren’t. And I had other questions, also, about some of the other laws.

  My teacher, Rabbi Motti, didn’t want to talk about this too much. He said I’d understand when I am more grown up. When I become a man.

  And I guess that day is today.

  I don’t know if I’m as grown up as my teacher intended, and if I’m really already a man, but as I turn thirteen today, I think I’m just old enough to ask you all a question about these laws, and about one of them in particular that I’ve been thinking a lot about.

  The room is stilled. My mother, up in the women’s balcony, is looking at me with a grave, strange look. My father, in the front row, turns to my uncle, who is seated next to him, and whispers something in his ear. The uncle shakes his head, confused.

 
After the list of relatives one is not supposed to see naked there are a few other laws that describe prohibited sexual behaviors. One of the laws forbids sex with animals. Another of the laws prohibits sexual relations between men. It’s called an abomination. And whoever does it can be punished by death.

  Silence.

  I’m sorry if this is weird, and maybe neither appropriate nor the speech you expected me to make today. But a few months ago, when we walked home from this synagogue, I asked my father what it means to be a man, and he told me that to be a man is to be honest and not be afraid of the truth.

  And the truth is that I’ve been thinking a lot about this law, and it makes me afraid and ashamed to think about it and to talk about it, but it also makes me angry and confused.

  I know it’s wrong to question God and the Torah, and maybe I’m too young to understand. But I don’t think that the law about abomination is fair, and I don’t think that people who break it deserve to die.

  Today, you say, I am a man. But in fact I think that it already happened.

  I think that I became a man almost a year ago, when I kissed for the first time, and felt like a grown-up.

  I kissed another boy, a friend of mine, a friend I love.

  It made us both afraid and nervous, but it didn’t feel dirty, or wrong, or like an abomination, whatever that is. It felt holy, whatever that is. It felt right.

  DON’T LOOK UP. DON’T LOOK UP. My mouth is dry. My heart beats faster than it ever has. I am aware my life will never be the same again. I read on.

  I am not an abomination. I don’t deserve to die because of whom I love.

  You are all looking at me now, and it’s not pleasant, but I’ve held this secret, this abomination in my stomach, long enough.

  If today I am a man, then on this day I tell the truth and face it, like a man. And you, who came from near and far, if you really love me, will love me still, I hope, just the way I am.

  I know the Torah says it’s wrong.

  I know it’s disappointing to you, my parents and siblings, relatives, friends.

  But maybe the Torah does not mean what I’m feeling, because I don’t think—I don’t believe—that God thinks I am dirty, or sinning, or an abomination. Because isn’t that how God created me, in God’s own image, just the way I am?

  Today I become a man, and I am who I am, with all of my questions, and doubts, and hard choices, and truths.

  I think that’s what becoming a man is all about.

  I want to thank you, my parents, for helping me so much in preparing for today, and for being the best parents possible. I’m sorry if I surprised you now, but I hope that you understand. Thank you to my brothers, and my sister, for coming all the way from Israel for this occasion and for always being there for me.

  My family are all looking at the floor.

  Thank you for listening, and for joining me on this most important day of my life.

  Shabbat Shalom.

  I close the folder and dare to look up. Will somebody say something? Someone please hug me. My mother is crying. My father still stares down. Don’t hate me. Please say something.

  And there I stand, thirty years later, placing a hand on my thirteen-year-old self’s shoulder and whispering, softly, “It’s going to be all right.”

  “You shall not let your cattle mate with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; you shall not put on cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material.” —Leviticus 19:19

  K’DOSHIM (“Holy ones”)

  Leviticus 19:1–20:27

  The holy lifestyle: the lord outlines the ways the Israelites are to pursue a holy life in the style of God, based around a catalog of loosely connected behaviors, starting with the basics—honoring parents, keeping the Sabbath, shunning idols, and following sacrifice protocol.

  Appropriate harvesting techniques are then defined. Israelites are to leave the edges of their fields unharvested, and in the vineyards, fallen fruit is to be left ungathered. The intention of both laws is the same—to create a food supply for the poor.

  Stealing, fraud, robbery, deceitful dealings, and withholding wages are prohibited. Ditto for making a false oath in God’s name or swearing profanely.

  Insulting the deaf or intentionally taking advantage of the blind is forbidden.

  Fair judgment is expected. Decisions shall neither intentionally favor the poor nor corruptly support the rich. No one shall benefit from the suffering of their fellow countrymen.

  One Israelite can accuse another, but not falsely. Taking vengeance or bearing grudges is not permitted. They are to love others in the same way they love themselves.

  Odd combinations are not to be fostered: Different beasts shall not be mated. Two different kinds of seeds shall not be sown in the same field. Two different kinds of material shall not be woven into a piece of cloth.

  If a man has sexual relations with another man’s slave, he will not be put to death as would be the case if it was someone else’s wife, because the woman is not free. A sin offering will suffice to rectify the situation.

  Once they enter the land, any new tree that is planted cannot be harvested for three years. In the fourth year, the first fruit must be offered to the Lord before the rest can be eaten.

  A rapid round of prohibited acts is then set out:

  No animal can be eaten along with its blood.

  Soothsaying is outlawed.

  Men are not to shave off side-growths from their heads or beards.

  No tattoos or gashes can be made in the flesh.

  Daughters cannot be turned into whores, thus creating a depraved land.

  Sabbaths and the sanctuary must be revered.

  Ghosts cannot be engaged with.

  The old have to be respected.

  Foreigners are to be afforded the same rights as citizens, because the Israelites were once seen as foreigners in Egypt.

  Merchants cannot employ false measures and weights.

  Punishment . . . and reward

  God proceeds to stipulate a slew of punishments to Moses:

  Any Israelite or visitor worshipping false foreign gods like Molech shall be punished with death by stoning.

  A person who communes with ghosts shall be cut off from the people.

  The death penalty is prescribed for those who insult their parents, commit adultery, or lie with their father’s wife or daughter-in-law. If a man lies with another man, it is to be considered an “abhorrent thing”; they both will be put to death. If a man marries both mother and daughter, all three shall be burned to death. If man or woman lies with a beast, both human and animal shall be killed.

  Incest—marrying a sister or half sister—is not permitted. Those who indulge in it shall be cut off from their people. A man who lies with a woman when she is unwell will suffer the same fate. Men shall not lie with their aunts or marry their brother’s wife. Those who do are doomed to die childless.

  The Israelites are specifically instructed to avoid the norms of the Canaanites, whom God is poised to drive out of Canaan as a result of their abhorrent behavior. God reminds Moses that the land will soon flow with the promised milk and honey. The Israelites are to be set apart from other people, and in the same way, they are to set apart the clean beast from the unclean and to carry on as a holy people.

  A. J. Jacobs

  “Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him.” —Leviticus 24:20

  EMOR (“Speak”)

  Leviticus 21:1–24:23

  Priestly rules: the lord tells moses to make sure the priests know not to come into contact with a dead body unless the deceased is a close relative: a mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or a virgin sister who remained unmarried.

  Priests are to follow a series o
f rules. They are not to cut the sides of their beards or make gashes in their own flesh. They cannot bare their heads or tear their clothes. Nor are they to take the name of God in vain.

  When it comes to marriage, it is imperative that the priest marry a virgin. Because of this, priests can never marry a prostitute or divorcee. If a priest’s daughter becomes a prostitute, she will have defiled her father and so must be burned to death.

  If a priest’s son is blind or lame, a hunchback or a dwarf, or cursed by a growth on his eye, scurvy, or “crushed testes,” the son will no longer be qualified to make offerings by fire. The defect removes his ability to come behind the curtain to the altar and to enter places that have been sanctified by God.

  If the priests are unclean, they are to avoid touching the sacrifices until they are clean again. A number of objects that can make a priest unclean are described, including a dead body, semen, or a “swarming thing.”

  Non-priests are prohibited from eating donated offerings unless they are from the priests’ slaves, or a priest’s daughter who has been widowed and become dependent on her father again.

  Sacrifice worthiness . . . plus the calendar revealed

  A sacrifice must not be defective. Defects listed include animals that are blind or maimed or suffering from crushed testes. Offerings have to be at least eight days old, but no animal can be sacrificed alongside its young.

  God then articulates the days that will be considered holy.