Emōr and Defying bad laws / אמר און אַקעגנשטעלן זיך שלעכטע חוקים
The only way to "meet the moment" is through material action
This is a weekly series
of parsha dvarim written by a frum, atheist, transsexual anarchist. It's crucial in these times that we resist the narrative that Zionism owns Judaism. Our texts are rich—sometimes opaque, but absolutely teeming with wisdom and fierce debate. It's the work of each generation to extricate meaning from our cultural and religious inheritance. I aim to offer comment which is true to the source material (i.e. doesn't invert or invent meaning to make us more comfortable) and uses Torah like a light to reflect on our modern times.
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Content note: Fascism; sexism; ableism; the death penalty
If I'm honest, I believe most of us are failing the moment.
Fascism is here.
Most "actions" against it are planned arrests as failed bids to get media attention. Maybe I live in a bubble, but I think "raising awareness" is unhelpful: most people are aware of the erosion of our civil liberties, the raids on activists' houses, the trumped-up charges of "terrorism", the deportations, and the genocide in Palestine. People who are not aware are committed to ignorance.
It's our duty to actively resist it and undermine fascism. Our halakhik inheritance with this parsha is to find ways to stop violence, even when violence is decreed from Hashem. Kol v'khomer—how much more so—when the decrees come from presidents and judges.
Parsha summary
Hashem gives Moishe more rules for the ritual purity of the Kohanim: they may only have selective contact with the dead; they must marry virgins; if a Koheyn has a physical "defect" (מוּם) like blindness, he is not fit to offer certain sacrifices, giving us difficult questions about disability and ritual participation.
This parsha also contains verses we read in shul on every yontif, because it lists all the yom tovim: Shabos, Peysakh, Shavuos, Rosh Hashono, Yom Kipur, and Sukos. We're instructed to count the Omer (remember that tonight!).
We're given legal punishments for transgressions: an eye for an eye, restitution for a killed animal, the death penalty for murder. All of these criminal laws and punishments are ripe for analysis, but I'm especially interested in the death penalties for harlotry (burning) and blasphemy (stoning).
Death by stoning and burning are both quite extreme punishments (the Rabbis argue back and forth about which is more severe). Difficult verses might compel us to change the subject and talk about nicer things like Jewish time, or leaving the corners of our fields for the hungry stranger, or how we care for the dead. These are subjects worthy of discussion, but I think it's insulting to shy away from the ugly parts of our text and history. Shying away enables fascism.
One method of engagement is to find loopholes to avoid fulfilling commandments which we know are wrong.
Art by William Blake: "Satan, Sin, and Death: Satan Comes to the Gates of Hell" in a collection of illustrations of Milton's Paradise Lost, the Butts set, London, 1808; The Whore of Babylon", London, 1809.
Harlotry
Vayikro 21:9
Rashi defines a harlot, or זנה, as "a woman who had sexual intercourse with an Israelite who is forbidden to her as a husband". The Rabbis clarify that a daughter of a Koheyn is only eligible for the death penalty by fire if she is already married, but not if she is simply betrothed—and that a betrothed woman who commits adultery, whether the daughter of a Koheyn or not, is sentenced to death not by fire but by stoning.
But, sentencing any woman to death for adultery requires either two witnesses (more on that below) or, failing that, a ritual called "bitter waters", described later in Torah (Bmidbar 5:12–31). The accused must make an oath before a Koheyn, drink water mixed with dust, and is only found guilty if it "causes [her] thigh to sag and [her] belly to distend". This elaborate ceremony is a means of avoiding hurting women, and exonerating them from the jealousy of their husbands.
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