question about Jephthah's Stop Sign

Question:

http://www.kolel.org/pages/reb_on_the_web/childsacrifice.html Q: Given that the story of Abraham and Isaac rules out human sacrifice, what is it that I am missing in Judges 11; in particular Jephthah? It appears that human sacrifice is acceptable in this case. I have been reading on this and the suggestion I found most acceptable is that the Jephthah story was taken from another culture and ‘adjusted’ to fit the times and that the ‘editor’ missed this. (I find that a little hard to believe as if it is obvious to me it certainly should have been obvious to someone much more familiar with it.) Anyway, I just don’t understand. A: Hi David, the Reb agrees, this is one heck of a problematic Bible story. Let’s quote the relevant verses in full so people know what we’re talking about: And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break." "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry." "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite. (Judges 11:30-40) Wow, what an intense and disturbing story! You are absolutely correct to sense that offering one’s child in the service of an impulsive vow- or for any other reason, actually- goes against Torah ethics and law. Compare this story to Leviticus 18: 21: Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech [a pagan deity], for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. Other relevant passages include Deuteronomy 12:31 and 18:10. There are other stories in the Bible which tell of human sacrifices, such as the evil king Ahaz in 2 Kings 3, but the text is much more explicit in its condemnation in those places- what really disturbs us about the story of Jeptha is not that he did something stupid and evil, but that the Bible doesn’t explicitly SAY that what he did was stupid and evil. My sense is that the Bible does offer him as a negative example- don’t make foolish vows, and don’t hold fast to your vows if they entail great evil- but for some reason, we aren’t told that in so many words. However, what the Bible omits, the ancient rabbis include- they do, in fact, explicitly condemn him for being stupid and impulsive. One midrash even says that when he sacrificed his daughter, the Holy Presence cried out in anguish at how a leader of Israel so misapplied Torah law. Another midrash calls Jeptha "no more learned than a block of sycomore wood." (Both of these are found in the English Sefer HaAggadah, the famous anthology of midrashim compiled by Hayim Bialik.) Regarding the comparison with Abraham and Isaac, well, that opens up a whole can of worms, because we can debate for a hundred years the question of God’s exact intent. Did God ever really intend for Abraham to sacrifice his son? As you point out, a plausible reading of the story is that God’s intent was to teach Abraham precisely NOT to sacrifice his children. In that case, the two stories – Genesis 22 and Judges 11- are complementary, not contradictory.

| In past years Russel Gold and Ed Form have said that Jephthah did not | kill his daughter in Judges chapter 11. | | Shema Yisrael Web site says cryptically: | | " The text states that she met a tragic end, whose precise details are | a debate between the major commentaries." | – http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/solomon/archives/shoftim60.htm | | What do the various sages of Judaism claim about the fate of | Jephthah’s daughter? | | | 11:29 Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed | over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from | Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon. | | 11:30 And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said: ‘If Thou wilt | indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, | | 11:31 then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of | my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of | Ammon, it shall be the Lord’S, and I will offer it up for a | burnt-offering.’ | | 11:32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight | against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hand. | | 11:33 And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minnith, even | twenty cities, and unto Abel-cheramim, with a very great slaughter. So | the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. | | 11:34 And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and, behold, his | daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances; and she | was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. | | 11:35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, | and said: ‘Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou | art become my troubler; for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and | I cannot go back.’ | | 11:36 And she said unto him: ‘My father, thou hast opened thy mouth | unto the Lord; do unto me according to that which hath proceeded out | of thy mouth; forasmuch as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of | thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon.’ | | 11:37 And she said unto her father: ‘Let this thing be done for me: | let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down upon the | mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.’ | | 11:38 And he said: ‘Go.’ And he sent her away for two months; and she | departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the | mountains. | | 11:39 And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned | unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had | vowed; and she had not known man. And it was a custom in Israel, | | 11:40 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter | of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. | | – Judges 11:29-40 as found at Sacred-Texts.com at | http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/jdg011.htm |

Response:

http://www.uahc.org/rjmag/04summer/books.shtml SIGNIFICANT JEWISH BOOKS Texts and Textures of Jewish Life By Bonny V. Fetterman Please see the Study Guides for Significant Jewish Books Reading the Women of the Bible by Tikva Frymer-Kensky (Schocken, 446 pp., $15 paperback). The fact that biblical society was patriarchal–that women were totally dependent on male heads of households–is old news, argues Tikva Frymer-Kensky in her study of women in the Bible. The Bible did not invent patriarchy, or slavery; they were simply "givens" of the ancient world. Yet within that context, stories about women serve a definite and deliberate function. A society is judged–and, in this case, judges itself–by its treatment of its most vulnerable members. Stories about women in the Bible, she suggests, serve as a self-conscious "social barometer" in ancient Israel’s quest for a just society. The key to understanding stories about biblical women lies in their placement, as Frymer-Kensky demonstrates. It is no accident that the most brutal stories concerning women victims–Jephthah’s daughter and the Levite’s concubine–occur in the Book of Judges, the chaotic pre-monarchy period when the Israelite tribes first settle in Canaan; it is the first hint that government is needed to prevent social disintegration. Similarly, the corruption of King David’s reign that will lead to civil war is foreshadowed in the stories about women–David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba (and murder of her husband Uriah) and the rape of his daughter, Tamar, by her half-brother, Amnon. Although most of these women are powerless, Frymer-Kensky believes that the Bible does not regard them as inferior or "other" in any respect except for power. Considering groups of stories about women–as "victors, victims, virgins, and ‘voice of God’ oracles"–she finds that while women are clearly subordinate in Israelite society, they are never cast as "different by nature." Negative images of women–such as "the dangerous sexual seductress"–only start to appear in late- and post-biblical writings heavily influenced by Hellenism. Frymer-Kensky also challenges the contemporary feminist notion that women are endowed with "special spiritual or psychological attributes." "This romantic feminist argument also flies in the face of our own reality, which includes dense women and intuitive, empathic men," she writes, noting that the women of the Hebrew Bible are as human and as varied as their male counterparts. Sweeping away many of our assumptions about biblical images of women, Frymer-Kensky provides a new lens with which to read the biblical text. As for its contemporary relevance, she urges us to use the biblical text as a mirror, borrowing from its constant approach of self-critique concerning society’s responsibility for protecting its most disadvantaged members. Click here to order Reading the Women of the Bible

Response:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/wb/wb47.htm CHAPTER II. Judges iv. 4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel at that time. 5 And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Beth-el in Mount Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6 And she sent and called Barak, the son of Abinoam, out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? 7 And I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon, Sisera the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand. 8 And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go with me, then I will go; but if thou wilt not go with me, then I will not go. 9 And she said, I will surely go with thee; notwithstanding the journey that thou takest shall not be for thine honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 10 And Barak called Zebulon and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet; and Deborah went up with him. SOME commentators say that Deborah was not married to a man by the name of Lapidoth, that such a terminology is not customary to the name of a person, but of a place. They think that the text should read, Deborah of Lapidoth. Indeed, Deborah seems to have had too much independence of character, wisdom and self-reliance to have ever filled the role of the Jewish idea of a wife. "Deborah" signifies "bee;" and by her industry, sagacity, usefulness and kindness to her friends and dependents she fully answers to her name. "Lapidoth" signifies "lamps." The Rabbis say that Deborah was employed to make wicks for the lamps in the Tabernacle; and having stooped to that humble office for God’s service, she was afterward exalted as a prophetess, to special illumination and communion with God-the first woman thus honored in Scripture. Deborah was a woman of great ability. She was consulted by the children of Israel in all matters of government, of religion and of war. Her judgment seat was under a palm tree, known ever after as "Deborah’s Palm." Though she was one of the great judges of Israel for forty years, her name is not in the list, as it should have {p. 19} been, with Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah. Men have always been slow to confer on women the honors; which they deserve. Deborah did not judge as a princess by any civil authority conferred upon her, but as a prophetess, as the mouthpiece of God, redressing grievances and correcting abuses. The children of Israel appealed to her, not so much to settle controversies between man and man as to learn what was amiss in their service to God; yet she did take an active part in the councils of war and spurred the generals to their duty. The text shows Barak hesitating and lukewarm in the last eventful battle with Sisera and his host. He flatly refused to go unless Deborah would go with him. She was the divinely chosen leader; to her came the command, "Go to Mount Tabor and meet Sisera and his host." Not considering herself fit too lead an army, she chose Barak, who had already distinguished himself. He, feeling the need of her wisdom and inspiration, insisted that she accompany him; so, mounted on pure white jackasses, they started for the field of battle. The color of the jackass indicated the class to which the rider belonged. Distinguished personages were always mounted on pure white and ordinary mortals on gray or mottled animals. As they journeyed along side by side, with wonderful insight Deborah saw what was passing in Barak’s mind; he was already pluming himself on his victory over Sisera. So she told him that the victory would not be his, that the Lord would deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman. It added an extra pang to a man’s death to be slain by the hand of a woman. Fortunately, poor Sisera was spared the knowledge of his humiliation. What a picture of painful contrasts his death presents–a loving mother watching and praying at her window for the return of her only son, while at the same time Jael performs her deadly deed and blasts that mother’s hopes forever! What a melancholy dirge to her must have been that song of triumph, chanted by the army of Deborah and Barak, and for years after, by generation after generation. We never hear sermons pointing women to the heroic virtues of Deborah as worthy of their imitation. Nothing is said in the pulpit to rouse their from the apathy of ages, to inspire them to do and dare {p. 20} great things, to intellectual and spiritual achievements, in real communion with the Great Spirit of the Universe. Oh, no! The lessons doled out to women, from the canon law, the Bible, the prayer-books and the catechisms, are meekness and self-abnegation; ever with covered heads (a badge of servitude) to do some humble service for man; that they are unfit to sit as a delegate in a Methodist conference, to be ordained to preach the Gospel, or to fill the office of elder, of deacon or of trustee, or to enter the Holy of Holies in cathedrals. Deborah was a poetess as well as a prophetess, a judge as well as a general. She composed the famous historical poem of that period on the eventful final battle with Sisera and his hosts; and she ordered the soldiers to sing the triumphant song as they marched through the the {sic} land, that all the people might catch the strains and that generations might proclaim the victory. Judges iv. 18 And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my Lord, turn in to me: fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle. 19 And he said unto her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink: for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him to drink, and covered him. 20 Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No. 21 Then Jael, Heber’s wife, took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground; for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died. 22 And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show thee the man whom thou seekest. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples. The deception and the cruelty practised on Sisera by Jael under the guise of hospitality is revolting under our code of morality. To decoy the luckless general fleeing before his enemy into her tent, pledging him safety, and with seeming tenderness ministering to his wants, with such words of sympathy and consolation lulling him to sleep, and then in cold blood driving a nail through his temples, seems more like the work of a fiend than of a woman. The song of Deborah and Barak, in their triumph over Sisera, has been sung in cathedrals and oratorios and celebrated in all time for its beauty and pathos. The great generals did not forget in the {p. 21} hour of victory to place the crown of honor on the brow of Jael for what they considered a great deed of heroism. Jael imagined herself in the line of her duty and specially called by the Lord to do this service for his people. Nations make their ideal gods like unto themselves. At this period He was the God of battles. Though He had made all the tribes, we hope, to the best of His ability; yet He hated all, the sacred fabulist tells us, but the tribe of Israel, and even they were objects of His vengeance half the time. Instead of Midianites and Philistines, in our day we have saints and sinners, orthodox and heterodox, persecuting each other, although you cannot distinguish them in the ordinary walks of life. They are governed by the same principles in the exchanges and the marts of trade. E. C. S. Judges v. Then sang Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, on that day, saying, 2 Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. 3 Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel. 4 Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. 5 The mountains melted from before the Lord even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel. 6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied and the travellers walked through byways. 7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I, Deborah, arose, that I arose a mother in Israel. The woman who most attracts our attention in the Book of judges is Deborah, priestess, prophetess, poetess and judge. What woman is there in modern or in ancient history who equals in loftiness of position, in public esteem and honorable distinction this gifted and heroic Jewish creation? The writer who compiled the story of her gifts and deeds must have had women before him who inspired him with such a wonderful personality. How could Christianity teach and preach that women should be silent in the church when already among the Jews equal honor was shown to women? The truth is that Christianity has in many instances circumscribed woman’s sphere of action, and has been guilty of great injustice toward the whole sex. {p. 22} Deborah was, perhaps, only one of many women who held such high and honorable positions. Unlike any modern ruler, Deborah dispensed justice directly, proclaimed war, led her men to victory, and glorified the deeds of her army in immortal song. This is the most glorious tribute to woman’s genius and power. If Deborah, way back in ancient Judaism, was … read more »

Response:

How to Interpret a Stop Sign Author unknown, from the internet. Suppose you’re traveling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you apply exegesis to the sign. 1.. An average Jew doesn’t bother to read the sign but will stop if the car in front of him does. 2.. A fundamentalist stops at the sign and waits for it to tell him to go. 3.. An Orthodox Jew does one of two things: 1.. Stops at the stop sign, says "Blessed art thou, O L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who hast given us Thy commandment to stop," waits 3 seconds according to his watch, and then proceeds. 2.. Takes another route to work that doesn’t have a stop sign so that he doesn’t run the risk of disobeying the halachah. 4.. A Haredi ("ultra-Orthodox") does the same thing as the Orthodox Jew, except that he waits 10 seconds instead of 3. He also replaces his brake lights with 1000-watt searchlights and connects his horn so that it is activated whenever he touches the brake pedal. 5.. An Orthodox woman concludes that she is not allowed to observe the mitzvah of stopping because she is niddah. This is a dilemma, because the stop sign is located on her way to the mikvah. She refers the problem to her rabbi, who shrugs. 6.. A feminist Jewish woman sees this as a sign from the Shekhinah that translates roughly, "Enough already…" 7.. A Talmudic scholar consults his holy books and finds the following comments on the stop sign: "R. Meir says: He who does not stop shall not live long. R. Hillel says: Cursed is he who does not count to three before proceeding. R. Shimon ben Yehudah says: Why three? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. R. ben Yitzhak says: Because of the three patriarchs. R. Yehuda says: Why bless the L-rd at a stop sign? Because it says: ‘Be still, and know that I am G-d.’ R. Yehezkel says: When Jephthah returned from defeating the Ammonites, the Holy One, blessed be He, knew that a donkey would run out of the house and overtake his daughter; but Jephthah did not stop at the stop sign, and the donkey did not have time to come out. For this reason he saw his daughter first and lost her. Thus was he judged for his transgression at the stop sign. R. Gamaliel says: R. Hillel, when he was a baby, never spoke a word, though his parents tried to teach him by speaking and showing him the words on a scroll. One day his father was driving through town and did not stop at the sign. Young Hillel called out, ‘Stop, father!’ In this way, he began reading and speaking at the same time. Thus it is written: ‘Out of the mouths of babes.’ R. ben Yaakov says: Where did the stop sign come from? Out of the sky, as it is written: ‘Forever, O L-rd, your word is fixed in the heavens.’ R. ben Natan says: When were stop signs created? On the fourth day, as it is written: ‘Let them serve as signs.’ But R. Yehoshua says: …" [continues for three more pages...] 8.. A Breslover Hasid sees the sign and makes his boddidus [spontaneous personal prayer], saying: "Ribono Shel Olam–here I am, traveling on the road in Your service, and I am about to face who knows what danger at this intersection in my life. So please watch over me and help me to get through this stop sign safely." Then, "looking neither to left nor right" as Rebbe Nachman advises, he joyfully accepts the challenge, remains focused on his goal–even if the car rolls backward for a moment–hits the accelerator and forges bravely forward, overcoming all obstacles which the yetzer hara [evil inclination] might put in his path. 9.. A Lubovitcher Hasid stops at the sign and reads it very carefully in the light of the Rebbe’s teachings. (In former times he would have used his cell phone to call Brooklyn and speak to the Rebbe personally for advice, but this is no longer possible, may the Rebbe rest in peace.) Next, he gets out of the car and sets up a roadside mitzvah-mobile, taking this opportunity to ask other Jewish drivers who stop at the sign whether they have put on tefillin today (males) or whether they light Shabbos candles (females). Having now settled there, he steadfastly refuses to give up a single inch of the land he occupies until Moshiach comes. 10.. A Conservative Jew calls his rabbi and asks whether stopping at this sign is required by unanimous ruling of the Commission on Jewish Law or if there is a minority position. While waiting for the rabbi’s answer, he is ticketed by a policeman for obstructing traffic. 11.. A secular Jew rejects the sign as a vestige of an archaic and outmoded value system with no relevance to the modern world, and ignores it completely. 12.. A Reform Jew coasts up to the sign while contemplating the question, "Do I personally feel commanded to stop?" During his deliberation he edges into the intersection and is hit from behind by the secular Jew. 13.. A Reconstructionist Jew reasons: First, this sign is a legacy of our historic civilization and therefore I must honor it. On the other hand, since "the past has a vote and not a veto," I must study the historic civilization and therefore I must honor it. On the other hand, since "the past has a vote and not a veto," I must study the issue and decide whether the argument in favor of stopping is spiritually, intellectually, and culturally compelling enough to be worth perpetuating. If so, I will vote with the past; if not, I will veto it. Finally, is there any way that I can revalue the stop sign’s message so as to remain valid for our own time? 14.. A Renewal Movement Jew meditates on whether the stop sign applies in all of the kabbalistic Four Worlds [Body-Emotion-Mind-Spirit] or only in some of them, and if so, which ones? Must he stop feeling? thinking? being? driving? Since he has stopped to breathe and meditate on this question, he is quite safe while he does so, barukh HaShem. 15.. A biblical scholar points out that there are a number of stylistic differences between the first and second halves of the passage "STOP." For example, "ST" contains no enclosed areas and five line endings, whereas "OP" contains two enclosed areas and only one line termination He concludes that the first and second parts are the work of different authors who probably lived several centuries apart. Later scholars determine that the second half is itself actually written by two separate authors because of similar stylistic differences between the "O" and the "P." 16.. Because of difficulties in interpretation, another biblical scholar amends the text, changing "T" to "H." "SHOP" is much easier to understand in this context than "STOP" because of the multiplicity of stores in the area. The textual corruption probably occurred because "SHOP" is so similar to "STOP" on the sign several streets back that it is a natural mistake for a scribe to make. Thus the sign should be interpreted to announce the existence of a commercial district. 17.. Yet another biblical scholar notes that the stop sign would fit better into another intersection three streets back. Clearly it was moved to its present location by a later redactor. He thus interprets the present intersection as though the stop sign were not there.

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