Jealousy
Exodus 20:4-5
4. You shall not make for you any engraved image, or any
likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5. You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve
them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them
that hate me.
Your Torah Navigator
1. Why is it appropriate for God to be
"jealous"?
Exodus 34:14
14. For you shall worship no other god; for the Lord,
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Your Torah Navigator
1. What is the relationship between jealousy and
fidelity?
Numbers 5:11-31
11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
12. Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, If
any man's wife goes astray, and commits a trespass against him,
13. And a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden
from the eyes of her husband, and this is kept undetected, and she is
defiled, and there is no witness against her, since she was not caught in
the act;
14. And the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and he is
jealous of his wife, and she is defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy comes
upon him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is not defiled;
15. Then shall the man bring his wife to the priest, and
he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley
meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense on it; for it is a
offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to
remembrance.
16. And the priest shall bring her near, and set her
before the Lord;
17. And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen
utensil; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest
shall take, and put it into the water;
18. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord,
and loosen the hair of the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial
in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy; and the priest shall
have in his hand the bitter water that causes the curse;
19. And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say
to the woman, If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray
to uncleanness with another instead of your husband, be you free from this
bitter water that causes the curse;
20. But if you have gone astray with another instead of
your husband, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you other
than your husband;
21. Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath
of cursing, and the priest shall say to the woman, The Lord make you a
curse and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your thigh fall
away, and your belly swell;
22. And this water that causes the curse shall go into
your bowels, to make your belly swell, and your thigh to fall away; And the
woman shall say, Amen, amen.
23. And the priest shall write these curses in a book,
and he shall blot them out with the bitter water;
24. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter
water that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall
enter into her, and become bitter.
25. Then the priest shall take the meal offering of
jealousy from the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering before the
Lord, and offer it upon the altar;
26. And the priest shall take a handful of the offering,
its memorial, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the
woman to drink the water.
27. And when he has made her drink the water, then it
shall come to pass, that, if she is defiled, and has trespassed against her
husband, that the water that causes the curse shall enter into her, and
become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall fall; and the
woman shall be a curse among her people.
28. And if the woman is not defiled, but is clean; then
she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.
29. This is the Torah of jealousies, when a wife goes
astray with another instead of her husband, and is defiled;
30. Or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon him, and
he is jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and
the priest shall execute upon her all this Torah.
31. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and
this woman shall bear her iniquity.
Your Torah Navigator
1. Everyone knows this is a difficult passage which
presents difficulties for modern sensibilities. What is the Torah trying to
achieve through this ritual?
2. Why is God's Name erased on a piece of parchment,
what does that symbolize?
3. Is God humiliated too by this ritual?
4. What does this chapter say about the nature of
jealousy?
Numbers 25:10-12
10. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
11. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the
priest, has turned my anger away from the people of Israel, while he was
zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the people of Israel in
my jealousy.
12. Therefore say, Behold, I give to him my covenant of
peace.
Your Torah Navigator
1. In Hebrew, jealous and zealous come from the same
root. What is the relationship between the two qualities?
Proverbs 14:30
A sound heart is the life of the flesh; but envy is the
rottenness of the bones.
Proverbs 27:4
Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is
able to stand before envy?
Your Bible Navigator
1. Why is envy considered worse than wrath or anger?
2. What does it mean that envy "is the rottenness
of the bones"?
Values of Our Fathers 4:21
Rabbi Elazar HaKapar said: Jealousy, desire, and honor
take a person out of this world.
Your Values of Our Fathers Navigator
1. What does it mean that these things take you out of
the world?
Numbers Rabba 9:20
R. Zechariah, the son-in-law of R. Levi, related the
following incident: R. Meir used to hold regular classes in the synagogue every Sabbath eve. A certain woman
was present who regularly came to listen to him. On one occasion he went
later than expected. When she arrived home she found the lights out. Her
husband asked her: "Where have you been?" She told him: "I
have been listening to a class." He replied : "You may not enter
this house until you go and spit in the face of the teacher."
Through the Holy Spirit Rabbi Meir witnessed this. He
then pretended to be suffering from pain in the eyes, and announced: 'If
there is any woman skilled in whispering charms for the eyes, let her come
and whisper.' Her neighbors related this to her and said: 'This is a chance
for you to return home. Pretend you are a charmer and spit into his eyes
[which was part of the charm]." When she came to him he said to her:
"Are you skilled in whispering charms for the eyes?"
Daunted by his presence she answered in the negative. He
said to her: "Never mind, spit into this one seven times and it will
get better." After she had spat he said to her: "Go and tell your
husband: "You bade me do it only once; see, I have spat seven
times!"
His disciples said to him: ' Master! Are the words of
the Torah to be treated with such contempt as this? Had you told us, would
we not have sent and fetched the man and given him a flogging on the bench
and forced him to become reconciled with his wife? ' Said he to them: 'The
dignity of Meir ought not to be greater than that of his Divine Master.
If in the case of [the Sotah ritual where a woman was
suspected of infidelity] the Holy Name which is so sacred, is to be blotted
out in water because the Torah wishes to bring peace between a husband and
his wife, what does the dignity of Meir matter?
Your Midrash Navigator
1. Who is humiliated in this story?
2. Why is this ironic?
3. Has Rabbi Meir innovated a new ritual for suspicious
husbands?
Sources: Rabbi Avi Weinstein, Director, Hillel's
Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Learning. Reprinted with
permission. |