Not black, not white

 

The Torah - biktav - makes it clear that no one is without fault and, similarly, no "rasha" is 100% bad.

All of the avot had blemishes.

Moses was less than perfect.

But the midrashim and misniyot try to play down the faults; to show that when, for example, Moses struck the rock, he was so frustrated by the people he simply lost it, but he held his "cool" longer than any man could be expected to do so.

On the other hand, while the Torah cites the positive aspects of the "bad guys," the rabbis who gave us the midrashim and misniyot have a field day with verbal tar and feathers. A few renegades do find something positive to write, but in general, the press is all bad.

Esav, for example.

The Torah tells us that he was hardly what we would call a "refined gentleman." The rabbis jump on that and build tales based solely on their imaginations.

What most - and this has to be emphasized, "most" - rabbis fail to tell us that Esav had some good traits, too.

Torah makes it abundantly clear that Esav had "kabod l'av v'em" or at least respect and honor for his father. There is no indication that his brother shared this trait for his father or even his mother.

Many rabbis take Yitzak to task for wanting to give the behor (first born) blessing to Esav; then they excuse it because, they insist, Esav was cunning and two-faced. The Torah never suggests that.

My rabbi, who is very much into "k'ruv" - bringing Jews closer to Judaism and the mitzvot - acknowledged both Esav's honor of father as well as the opinions that he simply was duping his dad.

To go off on a slight tangent, the good rabbi has, over the last two Shabatot, talked about communications between husband and wife (Abraham failing to tell Sara that he was taking a trip to sacrifice Yitzhak and Rivka failing to tell Yitzhak what HaShem told her as she labored with the twins). I moved where I live specifically for this rabbi and his wisdom - and, to be honest, his humor, too.

Bila'am, who made an appearance in this blog earlier, is a prophet of HaShem, yet that's typically forgotten or glossed over by the rabbis who gave us midrashim and misniyot that paint him as evil as humanly possible.

In truth, I have no problem with midrashim and misniyot PROVIDED they are introduced as what they are and not - as too often is the case - "mi Sinai" (from Sinai).

Yes, I know Torah ba'al pe - the Talmud- is considered "mi Sinai" as much as bik-tav.

We - Jews - have been "underdogs" for most of our history; as such, we should be looking for ways to point out that even the worst of us has something to be said in his or her favor.

Moses hit the rock; Esav honored his father.

No one person is totally good or totally evil.

I wish all of our rabbis would realize that.

Yohanon Glenn
Yohanon.Glenn at gmail dot com