As this week’s Torah portion opens, Aaron and Miriam unexpectedly disparage their brother Moses:
When they were in Hatzerot, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: “He married a Cushite woman!” (Parashat Beha’alotecha, Numbers 12:1)
Moses’ siblings’ comment is confusing on a number of levels. In the first place, it’s not quite clear who this “Cushite woman” actually is. Cush is commonly understood to refer to ancient Ethiopia (in Genesis 10:6 we read that the Cushites descended from Ham, the son of Noah.) However, the text makes it clear that Moses’ wife Zipporah is a Midianite, not a Cushite. As Rashi would say, what’s the deal here?
Commentators have handled this discrepancy in different ways. Some suggest that Zipporah and the Cushite woman are the same person. (Many point out that Habbakuk 3:7 refers to a Midianite tribe named Cushan). Other Biblical scholars posit that the reference to the Cushite wife is a fragment of a larger (essentially lost) literary tradition. These theories are interesting as far as they go, but in the end they fail to address the most troubling dimension to this episode: namely, the patently racist nature of Miriam and Aaron’s words.
Indeed, whatever else might be going on in this strange Biblical narrative, it seems clear that it is, at least in part, an anti-racist polemic. Though Miriam and Aaron later indicate their anger at Moses also stems from their resentment of his being chosen by God to lead the Israelites, the text judges their prejudiced words with undeniable harshness. It is notable that after disparaging their brother for marrying a black woman, Miriam is stricken with tzara’at – the infamous Biblical skin disease that manifests itself with “snow-white scales.” (12:10) In a sense, God seems to be saying to Miriam: “You like white, I’ll show you white!”
Classical Jewish commentators famously understand tzara’at to be a physical manifestation of the sin of lashon harah – negative speech, or gossip. This interpretation is less compelling as theology (i.e. illness understood as divine punishment) than it is as a metaphor for the virulent nature of harmful words. Taking our cue from the rabbinic commentators, we might well extend this insight to address the radically infectious nature of hate speech and racism.
Indeed, just like a virus or infection, racism has the very real potential to spread through society if left unchecked. This is no less a reality for us today, centuries after these Biblical words were written. To be sure, the infectious nature of racism has “mutated” in new and frightening ways as we enter the 21st century. As former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has remarked:
Despite decades of efforts to eradicate it, the virus of racism continues to infect human relations and human institutions in all parts of our globe. Today, the old strains of this disease, such as institutionalized discrimination, indirect disadvantage, racist violence, hate crimes, harassment and persecution, are compounded by new forms of discrimination, seemingly defying many of the gains we have made. The Internet is used for the propagation of racism, the number of victims of human trafficking is growing, xenophobic arguments in political discourse are on the rise, and innocent people are “racially profiled” in the name of distorted notions of security. Even anti-Semitism is once again rearing its ugly head, six decades after the liberation of extermination camps in which the entire world saw the barbaric extremes to which racism, if not confronted, can lead.
As we learn this week, our penchant for racism and intolerance has been with us from time immemorial, even as it finds ever new and more insidious forms of transmission. What will we do to address the pandemic?
What are your favorite anti-racism initiatives/organizations? I encourage you to click “Comments” below and share!
SR
Thanks for that look into roots of racism.
Appreciate the objective work.
winslie
Facing history is a wonderful organization that helps teach intolerance. There are a multitute of free lessons on their website. After participating in one of their many workshops you are able to “unlock” all of their resources. I highly recommend this organization.
I just came from the benefit luncheon for the National Immigrant Justice Center, a terrific group that promotes human rights and access to justice for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers (Fred and I both do pro bono asylum cases through NIJC). The group is not specifically an anti-racist group. But its work and the event
itself reflect anti-racism in action. Award presenters included three former NIJC clients: a journalist from Uganda who was persecuted in his home country for his political views; a Tibetan exile who fled abuse in her home country; and a teenager from Mexico whose family came to the U.S. for a better life. Awards were given to, among others, the former Consul General of Mexico in Chicago and the Tibetan Alliance. The speaker, Joseph Margulies, talked at length about the dangers associated with creating a global perception that our so-called “war on terrorism” is also a war on Islam. And the event celebrated the many volunteers who give their time and energy to advancing the rights of immigrants and refugees, all of whom are of a different race, religion or nationality than the volunteers, not to mention the staff. An inspirational event…
Each of us is responsible for our own attitudes; we cannot leave the extermination of racism up to organizations. We ought to start with understanding that we all belong to the human race. The concept of race itself is only a fairly recent invention, contrived in order to raise some people over others. It has no biological nor scientific basis.
Thanks folks for all the links and info you bring to this post and a big thank you to the author.
I’m glad I bumped into your site. I have no intention of self promotion just want to point you to a poem I wrote today which has weighed heavivily since 1987.
http://urbansemiotic.com/2007/06/01/it-dehumanizing-made-easy/#comment-92963
I think the parallels you draw between spread of tzara’at and racism are really powerful. Although I almost feel as if alluding to the notion of leprosy being caused by anything (be it sin, greediness, lashon harah) gives this ludicrous concept even more power.
What if making this statement was the first step in treating a home affected by tzara’at. In order to cure the house everything must be removed, thus providing the neighbors an inside look at your “dirty laundry”.
When committing lashon harah you are unjustly exposing others. If your punishment (cure) is to remove every brick of your being (your home), you are exposing yourself and will (hopefully) be impacted…
maya
While I agree with Shirley that each person is ultimately responsible for his or her own attitudes, we all sometimes need a little noodge to remind us of our closed-mindedness.
Maybe this is obvious, but those of us who are members of minority groups are NOT immune to bigotry; there is no “Get Out of Diversity Training Free” card for the WASP-challenged.
A great educational program is the “Teaching Tolerance” http://www.tolerance.org project from the Southern Poverty Law Center. It features great teaching tools for classrooms, families and communities. I’m pleased to see that they are offering a unit on size bias, as well as on homophobia, sexism, racism etc.
Some terrific books about raising children without prejudice:
40 ways to raise a nonracist child / Barbara Mathias,Mary Ann French.
HarperPerennial, c1996.
Everyday acts against racism : raising children in a multiracial world / edited by Maureen T. Reddy.
Seal Press c1996.
“Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” : and other conversations about race /Beverly Daniel Tatum.
Basic Books, c2003.
You can’t say you can’t play / Vivian Gussin Paley.
Harvard University Press, 1992.
I suppose it is beside the point that “reference to the Cushite wife is a fragment of a larger (essentially lost)literary traditon”? I am the one in the Torah study group who has a difficult time with lost fragments. The main point is that lost fragments can lead to meaningful insights and discussions relevant to today. Right?
Perhaps Miriam had a secret Cushite lover (who was enslaved by an Israelite and put to crushing labor.) Their love had to be secret because an Israelite woman was forbidden from marrying a foreigner, although it was OK for an Israelite man to marry a foreigner. Miriam challenged this double standard and suffered the consequences. Later the Cushite slave, who has been ordered by his master to gather wood on the Sabbath, is noticed by a passerby, apprehended, and stoned to death by the assembly. (Was the whole thing a set up by Caleb or Joshua or both, who had been trying to win Miriam over with their incessant “I was ready to fight the Cannanites” macho blather and had been scheming to get her lover out of the way?) Miriam, in unbearable mourning both for her lover and her doomed ideal that the Israelites could become a community based on the premise that all people are children of God, drowns herself in her well.
Ok, so Anita Diamat I am not.
As a life long Reconstructionist Jew and long time JRC member, I have always credited my sense of social justice to these traditions. The link is for a website created by my son, Danny Meyer, who notes that “it is specifically dedicated to inspiring white accountability and then challenging and supporting white folks to develop the critical skills necessary for engaging, disrupting and dismantling the mechanisms of white supremacy.” He makes me very proud.