Dignity And Respect
Parshat Matot-Masei: Numbers 30:2-
32:42; Jeremiah 1:1-2:3.
Ann Arbor
0
ne of my favorite and most
offensive scenes in a movie
occurs when John Belushi
attempts to buy a woman from a
man in a restaurant by
repeatedly asking, "How
much for the woman?"
The humor, such as it is,
relies on cultural norms
held in the past (and per-
haps still reflected in our
present).
In parshat Matot, the
Israelites fight a suc-
cessful war against the
Midianites. As booty, they
take all the women. Moses
is astounded and says,
"Did you allow the women to live?!"
The matter is settled by killing all
the sexually active women and keep-
ing the virgins.
And so, if we are to keep the
Torah and subsequent tradition as
our guide, we must give radical re-
interpretation to its plain meaning.
In this story of war, no set of plati-
tudes can mask social structures that
needed change as their misogynous
heirs still need rooting out.
Indeed, reading the Torah and
exploring both its sublime beauties
and its blemishes gives us the best
place to create our own lives on the
eternal truths that we, in each gen-
eration, come to experience more
strongly. To see, in this portion, the
treatment of women as sexualized
chattel, should move us to explore
how the relations between men and
women still need attention.
But, that is not enough. Once,
given the opportunity by our holy
Torah to understand how the future
waits in our deepening awareness
and not in our past uncritically
explored, we can go on to
reassess our experience of
all people. Human growth
depends on greater unities
among all people.
Matot should bring us
to examine how power is
misused, how all people
stretching beyond the
dichotomy of male/female
need respect and how what
God wants is not slow
progress, but real change
that will elevate humanity.
Our community sometimes treats
with less respect those thought of as
outside of full dignity. To list them
would be to further marginalize
those, like all humans, who deserve
nothing more than a full place at the
table.
It's not a question of "some of my
best friends are ..." It's a truth of
the dignity of all, whether friend or
landsman. Reading of baseless disre-
gard for human dignity can move us
to explore our own shortcomings.
Our Torah, even when it appears
not to reflect the best of the human
or Divine spirit, is yet the tool
through which, in dialogue, we do
connect with Truth, which will for-
ever be a name for God.
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Robert D. Levy is a rabbi at Temple Beth
Emeth in Ann Arbor.
Conversations
• Is human dignity a more important factor in today's society than it
was 50 years ago?
• What remnants of ancient indignitie s remain in today's society?
• How far has humankind progressed since biblical times?
LKOrthopedics.com
248.669.2000
2300 Haggerty Road, Suite 1110
West Bloomfield, Michigan 48323
July 4 • 2013
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