Avraham Burg
Pic: Tzika Tishler
The adulteress’ misery
Old sages’ response to biblical chauvinism highlights weakness of current-day rabbis
Amongst the many issues of Parshat Naso hides one of the most “explosive” issues in the entire Bible.
“Any man whose wife shall go astray and commit treachery against him; and a man could have laid with her carnally… (Numbers 5:12-13)
It’s a truly human story: a married woman finds love, or physical satisfaction with another man. Not very nice, perhaps, but common nonetheless.
It would appear human nature hasn’t changed. Sexual tension, worn-down marital relations, and new friendships create personal and sexual trysts not necessarily within the framework of a formal marriage.
In reaction, the Torah outlines a complicated and humiliating process intended to determine whether or not a woman cheated on her husband. She is given “bitter, cursed waters” to drink. Not only disgusting to drink, but cursed.
If she’s guilty, her whole body is expected to change - her stomach will bloat, her thighs will fall, and she will be disgraced in front of everyone. If not, so be it.
What about him?
The Biblical male chauvinism lurking behind the story is outrageous.
True, the woman may have deviated. But what of the husband? Has he looked after her needs?
And what of the male half of the suspected tryst? It’s reasonable enough to assume he could have been cheating on his wife, no?
But the Torah, as in many ancient cultures, allows only a man to cheat. For the woman, even if she catches him “red handed,” there is no parallel process of humiliation to subject him to.
Common practice?
The Torah’s law tries to put a price on an apparently common ancient practice. As with many other mitzvoth (commandments) that appear hypocritical and self-righteous, in practice they try to right a broken norm of required social behavior.
For example, if no one murdered, the Torah would not have said, “Thou shalt not murder.” If there were no thieves, we would not have been told, “Thou shalt not steal.”
The very existence of a law points to an existing reality, not to a desired utopia.
Rabbis of old connected to reality
I have never believed in an evil that does not have a corresponding good.
So, too, it is with regard to our recalcitrant woman: she is embarrassed, humiliated, deprived of equal rights. But here, too, there is something good.
The mishna, Talmud and the commentators upon them went a long way towards understanding reality. They saw this mitzvah, with all the voodoo ceremonies that go along with it, couldn’t prevent adultery.
They were part of society. They lived with their people and didn’t entrench themselves behind rabbinic walls, detached from reality.
One rabbi was a scholar and a shoemaker, one a blacksmith and genius, another a shepherd with a near-Godly I.Q. Others were authors, leather workers and wine makers. They bilked the public purse to survive, didn’t nurse at government udders, didn’t preach about some theoretical Judaism, unconnected to reality, as many rabbis do today.
By being connected to reality, the great rabbis of old realized this discriminatory mitzvah had outlived its expiration date, and stated unambiguously: “The bitter waters are cancelled in light of too much adultery.”
waiting for a true rabbinic giant
In other words, they were daring enough to take a biblical commandment - a mitzvah - and cancell it outright, despite the fact that it came from God himself.
The principle that religious and spiritual leaders in each generation must consider the needs of the present time and adapt the Torah as a “Living Torah” is one of Judaism’s best principles.
As long as this happened, Jewish culture was dynamic, forward-looking and progressive. It is no coincidence that religious law is called “halacha”, a Hebrew phrase meaning, “to go”.
But the minute fear took over the religious world, and intimidation and fear replaced open and creative thinking, we created a static, stationary Judaism that hasn’t moved for centuries.
Rabbis and spiritual leaders today have no power or strength to answer the call of the hour, and it is therefore no surprise the whole religious project appears to be collapsing.
Judaism has no relevance to the majority of our people, whose lives are far removed from the commands of the Torah and the demands of a strict, uncompromising system of Jewish law.
The rabbis have barricaded themselves behind a walls of nationalist extremism and religious fanaticism. They worry only about their followers, leaving everyone else outside their carefully constructed surroundings.
Like many others, I am waiting for a true rabbinic giant, or for the masses to rise up and say, “The time has come to do away with certain things that may have been relevant 3000 years ago, but have lost their meanings today.
Not everything, but at least like the scholars of the mishna and Talmud.
