Notes on Torah Reading for September 14, 2019

Ki Tetse, Deuteronomy Ch 21:10-Ch. 25

By Irv Jacobs, MD

Irv Jacobs

LA JOLLA, California — This parsha contains several laws of a humane nature. I’ve chosen to explore a few, as to their origins.

I. Deut. 21: vv. 11-14 (After battle) “….you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire her and would take her to wife, you shall bring her into your house, and she shall trim her hair, pare her nails, and discard her captive’s garb. She shall spend a month’s time your house lamenting her father and mother; after that you may come to her and possess her, and she shall be your wife. Then, should you no longer want her, you must release her outright. You must not sell her for money; since you had your will of her, you must not enslave her.”

How does this treatment compare with that of Israel’s neighbor or preceding nations? Throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, captive women of vanquished peoples were assumed to be the due sexual prerogative of the victors, i.e. their slave concubines. This Torah law, though harsh by today’s standards, goes quite a way toward better treatment and acknowledgement of the woman’s feelings with consideration of the upset/adjustments in her life. Furthermore, should the husband later reject her as a wife, he must set her free altogether.

Still to be acknowledged is the retention in the Torah of the old male bias for physical beauty, superseding more lasting qualities.

II. Deut. 21: vv. 15-17 If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and both…have borne him sons, but the first-born is the son of the unloved one–when he wills his property to his sons he may not treat as first-born the son of the loved one in disregard of the son of the unloved one who is older. Instead, he must accept the first-born, the son of the unloved one, and allot to him a double portion of all he possesses, since he is at the first fruit of his vigor, the birthright is his due.”

I found very little detail on the internet regarding the first-born practices (primogeniture) of other ancient peoples that preceded the Israelites. There is a reference by Philo of Alexandria (~20 BCE-~50 CE), that emphasized, on this issue, the superiority of Mosaic Law over Egyptian models. There are occasional records of opportunists who tricked elders into adopting them, thereby becoming legal heirs.

As an aside, in societies which practiced human sacrifice, the first born was considered the most desirable sacrifice to a deity. II Kings 3:27 records that Mesha, king of Moab, on the verge of a military defeat, sacrificed his eldest son, resulting in a retreat by the attacking Israelites.

There is interesting literature on the subject of the ‘Unloved Woman.’ In the Hebrew Bible, the earliest example is Hagar, Abraham’s concubine. Proverbs 30: vv. 21-23 speaks of four items that can cause the earth to shudder (?earthquake), one of which is “A loathsome woman who gets married.” We are not told in the above passage why the subject wife is unloved. Perhaps she was originally innocent of provoking dislike. Perhaps as a child she was mistreated. In any case, she craves love, but may not have the social skills to earn or receive it. The above Biblical passage tends to offer a corrective, albeit with the lame explanation that focuses on “the first fruits of the husband’s vigor.”

III. Deut. Ch. 22: v. 5 “A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to at the Lord your ‘God.”

Likely the ancient Israelites were aware of some mythologies involving cross-dressing. Greek mythologies, in particular, contained stories of Heroes who cross-dressed. Hercules, in a phase where he was a slave to Queen Omphale of Lydia, was compelled to do women’s work and dress as a woman. Achilles dressed as a woman to avoid the Trojan War. Also, Athena in The Odyssey came to the aid of people in the guise of men.

Men at times dressed as women to hide from enemies, or to avoid military duty. Sometimes women dressed as men in order to actually serve as soldiers. In monarchies, after a throne was given to a certain male sibling, the others were in fear of being assassinated and so dressed as females to live.

The above Biblical passage was intended to be a corrective to such practices. In our times of gender re-identity, we see a resurgence of cross-dressing as a legal right.

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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis.  He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.