Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Jewish
The Torah needs a Trigger Warning

The Torah needs a Trigger Warning

Last updated on: August 23, 2018 at 10:21 am by Hebrew College

The Torah needs a Trigger Warning 2018-08-23T10:21:08-04:00 Hebrew College

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Parashat Ki Tetzei (Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19)

By Rabbi Avi Killip

My summer began at a panel conversation about “What Feminist Torah Needs to Look Like.” Professor Judith Plaskow, a gadol (one of the greats!) in the field, challenged the 300 people in the room to not skip over the difficult parts of Torah in our teaching and sermons: “There is so much richness in the Torah that it is easy in any specific instance to look away from the parts that are most awful in favor of passages that are more inviting.” She cautioned that “when we pass over toxic texts in silence, we normalize what they have to say…it is essential to confront these painful texts in order to shift the habits of mind that they foster and sustain.”

Her words echoed in my ear as the summer wore on, and I found myself reading one of these “toxic texts,” in the first verses of Parshat Ki Tetzei. These are incredibly painful verses to read in 2018, as we struggle to confront the destructive use of sex to assert power over women.

Deut. 21:10-14

10 כִּֽי־תֵצֵ֥א לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹיְבֶ֑יךָ וּנְתָנ֞וֹ יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּיָדֶ֖ךָ וְשָׁבִ֥יתָ שִׁבְיֽוֹ׃

When you take the field against your enemies, and the LORD

your God delivers them into your power and you take some of them captive,

11 וְרָאִיתָ֙ בַּשִּׁבְיָ֔ה אֵ֖שֶׁת יְפַת־תֹּ֑אַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ֣ בָ֔הּ וְלָקַחְתָּ֥ לְךָ֖ לְאִשָּֽׁה׃

and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire

her and would take her to wife,

12וַהֲבֵאתָ֖הּ אֶל־תּ֣וֹךְ בֵּיתֶ֑ךָ וְגִלְּחָה֙ אֶת־רֹאשָׁ֔הּ וְעָשְׂתָ֖ה אֶת־צִפָּרְנֶֽיהָ׃

you shall bring her into your house, and she shall trim her

hair, pare her nails,

13וְהֵסִ֩ירָה֩ אֶת־שִׂמְלַ֨ת שִׁבְיָ֜הּ מֵעָלֶ֗יהָ וְיָֽשְׁבָה֙ בְּבֵיתֶ֔ךָ וּבָֽכְתָ֛ה אֶת־אָבִ֥יהָ וְאֶת־אִמָּ֖הּ יֶ֣רַח יָמִ֑ים

וְאַ֨חַר כֵּ֜ן תָּב֤וֹא אֵלֶ֙יהָ֙ וּבְעַלְתָּ֔הּ וְהָיְתָ֥ה לְךָ֖ לְאִשָּֽׁה׃

and discard her captive’s garb. She shall spend a month’s

time in your house lamenting her father and mother; after that you may come to her and possess her, and she shall be your wife.

14וְהָיָ֞ה אִם־לֹ֧א חָפַ֣צְתָּ בָּ֗הּ וְשִׁלַּחְתָּהּ֙ לְנַפְשָׁ֔הּ וּמָכֹ֥ר לֹא־תִמְכְּרֶ֖נָּה בַּכָּ֑סֶף לֹא־תִתְעַמֵּ֣ר בָּ֔הּ

תַּ֖חַת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עִנִּיתָֽהּ׃ (ס)

Then, should you no longer want her, you must release her

outright. You must not sell her for money: since you had your will of her, you must not enslave her.

The text speaks directly to a man in a position of power, and asserts that this power is literally God-given “נְתָנ֞וֹ ה”. The Torah offers instructions for the appropriate way for this man to take sexual ownership over the women of a defeated enemy society.

Some claim that the Torah means well. They point out that this law, which requires the captor to allow the woman a full month to mourn her family before “possessing” her sexually, actually adds humanity to a woman who would otherwise be seen only as chattel won in a war. Bible scholar Richard Elliott Friedman writes about these verses, “what pervades the elements of the law is an extraordinary sensitivity to the humanity of a captured woman.” I disagree. For Friedman this is an anti-rape text. He stresses that “the Israelite soldier is not permitted to rape her.” Friedman doesn’t see the rape in this text. In his effort to find wisdom in the text, Friedman makes a mistake that many of us, including myself, make. We blind ourselves to parts of the text that should be called out and publicly condemned. When we are too quick to “read against-the-grain” and immediately try to make the struggle productive, we run the risk of normalizing truly hurtful realities. In this case, Friedman normalizes rape. Sex within a forced marriage to one’s captor cannot and should not ever be considered outside the realm of rape. Institutionalized rape is rape. This is too low a bar for a text that we consider the word of God, and continue to teach to our daughters, and more importantly to our sons, year after year.

These five verses tell the story of the most vulnerable women in society. It is a horrifying story. It is the story of countless vulnerable women in our world today. If we listen closely, we can hear their weeping.

Verse 14 is especially painful. It guides the man in the proper way to dispose of this woman, if and when he loses interest. What do you do if “you no longer want her– אִם־לֹ֧א חָפַ֣צְתָּ בָּ֗הּ.” I read this line in stereo with a quote from the painter and known misogynist, Pablo Picasso: “Every time I change wives I should burn the last one. That way I’d be rid of them…You kill the woman and you wipe out the past she represents.” The quote is featured and problematized by Hannah Gadsby in her remarkable recent Netflix stand-up comedy feature “Nanatte.” Gadsby cites this quote as exemplifying the essence of rape culture in our society. She refuses to let Picasso off the hook based on the merits of his paintings. We should refuse to let the Torah off the hook too.

What makes Gadsby’s show so chilling is that she leaves the viewers in the place of pain, calling attention to difficult realities and refusing to let the air out of the room. It is time, she asserts, for us to confront the destructive forces of misogyny head on without apologetics and without jokes.

This summer Plaskow taught me to address the toxicity in Torah and Gadsby taught me not to smooth it over, apologize, or find a way to make it ok. It is not okay. As a rabbi and lover of Torah, it is hard to resist the urge to soften this text, maybe even redeem it through an insightful midrash, a creative interpretive move or even a pastoral emotional reading. Before we get there, we must sit with the pain. We should learn to feel hurt and even anger.

Judith Plaskow posits: “a feminist approach to Torah begins with a particular critical moment, a moment of personal affront or even a sense of assault.” These five lines of parshat Ki Tetzei are an assault. If we want to know why generations of men have considered it their God-given right to rape vulnerable women, we cannot overlook our Torah.

Rabbi Avi Killip serves as Vice President of Strategy and Programs and Director of Project Zug at Hadar. She was ordained from Hebrew College’s pluralistic Rabbinical School in Boston. She was a Wexner Graduate Fellow and holds a Bachelors and Masters from Brandeis University in Jewish Studies and Women & Gender Studies. She serves on the advisory board of ShmaNOW and the Jewish Studio Project.

Learn more about Hebrew College’s rabbinical and cantorial programs on November 12 at Ta Sh’ma (Come & hear), a Fall Open House & Day of Learning for prospective rabbinical, rav-hazzan and cantorial students.

Seventy Faces of Torah

shabbat

Torah

Previous Post

August 14, 2018

Chasing Compromise

Next Post

September 5, 2018 I was not at Sinai

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2026 March 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz