Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Apologetics, Part III, and Rabbinic Racism...

I've been cheerfully following DovBear's posts about Moshe Rabbeinu marrying a Cushite woman, who may or may not have been Tzipporah. It's been interesting, though I've posted no thoughts of my own there, since In don't feel like getting sucked into arguments with some of the cuckoos commenting there.

Anyway, I think there is a point being missed by many people: Looking at the Perushim by people like Rashi and Ibn Ezra, they might have been racist! And it was racism due to ignorance more than anything else. What do I mean? Let's take a look (thanks to DovBear for easy translation access to Ibn Ezra):

1. Says the Ibn Ezra: Cushite is slang for ugly. The verse is speaking of Tzipporah, who was black, and therefore ugly.

2. Rashi, Bereishis, 12:11 - Avraham says to Sarah, "Babe, we gotta worry about your beauty. We are coming to a land filled with black, ugly people, brothers of the Cushites, and they are not used to beauty like yours."

Let's discuss:

Ibn Ezra: Have you seen some black women out there? There are some who would put most white women to shame with their beauty! Also, not all white women are pretty. Every race has its beauties and its uglies. Ibn Ezra was Spanish, and travelled extensively, and to him, I guess, black people were ugly. But that was his taste. In truth, we don't even know if he saw any actual black people in his travels in mediterranean countries (both Northern Africa and Southern Europe). Was he a racist? Might have been!

Rashi: Rashi lived in France and Germany all his life. Likely, he didn't even know what an Egyptian looked like, and carvings we have uncovered over the last couple of centuries pretty conclusively prove they were NOT black (and Egyptians today are not Arabs, they are Egyptians, descendants of old Egyptians, and just happen to be Muslim). Rashi probably had no idea what they looked like. He probably figured since they lived in Africa, in close proximity to Ethiopia, that they were black. In fact, some carvings show Egyptians to be quite attractive. Further, he probably never saw a black person in his life! Most likely, Avraham really just feared his wife being taken from him and himself getting killed if he told them he was Sarah's husband. Further, since Avraham uses the tactic with the Plishtim (as does his son Yitzchak) what's the excuse there? Rashi gives no explanation there. And in all three cases, two by Avraham and one by Yitzchak, they get in trouble for lying about Sarah, though they probably were justified in lying about her.

No, most likely, these rabbanim had an idea in their heads of what type of people lived where and stereotyped those people. The other funny thing is that most likely, Avraham and his direct descendants were probably closer to brown than white, considering the region from which they originated...And the Avraham probably had reasons other than "ooh, they black and evil" for telling the Mitzrim Sarah was Avraham's sister rather than his wife. And that reason was probably a very mundane "Sarah, babe, you are hot, and they are gonna take you from me, so let's tell them your my sister rather than my wife. This way, they'll just take you and not kill me, whereas if I tell them you're my wife, they'll kill me and take you." You see, Avraham was being very practical here. He did not wish to die, and did not want to be somech al Hanais in thinking no matter what his destiny, that the Mitzrim couldn't kill him if he told them he was Sarah's husband. Instead, he did not rely on a miracle, and very practically told them he was her brother, figuring he did his hishtadlus to stay allive and whatever happened after that would be in the hands of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.

So, were these rabbanim racist? Very possibly. Does that therefore nullify their perushim? No. As I've said before, gedolim are human, both past and present, and as humans, they are fallible and have human failings. They were not perfect, and they had their own preconceived notions of the world in which they lived and in which they were educated that, if they were living today, would probably have been different than what they were living then.

Why can't the same be applied Rashi or Ibn Ezra? Those were their preconceived notions, without ever having seen black people or Egyptian people. Again, it doesn't mean these people weren't Gedolim. It just means they were human. And just as we can learn how TO act from a great person, so too can we learn how NOT TO act from a great person. We don't need apologetics to explain these people's actions. We need to learn from their actions.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw that you were being careful about this, but just to note:

1) Race as construct did not exist in medieval times, so talking about racism as we understand it is a bit anachronistic.

2) Being more attracted to people of a certain complexion is not necessarily racist (even now).

Tzipporah said...

(Reposting what I said at DB's about your comments)

I certainly don't think gedolim are infallible, but:

While it is possible that Rashi and the Ibn Ezra were relying on others' accounts or images of "black people" (which was not actually a racial category for them, as we know it today), and imposing their own prejudices on our ancestors, I am unconvinced. Rishonim of such learning were trying to account for the text itself, and how contradictory it is.

First point - if Rashi thinks Cushites are ugly re: Sarai v/Abram, why would he interpret it to mean "beautiful" re: Tzipporah?

Second - Ibn Ezra was trying to account for the seemingly unrelated verses in which A + M complain "on account of the Cushite woman he had married" and their references to their own prophecy, and interprets it that Moshe had *left* his Cushite wife. His explanation of why Moshe might leave her is, perhaps, based on some biased understanding of what a Cushite woman looks like (and how Moshe would feel about that), but not necessarily. He may have simply been speculating on why Moshe would leave *any* wife.

MOREOVER: Ibn Ezra uses grammatical analysis to show that *Miriam* is saying something *negative* to Moshe about his Cushite wife (while Aharon may perhaps have been silent). Cushite (which he sees as referring to outward appearance) + Negative + leaving his wife = ugly wife. Not because she's black, but because of the grammar.

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

>>First point - if Rashi thinks Cushites are ugly re: Sarai v/Abram, why would he interpret it to mean "beautiful" re: Tzipporah?<<

The Rashi in Bereishis, in the story of Avaraham and Sarah in Egypt, never mentions Cushites. He mentions Egyptians.

When he describes the Cushite, it's as possibly being Tzipporah and he translates the word Cushite to be a euphomism for beautiful (though, as DB points out, we don't quite know why the Torah didn't just say beautiful). There are many cases in the Gemara where it speaks B'Loshon Sagi Nahor, which is idiomatic for "speaking euphomistically."

>>Second - Ibn Ezra, v'Chulhu...<<

Do you really think Moshe would leave someone he had married and who presumably, as someone he had married, was a fantastic person because of looks? Don't you think someone like Moshe would have looked passed that? And before you object and say that's a superhuman thing to do and Moshe was only human, there are plenty of stories of plenty of people who married not such great lookers because of who they were, not how they looked.

I'm not saying these Rishonim were consciously aware of their racism. As Abe said above, racism as we know it today probably didn't really exist back then, though I might take him to task on that at some point. I'm saying they had preconceived notions of certain things based their thoughts and some of their writings on those preconceived notions.

L'havdil, Chaucer did the same thing in the in the Prioress' Tale in the Canterbury Tales. By the time Chaucer was born, there had been no Jews in England for over 50 years. He had likely never seen a Jew and was just working on anti-Semitic notions prevalent in his day. Why not Rashi and Ibn Ezra, L'Havdil Elef Alfei Havdalos?

And Ibn Ezra uses the grammar to interpret Cushite as, basically, "ugly black person."

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

Response to Rebel With A Cause from DB's site...

>>You wanna learn how NOT TO act from a "great (nasty) person"? Go to Boro Park.<<

RWAC,

I don't really hold there are gedolim anymore. Certainly, there are rabbis and poskim and people who know Torah. But no "Gedolim." True Gedolim don't put other in cherem when they don't know what the person being put in cherem even allegedly did. True Gedolim don't bad mouth the victims of the Holocaust and say they deserved to die. True Gedolim aren't show people who drive a stretch limo Mercedes Benz and walk around strutting themselves in public and pretending to be gedolim.

And there are almost no real Rebbes (chassidish, I mean) anymore either, except maybe a few here and there, like the Kaliver Rebbe in Bnei Brak. Mostly, they are just a bunch of long bearded dudes who wear funny hats and lead their groups because of nepotism.

Does that make me a Kofer? Probably does in the eyes of people like Ed and Chaim G. But I'm a questioner, not a Kofer. And I question because I spent a significant chunk of my life as Rav and Gadol lackey, the way Ed and Chaim G. are today. And I got burned too many times to ever place that kind of trust in anyone ever again, regardless of how great that person might think he is.

Tzipporah said...

First point - if Rashi thinks Cushites are ugly re: Sarai v/Abram, why would he interpret it to mean "beautiful" re: Tzipporah?<<

The Rashi in Bereishis, in the story of Avaraham and Sarah in Egypt, never mentions Cushites. He mentions Egyptians.


Sorry, I misspoke - I meant, if Rashi thinks *dark-skinned peoples* are ugly, etc., then WHY would "Cushite" be a euphemism for beautiful? Your point makes no sense.

Second -
Do you really think Moshe would leave someone he had married and who presumably, as someone he had married, was a fantastic person because of looks?

No, nor did Ibn Ezra. But it's possible that he thought MIRIAM thought so.

Abe said above, racism as we know it today probably didn't really exist back then, though I might take him to task on that at some point.

It didn't. Go to a university library and check out any book on the history of "race" as a concept - this is purely a later, colonial, concept, when the religious bias against different people was being supplanted by a "scientific" one.

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

>>But it's possible that he thought MIRIAM thought so.<<

And that was DB's original point...

>>if Rashi thinks *dark-skinned peoples* are ugly, etc., then WHY would "Cushite" be a euphemism for beautiful? Your point makes no sense.<<

Rashi actually says black; he uses the word Shechorim, as well as the word Mecho'arim (ugly). And the euphomism kind of makes sense, at least too me (maybe too many Gemara hours, I don't know) because the word, if Rashi agrees with Ibn Ezra, and if he really does equate Cushite to Black, and according to Rashi black meant ugly, then using the euphomism of black/ugly to mean beautiful would make perfect sense since it's the exact opposite...

As for the history of race concept, I'm not afraid to admit I don't know much about it. So, I'll admit it: I don't know much about it. But how would you explain Rashi's blanket statement that black is ugly?

There might not have been an organized, concrete and solid concept of racism, but obviously something was there. Wanna research it with me?

Anonymous said...

Shavua tov,

I agree with your point as far as gedolim are concerned.

I am a questioner too. I frankly do not care if I am labeled as a kofer by some.

I got burned myself pretty badly too.

And I got burned too many times to ever place that kind of trust in anyone ever again, regardless of how great that person might think he is.

Same here.

Am Kshe Oref - A Stiff-Necked People said...

Shavua Tov. (Sorry, Shabbos ends here really late. One of the things that drives me nuts about Daylight Savings Time. Don't mind it the whole week, but man, it kills Motzei Shabbos.)

Good! A kindred spirit!! I'm always looking for those? What happened to you?

You're welcome to email me if you like. Just follow the email link from my profile.

Anonymous said...

Shabbes ends mad late here like 11ish. Like you can do midnight havdalah.
I will send you an email soon.