48. It Didn't Start in 1948

Parshah Ki Seitzei

*Important attribution note: All quotes listed in this article are credited to the Artscroll Stone Edition Chumash. Here is an Extremely Clear Citation so I don’t get in trouble: Nosson Scherman, Hersh Goldwurm, Avie Gold, & Meir Zlotowitz. (2015). The Chumash: the Torah, Haftaros and Five Megillos. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.

Deuteronomy 21:10-14*

“When you will go out to war against your enemies, and Hashem, your God, will deliver him into your hand, and you will capture his captivity; and you will see among the captivity a woman who is beautiful of form, and you will desire her, you make take her to yourself for a wife…But it shall be that if you do not desire her, then you shall send her on her own, but you may not sell her for money; you shall not enslave her, because you have afflicted her.” 

Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Israel, is also on Israel’s Chief Rabbinate Council. Not exactly a small player in Israeli religious circles. In 2002, Eliyahu argued that Israeli soldiers would lose their motivation to wage war if they were not allowed to rape non-Jewish women.

It didn’t start on October 7th, or 1967, or 1948. It started here, with this book and Moses. 

Deuteronomy 21:18-21*

“If a man will have a wayward and rebellious son, who does not hearken to the voice of his father and the voice of his mother, and they discipline him, but he does not hearken to them; then his father and mother shall grasp him and take him out to the elders… All the men of his city shall pelt him with stones and he shall die.” 

Forget “spare the rod, spoil the child”; we’ve moved on to full-blown child murder. 

Deuteronomy 22:1-4*

“You shall not see the ox of your brother or his sheep or goat cast off, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely return them to your brother. If your brother is not near you and you do not know him, then gather it inside your house, and it shall remain with you until your brother inquires after it, and you return it to him… You shall not see the donkey of your brother or his ox falling on the road and hide yourself from them; you shall surely stand them up, with him.” 

I so want to believe that the root of this law lies in animal welfare, but I have a strong suspicion it has more to do with the capitalist respect for property. Oxen, sheep, and goats are property, and it’s a neighbor’s job to take care of their neighbor’s property. 

Deuteronomy 22:5*

“Male garb shall not be on a woman, and a man shall not wear a woman’s garment, for anyone who does so is an abomination of Hashem.” 

This passage explains the absurdity of the trans furor better than any treatise could. So far, the chapter has excused using rape as a weapon of war and told parents to murder their disobedient children. Yet, somehow, men wearing women’s clothing is the abomination? 

There are many interesting things to be said about both sides of the transgender political uproar, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter. Compared to genocide, rape, famine, and the ever-accelerating descent into abject poverty due to capitalism, it shouldn’t matter in the slightest whether someone wants to wear women’s clothing. Doing lasting biological harm to children before their bodies have finished developing? That’s a different story. But adults? Oh my God, WHO CARES. 

Deuteronomy 22:6-7*

“If a bird’s nest happens to be before you on the road, on any tree or on the ground - young birds or eggs - and the mother is roosting on the young birds or the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall surely send away the mother and take the young for yourself.” 

At first, the Torah’s suggestion struck me as crueler than the alternative, but after a while, I began to see a sort of sense. You don’t need to kill everyone; let the mother go so she can eventually make new eggs. 

I really hope lab-grown meat soon becomes a fully viable alternative, because in 2024, it’s impossible not to be shocked that we raise chickens for the sole purpose of ripping their babies away. Right now, our only solution is to not think about it too hard. 

I used to ascribe to a more naturalist viewpoint, thinking “natural” meat was intrinsically better for you than lab-grown meat. This belief crumbled along with my religious beliefs. We need rigorous testing to ensure the safety and full nutritional bioavailability of meat alternatives, but this has to be the future. 

Deuteronomy 22:13-16*

“If a man marries a wife, and comes to her and hates her, and he makes a wanton accusation against her, spreading a bad name against her, and he said, ‘I married this woman, and I came near to her and I did not find signs of virginity on her.’ Then the father of the girl and her mother should take and bring proofs of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city, to the gate… And they should spread out the sheet before the elders of the city.” 

Imagine for a moment, if you will, the lack of privacy a woman had during this time. Your father and mother kept your bloody sheet to prove you were a virgin! Are there no limits to how far the state will go to poke its head into the lives of its citizens? 

Deuteronomy 22:23-24*

“If there will be a virgin girl who is betrothed to a man, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall take them both to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones and they shall die; the girl because of the fact that she did not cry out in the city, and the man because of the fact that he afflicted the wife of his fellow.” 

A man rapes a woman. The woman is executed because she didn’t scream loudly enough for someone to hear. Keep in mind, under ancient Israeli law, if a person heard her scream but didn’t report it, they would probably be liable for stoning. Witnesses who didn’t intervene have a vested interest in not coming forward to her defense. 

Let’s call this by its name: it’s disgusting. The threads of this behavior still pop up in our modern lives. The experience of reading the Torah this closely has been an immensely radicalizing one; anyone who claims that Judaism is a “religion of peace” needs to read more closely. Those radical settlers that make us all so uncomfortable? They’re the most honest of the bunch. This is Judaism in its own words. Let’s stop pretending these religions are something they aren’t. 

Deuteronomy 22:28-29*

“If a man will find a virgin maiden who was not betrothed, and takes hold of her and lies with her, and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give the father of the girl fifty silver [shekels], and she shall become his wife, because he afflicted her; he cannot divorce her all his days.” 

They forced a woman to marry her rapist. 

Deuteronomy 23:16-17*

“You shall not turn over to his master a slave who is rescued from his master to you. He shall dwell with you in your midst, in whatever place he will choose in one of your cities, which is beneficial to him; you shall not taunt him.” 

I guess we were due for one piece of good news. As they say, the bar is on the floor. 

Deuteronomy 24:4*

“[A woman’s] first husband who divorced her shall not again take her to become his wife, after she had been defiled, for it is an abomination before Hashem.” 

There is not even a fraction of a reason for this commandment outside of the desire to exert maximum control over citizens’ lives. 

Deuteronomy 25:11-12*

“If men fight with one another, a man and his brother, and the wife of one of them approaches to rescue her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and she stretches out her hand and grasps his embarrassing place, you shall cut off her hand; your eyes shall not show pity.” 

The rabbis who wrote the Stone Edition Chumash have subtitled this verse “Penalty for Embarrassing Another.” I see it differently. I see it as this: the male ego was so fragile that they could never admit a woman might be able to defeat a man, even to the extent that they’d cut off her hand just for defending her husband! 

As the Torah progresses, I see a lot more of Moses commanding the Israelites not to show pity. The closer they get to the Land, and the closer Moses gets to death, the more his mask slips. He showed his true colors. 

Deuteronomy 25:17-19*

“Remember what Amalek did to you, on the way, when you were leaving Egypt, that he happened upon you on the way, and he struck those of you who were hindmost, all the weaklings at your rear, when you were faint and exhausted, and he did not fear God. It shall be that when Hashem, your God, gives you rest from all your enemies all around, in the Land that Hashem, your God, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall wipe out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven - you shall not forget!” 

The most blatant call to genocide in the entire Torah, which is saying a lot. This particular call to genocide is still so prevalent in modern Jewish consciousness that it is the designated reading for Purim! Purim is supposed to be the most joyful Jewish holiday, the holiday known as drunken Jewish Halloween, yet it’s accompanied by a crystal-clear call to genocide. 

In the first days after October 7th, Netanyahu cited this passage, along with its successor (Samuel I 15:3), in reference to Gaza. Never let the propaganda fool you: this is what he wants to happen to Gaza. Gazans know it, it’s high time everyone else recognized it, too.

*Again with the Extremely Clear Citation so I don’t get in trouble: Nosson Scherman, Hersh Goldwurm, Avie Gold, & Meir Zlotowitz. (2015). The Chumash : the Torah, Haftaros and Five Megillos. Mesorah Publications, Ltd.