DID THE SEA REALLY PART?

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The parting of the sea is a major episode in the Hebrew Bible. According to the story, as the Israelites left Egypt in haste, they went through a watercourse that was miraculously split, and the people crossed over in dry land.

Now, we all know that seas do not split. So, what is behind this narrative? How was it explained?

The story appears in the Book of Exodus, and is referred to in many parts of the Hebrew Bible, but there are a number of problems associated with it. First, the sea is not “the Red Sea.” In Hebrew, it is called YAM SUF (The sea of suf). However, the word SUF means “reeds,” not Red. So, the Israelites did not cross the Red Sea, they crossed the “Reed Sea.” The second problem is that we do not know where this sea of reeds is located? Is it the Gulf of Aqaba? Or, is it found in one of the small lakes/marshes close to the Lake Sarbonis? We do not know.

Finally, we have at least three different descriptions of the miraculous event:

1.     According to one source in Exodus 15 (biblical scholars call it the J source, namely, the texts that refer to God as YHVH), God is the main character and there is no mention of the splitting of the sea. God simply drives back the sea itself with a strong east wind, and the Egyptians sink to the bottom of the sea.

2.     According to another source, usually assigned to the P source (namely, the texts written by priests), Moses is the main character, and the sea is always called “the sea,” not the “Red/reed sea.” Here at the command of God, Moses held his arm over the sea, and it parted (Ex.14: 21-23).

3.     In yet another source, this one also called the P source (i.e. a different priestly text), God threw the Egyptians into panic and locked the wheels of their chariots (Ex. 14: 24-25).

Over the centuries, many commentators have tried to explain this so-called miraculous event by offering, at times, fancy explanations. For example, according to the Wisdom of Solomon (1^st cent. BCE), the deliverance was the work of personified wisdom (Chap.10). The Jewish historian Josephus (1st cent. CE), stated that Moses chose the route by means of clever calculations (Ant.II, 16). For the Greek-Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria (1^st cent. CE), the entire episode is an allegory (Legum, Alleg. 2). The Rabbis, too, imagined various scenarios: For some, the sea did not part until the Israelites first stepped in the waters (BT Sotah 36b), or until the waters reached up to their noses (Sh’mot Rabba 21). In the medieval times, the conjectures continued: For Rashbam (11 cent. northern France), the winds dried up and coagulated the rivers (on Ex.14:21). For Maimonides (d. 1204) on the other hand, all miracles, including the parting of the sea, were built into the structure of the universe and do not represent God’s intrusion into nature (Eight Chapters, 8). Some even argued that a volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini produced a tidal wave that parted the sea.

Fancy explanations still appear in contemporary literature: In 2004, Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg’s Institute of Oceanography, and his colleague, Alexei Androsov of Hamburg, argued that the parting of the sea was caused by strong winds. Similarly, in 2010, according to Carl Drews, a mechanical engineer, the “sea” is to be located in the Lake Tanis, in the Eastern Nile Delta region, just south of the Mediterranean Sea. The parting was caused by strong winds that created wind pushes, moving the waters away.

In reality, all of these explanations are just speculations, trying to justify the biblical text that is highly elusive. Besides, in the Hebrew Bible, the story is introduced as a divine miracle. The entire episode is legendary, and highlights the fact that the Israelites must have left Egypt under difficult circumstances and yet survived. We do not know when it happened, where it happened or how it happened, but we can surmise that the purpose of the story was to praise God and Moses for the Israelites’ glorious escape from servitude, which left an indelible mark on the historical views of the ancient tribes. The Exodus finally became the rationale for the injunction of not to wrong the resident aliens (Lev. 19:34).

(For more details, please see my article, “Did the Israelites Escape Through the Sea”? in my book, Did Moses Really Have Horns (2009), pp. 70-81).

DISEASE IS NOT DIVINE PUNISHMENT

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

When I was a teenager back in Turkey, if I had a cold or was not feeling well, my Hebrew teacher would often say: “You must have done something wrong!” That infuriated me, and I would tell him, “No, I did not do anything bad.”

There is an old assumption in our western world that equates illness with sin. As Philip I. Lieberman recently wrote, “Religious people throughout history often saw plagues as the manifestation of divine will, as a punishment for sin” (In Milwaukee Independent, July 12, 2020). Thus, for example, back in 2014, John Hagee, the televangelist, claimed that the Ebola outbreak was God’s punishment for President Obama’s policies regarding Israel. Even in our time, in spite of the fact that the Pope has recently denied it, there are a number of people in the world who think that the Corona Virus represents divine displeasure.

The classical texts of the western world support this assumption, which goes back to the ancient Near Eastern literature. In “The Babylonian Theodicy,” we read, “he that bears his God’s yoke, never lacks food.” (ANET, p. 603). It is also found in many parts of the Hebrew Bible. For example, in Genesis suffering was introduced as one of the consequences of human sin, namely eating of the apple against God’s command (Gen.3:17-19). The main argument of the friends of Job is that suffering is caused by human sin. On the other hand, according to the Book of Psalms, God forgives all iniquities and heals all the diseases (103:3). Similarly, according to the author of the Book of Exodus if Israelites listen to God and do what is right, He will not put any of the Egyptian diseases upon them (Ex.15: 26). In the New Testament, divine retributive justice is behind the statement of John when Jesus says, “Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you (5:14).” It is also found in the Quran: when people disbelieved Noah, “We opened the gates of heaven with pouring rain and  caused the earth to burst with gushing springs” (Surah, 54).  The connection between sin and illness is highlighted even in the talmudic literature which states, “there is no death without sin” (Shab.55a) and that zaraat (a type of skin eruption) is punishment for gossip (Lev. Rabba 16:1-6).

How is this theological idea justified? The belief is that the almighty and merciful God rewards the faithful and punishes the wicked. So, if suffering occurs, it must be because of an unknown infraction of the commandments.

In our time, we need to disassociate sin from divine punishment. We are not talking about abuses that have physical consequences, such as overeating causing medical problems for human beings or that smokers often end up with lung cancer.. Most of us would support this idea. I am more concerned about severe illnesses that affect people for reasons that we do not know. How inhuman it would be for us to tell a cancer patient or a person who suffers from Alzheimer’s that his/her illness was caused because of a breach of divine law? A person who suddenly falls and breaks his neck is not suffering because he disobeyed divine commandments. Accidents happen. God, as the energy of the universe, is manifested through the laws of nature, and when we fail nature or nature fails, illness arrives. We are all vulnerable, not because we have sinned against God, but because we were in the wrong time and place, or simply because our bodies succumbed to a disease, often for unknown reason.

To be cured, we need to turn to competent doctors and not to faith healers. In Maimonides’ (d. 1205) view, a person who despises the aid of a physician and relies solely on God’s help is “a pious fool” (Intro to Sefer Hakatzeret). According to Jewish law, the Torah has granted physicians permission to heal and this is considered a Mitzvah, a divine commandment (Shulhan Aruh, Yore Deah, 336/2).

Patients need our empathies during the time of their suffering. They don’t need to feel guilty for something they have or have not done.

 

WHO IS A SEFARDIC JEW TODAY?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

In the Jewish world today there are two major groups that are very different from one another: Ashkenazic Jews trace their background to Eastern Europe, and  Sefardic Jews to Spain. However, because in the US most of the Jews are from Russia and the Ukraine, there is a tendency to assume that the way they practice their Judaism is the authentic one. This is a big mistake, for there are many Sefardic Jews in the States and around the world that practice their faith differently. And here is a personal note: When I came to the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati in 1961, the custom was for rabbinic students to lead the daily services in Ashkenazic Hebrew. When my turn came, I told Dr. Nelson Glueck, the president, that I was a Sefardic Jew from Turkey and did not know how to read the Hebrew prayers in Ashkenazic. He said: “for you I will a make an exception,” and I led the morning services in Sefardic. From then on, all my classmates followed my lead and soon the chapel practice was changed in favor of Sefardic Hebrew.  

The term “Sefarad” appears only once in the Hebrew Bible, in the writings of a little known prophet by the name of Obadiah. He probably lived in ancient Judah, in the 6-5^th cent. BCE, and in v.20, he mentions  “the Jerusalemite exile community of Sefarad,” most likely referring to Jews who lived in Asia Minor, which in Persian cuneiform texts is called “Saparda.” However, the Targum of Jonathan (probably 2^nd cent CE), placed Sefarad in Spain. And, for centuries, Spain has been called Sefarad in Jewish texts.

So, technically speaking, a Sefardic Jew is one who can trace his/her family back to those who were expelled from Spain in 1492, after having lived in the country for more than 700 years, and having created an incredibly rich Jewish culture with luminaries such as Ibn Ezra (d.1167), Nahmanides (d.1270) or Maimonides (d. 1204). After 1492, Jews migrated  slowly but surely back to north Africa, but also to many parts of Europe, the Balkans, and various places in the Ottoman Empire, where Jews were openly welcomed. It is even reported that the Ottoman sultan Beyazid II (1447-1512) had said: “You call Ferdinand (who, along his wife, Isabella, signed the edict of expulsion) a wise king? He made his country poor and enriched mine?”

The Jewish world is not monolithic. Even Ashkenazic Jews who speak Yiddish , a type of medieval German, are divided into two sub-groups, namely, Litvaks and Galizianers. Sefardic Jews also have their own sub-groups. Those who left Spain brought with them, Ladino, that is, medieval Spanish, but they quickly adapted to the country of their residence and began to speak the language of their neighbors, such as Arabic in many Moslem countries (“Edot Hamizrah”) as well as Ladino in many parts of Europe and in the old Ottoman empire, including Palestine, before the State of Israel was established in 1948. In fact, up until now, in Turkey, we  Jews spoke Ladino at home, Turkish in the streets but our cultural language was French. And then there are Persian Jews, Yemenite Jews or Jews of Bombay who did not originate in Spain but because their ritual pattern is closer to the Sefardic Jews, they too are deemed Sefardic in the Jewish world.

In the past, Sefardic and Ashkenazic Jews split on almost every aspect of Jewish life: they pronounced Hebrew differently, used different prayers, had different customs regarding language, life-cycle events, food, music etc. Just read the novel “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” (2013) by Sarit Yishai-Levi to understand the animosity that existed in Israel between these two groups up until recent times.

Today, there are Sefardic Jews in every part of the world, including Israel-a large proportion- but also in Europe, in the Americas (including many Portuguese Jews), even in Spain. In fact, in 2015, the Spanish parliament, sighting the end of “centuries of estrangement,” unanimously passed a law, inviting back Sefardic Jews who were exiled in 1492. In our time, there is a greater number of intra-faith marriages between Ashkenazic and Sefardic Jews (mine included), and modern Israel, having adopted the Sefardic pronunciation of Hebrew along with the Ashkenazic script, is trying the bridge the gap. However, many differences still exist, and the modern world will need to accept that  Yiddish speaking Eastern European Jews are not the only authentic Jews in the world but that there are many Sefardic Jews who keep distinct traditions of their own. Jews are diverse, and this example is good for the world, because it compels us to respect others who are different from us.

IS THE BIBLE TRUE?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

Dr. Samuel Sandmel, a biblical scholar and my teacher, claims that “More people praise the Bible than read it; more people read it than understand it, and more people understand it than conscientiously follow it.” (The Hebrew Scriptures, NY: Knoff, 1963, 3). There is no doubt that the Bible is a best seller. The question is whether it is also historically reliable. Is it historically correct? And, on this issue, we have different opinions. Most traditionalists maintain that it is, whereas many biblical scholars have great doubts about it.

The Hebrew Bible is a difficult book to read and understand:

1.     The stories it tells come from a pre-modern and pre-scientific time, emerging out of an agricultural and patriarchal background.

2.     The Hebrew Bible (as well as the New Testament) is a collection of books, each having its own religious perspective. They were assembled over a long period of time. If there is a unified message of all the books, it is that God and the biblical Israelites have a special relationship, namely a covenant, requiring that instead of serving many gods, they must worship only One invisible God.

3.     All biblical books are attributed to ancient writers. The traditional assumption is that, for example,  Moses wrote the Pentateuch, and Joshua wrote his book. In reality, we do not know who were the real authors or compilers, and when exactly they were composed.

4.     Most of the biblical material is legendary in nature; most likely, stories about the Israelites and their leaders circulated orally for a long period before someone or a group of writers put them down on parchment. 

5.     The Hebrew Bible does not seem to be interested in pure history. True, the broad outline is there: namely, the emergence of the Israelites in ancient Canaan, the exodus from Egypt, the split of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, the destruction of the 1st Temple, the expulsion to Babylon, the return from Babylon and the building of the 2^nd temple. However, the details are not reliable. Often, the biblical texts refer to outside sources for real historical information,  such as,  “The Book of Yashar” (Josh. 10:13), “The History of the Kings of Judah” (II K 15: 6), or “The History of the Kings of Israel” (II K 14: 28)-none of which has survived.

6.     The Hebrew Bible also seems to ignore some important historical data that had a great impact on the lives of biblical Jews. For example, missing is the major battle of Karkar of 853 BCE that took place between a coalition of 11 Syrian kings, including King Ahab of Israel,  and Shamaneser, the king of Assyria. Other important events are recorded without giving any details, such as “And Tibni died” (I K 16: 22; He was the rival of Omri to the throne of Israel).

7.     Some biblical numbers are symbolic, like 7 (e.g., seven days of creation, seven branches of the temple candlestick) or 40 (e.g. raining forty days and forty nights during the Flood , Israelites spending 40 years in the desert). Others are impossible, like, Avraham living for 175 years (Gen.25:7) or Isaac living for 180 years (Gen.35:28.

8.     Some biblical texts are recorded twice, with considerable differences. For example, there are two Genesis stories about the creation of the world (Gen.1 and 2); there are two sets of the Ten Commandments (Ex 20 and Deut.5).

9.     Some biblical stories seem to have a literary pattern: For example, in the Book of Judges, after Israelites sin, God punishes them. Then people pray to God and God saves them through a human leader. See, for example the case of Othniel (Judg. 3:3-11) or the case of Ehud (Judg.3: 12-30).

10.  Not clear about the original setting of the events, today, most Jews read the Hebrew Bible through the eyes of the ancient Rabbis just as most Christians read it through the eyes of the Church Fathers.

 The best that can be said is that the Hebrew Bible contains the legendary story of the Israelites in the ancient Near East. It is primarily a book of religion, dealing with patriarchal stories, prophetic and wisdom sayings, temple ritual, life-cycle events and festivals. It represents the foundational text of Judaism. After the Roman destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, its multilayered message was adapted by the Rabbis to new historical circumstances, and continues to be reinterpreted by modern teachers today.

OUR STUDY GROUP

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

There is a rabbinic teaching that states that the study of Torah is equal to all other commandments (See, M, Peah, 1:1). This is a typical saying of the ancient Rabbis that Torah study, namely the study of Scriptures and rabbinic wisdom, should be given a high priority. [For other examples, see: The observance of the Sabbath is equal to all other commandments (T Jer. Ber. 9a) or, the act of circumcision is equal to all other commandments (T Jer. Ned. 12b)]

I am privileged to belong to a rabbinic group that meets every Monday morning. We  have ten regulars (Don Splansky, Hank Zoob, Howard Kosovske, Neil Kominsky, Bob Orkand, Frank Waldorf, Cliff Librach, Ira Korinow, Harold Robinson and me), and often Steve Arnold joins us. Though we only have men in the group now, in the past, we had Michele Lenke, before she moved to LA. We are also all retired Reform Rabbis who live in the greater Boston area. The group has met for almost 40 years. In the past, many of us used to gather in the home of our colleague Bernard Mehlman, then we moved the sessions to Temple Beth Shalom, where I am the Emeritus, in Needham. MA, and now, because of the Corona virus, we meet regularly by zoom. We take no breaks. As Neil reminds us, “where are you going anyway?”

Our sessions begin at 10 am sharp. Frank is the convener. He lets us in. For the first 15-20 minutes, we discuss current events, often vociferously but with a good sense of humor, and then, I usually play the taskmaster and call my colleagues to initiate the study session. We begin with the traditional Hebrew prayer that praises God for the opportunity we have to study Torah (“…laasok bedivre Torah”) and then we jump right into the text. In the past, we have dealt with many different rabbinic material, such as B’reshit Rabba, Mesillat Yesharim and Avot de Rabbi Nathan. Now we are going through Shir Hashirim Rabba, a rabbinic haggadic Midrash on the Song of Songs, compiled in the 9th cent. CE, Israel/Babylon, by unknown redactors, which understands the biblical love song between human lovers as a paradigm of the love between God and the people of Israel. The text is not easy, and is sprinkled with all kinds of Aramaisms, at times even containing grammatical or textual mistakes. But the content is fascinating in that it provides a new context for the biblical text of the Song of Songs as reflected in the ongoing rabbinic oral tradition.   

Each participant has his role in the group: Ira usually provides an initial translation of the biblical text, Bob has access to some commentaries in English, Don likes to refer to rabbinic commentaries in the margins of the  text, Howard always wants to know exactly what the Rabbis mean,  and I tend to be the trouble maker with my rationalistic theological approach. Our discussions are serious but we also have fun in engaging each other in important theological discourse.

I look forward to my Monday sessions with great anticipation and thoroughly enjoy the collegiality of my study partners. They are my virtual family. I recommend this format to other rabbis in the country. You will like it and you will create a havruta (“study group”) that will enrich you weekly.

 

PRAYER OF HEALING (In the spirit of non-theistic religious naturalism)

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

(Our prayer is starting to take shape, thanks to the input of Edmond H. Weiss, Hillel Cohn, and others. )

רוח העולם ומקור כל יקום

Nature has provided our bodies with the means to keep us vital. We hope these will prove effective and that our doctors, nurses and other healers will have methods and insight to strengthen those means when the afflictions are too powerful for us to battle them alone. Illness and suffering are not punishments, but rather an inevitable part of life itself.

We invoke God, the ordering mind of the universe, and express our gratitude for our health and wellbeing. We also think of our friends and relatives who are suffering. In particular. We think of…..(names here). We hope they will be restored to health, both physical and spiritual, in due time. We want them to know that we are thinking of them and will keep them in our mind continually. May they see release soon and may we continue to enjoy their company in better times. And for those with a terminal illness, we hope they will leave life with the gentle kiss of peace.

Amen.

A JEWISH VIEW OF JESUS

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 Every year on Dec. 25, most Christians around the world celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus, the founder of their faith, with elaborate religious services, family gatherings, the display of the Christmas tree and various local traditions. I grew up in Turkey, a Muslim country. I remember the Greek Orthodox of our community celebrating the birth of Jesus with much singing and colorful rituals within their churches. Outside, however, life went on, without much fanfare.

For centuries, scholars have been debating the question of who was Jesus, the individual? In reality, we know very little about his life. As I wrote in my Modern Judaism (Cognella, 2013, p. 182), “There is no contemporary evidence of Jesus that refers to him or to his activities. It is presumed that he was a Galilean (Jew), born in Nazareth around 4 BCE, and killed by the Romans around 30 CE….From all we know, he was a Pharisee, and most likely belonged to a group of visionaries who predicted the end of the Roman Empire, causing the ire of the Roman authorities in Palestine.”

          The problem is compounded by the fact that the Gospel accounts in the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus, were written many centuries after his death and are in many places contradictory, such as the time of his crucifixion (Mark 15:25, at 9 am vs. John 19:14, at noon), his healing of blind people (Mark 10:46, one person vs. Matt 20: 30, two men), and many others. Most New Testaments scholars agree that the Gospels reflect the piety of the Church regarding Jesus more than they reflect the individual Jesus.

          Throughout the years, Jewish researchers have developed various images of Jesus. According to the historian Heinrich Graetz (19^th cent), he was an “Essene” (namely a member of one of the Jewish sects that emerged in the first century CE); Abraham Geiger (d. in 1874) , a German Rabbi and scholar, viewed him as a Pharisee with “Galilean coloring.” The British thinker, Claude Montefiore (d. in 1938) considered him a prophet; Joseph Klausner (d.1958), an historian, portrayed him as a great teacher of morality and an artist of parables; the philosopher Martin Buber (d. 1965) called him “my great brother.” Samuel Sandmel, an expert in the New Testament, (d.1979) thought “he had gifts of leadership and was something of a  teacher.”  

In reality, it was Paul, the apostle, who brought Jesus to the attention of the gentiles in Asia Minor. Consequently, Christianity grew and became a different religion from Judaism , stressing the concepts of salvation, Jesus as the intermediary between God and the people ,and not only as a prophet who predicted the fall of Rome, but also as the long awaited Messiah, even the son of God. Many early Christians also believed that Jesus, who died at the cross, will come back again in the future.

Muslims, too, have high respect for Jesus: they believe that, born of the virgin Mary (Sura, 19:20), he was a messenger of God (Sura 4: 171), but not divine. Mohammad also maintained that he was not crucified, as another man was made to resemble him but that Allah took him to Himself (Sura 4: 157).

          For me, Jesus stands as a Jewish teacher and a preacher of antiquity, who opened the door to a new understanding of the human existence. He appears to be a person of piety and kindness, but not a divine being. This makes for a wonderful dialogue between Jews, Moslems and Christians.