Jewish Musings Thursday, July 11

[hollygail]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[hollygail]

The haftarah for Chukat is from the Book of Judges, chapter 11, verses 1 through 33. Note that the chapter ends 7 verses later (more on this later). In English, the name of the protagonist is Jephthah, but in Hebrew it's Yiftach. I once had dealings with a man with that name and I asked him about it. He referred me to Judges 11.

It turns out Jepht'ah (I change the spelled of "th" for the Hebrew letter "tav" because it's a "t" sound; there is no "th" as in "theme" sound in Hebrew; all those places named "Beth" something are really "Beit" (same as the English "bait" like when you go fishing...) is the son of a respected man and a prostitute, not the wife of the man. The other sons of this man, whose mother IS the man's wife, dis their half-brother. He can't live with them or inherit or anything; he winds up hanging with, may I say, "ne'er do well" guys? His excellent fighting skills are apparently well-known. Anyway, the town where the brothers live is under siege, and the brothers reluctantly go to Yiftach to ask for his help. He agrees only after extracting promises from the brothers that they'll stop treating him like an untouchable (my terminology). He approaches the enemy to negotiate for peace and when that doesn't work, he becomes militarily victorious after praying to God for victory. He has won the day for his family and for himself.

Yiftach's prayer for victory includes his promise of an offering to God of the first thing to come out of his living quarters when he returns home, no doubt expecting it to be one of the animals living in the yard (normal for that period in history in that part of the world). What is the first thing that comes to greet him when he returns home? His only child, a daughter. He is clearly distraught, but a promise (to God, surely) is a promise.

There are midrashim about this daughter ranging from the premise that Yiftach could have gone to the High Priest to ask to be let out of the promise (but he's too haughty: "Who am I that I must go to the High Priest? Let him come to me!" and what of the High Priest? "I am the High Priest, son of the High Priest; who am I that I should go to this man? Let him come to me!") to stories about the young woman herself (much lighter than the one I just mentioned).

Have you ever been in a situation where you were the outsider, asked to join the "popular" group for a specific purpose? What did you do? How did you handle it? And/or have you ever made a statement you later didn't want to live up to? How did you handle that?

[louise]

I will give these questions some thought but wanted to jump in with how upsetting I have always found this story. It was in his power to void the vow but he didnt becasue of pride? A very distressing story.

[peachymom1]

The story about the daughter being the first thing out the door to greet him sounds like something I read in fairy tales when I was a kid, and in each case, the daughter ended up saving herself by her own cleverness and good heart. Yiftach blew it in this story - his daughter asks for two months, and even in that time, he doesn't come to his senses and find a way to keep from sacrificing her. EPIC FAIL!

[gazelle18]

In answer to the question, I have NEVER been asked to join the popular group, for any reason.