The Power of Exclusion

Last updated on: May 10, 2022 at 11:15 am by Hebrew College

The Power of Exclusion 2022-05-10T11:15:27-04:00 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.

By Rabbi Jim Morgan

Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21:1-24:23)

When I’m teaching, I often receive feedback from people that they are outraged by this or that passage in the Torah. “Why do we keep this?” people ask. Or: “We should cancel this verse.” I can, and sometimes do, respond that in our tradition – as in Islam and Christianity – we do not simply “change” the Bible. We can adjust a translation or shift an emphasis or pursue an apologia, but excising a verse? Not so much. A more satisfying response, however, is to acknowledge these difficult passages as evidence of dilemmas, not only in our Jewish tradition but in human societies more generally. Often they point to challenges that have existed for millenia and still bedevil us. As such, they can serve to open up conversations about contemporary injustices that resonate with ancient dilemmas and allow us to think about addressing them more equitably and compassionately.

One such ancient dilemma is that of exclusion based on identity. In one of its contemporary manifestations, the power of exclusion has taken the form of a tidal wave of new laws and regulations that criminalize gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender children and, in Texas (although the regulation has been temporarily enjoined in court), to force the “the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services… to consider medically accepted treatments for transgender youth – including hormones and puberty-suppressing drugs – as abuse” and to open investigations into families with transgender children. In these cases, the state is openly excluding people from raising transgender children, presenting such parents the cruel choice of either not providing their children with medical care and thus putting their children’s lives at risk of suicide, or leaving the state, which is clearly not an option for most families.

How might the Torah open a discussion into such a contemporary dilemma? By raising up the story of a man whose identity excludes him from any of the arbitrary categories that the Israelite community recognized:

There came out among the Israelites a man whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that half-Israelite and a certain Israelite. The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses – now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. He was placed in custody, until the decision of YHWH should be made clear to them. And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying: Take the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who were within hearing lay their hands upon his head, and let the community leadership stone him. (Lev. 24:10-14)

As the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian man, ben-Shelomith (as we might call him) cannot claim membership in any of the patriarchal tribes. As such, he is an examplar of the various “strangers” present in the Torah and by implication in the earliest stages of Israelite society. The Torah does not specify his motivation for cursing God, but the emphasis on his mixed parentage suggests that his identity played a role in his ultimate fate: being removed from the camp and stoned for blasphemy.

Characteristically, the rabbis of our tradition try to put some meat on these narrative bones: Where did he come out from? What was the fight about? Why would he curse God? One midrash offers compelling answers to these questions:

The quarrel arose from his parentage. He went to pitch his tent with the tribe of Dan. They said to him: Why do you think you can pitch your tent with us? He responded: I emerged from the daughters of Dan. They said to him: It is written that “The Israelites shall camp each man with his standard, under the banners of their father’s house” (Numbers 2:2), and not their mother’s house. He entered Moses’s Beit Din (court) and he came out m’chuyav (having lost his suit). Therefore he arose and cursed God (Leviticus Rabbah 32:3).

As the paraphrase offered in the Plaut Commentary puts it (2006 edition, p. 845), he “found himself without any regular place in the camp.” He was excluded, rejected, literally not accepted as a member of the tribe, even though in another place the midrash identifies him as a convert to Judaism who was present at Sinai (see Rashi on Lev. 24:10-11).

The pathos of this story is overwhelming, and it resonates with so many stories of rejection and exclusion based on arbitrary and rigid categories, whether based on parentage, gender expression, or caste, that societies (including Jewish communities) construct to make sense of the world and to set boundaries for themselves. As a convert to Judaism myself, I am all too familiar with this feeling: although I no longer “belong” in the faith tradition of my youth and have been a rabbi for more than a decade, I still find myself excluded by certain Jews, religious and secular alike. My pain and frustration are real but usually fleeting, not least of all because many Jewish communities across the religious spectrum have adopted a more welcoming stance towards Jews by choice and, in many places, towards people who have a single Jewish parent (although that remains controversial in some places, even for people with a Jewish mother).

The members of the tribe of Dan did not adopt a welcoming stance, which ultimately led to the death of ben-Shelomith. His reaction to the verdict of the Beit Din echoes the suggestion Job’s wife makes at the height of his suffering: “Blaspheme God and die” (Job 2:9).

Sadly, there is an analogous response in transgender youth, in the form of suicide or other self-harm, when these young people feel rejected by their families and by society at large. Too often, there is no place for them or their families in the camp and there are too few places where they feel welcome. We must push back against efforts to exclude them and instead find ways to welcome people into our communities, accommodating them by modifying boundaries in ways that allow everyone to feel safe. I like to think that the rabbis, in constructing a story for ben-Shlomith and making a point of his conversion and presence at Sinai, were welcoming him, albeit posthumously. May we work to find ways for transgender people to belong in the camp while they are still alive.

A graduate of the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College, Rabbi Jim Morgan’s primary role is Community Rabbi and Chaplain at Center Communities of Brookline, a Supportive Housing Community of Hebrew SeniorLife. In addition, he serves as the Russian-speaking chaplain at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale. Finally, he is Rabbinic Advisor for the Worship and Study Minyan at Harvard Hillel in Cambridge, a pluralistic, lay-led congregation that serves the university and the larger community.

Seventy Faces of Torah

shabbat

Torah

Previous Post

May 4, 2022

Together or Apart? Rebuilding Holy Community Across Space

Next Post

May 16, 2022 The Power of Perspective

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