Standing Strong |
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Ki Teitzei— When You Go
Deuteronomy 21:10- 25:19 Isaiah 54:1- 10 Matthew 5:27- 30 1 Corinthians 5:1- 5 |
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Isaiah 11:6 2 Thessalonians 2:15 |
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This week’s Parasha has 74 of the Torah’s 613 commandments as recognized by Maimonides. That makes it the most mitzvah laden portion of the entire one year reading cycle. Some of the commandments make sense to us immediately. Some take some looking into, and some just don’t ever get cleared up as to why G-d commands this of us. So why should we follow them at all? Let’s investigate this further.
First a look at shatnez, the combining of wool and linen in one garment.
The ancient Mosaic law forbids the Israelites to wear clothing woven of linen and wool. The explanations some give comes as a surprise. I had heard it was because of incompatibility due to shrinkage, strength, or stability of the fibers. This week I heard a new answer. It was said that a fabric made out of these two materials blended together "increases the power of passing off electricity from the body; in hot climates it brings on malignant fevers and exhausts the strength”. I have also heard people equate it to the prohibition of unequally yoked animals. (An ox that is so strong could easily drag a donkey to death if they were working a field together). All these are interesting but I don’t think they give the real reason.
The origins of this prohibition are biblical and are be found in Deut. 22:11 and Lev. 19:19. This commandment is also discussed in the Mishnah (m. Kilayim 9), a compilation of the Jewish law passed on orally and put into written form in the 2nd century, CE. The rabbis interpreted the prohibition to cover "carding" or "smoothing", spinning and plying the fibers. If any one of these processes has taken place (they cover 99% of textile preparation), then it is forbidden to combine the fibers. So, for example, felt made of linen and wool is prohibited because the felting process smooths the fibers. In practice, the prohibition covers items such as wool garments sewn together with linen thread, wool suits reinforced with linen interfacing, wool and linen woven together (linsey-woolsey), garments knitted or woven from wool-linen blend yarns and garments where one piece may be made out of wool and another piece out of linen. It is permitted, however, to wear a linen shirt with wool trousers or a skirt, as these are separate. Just as a note, I should add that most observant Jews avoid wool-linen combinations in pretty much everything-- blankets, towels, rugs, Torah scroll covers, marriage canopies, etc.
Centuries of Jewish tradition have assigned this prohibition to the category of commandments for which no rational reason exists. This category of commandments is called chok -- a law whose logic is not evident. The Torah has many such laws; we do not know why pork is forbidden, for example. And the prohibition of shatnez is equally strong.
A second item for this week:
Two tribes appear at first reading to never be allowed to enter the people of Israel by marriage, those tribes being Ammonite and Moabite. This was due to their lack of hospitality shown to Israel as it left Egypt by these tribes.
How then did Ruth, a Moabite princess, marry into Israel, not once but twice? (Once when out of the land of Israel and once upon her coming to Israel with her mother in law.)
One explanation is that this prohibition only applied to males because females were not allowed to make the decisions on feeding or watering the people of Israel as they left Egypt. This has been handed down as part of the oral law of the Talmud for many generations as the common explanation among the Jewish people.
The other explanation is based upon principle.
Naomi took Ruth in knowing she was a Moabite. Boaz married her knowing she was a Moabite. Ruth should have been rejected as in violation of the law of Moses. G-d has punished people immediately throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament) for breaking His law, but He does not punish Naomi or Boaz. Boaz and Ruth have the child Jesse from whom we have David, a man after G-d’s own heart, as a descendent. Why was this allowed? The Moabites are excluded because of the way they treated the children of Israel on their way out of Egypt - not just because they are Moabites. They are excluded because of an attitude that they and their descendants share. It follows then that a Moabite who doesn't have that attitude is not to be excluded. “And Naomi said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her G-ds: return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy G-d my G-d:” Ruth displayed a completely non-Moabite attitude. She rejected the people and G-ds of Moab, accepting the G-d of Israel. She didn't display the attitude that lead to exclusion, so she was not excluded. The law that prohibited Moabites from joining the Israelites had a much deeper meaning; it was about excluding those who had a certain attitude, not those who had a certain ancestry. The knowledge of G-d lead to mercy, the mercy that was shown to Ruth and her descendants. By the letter of the law, Ruth, Jesse, David, and Solomon would all have been excluded from the congregation of Israel.
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