DOCSLIB.ORG

Mamzers and Mashiach: Illicit Sexual Encounters in the Bible

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Mamzers and Mashiach: Illicit Sexual Encounters in the Bible 3/2/2018 For Copies of These Slides Go To www.lotker.com Mamzers and Mashiach: Illicit Sexual Encounters in the Bible Rabbi Michael Lotker The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Overview of Our Class Forbidden Tales of the Bible • We will carefully read and discuss some of the most interesting stories of the Bible. • Because of their sexual nature, these are stories that you may not have studied before. • Then, we will address the question of the meaning of the stories, individually and collectively. Mamzer & Mashiach? The Word “Messiah” • What’s a Mamzer English “Messiah” is a translation of the Hebrew “Mashiach” [ – In Judaism, an illegitimate child. jhan] • Mashiach means “anointed.” – That is, the offspring of a forbidden • Kings of Israel were anointed by pouring holy relationship such as adultery, incest, etc. oil on their heads. – Not a child fostered out of wedlock • 39 references to “messiah”in Heb. Bible – According to Orthodox Jewish law, a • Not one refers to future redeemer mamzer can only marry another mamzer. • When the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek • And what is Mashiach – Messiah? (about 200 BCE), the Hebrew Mashiach became the Greek “Christos” [Χριστός]. – It’s a little more complicated. • The Greek Christos gives rise to the English – And is especially important for Christians. “Christ.” 1 3/2/2018 Jewish Understanding of Jewish Prophecies Messiah Concerning Messiah • Fully Human and Only Human • A time of peace on earth • A Political and/or Military Ruler like King David • Peace among people • Not God in any sense • Peace among animals • Not the son of God in any sense beyond the • All the world will come to know the one God idea that we are all children of God • Details unresolved • Not connected with redemption of sin • Mystics see the time as supernatural • Only we can atone for our sins • Rationalists believe that we will do the work • For sins against God, God forgives to make the world perfect • For sins against others, God cannot forgive • Many believe in a Messianic Age rather unless the person offended forgives than an individual Messiah. • Messiah not at the heart of Judaism My “Has the Messiah Why Don’t Jews Accept Come?” Test Jesus As Messiah? • Read the LA • No world peace, no Messiah Times cover to • The Second Coming not a Jewish idea cover every day • But the larger issue is whether Jesus is God for a month. • The idea of God taking human form, • If there’s no suffering with us and dying for our sins is story of war, or • Beautiful and inspiring hatred or • But not Jewish! hunger or • This is why I can have great respect for disease, the Christianity but less sympathy for “Jews for Messianic Age Jesus” and “Messianic Jews” may be here! Why Don’t Jews Accept Jesus As Messiah? Lot and His Daughters • No world peace, no Messiah • The Second Coming not a Jewish idea • But the larger issue is whether Jesus is God • The idea of God taking human form, suffering with us and dying for our sins is • Beautiful and inspiring • But not Jewish! • This is why I can have great respect for Christianity but less sympathy for “Jews for Jesus” and “Messianic Jews” • This issue is not “Who was Jesus” but “ Who is God.” 2 3/2/2018 Lot and His Daughters Lot and His Daughters Lot and His Daughters Judah and Tamar Judah and Tamar Judah and Tamar 3 3/2/2018 Judah and Tamar Judah and Tamar Keep this in mind as we The Book of Ruth read the Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth 4 3/2/2018 The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth 5 3/2/2018 The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba 6 3/2/2018 David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba 7 3/2/2018 David and Bathsheba David and Bathsheba Opening Verse of the New The Genealogy of the Testament Messiah The Genealogy of the Trip to Israel Messiah So what do you think is going on? October 18-27 - 2018 Israel • Why the strange couplings? October 15-18 – Rome Option For more info, see • Why does the NT genealogy www.lotker.com or only mention these women email Rabbi Lotker at • Is there a lesson here? [email protected] • How does this lesson apply to us, today? 8.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Getting Your Get At
    Getting your Get at www.gettingyourget.co.uk Information for Jewish men and women in England, Wales and Scotland about divorce according to Jewish law with articles, forms and explanations for lawyers. by Sharon Faith BA (Law) (Hons) and Deanna Levine MA LLB The website at www.gettingyourget.co.uk is sponsored by Barnett Alexander Conway Ingram, Solicitors, London 1 www.gettingyourget.co.uk Dedicated to the loving memory of Sharon Faith’s late parents, Maisie and Dr Oswald Ross (zl) and Deanna Levine’s late parents, Cissy and Ellis Levine (zl) * * * * * * * * Published by Cissanell Publications PO Box 12811 London N20 8WB United Kingdom ISBN 978-0-9539213-5-5 © Sharon Faith and Deanna Levine First edition: February 2002 Second edition: July 2002 Third edition: 2003 Fourth edition: 2005 ISBN 0-9539213-1-X Fifth edition: 2006 ISBN 0-9539213-4-4 Sixth edition: 2008 ISBN 978-0-9539213-5-5 2 www.gettingyourget.co.uk Getting your Get Information for Jewish men and women in England, Wales and Scotland about divorce according to Jewish law with articles, forms and explanations for lawyers by Sharon Faith BA (Law) (Hons) and Deanna Levine MA LLB List of Contents Page Number Letters of endorsement. Quotes from letters of endorsement ……………………………………………………………. 4 Acknowledgements. Family Law in England, Wales and Scotland. A note for the reader seeking divorce…………. 8 A note for the lawyer …………….…….. …………………………………………………………………………………….. 9 Legislation: England and Wales …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10 Legislation: Scotland ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 1. Who needs a Get? .……………………………………………………………………………….…………………... 14 2. What is a Get? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 14 3. Highlighting the difficulties ……………………………………………………………………………….………….. 15 4. Taking advice from your lawyer and others ……………………………………………………………………….
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Toledot Yeshu After the Affective Turn Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Fordham University
    EARLY MODERN WORKSHOP: Jewish History Resources Volume 13: History of Emotions/Emotions in History, Fordham University, New York, August 23- 24, 2016 “When Miriam heard Rabbi Shimon ben Shetah’s words she became very scared”: Emotions in the Conception Narrative of a Judaeo-Arabic Version of Toledot Yeshu Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Fordham University Introduction In 826 C.E., Agobard, bishop of Lyon, published a treatise entitled De Judaicis superstitionibus, detailing and ridiculing the ‘superstitions’ of the Jews. Within his missive, Agobard describes the tales that the Jews tell about Jesus. The details Agobard recounts make clear that the bishop is referring to a medieval Jewish parody of the story of Jesus’ life, known as Toledot Yeshu (Life of Jesus), composed in Aramaic sometime before the second half of the eighth century and later translated into Hebrew. Agobard’s successor, Amulo, also quotes Toledot Yeshu in his theological treatise of 846, Contra Iudaeos, and the Catalan Dominican Ramón Martí cites long passages of Toledot Yeshu in Latin and Hebrew in his anti-Jewish polemic Pugio fidei in 1278. The inquisitorial dossier of a Jewish convert named Pere in the fourteenth-century Crown of Aragon recounts another version of the text along with vivid descriptions of how this story of Jesus’ life was told in the kitchen of a Jewish home in the Aragonese village of La Almunia de Doña Godina to try to re-Judaize the recent apostate. The text of Toledot Yeshu is found in a seventeenth-century prayer book from Yemen, and, in addition to Aramaic and Hebrew, manuscripts of the text are preserved in Judaeo-Arabic, Judaeo-Persian, Ladino, Yiddish, and other languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Feminist Critiques of Rabbinic Law Through the Lens of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Andrea Pemberton
    The ART of Producing Responsa: Feminist Critiques of Rabbinic Law through the Lens of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Andrea Pemberton Prior to the mid-twentieth century, when assisted reproductive technologies (ART) stepped on to the medical scene, supplications and prayers to God were the primary means for religious Jewish couples to cope with the issue of infertility. However, with the advent of artificial insemination techniques, fertility hormones, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy, new medical technologies have successfully generated proactive methods for infertile individuals to have biological children of their own. Yet as these controversial technologies emerge, and prove to be of interest and use to Jewish persons, rabbis are compelled to contend with this new and challenging issue. In an effort to comply with halakha, or rabbinic law, modern rabbis have interpreted ART in various ways, putting restrictions on certain forms and implementing guidelines for their use in general. For religious Orthodox Jews, halakha is a prominent feature of everyday life that influences his or her actions and interactions in the most direct way. Because of this observance, Orthodox couples undergoing fertility treatment and utilizing ART take seriously the guidance of their rabbis, who are seen as authorities on halakha. Consequently, a potential problem that emerges from the halakhic discourse on assisted reproductive technologies is that this set of symbolically-loaded medical procedures takes place within the female body, yet is dictated by the tractates of a male-dominated religious legal system. The purpose of this paper, then, is to utilize feminist critiques of gender bias in legal systems to critically analyze Orthodox rabbinic discourse on assisted reproductive technologies.
    [Show full text]
  • Apocrypha and Toledot Yeshu in Medieval Europe
    The University of San Francisco USF Scholarship: a digital repository @ Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Theology & Religious Studies College of Arts and Sciences 3-2020 Infancy Stories of Jesus: Apocrypha and Toledot Yeshu in Medieval Europe Natalie Latteri Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.usfca.edu/thrs Part of the Christianity Commons, Cultural History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, and the Social History Commons Infancy Stories of Jesus: Apocrypha and Toledot Yeshu in Medieval Europe Natalie E. Latteri* Stories of Jesus have circulated among Christians since the first century of the Common Era. Such lore functioned to provide early Christians who were eager to learn about their savior with information about his conception, life, death, and resurrection. Some made it into the canonical New Testament Gospel accounts but much of it, for one reason or another, did not. Even so, versions of many of the stories remained popular among Christians throughout the centuries and continued to supplement the biblical text while addressing the concerns of story tellers and their audience. For purposes of this paper, the entirety of these extra-canonical Christian texts is referred to simply as apocrypha. Like the canonical Gospel accounts and later hagiography, or (semi) fictional accounts of saints’ lives, apocryphal stories of Jesus also offered entertainment and a type of model behavior for readers and listeners to emulate.1 * Natalie E. Latteri earned her PhD in History from the University of New Mexico. She teaches Jewish-Christian Relations at the University of San Francisco in the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of the Modified Mamzer in Early Rabbinic Texts
    CHAPTER TWO THE CASE OF THE MODIFIED MAMZER IN EARLY RABBINIC TEXTS Throughout cultural history the illegitimate child has been a source of concern to societies. In accordance with its needs, each society defined the illegitimate child or bastard; in most cases the illegiti- mate offspring was stigmatized. In fact, the word “bastard,” which embodies this concept of the stigmatized individual, comes from the old French ba(s)t, translated as “baggage.” Though it is unclear why an illegitimate child is called “baggage,” various explanations sug- gest that this may represent the father’s short stay in town, or the mother’s “baggage” or burden. Anthropologists define illegitimacy as a child whose conception and birth do not conform to the institutional rules governing repro- duction in the community to which its parents belong.1 In most west- ern societies the basic conceptual distinction between legitimacy and illegitimacy is an outcome of the institution of marriage. Sociologists also understand the phenomenon of stigmatization of the bastard as demonstrating the need for society to control the purity of the group. The question of who is recognized from birth as legitimate has significant economic ramifications, for example, (in tribe or clan sit- uations), inheritance and food distribution. In other words, the idea of illegitimacy is bound up with concepts of property, inheritance, domicile, lineage, naming, marriage portion and dowries.2 This is especially relevant in patriarchal societies (cf. the Jewish tradition). In addition, when society or religion place strong emphasis on the importance of family structure, any deviant activity threatening this unit is discouraged.
    [Show full text]
  • A PRIMER on JEWISH DIVORCE a Guide for the Jewish Communal Professional
    A PRIMER ON JEWISH DIVORCE A Guide for the Jewish Communal Professional IRVING A. BREITOWITZ Associate Professor of Law at the University of Maryland, Rabbinics Professor in the College of Jewish Studies Cooperative Graduate Program with George Washington University, and Rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue, Silver Spring, Maryland This article presents some basic information about the halacha of the divorce process with which Jewish communal professionals should be familiar. It describes the Get, the problems of the mamzer and the agunah, and the bet din process. istorically, divorce within the tradition­ discussion, some of this information is quite Hally close-knit and cohesive Jewish important even to Jewish clients who may family, particularly one that adhered to not normally adhere to halacha. Because halacha (Jewish law), was rare. Although women are most often affected by many of the Torah itself recognizes the possibihty of these requirements, this article assumes a divorce, it was an option that was rarely female client. employed and indeed was societally discour­ aged. This is no longer the case. Although THE GET: WHAT IS IT? the divorce rate among the most traditional­ ist segment of Jewry, the Orthodox, is still To dissolve a marriage under Jewish law, a well below that of the general popidation, it husband must present to his wife a specially is on the rise. To some extent, this is a sad prepared document known as a Get. Get is reflection of the "throw away" mentality an Aramaic term meaning "document." that pervades and afflicts all of American Although the term "Get" can be, and occa­ society—if it doesn't "pay" to fix a phone, sionally is, employed in reference to any le­ it doesn't pay to "fix" a marriage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenge of Halakhic Innovation
    The Challenge of Halakhic Innovation Benjamin Lau Bio: Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Lau is director of the Center for Judaism and Society and the founder of the Institute for Social Justice, both at Beit Morasha of Jerusalem. He is Rabbi of the Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem, and author of a multi-volume Hebrew series, Hakhimim, which was recently published in English as The Sages. Abstract: This article defines a vision of halakhah and the rabbinate that identifies with modern life and works to advance religious life within Israel and Western societies. It argues for a halakhah and a rabbinate that is sensitive to Kelal Yisrael, Zionism and Israeli democracy, the interests of women, the handicapped and that can speak to all Jews. It wishes to return Torah its original domain—every aspect of human life. A Forum of Modern Orthodox Discourse Orthodox Modern of Forum A The author rejects the superiority of halakhic stringency and advocates M e o r o t the use of hiddush to confront the realities of modern life, seeing the former as traditional halakhic methodology. Meorot 8 Tishrei 5771 © 2010 A Publication of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School The Challenge of Halakhic Innovation* Benjamin Lau “Torah Blends Well With the Land”: Modernity as a Value in the World of Torah This article1 is written following an extended broken out among various streams of Religious series of attacks against the segment of the Zionism, and most recently the modern stream religious community and its rabbinic leadership has been classified as ―neo-reformers.‖ Not that identifies with modernity and works to content with that terminology, the (right wing) advance halakhic life within the Israeli and advocates have sought to follow in the path of Western context.
    [Show full text]
  • Prenatal Screening in Jewish Law
    Journal ofmedical ethics, 1990, 16, 75-80 J Med Ethics: first published as 10.1136/jme.16.2.75 on 1 June 1990. Downloaded from Prenatal screening in Jewish law Jeremy Brown University College Hospital Medical School, London Author's abstract it is easily alleviated and future difficulties are prevented. Finally, diagnosis of a fetal abnormality Although prenatal screening is routinely undertaken as may allow the pregnancy to be terminated under the partofa woman's antenatalcare, the ethics surroundingit 1967 Abortion Act. In a recent survey of the British are complex. In thispaper, the authorexamines thejewish public, 67 per cent of those questioned were in favour position on the permissibility ofseveral tests, including ofallowing a termination at more than twenty weeks of thosefor Down's syndrome and Tay-Sachs disease, the pregnancy ifthe physical health ofthe child was shown latter being especially common in theJewish community. to be in danger (1); in 1986 approximately 2000 Clearly, the status ofthe tests depends on whether terminations were carried out because of a known or termination ofaffectedpregnancies is allowed, and suspected fetal abnormality (2). contemporary rabbinical authorities are themselves in Terminations because of fetal abnormality are dispute as to the permissibility ofterminating affected widely accepted in society but what could be their pregnancies. The nature ofthese arguments is examined moral justification? A full analysis of the status of thecopyright. and the author concludes that there are grounds on which fetus is beyond our present scope, but clearly any legal thefull range ofprenatal screening is permitted inJewish system that permits abortion must consider the fetus to law.
    [Show full text]
  • Assisted Reproduction in Jewish Law Daniel B
    Fordham Urban Law Journal Volume 30 | Number 1 Article 5 2002 Assisted Reproduction in Jewish Law Daniel B. Sinclair Tel Aviv College of Management Academic Studies, Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj Part of the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Daniel B. Sinclair, Assisted Reproduction in Jewish Law, 30 Fordham Urb. L.J. 71 (2002). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol30/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The orF dham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Urban Law Journal by an authorized editor of FLASH: The orF dham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Assisted Reproduction in Jewish Law Cover Page Footnote Professor of Jewish and Comparative Biomedical Law, Tel Aviv College of Management Academic Studies, Law School. LL.B. (Hons.); LL.M.; LL.D. Ordained Rabbi and formerly Rabbi of the Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation and Dean of Jews College (London). This article is available in Fordham Urban Law Journal: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol30/iss1/5 ASSISTED REPRODUCTION IN JEWISH LAW Daniel B. Sinclair* I. ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION USING THE HUSBAND'S SPERM ("AIH"): JEWISH AND CATHOLIC POSITIONS This Section is devoted to a survey of Jewish law, or halakhah, in relation to AIH, and a comparative discussion of Jewish and Cath- olic approaches to reproductive technology in general. AIH ac- counts for a small proportion of artificial insemination cases, and is recommended in situations where the husband suffers from ana- tomical defects of his sexual organ or from severe psychological impotence.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond the Egalitarian Get
    Beyond the Egalitarian Get n the Orthodox world (and in the ing out of it, no way to rectib it. Conservative world as well) aget, From the Orthodox perspective, non- I or a Jewish divorce document, is Orthodox Jewry has created many given from the man to the woman. problems. Most of them, however, Because of this fact, and because of are rectifiable. But when a rabbi does the fact that the man must give the not require a get in order to officiate get of his own free will, the situation at a remarriage, any children from arises on occasion when a woman is this marriage are mamzerim in the trapped in a marriage she no longer eyes of the halakhah. wants to be in, thus making her what Theoretically, a woman can also is known as an agunah (a "chained refuse a get, but the man is not guilry 7, . woman, l.e., one who cannot re- of adultery if he remarries. Polygamy marry). Recalcitrant husbands (as (the marriage of a man to multiple the get-refusing husbands are called) women) is only forbidden by the rab- are not the only cause of agunah. A bis (derabanan) but not the Torah woman can also become an agunah (debraita). Also, the incidence of if her husband disappears and is pre- women refusing to receive a get ap- sumed to be dead, although halakhic pears to be less frequent than the in- authorities try to find ways (as they cidence of a man refusing to give a do, to a lesser degree, in the case of a get.
    [Show full text]
  • Minority Opinions and Their Role in Hora'ah
    NATHANIEL HELFGOT Minority Opinions and their Role in Hora’ah I. Introduction IN TRANSITIONING from the abstract and theoretical learning of the beit medrash, Halakhah and its practitioners are called upon to narrow the var- ious possibilities of legal decision and issue normative rulings. The pletho- ra of opinions and possible choices, while stimulating and reflective of the polyphonic nature of the system, often needs to be systematized and formal- ized in order that there not be chaos, or in the language of the rabbis, shelo yehei ke-shtei torot be-yisrael. Any student of rabbinic literature, while nurtured on the ethos of eilu ve- eilu divrei Elokim hayyim,1 is aware that in the practical realm the narratives of R. Gamliel coercing R. Yehoshua to present himself in the court on the day R. Yehoshua felt was calenderically Yom Kippur seem to be determina- tive. Furthermore, the upshot of the celebrated sugya in Bava Metzia (59a-b) of tannur shel akhnai is that the majority view of the rabbis on earth is what determines normative practice. Majority rule is a principle ingrained in the functioning of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and all lesser courts. Indeed, the rebellious elder (zakein mamrei) who tenaciously maintains his minority view and rules for others to follow in his footsteps is liable for capital punishment; a phenomenon that certainly gives pause to any notion that the minority voice retains operative status after the court has ruled. Yet there still exists a number of areas in which the minority viewpoint is not only given an airing but has operative value and status.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Didn't the Rabbis Eliminate Mamzerut? Part 2
    Ki Tavo, September 20, 2019 www.torahleadership.org WHY DIDN’T THE RABBIS ELIMINATE MAMZERUT? PART 2 Rabbi Aryeh Klapper, Dean Rabbinic law often seems radically more humane than the text mother is known, but she refuses to name the father; an asufi is a ​ ​ of the Written Torah. This discrepancy leads some to conclude foundling. (The kuti is unrelated to mamzerut issues.) ​ ​ that the Rabbis of the Mishnah and Talmud consciously and Rava (Kiddushin 73a) states that a shtuki and asufi are each ​ ​ ​ ​ deliberately overturned Biblical law when they found it morally Biblically permitted, but Rabbinically forbidden. Why would the disagreeable. This conclusion leads to a question/critique: Why Rabbis have created such a cruel prohibition? Since the Torah don’t contemporary rabbis do the same thing? permits a safek mamzer, Rava reasons, the Rabbis cannot have been ​ ​ In Part 1, I briefly discussed cases where (some) Rabbis concerned for the minority possibility that these children are explicitly declared that a Biblical law “never was and never will mamzerim. Rather, they must have been concerned that these ​ be,” and why no such statement appears regarding mamzerut. I children with unknown parents would contract an incestuous ​ ​ wrote that nonetheless “Humane poskim can . aim to resolve marriage, and thus give birth to mamzerim. ​ ​ every case of mamzerut, so long as they can do so with integrity.” However, the Talmud (or Rava himself) rejects this explanation מעלה In other words, it is possible and legitimate for a contemporary as far-fetched. It concludes instead that the reason must be literally “they created a higher standard in ,עשו ביוחסים halakhist to aim for the laws of mamzerut to never apply in practice, even though factually many pregnancies result from genealogical matters.” adultery or incest.
    [Show full text]