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neil-gaiman · 3 years

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How Did you come up with the first eve in the story about adams wives? I haven’t been able to find anything about her after I read it and I want to know if she’s an actual biblical character or just someone you made

She's from the Midrash. I learned about her as a 12 year old, from my barmitzvah teacher. There was a point in there, long after I'd put her into Sandman, where I was starting to think I'd imagined her, when I ran across her in Robert Graves's Hebrew Myths....

Excerpt from: The Hebrew Myths by Robert Graves and Raphael Patai (New York: Doubleday, 1964), pp 65-69

Chapter 10: Adam's Helpmeets

(a) Having decided to give Adam a helpmeet lest he should be alone of his kind, God put him into a deep sleep, removed one of his ribs, formed it into a woman, and closed up the wound, Adam awoke and said: 'This being shall be named "Woman", because she has been taken out of man. A man and a woman shall be one flesh.' The title he gave her was Eve, 'the Mother of All Living''. [1]

(b) Some say that God created man and woman in His own image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world; [2] but that Eve did not yet exist. Now, God had set Adam to name every beast, bird and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam-being already like a twenty-year-old man-felt jealous of their loves, and though he tried coupling with each female in turn, found no satisfaction in the act. He therefore cried: 'Every creature but I has a proper mate', and prayed God would remedy this injustice. [3]

(c) God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, except that He used filth and sediment instead of pure dust. From Adam's union with this demoness, and with another like her named Naamah, Tubal Cain's sister, sprang Asmodeus and innumerable demons that still plague mankind. Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem'. [4]

(d) Adam and Lilith never found peace together; for when he wished to lie with her, she took offence at the recumbent posture he demanded. 'Why must I lie beneath you?' she asked. 'I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal.' Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air and left him.

Adam complained to God: 'I have been deserted by my helpmeet' God at once sent the angels Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to whom she bore lilim at the rate of more than one hundred a day. 'Return to Adam without delay,' the angels said, `or we will drown you!' Lilith asked: `How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?? 'It will be death to refuse!' they answered. `How can I die,' Lilith asked again, `when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. None the less, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it.' To this they agreed; but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily; [5] and if she could not destroy a human infant, because of the angelic amulet, she would spitefully turn against her own. [6]

(e) Some say that Lilith ruled as queen in Zmargad, and again in Sheba; and was the demoness who destroyed job's sons. [7] Yet she escaped the curse of death which overtook Adam, since they had parted long before the Fall. Lilith and Naamah not only strangle infants but also seduce dreaming men, any one of whom, sleeping alone, may become their victim. [8]

(f) Undismayed by His failure to give Adam a suitable helpmeet, God tried again, and let him watch while he built up a woman's anatomy: using bones, tissues, muscles, blood and glandular secretions, then covering the whole with skin and adding tufts of hair in places. The sight caused Adam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood there in her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance. God knew that He had failed once more, and took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobody knows for certain. [9]

(g) God tried a third time, and acted more circumspectly. Having taken a rib from Adam's side in his sleep, He formed it into a woman; then plaited her hair and adorned her, like a bride, with twenty-four pieces of jewellery, before waking him. Adam was entranced. [10]

(h) Some say that God created Eve not from Adam's rib, but from a tail ending in a sting which had been part of his body. God cut this off, and the stump-now a useless coccyx-is still carried by Adam's descendants. [11]

(i) Others say that God's original thought had been to create two human beings, male and female; but instead He designed a single one with a male face looking forward, and a female face looking back. Again He changed His mind, removed Adam's backward-looking face, and built a woman's body for it. [12]

(j) Still others hold that Adam was originally created as an androgyne of male and female bodies joined back to back. Since this posture made locomotion difficult, and conversation awkward, God divided the androgyne and gave each half a new rear. These separate beings He placed in Eden, forbidding them to couple. [13]

Notes on sources:

1. Genesis II. 18-25; III. 20.

2. Genesis I. 26-28.

3. Gen. Rab. 17.4; B. Yebamot 632.

4. Yalqut Reubeni ad. Gen. II. 21; IV. 8.

5. Alpha Beta diBen Sira, 47; Gaster, MGWJ, 29 (1880), 553 ff.

6. Num. Rab. 16.25.

7. Targum ad job 1. 15.

8. B. Shabbat 151b; Ginzberg, LJ, V. 147-48.

9. Gen. Rab. 158, 163-64; Mid. Abkir 133, 135; Abot diR. Nathan 24; B. Sanhedrin 39a.

10. Gen. II. 21-22; Gen. Rab. 161.

11. Gen. Rab. 134; B. Erubin 18a.

12. B. Erubin 18a.

13. Gen. Rab. 55; Lev. Rab. 14.1: Abot diR. Nathan 1.8; B. Berakhot 61a; B. Erubin 18a; Tanhuma Tazri'a 1; Yalchut Gen. 20; Tanh. Buber iii.33; Mid. Tehillim 139, 529.

Authors’ Comments on the Myth:

1. The tradition that man's first sexual intercourse was with animals, not women, may be due to the widely spread practice of bestiality among herdsmen of the Middle East, which is still condoned by custom, although figuring three times in the Pentateuch as a capital crime. In the Akkadian Gilgamesh Epic, Enkidu is said to have lived with gazelles and jostled other wild beasts at the watering place, until civilized by Aruru's priestess. Having enjoyed her embraces for six days and seven nights, he wished to rejoin the wild beasts but, to his surprise, they fled from him. Enkidu then knew that he had gained understanding, and the priestess said: 'Thou art wise, Enkidu, like unto a godl'

2. Primeval man was held by the Babylonians to have been androgynous. Thus the Gilgamesh Epic gives Enkidu androgynous features: `the hair of his head like a woman's, with locks that sprout like those of Nisaba, the Grain-goddess.' The Hebrew tradition evidently derives from Greek sources, because both terms used in a Tannaitic midrash to describe the bisexual Adam are Greek: androgynos, 'man-woman', and diprosopon, 'twofaced'. Philo of Alexandria, the Hellenistic philosopher and commentator on the Bible, contemporary with Jesus, held that man was at first bisexual; so did the Gnostics. This belief is clearly borrowed from Plato. Yet the myth of two bodies placed back to back may well have been founded on observation of Siamese twins, which are sometimes joined in this awkward manner. The two-faced Adam appears to be a fancy derived from coins or statues of Janus, the Roman New Year god.

3. Divergences between the Creation myths of Genesis r and n, which allow Lilith to be presumed as Adam's first mate, result from a careless weaving together of an early Judaean and a late priestly tradition. The older version contains the rib incident. Lilith typifies the Anath-worshipping Canaanite women, who were permitted pre-nuptial promiscuity. Time after time the prophets denounced Israelite women for following Canaanite practices; at first, apparently, with the priests' approval-since their habit of dedicating to God the fees thus earned is expressly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxIII. I8. Lilith's flight to the Red Sea recalls the ancient Hebrew view that water attracts demons. 'Tortured and rebellious demons' also found safe harbourage in Egypt. Thus Asmodeus, who had strangled Sarah's first six husbands, fled 'to the uttermost parts of Egypt' (Tobit viii. 3), when Tobias burned the heart and liver of a fish on their wedding night.

4. Lilith's bargain with the angels has its ritual counterpart in an apotropaic rite once performed in many Jewish communities. To protect the newborn child against Lilith-and especially a male, until he could be permanently safeguarded by circumcision-a ring was drawn with natron, or charcoal, on the wall of the birthroom, and inside it were written the words: 'Adam and Eve. Out, Lilith!' Also the names Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof (meanings uncertain) were inscribed on the door. If Lilith nevertheless succeeded in approaching the child and fondling him, he would laugh in his sleep. To avert danger, it was held wise to strike the sleeping child's lips with one finger-whereupon Lilith would vanish.

5. 'Lilith' is usually derived from the Babylonian-Assyrian word lilitu, ,a female demon, or wind-spirit'-one of a triad mentioned in Babylonian spells. But she appears earlier as 'Lillake' on a 2000 B.G. Sumerian tablet from Ur containing the tale of Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree. There she is a demoness dwelling in the trunk of a willow-tree tended by the Goddess Inanna (Anath) on the banks of the Euphrates. Popular Hebrew etymology seems to have derived 'Lilith' from layil, 'night'; and she therefore often appears as a hairy night-monster, as she also does in Arabian folklore. Solomon suspected the Queen of Sheba of being Lilith, because she had hairy legs. His judgement on the two harlots is recorded in I Kings III. 16 ff. According to Isaiah xxxiv. I4-I5, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs (se'ir), reems, pelicans, owls, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites keep her company.

6. Lilith's children are called lilim. In the Targum Yerushalmi, the priestly blessing of Numbers vi. 26 becomes: 'The Lord bless thee in all thy doings, and preserve thee from the Lilim!' The fourth-century A.D. commentator Hieronymus identified Lilith with the Greek Lamia, a Libyan queen deserted by Zeus, whom his wife Hera robbed of her children. She took revenge by robbing other women of theirs.

7. The Lamiae, who seduced sleeping men, sucked their blood and ate their flesh, as Lilith and her fellow-demonesses did, were also known as Empusae, 'forcers-in'; or Mormolyceia, 'frightening wolves'; and described as 'Children of Hecate'. A Hellenistic relief shows a naked Lamia straddling a traveller asleep on his back. It is characteristic of civilizations where women are treated as chattels that they must adopt the recumbent posture during intercourse, which Lilith refused. That Greek witches who worshipped Hecate favoured the superior posture, we know from Apuleius; and it occurs in early Sumerian representations of the sexual act, though not in the Hittite. Malinowski writes that Melanesian girls ridicule what they call `the missionary position', which demands that they should lie passive and recumbent.

8. Naamah, 'pleasant', is explained as meaning that 'the demoness sang pleasant songs to idols'. Zmargad suggest smaragdos, the semi-precious aquamarine; and may therefore be her submarine dwelling. A demon named Smaragos occurs in the Homeric Epigrams.

9. Eve's creation by God from Adam's rib-a myth establishing male supremacy and disguising Eve's divinity-lacks parallels in Mediterranean or early Middle-Eastern myth. The story perhaps derives iconotropically from an ancient relief, or painting, which showed the naked Goddess Anath poised in the air, watching her lover Mot murder his twin Aliyan; Mot (mistaken by the mythographer for Yahweh) was driving a curved dagger under Aliyan's fifth rib, not removing a sixth one. The familiar story is helped by a hidden pun on tsela, the Hebrew for 'rib': Eve, though designed to be Adam's helpmeet, proved to be a tsela, a 'stumbling', or 'misfortune'. Eve's formation from Adam's tail is an even more damaging myth; perhaps suggested by the birth of a child with a vestigial tail instead of a coccyx-a not infrequent occurrence.

10. The story of Lilith's escape to the East and of Adam's subsequent marriage to Eve may, however, record an early historical incident: nomad herdsmen, admitted into Lilith's Canaanite queendom as guests (see 16. 1), suddenly seize power and, when the royal household thereupon flees, occupy a second queendom which owes allegiance to the Hittite Goddess Heba.

The meaning of 'Eve' is disputed. Hawwah is explained in Genesis III. 20 as 'mother of all living'; but this may well be a Hebraicized form of the divine name Heba, Hebat, Khebat or Khiba. This goddess, wife of the Hittite Storm-god, is shown riding a lion in a rock-sculpture at Hattusaswhich equates her with Anath-and appears as a form of Ishtar in Hurrian texts. She was worshipped at Jerusalem (see 27. 6). Her Greek name was Hebe, Heracles's goddess-wife.

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earnestly-endlessly · 3 years

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Hey! I hope I'm not bothering you, I just found your blog and I love it sm, and I saw you sometimes do cherik fic recs. Do you have any Canon divergence aus/fix it, preferably after Cuba, that are 30k or longer and have a happy ending? If not thats okay! You don't have to answer this. Have a wonderful day!

Hi anon, thank you so much. I’m happy you both like my blog and my recs. You are certainly not bothering me, and feel free to send me an ask any time. I have plenty of recommendations for you. Some of them diverge a bit from your request because I couldn’t help but recommend them as well. I will put a note on those who diverge from your request. As always, I only recommend fics I have personally read and enjoyed and I sincerely you love them too.

-Canon divergence aus/fix it, post Cuba, 30k or longer, with a happy ending cherik fic recs-

Not Half As Blinding- keire_ke

Summary: Cuban beach AU. Charles discovers that death does, in fact, solve everything.

Lay down beside me (so still and so soft) – C-Gracewood

Summary: A different take on the events of the film.

Rumor Has It – blueink3

Summary: "Did I hear the doorbell earlier?"

"Yeah, but I'd steer clear if I were you. It seemed a little tense. I don't know what's going on, but there's a kid out there who looks freakily like the prof."

Nearly six months after Cuba, Charles' life is turned upside down for the second time. Though he's slowly learning to adapt to the first, he's not sure he can handle the second. Luckily for him, there are a few people out there more than willing to help.

Forward Momentum – AsYouWish

Summary: Six months after Cuba, Charles and Erik find themselves thrown fifty years into the future, where they meet their older selves, the Avengers, and a world that's very different from their own. Faced with the pieces of their broken relationship, an unparalleled adversary, and dealing with Tony Stark on a daily basis, Charles and Erik do their best to adapt while trying to find a way back home -- and to each other.

When an Unstoppable Force Meets an Immovable Optimist – ToriTC198

Summary: "You are always trying to save me, Charles." Erik mused aloud. "Ever since you dove into the ocean and dragged me out. Did it ever occur to you that I might not be worth saving?"

A genuine smile broke out on Charles' face as he brightly answered, "No, my friend, not once. I have every confidence you are well worth saving. But, I never truly believed I could save you. You are not the sort of man who someone saves. The choice to be a better man has always been yours to make and I hold no illusions that I can make that decision for you. I simply have faith that one day you will save yourself. I only hope I am still at your side to witness it."

What if Erik and Charles had been able to find a middle ground in the end?

Take the First Option – ShowMeAHero

Summary: When Erik becomes unbalanced, Emma presents him with three options: go back to Charles for three months and learn to deal with whatever he has going have going on, lose his Brotherhood, or let Emma control his mind.

He really only has one choice.

Virtue to Which We Aspire – varlovian

Summary: Nine months after Cuba, Charles is found by Erik's Brotherhood in the smoldering ruins of an abandoned CIA base, exhausted but alive. As the only known survivor of the CIA's vendetta against mutants, recovering Charles' memory of the incident—which he admits to having forgotten—just became paramount.

But the harder they push, the closer Charles gets to breaking point. When he finally cracks, the X-Men and the Brotherhood will learn the truth, but it comes with a price...

Some doors, once opened, cannot be closed.

Some minds, once broken, will never be the same again.

The Waking of the Red King – rustingroses

Summary: When Charles' heavy injuries on the Cuban beach conspire to leave him in a coma and living in fantasy of his own making, Erik, the man who once threatened to divide the mutant cause, finds himself desperately trying to hold everything together. First of the Red King trilogy.

Wake Up and Smell the Pancakes – Ayra Sei Ethari

Summary: In one universe, Erik left Charles. In another, he stayed. So what happens when the two Eriks get switched? "At first, Erik thinks he's dreaming. Then he realizes that this is Charles. Who is not paralyzed. And kissing him.

Rage and Serenity – MagickMaker, TheFangedGoblin

Summary: After Charles is shot on the beach, he is rushed to the hospital and paralysis is prevented. Ridden with guilt, Erik finds that he cannot leave him. He helps him heal, and eventually, Charles learns to trust him again. But when they set out to rescue Emma from the CIA and accept her onto their team, tensions rise. Will love keep Erik and Charles together despite their differences?

No Yesterdays on the Road – pocky_slash

Summary: It's been two months since Cuba and things are settling down for Charles, Erik, and the beginnings of their mutant school. Right up until Charles disappears, that is. Faced with the possibility that a bitter Emma Frost has kidnapped Charles, Erik is forced to team up with Moira to hunt down the remainder of the Hellfire Club. From there, they hope to locate Frost and retrieve Charles, without killing each other along the way.

(Or: Erik and Moira Drive Across the Country and Talk About Their Feelings.)

What Can We Do Without You? – SwoopSwoop

Summary: Charles and the boys were holding onto a secret more dear to them than their own lives when Charles disappears into the night; Erik is betrayed and finds himself returning to Westchester in the hopes that the government was just trying to trick him. All the while the boys are stuck in the middle, left guarding the secret from the man they are most afraid of finding out who is weaselling his way back into their lives alarmingly easily.

Note: Includes Mpreg, but don’t let that discourage you from reading it because it’s a really great fix-it.

Survival Instinct – Lindstorm

Summary: It’s been months since Charles pulled Erik out of the ocean, and Erik is beginning to wonder how many more times he can choose Charles, and still keep his vow to kill Shaw. Cooperating with the CIA is straining Erik’s patience. When a fact-gathering mission goes wrong and Charles is kidnapped, Erik is left trying to hold their mutant band together while Raven and the rest of them fall apart. No one can foresee how the mutant Charles meets in captivity will challenge all his assumptions about his own power, and twist Charles’ telepathy out of his control. In the race to stop Shaw's nuclear ambitions from coming to fruition, Charles makes a crucial misstep. Erik’s decision between Shaw and Charles takes on unexpected ramifications when [spoiler deleted].

Needles (Series) – Skull_Bearer

Summary: AU where everyone's born Dominant or Submissive

Once a Dominant and Submissive pair is born, they are linked to each other, no matter how far apart they are. This link doesn't actually tell the Dom or the Sub each other's thoughts, but it does allow them to know how the other's doing and serves as a reassurance that there's someone meant for them out there.

Another one of the reasons that Erik hates Shaw so badly is because Shaw managed to break Erik's link to his Sub. Now Erik doesn't even know if his Sub's alive because breaking a link like that can kill a Submissive.

Meanwhile, Charles hates himself for not yet having telepathy strong enough to contact and help his Dom, especially after feeling the pain his Dom was forced to go through. He truly believes that his Dominant is dead. Hopes it, some nights when he remembers how his Dom was forced to suffer. It's better than to think of his Dom still being forced to bear that pain.

And then Charles pulls Erik from the water

Time to Grow – zarah5

Summary: In which you'll find chess dates which aren't dates (or maybe Charles is wrong about that). -- Based on First Class, this turns (slightly) AU during the beach scene.

Note: This fic is less than 30k words but it’s such a fandom classic and just a great read if you love your fix-its.

Faults for Fixing – beren

Summary: Charles sees the events of the missile crisis and subsequent weeks when he uses Cerebro to touch the mind of a mutant with the power to see the near future. When he wakes up he is determined that he will not allow them to happen and he will not lose the people he loves.

Note: A bit less than 30k words long but another great read.

It’s like one of us woke up – kaydeefalls

Summary: "You came here for me," Charles said, meeting Shaw's gaze levelly. "So let's not waste any more time."

Canon!AU in which Charles and Erik do find Shaw in Russia.

Note: XMFC fix it, but the events in Cuba don’t happen.

Afterlife – Anna (arctic_grey)

Summary: A year after Washington, Erik wakes up in excruciating pain as sudden awareness washes over him: Charles is dead. Erik has to adjust to yet another future: no extinction, just a world without Charles. But the death of his former friend leaves Erik weak and his powers drained. His quest for answers leads him back to Westchester, where Erik has to face his past with Charles and put together the puzzle pieces of what happened to the man he once cared for.

The Burdens We Long to Carry – arcapelago (arcanewinter)

Summary: When mutant-supporter and ally President Kennedy is assassinated and all pro-mutant progress is dismantled, Charles is no longer so confident that he's on the right side, and extends his hand to Erik after a year of animosity. They settle tentatively into their old partnership, but not everything is the same as it was--and not everything can be. When Hank develops a metal frame to move the lower half of Charles' body for him if he wants it, Erik offers the use of his mind and his ability in order to make it work. Both find out what they're willing to do for each other, and neither knows if it'll be enough to keep them together.

Other Futures Than These – midrashic

Summary: In which Cuba doesn't break them apart, but that doesn't mean that their futures are tied together. (Except that it does.)

A Days of Future Past AU where only one person can defeat the Sentinels and save the future: the man whose imprisonment and torture created them, and Charles Xavier's ex.

The Winter of Banked Fires – Yahtzee

Summary: Charles Xavier has returned from the dead -- but is lost within his own mind. Rogue has cast aside her own power and doesn't know where she fits in the world any longer. The production of synthetic Cure means mutantkind itself is newly at risk. And Magneto, turned human against his will, is in despair until the day he feels a familiar consciousness tugging at his own --

Set after X-3 (with much desperate fix-it applied), during XMFC, and every time in between.

#cherik #cherik fic recs #asks #earnestly answers #for some reason Tumblr refuses to post my entire answer #feel free to ask me whenever you want anon #I really love making these lists

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insertmeaningfulusername · 2 years

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2021 Fic Year in Review

Tagged by @hellfre - thank u fren 💙

Total Number Of Completed Works:

A little less than eighty this year?

Total Word Count:

Around 200k or something.

Fandoms I’ve Written In:

Atonement (the movie, not the book), Captain Marvel (2019), X-Men Comicverse & Movieverse, Shame (2011), Filth (2013), Captain America (Movies), Alien (Prequels), Wanted (2008), The Gifted (TV 2017), It (again the Muschietti Movies, not the book).

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected?

I don't remember having any expectations at the start of this year, but I was certainly surprised that I powered through Flufftober like I did (I didn't even intend to participate and then suddenly I was writing fics daily). Otherwise, I'm a bit sad that multi-chapter fics appear to be just too difficult for me. Maintaining motivation for one story over a longer time span isn't easy.

What’s Your Own Favorite Story Of The Year?

No idea. I really liked writing for some X-Men rare pairs though - especially the sapphic ones.

Did You Take Any Writing Risks This Year?

For the X-Men Rare Pair Fest, I wrote a trans!woman x enby pairing, and it made me sweat so hard skdfjkaljdkh because I was so scared of doing something wrong.

Do You Have Any Fanfic Or Profic Goals For The New Year?

Attempt to write a multi-chapter fic? Also give less of a shit about comments or writing and posting regularly or reading other people's works when I'm just not interested in it. None of the mentioned things helped my mental health this year.

Most Popular Story Of The Year?

For that I'd have to consult my statistics and I'm too lazy to do that.

Story Of Mine Most Under-Appreciated By The Universe, In My Opinion:

All rare pairs!! Seriously, especially in the X-Men fandom, if you read a rare pair fic and like it, comment. Do something to keep the authors motivated, or else you'll soon have no content anymore (of which there is already precious little).

Most Fun Story To Write:

Anything I didn't have to grind out for a deadline (: And I really liked that Witcher Joseph x Erik AU from Flufftober!!

Most Unintentionally Telling Story:

No. Do Not Perceive Me.

Biggest Disappointment:

Oh there were some but they're more linked to people's general I-don't-see-how-I-need-to-comment-even-though-I-consume attitude than to any specific fic.

Biggest Surprise:

My sudden energy surge for Flufftober - and my slowly drifting away from reading Cherik works that don't tick all my boxes.

My Favorite Part Of Fandom This Year:

Dragneto. Any post with them is a blessing, and I thank every artist who puts their talents to drawing them in all their glory.

Tagging: @midrashic @slashergirl @lindstrom2020 @nextraordinaire @camillechaoswritter

#tag game

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docholligay · 3 years

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And I think that’s so much of the difference between Torah Study as I have known it for all the years I’ve done it, and Bible Study, the Christian version of it. My rabbis have always been happy to lend context, or direct Hebrew translation, and we always had some interesting midrash to chew on, and Talmud, but at the end of the day it was never an ‘X means Y” sort of situation, it was a “here’s the parsha, here’s what’s been said about it, what do we think, how does this apply, why is God telling us this?” and we didn’t HAVE to agree, and often didn’t, and sometimes it was borderline, :let’s throw hands” but the Sages were that way as well! It’s not a bug, but a feature of Judaism, not to agree on interpretation.

And then you have Bible Study, where The Authority tells you, “This verse means Y. How can we apply that in our daily lives?” seems so limiting to me. It seems to utterly take out your participation with the work, your part in it.

On the other hand, it makes it really easy to see how cultural Christianity really affects fandom and politics! Where there are two spaces: Right and Heretic/Problematic/Whatever.

#my rabbi and I were just discussing cultural Christainity and how it's fucked leftisit politics in particular #(because we're both leftists so we'd notice)#there's such a rejection of teshuva on the left #like if you weren't on the right side in 1973 you're foreer suspect #I have way more thoughts on that but this isnt the place admittedly

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anzu2snow · 3 years

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Found a few Jewish apps a couple of days ago. I felt like I needed something more, so why not look for them? 2 apps are on daily mitzvot. There are 613 mitzvot or ‘commandments’. One of the apps called Mitzvot is very simple, and only has one a day. There’s no discussion or commentary on it. You can fave ones you like. Not sure if I’ll keep this one.

The other one is called DailyMitzvah and is put out by Chabad. There might be multiple ones a day (there has been so far), there’s a video discussing it, and extra commentary is written out. Much more in depth and interesting.

The last app I found is called Daily Aliyah. It breaks down the weekly parsha or Torah portion into daily bits. It does this with the haftarah and mishlei or proverbs, as well. Very handy. I can look at snippets each day of the parsha instead of try reading the whole thing in one day.

I also still have Sefaria which has daf yomi (lit. Page of the Day) or a daily reading of the Talmud. I might try to get back into that. It takes roughly 7.5 years to read all of the Talmud this way. I tried to do it when this ‘cycle’ started, but it seemed a little ‘dry’ at some point and I had a hard time focusing on it. Maybe it’ll be better now. Sefaria’s an amazing app itself. It also has pretty much all the Jewish religious texts you can think of. (I think it even has some regular stories.) The Tanach, Mishnah, Talmud, Midrash, Halachah, Kabbalah, siddurs, haggadot, etc. It also has the weekly parsha, Haftarah, Proverbs, daily Mishnah, daily Rambam, and daily Halachah. I tend to forget that. It also has study sheets for many things. So many things it can be overwhelming. I find it’s pretty cool how much is packed into it.

I’ve also gotten back into Shabbat . com’s (didn’t want the site popping up on here) app. It’s basically a Jewish social media platform. You can ask to be invited to someone’s place for Shabbat, or say you’re willing to host anyone in the area. There’s a dating side to it, they have profiles and posts like here, there’s a jobs’ section, and more. I’ve been posting my daily things I’m grateful for on there, too. They seem to really like it and look forward to it. The only problem is the app can be a bit glitchy, and after a certain amount of posts some of them disappear. I did read recently that they’re going to have a huge overhaul soon. Good. It needs it. I’ve noticed that the majority of people on there are some type of orthodox. As a Reform Jew, it makes me feel a little out of place. Even though I have been thinking about becoming a little more observant, it’s still a bit odd to me. Anyways, it’s nice to have a few seemingly good Jewish apps.

#judaism #apps #iphone apps #mitzvot #tanach #sefaria #jewish texts

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mysticmachmir · 4 years

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Judaism: Solstices and Equinoxes

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Overview

Judaism runs on a lunar calendar, for example, all our holidays start at sundown. So, this means that the changes of the seasons which are based on a solar calendar do not have as much prominence as the phases of the moon. However, in the Jewish Pre-Talmudic text the Book of Jubilees, we see an alternate Jewish solar calendar. In the end, it was not chosen for what our system is based on - but the Rabbis do talk about the solstices and equinoxes within the Talmud (Berakhot 59b, Shabbat 53a, Eruvin 56a). The word for these four seasons marked by these events is "Tekufot" (tekufah in the singular) which literally means "turn" or "cycle" in Hebrew. According to the sages, each tekufah marks the beginning of a period of 91 days 7½ hours. Tekufot are not necessarily positive events, associated with some negative superstitions. However, there are some different recorded Midrashim that have positive or neutral associations, along with a blessing that can be used to acknowledge them (though this is a minority opinion in the Babylonian Talmud, majority rules this was not necessary). While there is no exact answer, there is some speculation that the four new years within Judaism may be marking the four solar transitions within the year, but some of them are at half-points and not accurately aligned.

Superstitions

An ancient superstition connected with the tekufot is surrounding water. All water that may be in the house or stored away in vessels in the first hour of the tekufah is thrown away in the belief that the water is then poisoned, and if drunk would cause swelling of the body, sickness, and sometimes death. One of the reasons it is said is because the angels who guard and are the protectors of the year "change shifts" at every solar transition, so water is left unguarded. Another is that Cancer fights with Libra and drops blood into the water. Another reason is that at every tekufah, blood has been shed in our spiritual history. At Tekufat Nissan, the waters in Egypt turned to blood. At Tekufat Tammuz, Moshe smote the rock and caused drops of blood to flow from it. At Tekufat Tishrei the knife which Avraham held to slay Yitzchak dropped blood. Finally, at Tekufat Tevet, Yiftach sacrificed his daughter. It is not only against kashrut laws to ingest blood, but there is a lot of superstition around keeping life and death separated in many of our rituals. To avoid this issue with unused water, one must put a piece of iron within it or put it in an iron vessel. If you are making matzot on Tekufat Nisan, you must use a new iron nail and lower it by a string into the water first.

There is no traceable origin of this superstition, but in the 10th-century Rabbis asked about these questions and discussed it, meaning it was widespread even then.

Blessing

In Berakhot 59b, the sages say: "One who sees the sun in her tekufah, or the moon in her power, or the stars in their orbits, recites: Blessed is the one who makes Creation' (baruch oseh vereshit)." Abaye argues this should only be done every 29 years when the spring equinox falls so that the sun is in the same place it was on the day of Creation. However, the minority opinion was still written, so you could make the choice to recite it in the astrological events mentioned.

Havdalah ha-Tekufah

This blessing may be recited over a cup of wine or grape juice on the day of the equinox or solstice. This prayer also may be recited along with a blessing over a scent related to the season, for example, flowers for spring, fruit for summer, leaves for fall, and pine boughs for winter. It is based on the following texts:

The Havdalah ceremony dividing Shabbat from the weekday.

The blessing over equinoxes and solstices found in the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 59b).

The traditional evening prayer marking the transition between day and night.

The Torah text in which the Holy One promises Noach that the seasons will continue as long as the earth endures (Bereishit 8:22).

The blessings over the abundance of years found in the daily Amidah prayer (recited in the feminine to honor the Skehinah, the immanent Divine Presence).

Baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu melekh ha'olam borei peri ha'gafen.

Blessed are You, Hashem, Ruler of the Universe, creator of the fruit of the vine.

Bercuchah at Shekhinah Elokeinu ruach ha'olam, borei isvei (atzei) vesamim.

Blessed are You, Shekhinah, the Presence who embodies the world, who creates fragrant plants and grasses (or: fragrant trees).

Baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu melekh ha'olam, oseh vereishit, asher bit'vunah meshaneh itim umachalif et hazemanim. Od kol yemei ha'aretz zera vekatzir vekor vechom vekayitz vechoref veyom velailah lo yishbotu. Bercuhah at Shekhinah, mevarechet hashanim.

Blessed are you, Hashem, Ruler of the Universe, who makes Creation, whose wisdom changes the times and turns the seasons. As long as the days of the earth endure, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. Blessed are You, Divine Presence, who blesses the years.

Midrashim and Teachings

Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, a Rabbinic work, tells of the teaching of tekufot to Adam and Chava as part of divine wisdom. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer (7) also notes the combination of lunar and solar elements in the Jewish calendar. The passage explains that Rabbinic authorities inserted leap months in the calendar "for the sake of the trees, for the sake of the grasses, and for the sake of the tekufot," meaning that the lunar calendar had to be balanced with the cycles of planting and harvest and with the cycles of the solar year.

Medieval traditions about the tekufot emphasized the eerie qualities of the solstices and equinoxes. The Machzor Vitry indicates the frightening biblical events such as the plague of blood that happened at the four seasonal transitions.

The Otzar Midrashim (Hashem Behomah, Yasad Aretz 6) mentions a more positive midrash in which giant mythical beings and animals roar on each of the four seasonal dates. These roars compel the demons and wild creatures of the world to restrain themselves so that order prevails and life continues. Thus they encourage all beings to praise the compassion of the Divine. This midrash suggests that the solstices and equinoxes have both frightening and life-preserving qualities.

Midrash Tanhuma (Korach 10) tells us that the chieftains of Moshe were selected partly because they knew how to calculate and observe the tekufot.

Tekufat Nisan

Tekufat Nisan is the vernal equinox when the Sun enters Aries; this is the beginning of spring, or "eit hazera" (seed-time) when day and night are equal. It is also known as the season of "the triumph of life".

Jubilees (6:25) records the 1st of Nisan as the day the Divine commanded Noach to build an ark and the day Noach opened the ark and saw dry land.

Seder Olam (11:1), a work from Talmudic times, relates that the new moon of Nissan, the day the Holy Ones gives the calendar to Moshe in preparation for the first celebration of Pesach, is also the spring equinox.

The ancient midrashic collection Peskita Rabbati (15:17), on the other hand, suggests the day of the Exodus was the spring equinox.

In the Machzor Vitry, the spring equinox is the day the first plague, the plague of blood, falls upon Mitzrayim.

In Otzar Midrashim (Hashem Behomah, Yasad Aretz 6), the spring equinox is the day when humans receive protection from demons and evil spirits. On that day, the seraphim "lift up their heads to the heaven, and the fear of them falls upon demons and spirits, and the seraphim shelter humans beneath their wings to hide them from the demons."

The Purim holiday falls near the spring equinox. Its heroine, Esther, reveals herself as a Jew to save her people.

These tales associate the spring equinox with freedom, with divine protection from oppressor or danger, and with life. in spring, the young plants bursting forth from the ground need protection and room to grow, and we ask this blessing for ourselves as well.

Kavanot la-Tekufot: "Arise, my beloved, my fair one, come away, for now the winter is past, the rains are over and gone, the blossoms appear in the land, the time of singing has come, and the song of the dove is in heard in our land." -- Shir haShirim 2:10-12

Tekufat Tammuz

Tekufat Tammuz is the summer solstice when the Sun enters Cancer; this is the summer season, or "et ha-katsir" (harvest-time) when the day is the longest in the year. It is also known as the season of "loss and abundance".

In Jubilees (6:26), the story of Noach's flood, the summer solstice is the day the mouths of the great abyss are closed so that the water ceases pouring onto the earth.

Jubilees (3:32) also names the summer solstice as the day the Divine exiles Adam and Chava from Gan Eden. This is the day the animals lose their power of speech.

In Seder Olam (11;1), we learn that the day the sun stood still so that Yehoshuah's warriors could win the battle of Gibeon was the summer solstice.

In Genesis Rabbah (6:6), we learn that "on the summer solstice no creation has a shadow."

In the Machzor Vitry, the summer solstice is the day Moshe strikes a rock in anger while seeking water for the people. The Eternal tells Moshe he will never enter Eretz Yisrael as a result of his actions.

In Otzar Midrashim (Hashem Behohmah, Yasad Aretz 6), the summer solstice is the day animals receive protection from their predators. On that day, "the Holy One puts strength in the Behemoth and it becomes strong and raises its head and cries out, and its voice extends through all the settled land, and the wild animals hear and are afraid."

In Jewish tradition, the summer solstice carries with it themes of closure, exile, and loss, yet also the benevolence of nature and the divine. We meditate on grief, yet also on the world's abundance. The summer solstice is a day of paradox: maximum light but also a turn toward darkness.

Kavanot la-Tekufot: "A day is coming that burns like a furnace … I will shine upon you who revere the name of the Infinite a sun of righteousness, with healing in Her wings." -- Malachi 3:19-20

Summer Solstice Rituals: http://telshemesh.org/tammuz/a_jewish_summer_solstice_ritual.html https://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/meditation-tekufat-tammuz https://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/earth-prays

Tekufat Tishrei

Tekufat Tishrei, the autumnal equinox, when the sun enters Libra, and autumn, or "et ha-batsir" (vintage-time), begins, and when the day again equals the night. It is also known as the season of "the link between earth and heaven".

Jubilees (6:26), in its story of the Flood, records the autumn equinox as the day the floodwaters begin to descend back into the depths so that the earth can be fruitful once again.

On the autumn equinox, Avraham sits up all night to observe the stars, to forecast the rains of the coming season (Jubilees 12:16).

In the Machzor Vitry, the autumn equinox is the day Avraham nearly sacrifices Yitzchak on Mount Moriah, before the Divine stays his hand. Because of his act, Avraham is blessed that his seed will be as the stars in the sky.

According to the Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 10b), Sarah, Rakhel, and Channah all conceived on the 1st of Tishrei, a date close to the autumn equinox.

In Otzar Midrashim (Hashem Behohmah, Yasad Aretz 6), the autumn equinox is the season of the ziz, when birds receive protection from their predators. "On the autumn equinox, the Holy One gives strength to the ziz and it becomes strong, and it lifts is head and flaps its winds and sends forth its voice, so that fear of it falls on the culture and the osprey from one year to the next."

The autumn equinox seems related to the skies, the stars, and the rains. Yet it is also related to fertility and to the renewal of life. In many climates, autumn is a season of harvest and of rain. Perhaps the autumn equinox is the time of reforging the lin between earth and heaven- a link necessary for life to continue.

Kavanot la-Tekufot: "May it be Your will that it be a year of rain and dew, a year of favor, a year of blessing, and a year of abundance … and please do not listen to the prayers of those who pray that there be no rain!" -- Leviticus Rabbah 20:44

Tekufat Tevet

Tekufat Tevet is the winter solstice when the sun enters Capricorn; this is the beginning of winter, or "et ha-ḥoref" (winter-time), when the night is the longest during the year. It is also known as the season for "the search for light".

In Jubilees (7), in the days of Noach, the winter solstice is the day the peaks of the mountains became visible after the floodwaters recede.

In the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 8a), Adam and Chava become frightened as the winter solstice approaches, thinking the shortening of the days is a punishment. They fast for eight days. On the winter solstice, when the light grows, they celebrate for eight days.

In the Machzor Vitry, the winter solstice is the day Yiftach, a chieftain of Yisrael, sacrifices his daughter in fulfillment of a foolish battle vow. She has been bewailing her fate on the hills for two months.

Otzah Midrashim (Hashem Behohmah, Yasad Aretz 6), tells that on the winter solstice, Leviathan protects the creatures of the sea from their predators: "On every winter solstice he lifts his head and makes himself great, and blows in the water, and roils the sea, and makes all the fish in the ocean afraid." Leviathan is a creature known for being G!d's playmate (Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 3b) and a wise teacher of human beings (Otzar Midrashim Alphabet of Ben Sira 17). His eyes, according to the Talmud, flash in the deep (Bava Batra 74b).

The winter solstice seems to have to do with sight or the lack thereof. Mountains become visible to Noach, and the patterns of nature become visible to Adam and Chava. Leviathan is associated with inner sight. Yiftach, on the other hand, is blind to his own wrongdoings. On the winter solstice, the sun's light begins to become stronger, and we too consider how to strengthen our vision.

Kavanot la-Tekufot: "We are grateful before You, Eternal One, for You have brought us from darkness to light." -- Midrash Bereshit 68:11

Winter Solstice Rituals: http://telshemesh.org/tevet/winter_solstice_take_2.html http://telshemesh.org/tevet/chanukahsolstice_thoughts_for_2008.html http://telshemesh.org/tevet/chanukat_hatekufahritual_for_chanukah_and_the_winter_solstice_jill_hammer.html https://www.ritualwell.org/blog/burning-away-darkness-winter-solstice-ritual

If you like my writing, feel free to leave me a tip here: https://ko-fi.com/ezrasaville

Sources: The Jewish Book of Days by Rabbi Jill Hammer Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906. http://www.peelapom.com/ http://www.devotaj.com/ http://telshemesh.org/

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spiritualdirections · 4 years

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The doctrine that Mary was assumed into heaven and spared the corruption into dust is of apostolic origin, even though it’s not described in the New Testament. However, there are non-canonical writings that speak of this, like the one linked to here. I like to think of apocrypha as fan fiction, which, like contemporary fan fiction, takes the basic vibe and details of the underlying material and adds imaginary detail on top. (Rabbinical midrash is similarly apocryphal and theological.) For the historian, this sort of thing is useful, because it tells us something about the vibe how the ancient Church regarded Mary, even if the details are not to be considered as either inspired or as necessarily historically accurate. The vibe here is that Mary was not subject to death, because she was not subject to the consequence of Original Sin.

2. In the second year, therefore, after Christ had vanquished death, and ascended up into heaven, on a certain day, Mary, burning with a longing for Christ, began to weep alone, within the shelter of her abode. And, behold, an angel, shining in a dress of great light, stood before her and gave utterance to the words of salutation saying: Hail! You blessed by the Lord, receive the salutation of Him who commanded safety to Jacob by His prophets. Behold, said He, a palm branch — I have brought it to you from the paradise of the Lord — which you will cause to be carried before your bier, when on the third day you shall be taken up from the body. For, lo, your Son awaits you with thrones and angels, and all the powers of heaven. Then Mary said to the angel: I beg that all the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ be assembled to me. To whom the angel said: Behold, today, by the power of my Lord Jesus Christ, all the apostles will come to you. And Mary says to him: I ask that you send upon me your blessing, that no power of the lower world may withstand me in that hour in which my soul shall go out of my body, and that I may not see the prince of darkness. And the angel said: No power indeed of the lower world will hurt you; and your Lord God, whose servant and messenger I am, has given you eternal blessing; but do not think that the privilege of not seeing the prince of darkness is to be given you by me, but by Him whom you have carried in your womb; for to Him belongs power over all for ever and ever. Thus saying, the angel departed with great splendour. And that palm shone with exceeding great light. Then Mary, undressing herself, put on better garments. And, taking the palm which she had received from the hands of the angel, she went out to the mount of Olivet, and began to pray, and say: I had not been worthy, O Lord, to bear You, unless You had had compassion on me; but nevertheless I have kept the treasure which You entrusted to me. Therefore I ask of You, O King of glory, that the power of Gehenna hurt me not. For if the heavens and the angels daily tremble before You, how much more man who is made from the ground, who possesses no good thing, except as much as he has received from Your benignant bounty! You are, O Lord, God always blessed forever. And thus saying, she went back to her dwelling.

3. And, behold, suddenly, while St. John was preaching in Ephesus, on the Lord's day, at the third hour of the day, there was a great earthquake, and a cloud raised him and took him up from the eyes of all, and brought him before the door of the house where Mary was. And knocking at the door, he immediately went in. And when Mary saw him, she exulted in joy, and said: I beg of you, my son John, be mindful of the words of my Lord Jesus Christ, in which He entrusted me to you. For, behold, on the third day, when I am to depart from the body, I have heard the plans of the Jews, saying, Let us wait for the day when she who bore that seducer shall die, and let us burn her body with fire. She therefore called St. John, and led him into the secret chamber of the house, and showed him the robe of her burial, and that palm of light which she had received from the angel, instructing him that he should cause it to be carried before her couch when she was going to her tomb.

4. And St. John said to her: How shall I alone perform your funeral rites, unless my brethren and fellow apostles of my Lord Jesus Christ come to pay honour to your body? And, behold, on a sudden, by the command of God, all the apostles were snatched up, raised on a cloud, from the places in which they were preaching the word of God, and set down before the door of the house in which Mary dwelt. And, saluting each other, they wondered, saying: What is the cause for which the Lord has assembled us here?

5. Then all the apostles, rejoicing with one mind, finished their prayer. And when they had said the Amen, behold, on a sudden, there came the blessed John, and told them all these things. The apostles then, having entered the house, found Mary, and saluted her, saying: Blessed are you by the Lord, who has made heaven and earth. And she said to them: Peace be with you, most beloved brethren! How have you come hither? And they recounted to her how they had come, each one raised on a cloud by the Spirit of God, and set down in the same place. And she said to them: God has not deprived me of the sight of you. Behold, I shall go the way of all the earth, and I doubt not that the Lord has now conducted you hither to bring me consolation for the anguish which is just coming upon me. Now therefore I implore you, that without intermission you all with one mind watch, even till that hour in which the Lord will come, and I shall depart from the body.

6. And when they had sat down in a circle consoling her, when they had spent three days in the praises of God, behold, on the third day, about the third hour of the day, a deep sleep seized upon all who were in that house, and no one was at all able to keep awake but the apostles alone, and only the three virgins who were there. And, behold, suddenly the Lord Jesus Christ came with a great multitude of angels; and a great brightness came down upon that place, and the angels were singing a hymn, and praising God together. Then the Saviour spoke, saying: Come, most precious pearl, within the receptacle of life eternal.

7. Then Mary prostrated herself on the pavement, adoring God, and said: Blessed be the name of Your glory, O Lord my God, who hast deigned to choose me Your handmaid, and to entrust to me Your hidden mystery. Be mindful of me, therefore, O King of glory, for You know that I have loved You with all my heart, and kept the treasure committed to me. Therefore receive me, Your servant, and free me from the power of darkness, that no onset of Satan may oppose me, and that I may not see filthy spirits standing in my way. And the Saviour answered her: When I, sent by my Father for the salvation of the world, was hanging on the cross, the prince of darkness came to me; but when he was able to find in me no trace of his work, John 14:30 he went off vanquished and trodden under foot. But when you shall see him, you shall see him indeed by the law of the human race, in accordance with which you have come to the end of your life; but he cannot hurt you, because I am with you to help you. Go in security, because the heavenly host is waiting for you to lead you in to the joys of paradise. And when the Lord had thus spoken, Mary, rising from the pavement, reclined upon her couch, and giving thanks to God, gave up the ghost. And the apostles saw that her soul was of such whiteness, that no tongue of mortals can worthily utter it; for it surpassed all the whiteness of snow, and of every metal, and of gleaming silver, by the great brightness of its light.

#Mariology #mary #Assumption of Mary #apocrypha #dormition

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 years

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Jupiter Good Night :: Patty McKeon

* * * *

"follow the cloud to a new place. see the grace in undoing everything you’ve done."

from “moving” in There Is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash by Amy Bornman, p. 43

you thought that i was impossibly soft, like one of my clouds. you thought i was silent…

…don’t you realize that my storms aren’t always visible? don’t you realize there’s so much you can’t see?

from “an explanation” in There Is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash by Amy Bornman, p. 40

[h/t revmeg]

#revmeg #Amy Borman #Jupiter #Patty McKeon #poetry #poems #clouds #sky #A Year of Daily Midrash

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revmeg · 2 years

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god is a future, a safety that exists against all odds where we all stay alive and can be together. god is a city where we each have a home that doesn't cost too much.

from “future god” in There Is a Future: A Year of Daily Midrash by Amy Bornman, p. 88

#There Is a Future #Amy Bornman #God #faith #poetry #lit

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jewish-privilege · 5 years

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...Ask any Ashkenazi American Jew about his family’s arrival in the United States, and you’re likely to hear a certain story. With minor variations, it goes something like this: “My great-grandfather was called Rogarshevsky, but when he arrived at Ellis Island, the immigration officer couldn’t understand his accent. So he just wrote down ‘Rogers,’ and that became my family’s name.”

Most American Jews accept such stories as fact. The truth, however, is that they’re fiction. Ellis Island, New York City’s historic immigrant-absorption center, processed up to 11,000 immigrants daily between 1892 and 1924. Yet despite this incessant flow of newcomers, the highest standards of professionalism were demanded of those who worked there. All inspectors—many of whom were themselves immigrants, or children of immigrants—were required to know at least two languages; many knew far more, and all at the native-speaker level. Add to that the hundreds of auxiliary interpreters, and together you’ve covered nearly every possible language one might hear at Ellis Island. Yiddish, Russian, and Polish, in this context, were a piece of cake.

Nor were inspections the brief interactions we associate with passport control in today’s airports. Generally they lasted twenty minutes or more, as inspectors sought to identify those at high risk of becoming wards of the state. But perhaps most significantly, Ellis Island officers never wrote down immigrants’ names. Instead, they worked from ships’ manifests, which were themselves compiled by local officials at the point of embarkation. Even overseas, passenger lists were likewise not generated simply by asking immigrants for their names. Rather, they were drawn from passports, exit visas, and other identification papers. The reason for this was simple: Errors cost the shipping company money. A mistake on a manifest, such as a name that was not corroborated by other documentation (whether legal or fraudulent), would result in the forced deportation of the person in question back to his point of departure—at the shipping company’s expense. Of course, many Jewish immigrants’ names were changed upon coming to America. Without exception, however, they changed their names themselves.

...[The] enduring popularity of the name-change story among otherwise rational American Jews is nothing short of astounding. They cling to it, stubbornly defending it, long after any of their ancestors who actually came through Ellis Island as adults has passed away. It has taken on a near-sacred status, passed from parent to child to grandchild along with more general stories of national identity, such as the Exodus narrative related at Passover.

Of course, this stance is understandable. For the Ellis Island name-change story is not so much a historical error as it is a legend. It expresses both the highest hopes and the deepest fears of American Jewry.

To be sure, the hopes and fears embedded in the Ellis Island myth are specific to the challenges of American life. But they are also tied inexorably to long Jewish traditions of diaspora life around the world. For thousands of years, Jews outside the Land of Israel have developed strategies for preserving their culture absent collective political autonomy—an absence that, almost invariably, resulted in persecution, assimilation, or both. Some of these strategies, such as the establishment of separate educational systems, are common to all diaspora Jewish communities. The creation of founding legends is another example. These legends attempted to ground each community’s legitimacy in Jewish terms, invariably by rooting it firmly in the grand Jewish-historical narrative. At the same time, they offered a tailored response to the specific challenges each Jewish community faced.

Seen in this context, the Ellis Island name-change story is simply one of many diaspora founding legends. We often consider the American Jewish community, with its tenacious belief in both the purity of its American identity and its ability to live a fully Jewish life, to be a bizarre exception to the rules of Jewish history...

...The ethnographer Haya Bar-Itzhak sees the two main elements of this legend—the carving of Jewish texts onto Polish trees and the Hebrew origins of the word “Poland”—as part of a larger pattern of Jewish settlement in a new land. For instance, she points out, there is a well-known Jewish tradition of midrashim in which the names of places are given etymological explanations that relate to the original Israelite arrival there. The Polish legend, then, is but one of many similar attempts to “explain” the obviously Slavic names of specific places as in truth being of Semitic origin. According to these stories, Bar-Itzhak writes, the name “is understood not as a random and arbitrary set of phonemes, but as a concatenation that conveys a meaning in a Jewish language—Hebrew and/or Yiddish. The name-midrash unveils this meaning, which allows the newcomers to identify with the place by Judaizing it.”

...It is here that one finds the community’s greatest aspirations and deepest fears folded into a single, nonsupernatural tale. One the one hand, the Jews yearned to turn a strange landscape into a home that physically expressed the most deeply held Jewish value, that of Torah scholarship; so, too, did they dream of Gentile neighbors who would not merely tolerate, but actually honor, their presence in the country. On the other hand, they lived in constant terror of persecution, and doubted their ability to uphold the chain of tradition embodied in other, more established Jewish societies. By casting itself into an unspecified past, one in which no facts can be verified, the founding legend of Poland’s Jewish community becomes as improbable as the Ellis Island story—and as compelling.

...If all founding myths share the hopes and fears that characterized the Jewish historical experience in exile, then each legend also served its own community’s particular needs.

Yet these founding myths are not only about adapting to the demands of a new country. They are also about creating continuity with a specific “old” country: the Nation of Israel. One important component of all these legends is their connection to classic Jewish writings and images. The Polish story is particularly vivid in this respect. The idea of texts being transmitted supernaturally—flying through the sky, for example—has numerous resonances in early sources. One recalls God commanding the prophet Ezekiel to ingest a scroll, or R. Hanina ben Tradyon’s assertion, when wrapped in the burning Torah scroll that results in his martyrdom, that “the parchment is burning, but the letters are flying free!” Texts hanging from trees remind us of Psalm 137, which describes the Jewish exiles in Babylonia hanging their harps on branches, unwilling to sing songs of Jerusalem while their captors taunt them. Furthermore, the image of Polish Jews studying in a cave calls to mind the story of R. Shimon Bar Yohai and his son studying Torah in a cave while hiding from Roman persecutors, and the legends of diaspora Jews who return to Jerusalem in the messianic age through underground caverns. Some legends of Jewish Poland even describe this same cave at Kawenczynek as containing an underground passage to Israel.

...Sociologically, there is no question that the Ellis Island myth serves the same purpose of previous diaspora founding legends: allowing the community to express its highest aspirations and to face its greatest fears. True, the story seems to emphasize the severance of American Jews from their past. But the repeated telling of the story, and the emphatic belief with which American Jews have been taught to accept it, is itself the enactment of that continuity that older legends established through means more suited to their time and place. And as with these earlier myths, one cannot fully appreciate their power or purpose without likewise understanding their non-Jewish, co-territorial contexts. For in America—a nation famous for its lack of loyalty to burdensome, Old World conventions, in which everyone may invent himself anew—the very act of repeating a family story over the course of generations is itself a kind of resistance to Americanization.

American culture’s uniqueness lies in the fact that it does not force, but rather invites, immigrants to “remake” themselves—that is, to shed their past identities and pursue the future of their dreams. The goal of independence from Europe and all that it signified—its history as well as its social, economic, and cultural norms—was, after all, the basis of the American Revolution. Indeed, the “American dream,” with its assumption of potential upward social mobility, is based not on mere capitalism, but rather on the more profound idea that “it doesn’t matter where you come from.” Jews, like all other immigrant groups, were drawn to America precisely by this promise of freedom and opportunity that no other country in their history had ever offered them. But for Jews whose identity depends on the ritualized, intergenerational process of remembrance, the American emphasis on dissociation posed an existential threat to the Jewish communal future.

Consider, then, the motivations of those Jewish immigrants to America who created the myth that their names were changed against their will. Deeply aware of the significance of Jewish names, yet determined to help both themselves and their descendants blend in with their non-Jewish neighbors, they ultimately shed their conspicuous links to an Eastern European past. But—and this is the clincher—this was not a choice they were proud of. And so, by inventing a story that depicts their name change as beyond their control, and transmitting this story to their descendants as historical fact, these immigrants and their offspring sent a powerful message to future generations: I did not shed my Jewish identity intentionally. And despite the values of the country in which we are living, I hope that you won’t, either. This, then, expresses both the greatest hope and the greatest fear of American Jews: that their descendants will preserve their Jewish identity in a culture whose open objective has long been to invite them to forget it.

An expression of this tension inherent in the American Jewish experience can be seen in one of the many jokes that spun off from the Ellis Island myth: A flustered Jewish immigrant is asked for his name and responds in Yiddish, “Sheyn fargesn” (“[I] forgot already”)—only to find himself permanently saddled with the Irish-sounding moniker “Sean Ferguson.” This joke, along with its many straight-faced equivalents, is precisely the type of “name midrash” that Haya Bar-Itzhak describes in her ethnography of Jewish Poland. It is, as she writes, a multi-lingual pun that interprets a proper noun in the co-territorial language “not as a random and arbitrary set of phonemes, but as a concatenation that conveys a meaning in a Jewish language,” and that “Judaizes” the name in the process. The “Sean Ferguson” joke is even more rooted in the challenge presented to Jews by American culture, since at its core is the idea of forgetting—and, more pointedly, the idea that forgetting is itself an act for which a Jew and his descendants are punished (the assumption being, of course, that a Jew saddled with an Irish name has been unambiguously cursed).

In truth, then, the Ellis Island name-change story, while ostensibly about the unmaking of Jewish identity, are just the opposite: they are a process of Judaizing Gentile names by attributing to them a Jewish linguistic history. Making a name like Rogers into one that, secretly, has its roots in Rogarshevsky recalls how the word Poland was “revealed” as a Hebrew phrase in disguise. And it is precisely here, in the experience of exchanging one world for another, that we find the Ellis Island name-change story’s profound links to ancient Jewish texts and the greater pattern of Jewish history.

...What matters, rather, is the sentiment that the midrash captures, and the way this sentiment was expressed in the lives of Jews for centuries thereafter. This includes hundreds of thousands of American Jews whose ancestors may have changed their names but whose lies taught their descendants what was really worth keeping.

“History,” Gerson Cohen points out in his discussion of the Four Captives story, “is always shown to conform to a pattern”—not because such a pattern exists, but because historians and storytellers impose such a pattern on the facts (or invent the facts, when necessary). Cohen makes it clear that “it is this very orderliness of history that Ibn Daud finds a source of consolation, a source of hope that history will yet vindicate the Jewish hope for redemption.” By placing the Ellis Island name-change story into the continuum of diaspora myth making, we are no doubt doing just what Ibn Daud did, and for the same reason. We are claiming, rightly or wrongly, that history conforms to a pattern, in an attempt to console those who fear that the American Jewish community is in fact an anomaly in the Jewish people’s millennia-long continuity...

[Please read Dara Horn’s full, ridiculously well-researched and sourced, piece at Azure Online. It adds necessary color and history of other founding myths of our diaspora communities and how it all ties together to form Jewish history.]

#jewish history #white supremacy #assimilation #long post #dara horn #jewish identity

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gailrios6-blog · 5 years

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Vision - to be a light tower of Torah and Chesed, providing a comprehensive system of spiritual and material educational support from the birth of the son and daughter to the length of days and years, the worship of God while seeing all the Torah paradoxes in depth and family fraternity. - Our goal for the next 5/10 years in Gaza - continuing to establish and establish the existing institutions, building a Talmud Torah building, establishing a large yeshiva for excellent students, and setting up committees of friends in Israel and around the world. Main activity - Talmud Toras Yeshayahu - established in 2000/2000, the Talmud Torah contains kindergarten classes, preparatory classes, and 8 school classes. Today there are Talmud Torah at all, more than 350 children will multiply without the evil eye. - Kollel Kollelim Full Day Ayan - 18 Avrechim who study for Gemara studies. - including homeowners - 12 home-schoolers who study daily at the afternoon kollel as part of the beit midrash, a group of shofar shiurim, which teaches daily shiurim in a variety of fields, Gemara, Daf Yomi, Halacha, Mussar and more. - Kollel Metzolot / Kollel Midot and Ashmoret HaBoker - established 27 years ago, now contains 14 adult yeshiva students who study Torah and the occult every day from midnight until dawn after dawn. Tora site

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rabbiaharon · 5 years

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The Exodus According to Jewish Tradition

PART II: Heading To Egypt

PART 1 HERE

So, I am doing a series of posts illustrating Yetzias Mitzrayim (The Exodus from Egypt) according to the Talmud/Midrash. Since the Talmud and Midrash are incredibly vast, I’m going to put some limitations on where I’m going to go, in order to provide a basic story. This one is going to be really long, because I’m glossing over around 3.5 sedras (Vayeishev, Mikeitz, Vayigash, and Vayechi)

In a place where there are multiple interpretations, I intend to bring a basic one in order to keep the flow, as opposed to a convoluted one that implements more complex or deeper methods of biblical exegesis (There are tons of different rules in that, and this is not the time or place to explore them). I may occasionally hint to or explain what the lesson is for us in details of the story, but in general I will try to keep to basic storytelling. In this one, i will not be including the events that happened in The Land of Israel after Yosef was sold down to Egypt, until the second year of famine, when the brothers come down to Egypt the first time.

I will be proceeding in chronological order, but because this post could end up being massive, I will be dividing it up into narrative sections, so I present to you the second one, “Heading to Egypt”.

So Yosef was sold by the Ishmaelites to a group of Midianites who sold him, in turn, to a despot by the name of Potiphar. Potiphar was Pharaoh’s butcher (confusing, as it were, since the Egyptians worshipped animals and did not eat them, so for what purpose did Pharaoh have a butcher?) and one of the wealthy nobles of Egypt. He purchased Yosef for a specific purpose - to be used for sexual enjoyment. As soon as he finalized his purchase, the angel Gavriel came and castrated Potiphar, rendering him incapable of having children. Yosef was relegated as a household servant, and a fast learner. In fact, everything he touched was blessed, and every endeavor he came to manage became incredibly successful. It wasn’t long before Potiphar realized that it was to his benefit that Yosef be appointed over all of the processes in his house, managing his business and making him even more successful. We know, of course - as the torah says - That it was none other than the Master of the World who granted him this success and favor.

In the meantime, Potiphar’s wife, who we refer to as Dova (a female bear) was trying to figure out her new life with a husband who could not give her children, and used magic and other idolatrous procedures to try and discern her future, if she would be able to have descendants and a family to raise. She saw through the veil that someone from her household - she didn’t know who - would have children with Yosef, and from them would come out kings and prophets. Since her husband could not have children, she assumed that the one who would have children with Yosef was her (she would find in the future that the one destined to marry Yosef was actually her adopted daughter, Osnas).

Believing this faulty conclusion, she began to try and seduce Yosef to having relations with her, hoping that she would be able to have children with him. She tried daily, but Yosef was - as it were- impossible to get. She waited, then, until the Solstice, when everyone was to go out and serve their idolatry, she pretended to be sick at home. When Yosef was bringing food to Dova (pretending to be sick), She grabbed onto him, and pulled him down onto the bed. Yosef, in an effort to struggle away, left his shirt in her hands. Angered that she was unsuccessful, Dova claimed that Yosef came to assault her, and ran when she cried out. When Potiphar heard this fabrication, he threw Yosef into prison.

And so Yosef sat in prison. Soon, the prison warden found that Yosef was able to lead the other prisoners, to get them to straighten themselves out and improve their behavior. Once again a fantastic manager - thanks to G-d’s constant blessing - Yosef was placed in charge of all the prisoners, and helped the warden with the procedures which needed to be completed daily in the prison. For 10 years Yosef continued this stage of his life, punished 1 year for each of his brothers whom he had slandered. At the end of the 10 years, 2 servants of Pharaoh angered him - the Butler, who had served Pharaoh a glass of wine with a fly floating in it, and the Baker, who had given to Pharaoh bread which contained a small pebble.

One night they each dreamed a dream, from which they awoke, each one afraid. When Yosef made his rounds, working with each of the prisoners, he found the faces of the Butler and Baker crestfallen. Yosef began by inquiring as to their well-being, to which they responded that they were afraid, because they each had dreams which they did not understand. Yosef offered, with the help of G-d, to try and explain them. The Butler began first:

“In my dream, i saw a vine in front of me. On this vine there were 3 branches, each one blossoming - then its buds came out, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my and, and i took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I placed the Cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

Yosef was delighted to hear this dream and understood that it meant a deeper message for him. Yosef interpreted the dream as follows: I saw a vine before me - Israel is compared to a vine, as it is said גפן ממצרים תסיע (You have brought this vine out of Egypt, Psalms 80:9). Not only am i going to see my father again soon, but afterwards we will all come out from the exile in Egypt! And not only that, but there will be 3 MORE cups - the cup in the hand of the butler, the cup to which the wine was squeezed, and the cup placed in Pharaoh’s hand. The 4 of them total represent the 4 cups which my children will drink on the first night of Pesach! (courtesy of Bereishis Rabbah! )

Having heard this wonderful news, he also had good news to give the butler: "the 3 branches are 3 days, and in 3 days you will be restored to your position, serving Pharaoh as you did before. When you do, please remember me, and don't forget me, for I am innocent of what I was accused."

The baker heard the good news given to the butler, and figured he would probably get some good news too, so he began "I also had a dream. There were 3 wicker baskets on my head, Each one filled with bread. And the birds began eating from the baskets atop my head, until there was nothing left."

Yosef heard this, and was crestfallen at the bad news he had received. This was Yosef's interpretation: the 3 baskets of bread symbolize the Exile of Babylonia, the Exile of Persia, and the Exile of Greece... And the birds which devour everything left symbolize the Exile of Rome, which consumes the jewish people and seems as if there is no end. (also courtesy of Bereishis Rabbah)

Given the bad news, he had bad news to give to the baker. "the 3 baskets represent 3 days, and at the end you will be executed and hung".

3 days passed, and everything happened just as Yosef had said. The baker was hung, and the Butler was restored to his place. For the 2 times which Yosef asked of the Butler to get him out of prison (remember me, and mention me to Pharaoh), G-d caused the butler to forget, and Yosef remained in Prison for another 2 years.

After 2 years had passed, one night Pharaoh had a dream which shook him to his core - and simply not understanding the meaning was enough to disturb his sleep. He was standing by the edge of the river, and 7 fattened, healthy cows came out from the river. After them came 7 emaciated cows, which stood by the side of the 7 fat ones, and then devoured the fat cows, looking just as emaciated afterwards. Pharaoh awoke with a start, and when he finally managed to get back to sleep, he dreamt again, standing by the side of the river. 7 beautiful, healthy ears of grain came up from the river, and 7 dry, dead ears of grain followed them. The dry ears stood by the side of the 7 healthy ears, and then devoured them, looking even worse than before. He awoke again, and called in his best wise men and dream interpreters, and none could explain the dream. They said that he would have 7 daughters, and then bury them, or that he would capture 7 countries, and then lose them. But they could not account for the 7 emaciated cows/dry ears of grain standing next to the healthy ones before devouring them.

Just then, the Butler remembered and spoke to Pharaoh "With your permission - I have sinned, and forgotten a favor done for me while I was in prison, 2 years ago when Pharaoh became angry with his servants. There was a young Hebrew man who interpreted our dreams, that the baker would be hung in 3 days, and that I would be restored. He is helped by his G-d, and perhaps he can help you." Pharaoh, hoping to find the interpretation to his dream, ordered his servants to find Yosef, bathe him, change his clothes, and cut his hair, and bring him before the king.

With Yosef standing before him, Pharaoh told over his dreams. After listening carefully, Yosef spoke up; "I will speak only with the help of the G-d of my fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yisroel. Your two dreams, they are really one. The 7 healthy cows, and the 7 healthy ears of grain - they represent 7 years of plenty, which begin now. The 7 emaciated cows, and the 7 dry ears of grain represent 7 years of famine, both of which will effect the whole world. What must be done is that we must take a portion of the grain from each of the years of plenty, and set them aside so that we have them during the years of famine." Pharaoh understood then... THAT is the explanation of the dream - how the years of plenty could stand next to the years of famine. Pharaoh exclaimed "And you will be there to help me organize it, to separate the tithe of grain to prepare for the years of famine, and you will be my right hand!" The previous advisors to the king were insulted, that they were passed over for a servant and a prisoner, they said "Your Highness, it is unbefitting of a king to have a servant and a prisoner as an advisor. At least devise a test by which we can ascertain that he is indeed a great wise man, and that this is not simply a lucky guess". Pharaoh said "As you said. Tomorrow Yosef will go through a trial. It is befitting that my second in command should have mastery of the 70 languages spoken by the nations of the world. Let him address Pharaoh in each language and thus climb the 70 stairs to my throne." That night, the angel Gavriel (Good friend of Yosef's by now?) came and taught to Yosef all 70 languages, so when he stood before Pharaoh the following morning, he would be ready.

The next morning they began the test, and in each language Yosef spoke to Pharaoh, and was allowed to ascend one step up. When he reached the 70th step and spoke in the 70th language, standing right in front of Pharaoh, he addressed Pharaoh in Hebrew - the language of creation, and a language which Pharaoh did not know. Pharaoh was embarrassed that he did not understand the language of Yosef's home, and the language of his people, and asked him to swear an oath to him that he would not reveal this to the people. Yosef was thus established as second to the king, and ruler over Egypt. Soon Yosef became married to Osnas, the adopted daughter of Dova and Potiphar - and a descendent of Yaakov through Dina. He has 2 sons from Osnas, Menashe and Ephraim.

OKAY, so fast forwards a bit, we’re holding in the second year of the famine.

Yaakov Avinu was one of the first holders of the name “Ba’al Shem” (Like the Ba’al Shem Tov!). The responsibility given to the person who holds that title is to be the mission control for the 36 hidden righteous people who hold up the world - to keep tabs on them and their location, and to send them wherever they are needed. This means that Yaakov effectively had a GPS map of where in the world all the Tzaddikim are located... and he did not send anyone to Egypt.

Two years into the famine, Yaakov Avinu and his children still had plenty of food; they had merit, and righteousness, the 2 things that were established even then to guarantee that a person had the success they needed to get by. However, Yaakov was curious - there were no Tzaddikim in Egypt, to his knowledge, and yet they had plenty of food. To satisfy this wonder, he decided to send his sons down to Egypt to investigate, under the guise of buying food, so that the other inhabitants of the land, the descendants of Eisav and those of Yishmael, would see them descend to Egypt and not get jealous of their prosperity.

He warned them - you are many as you stand together, and so I beseech you, please enter the city when you get to Egypt through different entrances, and remain split up while you are there. They met together, and decided as one: “If there is a tzaddik in Egypt, it must be Yosef! It was not correct that we sold him, not proper that we went against him, and now our obligation is that of freeing a captive.”

In Egypt, and knowing that his brothers would one day come down, Yosef gave instructions to Ephraim, who in turn instructed the guards of the city to collect the names of everyone who entered the city - their name, the name of their father, and the name of their grandfather. At that point in time, the name Yehuda ben Yaakov ben Yitzchak was probably only held by one person in the world - and by this Yosef would be certain of his brothers’ arrival.

When his brothers entered the city, they spread out to the farthest reaching neighborhoods to look for Yosef - They looked in all the slave markets, they looked in all the other markets, and they searched in houses, high and low. Sound like spies? They certainly seemed like spies to the Egyptians.

This report was brought to Yosef, who demanded that they be brought to his house. While they were waiting to see Yosef, Ephraim spoke to them, asking why they had come down to Egypt. Yehuda spoke for them “We are not spies, but rather the children of one man. We are 10 out of 12, one is by our father’s side, and one is lost. We have come to search for the one who was lost. We thought he was pursuing us, and we sold him into slavery... But we were wrong.”

Ephraim asked “For how much did you sell him?”, to which the brothers replied “For 5 selayim”,

Ephraim continued, “And if his master offered to sell him back to you for 5 selayim, would you buy him back?”

“Of course”, they answered

“And if his master offered to sell him back for 10 selayim, would you buy him back?”

“Certainly”, they replied

“And if his master said that he would not sell your brother back to you, even for 1000 selayim?”

“We would certainly rescue him, or we would die trying” said the brothers.

Just then, Yosef came out from behind the curtain. Since his beard had grown out, and he looked much older (They saw him when he was 17, he was not 39), they did not recognize him. He accused them immediately of being spies, to which they repeated their denial, and their request to find their brother, and to get food, as their father had requested. Instead, Yosef seized Shimon and imprisoned him in front of the brothers. He said “If you are telling the truth, take your grain and go back to your father, and bring back your other brother. If you do not bring him down with you next time, you will not see my face again, and your brother Shimon will remain a servant in my house.” He received their money and filled up their bags with grain, and on top of the grain, he slipped in the money they brought.

As soon as the brothers departed Egypt (and afterwards discovered the money which was placed back in their bags), Yosef went and got Shimon out of prison, brought him to his house and gave him food to eat and water to drink... and there he remained as an honored guest until his brothers returned to Egypt.

As a year passed by, they wanted to get Shimon “out of prison”, and they began to run “low” on grain again... So they spoke to their father, and convinced him to allow them to go back down to Egypt, and with Benyamin in tow. On this, Yehuda gave his word and swore an oath - an oath that would affect him, even after his passing from this world, and even though he did not violate it. With them also they took their money from the first time - just in case it had been a mistake - and the additional money with which they would buy more grain. They brought with them as well fruits of the land, Dates, Figs, Pomegranates.

When they got to Egypt, they were brought before Yosef, who welcomed them, and sat them down at the table and gave them food to eat. He brought out Shimon, who sat with them. They brought out their money from the first time, and offered it up - perhaps it had been a mistake that it had been returned to them. Yosef responded by saying, your G-d and the G-d of your fathers has done this for you (something VERY un-Egyptian, and VERY jewish to say. Big question mark there...). Yosef then decided to spend some time alone with his brother, Benyamin. They sat together, and Yosef confessed to him, and told him of his plan - a plan by which he intended to verify whether their brothers had done Teshuva - that they had repented and would protect Benyamin, or whether they would repeat their mistakes. Benyamin agreed, and they spoke of it no further. When they were preparing to depart, Yosef’s servants slipped his silver cup into Benyamin’s bag, where it would be found later.

The brothers departed from Egypt, but were soon returned, with a horrible accusation, that they had stolen Yosef’s silver cup from which he drinks. They told Yosef that it was a mistake, and that the one in whose bag the cup was found would remain as a servant. They opened the sacks to find it at the top of Benyamin’s sack, and the brothers tore their garments in mourning.

Yehuda stepped up as Benyamin’s advocate, saying "I am his guarantor, rather that I should be as a servant to you, and Benyamin should return to his father. For we were once 12 brothers, and one of them has since passed away (Yehuda was afraid that if he mentioned that Yosef was not dead, that Yosef - as it were - would demand to see their 12th brother) - our father has been in mourning for him all of these years, do not send our father to the grave in mourning for his second son, the last one remaining to his father from his mother." As the brothers began to beg, on behalf of Benyamin, who didn't speak up, Yosef began to cry, and yelled that all of his servants should depart from the room - and the Egyptians cleared out. Left only him and his brothers, he said "I am Yosef, is my father alive?"

The brothers were so awestruck that they could not speak, only to express their disbelief - there is no way that this individual, the second to Pharaoh, was Yosef, their long lost brother. They asked for proof - which Yosef provided. The first bit was that Egyptians could not - and would not - speak Hebrew. It represented something disgusting to them, as they associated it with Yosef’s meat-eating and anti-idolatry (according to the kabbalistic interpretation, they were actually too spiritually unrefined -for the lack of actually working to refine themselves and rather smothering themselves with idolatry- to be able to conceive of the depth in the Hebrew language, and were therefore unable to speak it). The second sign was his Bris Milah - showing them that he was circumcised, something that was limited to the children of Avraham - and definitely not an Egyptian thing. The 3rd sign was that he was able to tell them the day and time they threw him into the pit. A fourth sign was given - the place at which he had left off learning with their father - but that was to be given over to Yaakov Avinu when they came to bring him down to Egypt.

The brothers were wondering - after all this time - how do we tell our father that his son Yosef is alive? And so they concocted a plan. They wrote a song in which was explained their going to Egypt, and they would have Serach - the daughter of Asher - sing it to their father. When she did so, Yaakov Avinu said “If this is so, may you live forever.“ The Midrash follows by bringing a tradition on a verse in Kings in which David and Yo’av ask Serach for advice, something which happened more than 700 years later.

They came down to Egypt, where Yaakov lived out the remainder of his life. He passed away and his brothers buried him in the Land of Israel. One by one they began to pass away as well - the first to pass being Yosef. As Yosef was on his deathbed, he gave over a sign - פקד יפקוד - G-d will surely remember you... “When G-d will send a true redeemer, the redeemer will come with the words פקד פקדתי... I have surely remembered you.“

That leads us to the real beginning of the exile. The next installment “The Faithful Shepherd“ will be released G-d willing soon.

#the exodus according to judaism #midrash #talmud #יהדות

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hassanzohaib · 3 years

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