Fact-Checking the Torah -- legal levels

It is also an urban legend that am ha-arets refers to non-Jews.  This urban legend came up during the Mendel Beilis blood libel trial which I translated to English and blogged.

Among Jews there were several levels of practice.  One was the am ha-arets which literally means “people of the land.”  In Talmud this always means Jews who don’t observe all the details of tumah. 

Such Jews had economic limitations imposed on them.  Merchants would watch out for them and prevent them from handling merchandise because that would mean the merchant could only sell that merchandise to another am ha-arets.  A fully observant Jew would not buy it.  Considering that most people in a community had known each other all their lives, the merchants knew who was who.  Also we’re not talking about modern self-serve supermarkets.  Merchants served the customers personally and counted the merchandise out to them. 

If somebody among the am ha-arets got tired of this second class status, he could take an oath to obey all the enactions of the courts and was called a chaver.  But he had to avoid associating with any am ha-arets, or he would give the impression that he didn’t mean it when he took the oath, or that he had backslid.

There were two levels of ger, strangers associated with Judaism.  A ger toshav accepted the Noahide laws, about which you will find plenty of information on the internet, in front of a court.  The payoff was that he got certain protections and privileges. 

A ger tsedeq, on the other hand, undergoes full and complete conversion out of sincere conviction.  If a man, he undergoes circumcision.  The ger tsedeq is required to uphold all the 613 commandments as defined by halakhah. 

And that’s the rub, as it always is with legal systems.  A man is sitting in jail in the U.S. right now, and will be until 2045, unless he gets parole.  He obtained U.S. citizenship, which means he promised to obey U.S. law.  Then he acted according to the norms of the country he came from.  His daughter ended up dead as a result. He obviously was interpreting “murder” in the sense that he didn’t commit a murder, but U.S. law says he did.  When a person converts to Judaism and then tries to live as if its terms meant what they mean in secular society (for example, that free speech red herring I wrote about), the convert gets a rude awakening.

Jewish law is what Jewish experts in Jewish law say it is.  That is based on Torah, as Gd’s word.  There is no possible combination of numbers of laypersons from outside the Torah-based tradition that can change things.  That would be like allowing the European Union to change the U.S. Constitution.  There’s no sense getting upset about it, any more than there’s any sense in getting upset over the laws of physics.  In fact anybody who espouses the U.S. Constitution and its first amendment religious freedom, has to admit that Orthodox Jews must be permitted to hold to their own legal system in matters like who is really a convert.  The first amendment isn’t just about freedom not to be religious.  It’s also about freedom to be religious. 

So it doesn’t matter if people think Judaism is a religion – in which case it’s covered by the first amendment – or understand that it’s a whole culture, just like the U.S. is.  There is no logic in objecting to Judaism running its own system.  Even with bases in similar principles, legal systems differ, the same as everybody has DNA, but they all have different DNA. 

And now that discussion about logic.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved  

Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:3-4

Genesis 3:3-4

 

ג וּמִפְּרִי הָעֵץ אֲשֶׁר בְּתוֹךְ־הַגָּן אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹאכְלוּ מִמֶּנּוּ וְלֹא תִגְּעוּ בּוֹ פֶּן תְּמֻתוּן: ד וַיֹּאמֶר הַנָּחָשׁ אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה לֹא־מוֹת תְּמֻתוּן:

 

Translation:    From the tree that is in the middle of the garden Gd said you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.  The serpent said to the woman you will not actually die.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

תִגְּעוּ	touch
פֶּן	lest

 

“Touch” has the root nun gimel ayin which means that the nun disappears in the future and the related imperative, which is what we have here. 

 

Notice that the original commandment didn’t say anything about touching.  The rabbis comment that after the serpent said this remark here, he pushed her against the tree and when she saw that she hadn’t died, she was ready to keep listening.

 

Also notice that the serpent copies the verbage in the original commandment, using that intensive construction.  When somebody is trying to pervert how you think about things you have been told, copying the construction of the phrase disguises the fact that what follows is incorrect. 

 

I’ll say more about these verses at the end of this course, because they have to do with information I didn’t have until 2014 that revolutionized how I understand Biblical Hebrew.   Be patient.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved  

mobile users

I just ran the mobile-friendly test on this blog and passed.  Phew!  Glad to know you'll be able to find me! 

DIY -- bare essentials

DIY cooking does not mean spending a ton of money on kitchen stuff.
You can use your search engine and find lots of recommendations.  Here are mine.
You need a skillet.  This is for pot roast, chili mac, and lots of other things, not just frying.
That means you need a flipper, and a large spoon for both stirring and serving.
You probably also want a large, two-prong meat fork because you will use it to hold a roast down while you cut, but you also need it for getting the chuck out of the pot roast onto the serving plate.
You need a soup pot.  You will use this for cooking spaghetti as well as soup and stew.  You can also use it to blanch vegetables for freezing and, if it's big enough, to boil bagels before baking.
You want a ladle to serve soup and stew.  You want a wire strainer for pasta because you can also line it with cheesecloth to drain the whey out of yogurt for yogurt cheese.
You want a small saucepan for hot chocolate, white sauce, single servings of leftovers, rice, and a ton of other things.  In fact, I should have put this first.
You want a large spoon for guiding things as you pour from this, or to get rice out.  The stirring spoon will be too big.
You probably also want a medium-sized saucepan to make a batch of sauce like tomato or alfredo, or for boiling a lot of potatoes to mash.
The saucepans and skillet all have to come with lids. 
I recommend Revereware because it's high quality and lasts a long time and you don't have to worry about a non-stick surface getting damaged.
You probably want a big casserole with a lid for some recipes, which need to cook in the oven.
You want a serving plate but you can probably use a dinner-sized plate for this until you build up to making whole turkeys.
At that point you want a roaster pan which usually is enameled and black.  It will double for chickens, ducks, and roasts of beef or veal (and pork and lamb if you're that way inclined).
You want a really large mixing bowl for bread.  It will also mix your croutons or farfel and herbs for stuffing that turkey later, and hold a large amount of salad for the whole table.
You want a manual can opener.  That way it doesn't matter if the power goes out.
You want a manual mixer that doesn't use electricity.  It will take a long time to make mayonnaise with this, but you don't want to eat a lot of mayonnaise because it's pure fat.
You want a small knife for paring and cutting small vegetables.
You want a big knife for tough vegetables like squash and for roasts.
You want a manual peeler that can also core apples.  It's safer than a small knife for some things.
You ought to get a bread knife if you're going to make your own. 
You want a cutting board.  It will double as a bread board for kneading.  YOU HAVE TO KEEP THIS SCRUPULOUSLY CLEAN otherwise germs from meat and chicken will get into other foods.
You want three or four oven mitts to protect your hands.
You want hot pads to protect your table from serving dishes.
You want two or three kitchen towels for your hands, and you can also use them for covering bread while it rises, and to dry dishes if you're using castile soap on them.
If your area has drinkable tap water, you want a water jug to store it in the fridge.  This will save you hundreds of dollars over its lifetime compared to bottled water -- which sometimes is just tap water from somewhere else.
You want some way to boil water; you can use a saucepan for this but being a tea-freak, I have a nice singing teakettle.  And a little fine-wire strainer to put the leaves in while it brews.  You won't need the strainer if you like bag tea; I'm way too spoiled for that.
You need a set of plates and bowls to eat from, and a set of flatware to use instead of your fingers, and some glassware to drink from.  Four place settings are probably enough unless you have more roommates than that.  Just remember, you have to wash them or you'll run out.  They will save huge amounts of money and space in landfills.
You probably need at least one microwaveable dish for carrying lunch to work.  Even if you pack a sandwich, you can put it in this dish and you will save hundreds of dollars a year on food. 
You will also save money on plastic bags and plastic wrap.
You will also save the landfills, plus some places are cracking down on those non-decaying packages that fast-food places use.
At some point you will probably like to get a tablecloth and cloth napkins, say, in time for your first home-made Thanksgiving dinner, to put on the dog a little for your guests.
You can get all the nice-to-haves later: butter dish; creamer and sugar bowl; storage canisters (for now, keep things in their bags); skewers; chef's knife for fine chopping; pastry brush; double-boiler (for melting chocolate squares and a few other things); other sizes of mixing bowls; soup tureen to serve the soup at table instead of dishing up in the kitchen; thermal mug to make coffee at home & take in the car (instant coffee is hundreds of dollars cheaper than Starbucks every year).
That's a long list but it will get you through many months of cooking that saves you money and protects the environment.  And those are two things that DIY is all about.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved  

Fact-Checking the Torah -- how law works

I’m discussing differences between Jewish and American law.

Another urban legend is that Jewish law is inflexible.  That ignores Deuteronomy 17:8-13 which explicitly allows every case with no precedent to be referred to the legal experts of those days.  This is the essence of a common law code as opposed to a civil law code.  The judges in a common law code have the ability to create remedies for situations even if the law doesn’t specify one, and they also have the right to take local custom into account.  In western law, this capability first appeared under Henry II of England in the 1100s CE, 20 centuries or more after it became a cornerstone of Jewish law.

Jewish law will not accept arguments from non-experts in both text and practice.  This is no different from the Supreme Court denying certiorari to a brief from an individual who clearly doesn’t understand the constitutional purpose and practice of the Supreme Court. 

Jewish law also doesn’t accept the ruling of the majority of the laity.  This resembles the Supreme Court overturning DOMA.  DOMA violates a principle in the Constitution, and it doesn’t matter how many sessions of Congress adopt it by what size majority, it violates states’ rights and the Supreme Court will always reject it.

What later legal experts cannot do is overturn Torah.  When in Mishnaic times the birds needed for certain closure rituals for tumah became very expensive, the court adopted one expert ruling that did not overturn the need for the birds, but reduced the demand.  The price fell by 75% that very day.  This is the reason tameh animals can never be reclassified as tahor.

Mishnah further codifies that no court can repeal a prior ruling unless the later court has more members and more expertise than the court which issued the prior ruling.  Thus if you remember the issue about burning at the stake, Mishnah explicitly says that the court who issued the order to burn the witch alive lacked expertise. 

This is also the reason why a criminal court, where the death penalty might be imposed, starts by consulting the opinion of the youngest or least experienced judge first.  Once the top expert gives his opinion, nobody can argue with him.  (That’s in Mishnah.)

Since Jewish law is based on Torah, and Torah was issued by Gd, no human court can overturn anything that Torah requires or prohibits.

While stare decisis allows systems like Jewish law to avoid unfairness when the facts of the case are identical, fairness also requires flexibility and Jewish law recognizes that.  Where local custom does not conflict with halakhah, Jewish law says local custom must be followed by all permanent residents and everybody who comes to live in that community for a long time, as opposed to a quick trip.  But it does not allow “paskening for yourself,” and you’ve seen situations in previous lessons where the person who paskens for himself winds up in worse shape than if he consulted an expert.  That happens in other cultures as well.  When I was studying for a legal studies degree we discussed situation after situation in which somebody refused to spend $400 an hour on an attorney and wound up with thousands of dollars in court and other costs. 

No society can get along without a legal system, and the individual who pretends she is exempt from the legal system of the society she lives in will generally run into situations that are financially ruinous at best and may include jail time or worse.  That’s because human society has millennia of experience that the whole community suffers when one person decides she is an exception from the law.

And another urban legend next week, one that had legal consequences in 1913.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved  

Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 3:1-2

Genesis 3:1-2

 

א וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה אַף כִּי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּן: ב וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל־הַנָּחָשׁ מִפְּרִי עֵץ־הַגָּן נֹאכֵל:

 

Translation:    The serpent was wiser than all wild animals that **** Gd had made, and he said to the woman, even if Gd said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden.  The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from the fruit of the trees of the garden.

Vocabulary in this lesson:

נָּחָשׁ	Serpent
עָרוּם	Wise, wily

 

Notice that “wise, wily” has the same root letters as “naked” from the preceding verse, ayin resh mem.  But there is no rabbinic commentary on this.  One reason is that Torah was passed along orally during most of its  history.  Only when it was written down did the letters come out this way.  That was no later than the Babylonian Captivity as far as I can tell.  By then it was fixed in people’s minds that these were two different words, not a pun.

 

Notice that the serpent doesn’t finish what he’s saying.  There’s also no comment on that.

 

Finally, notice that the serpent has gotten the woman alone.  It’s a historical truth that when somebody is trying to talk you into something, the best way to do it is to get you alone, isolated from everybody who could identify what’s wrong with the claims being made.  If Adam had stuck with Chavvah as he was supposed to, this whole situation would never have come up.

 

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved  

DIY -- dairy decisions

You know I make my own yogurt if you've been reading this page.
It's $1 less per quart of product, plus I save even more because it makes a great dip.
I also said cheddar cheese probably wasn't cost effective.
Now sour cream -- that might be cost effective.
A recipe I found calls for 4 quarts of heavy cream at $4 a quart, plus a $2 packet of culture.
For $17 you can get a well known brand of sour cream.
You can see that you won't save much.
And it does go bad if you keep it too long in the fridge.
But you can freeze it for up to six months.

NOW: commercial sour cream can contain lots of chemicals:
modified food starch, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, guar gum, carageenan, calcium sulface, potassium sorbate (preservative), xanthan gum and locust bean gum.

So it depends on why you DIY. 
But once again, you're going to need that big pot to hold that gallon of cream. 
If you can save money on also making cottage cheese ($4 for 3/4 quart at the store vs. $4 for a gallon of milk)
and paneer ($5 for 8 ounces versus $4 for a gallon of milk),
you might want to add sour cream to your repertoire.
I mean, Shavuot is coming and dairy foods are the tradition for this time of year.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved