Noach
Hello! Out here in Seattle, the temperature dropped, my bones ache, and I’m going to a zoom bar mitzvah tomorrow. This week’s parsha is Noach. I wrote an antifascist dvar about the tower of babel a few years ago that I’m not sure I like, these days, but I might turn the core of it into something else.
Two phrases stick out to me in the Tower of Babel story. In 11:1, the people use the "same language, and same words". And in verse 4, the answer to why are they building this tower? "To make a name for themselves."
Some scholars interpret "same language, same words" to mean they were of one mind, as well. To me, that couldn’t possibly be true for all thoughts. But it might have looked that way from the words they spoke.
When I hear "same language, same words" I think about the way a phrase’s meaning gets flattened and shifted over time. I think about framing, about controlling that shift: words and phrases created with underhanded intentions. I think about the erosion of modern discourse due to the actions of right wing conservative groups, and their expertise in framing.
But I don’t have the energy to make new words go. Instead, have some beautiful moral guidance from a friend that I only saw after sending last week’s newsletter:
Some learning opportunities:
Want to learn yiddish online? Queer Yiddish with Sasha is happening on zoom!
Berlin-based Jewish Activism Summer School has a bunch of webinars coming up, including Talmud and Paolo Freire, Anarcho-Judaism (in two parts), and more.
This conversation between EIC of Jewish Currents Arielle Angel and Professor Devin Naar was incredibly emotional for me to read, about figuring out how to talk about sephardi heritage (among other things).
I don’t think Vilissa Thompson is Jewish, but she is a wonderful Black Disabled activist and social worker, and she shared her own thoughts on the idea of how we are created in G-d’s image, and G-d in ours:
The ADL (who I don’t love) did a good thing and said (basically) even though we disagree with them on israel, please stop calling human rights organizations antisemitic. Unlike the ADL, I do not think the response to israel is excessive or unfair; but also, a lot of people listen to them, so their pushback to “human rights orgs hate jews” is pretty important.
Chabad’s Ask the Rabbi column tried to cover whether Judaism is capitalist or socialist. It is better than I expected, and contains some specifics to chew on. My take, not so different from his in the end, is the torah can be socialist if you want it to be; it can be monarchist if you want it to be; it can be anarchist if you want it to be.
And finally, the Jewish Pet(s) of the Week this week are Alicia’s David and Alexis. So cute! Such helpers!
Shabbat shalom, everyone. See you next week.