Summary:
In our portion – sections of which are also read on Yom Kippur, God issues a variety of commandments, instructing the Israelites on how to be a holy people. Various sex offenses are also discussed and punishments for them are presented.
Lessons from our Haftarah – Amos 9:7-15:
Our Torah portion and haftarah portion are connected by the vision of what it means to be a holy people. In the Torah portion, commandments are listed which lead to such holiness. In the haftarah portion Amos points out how far Israel has strayed from being a holy people. Amos ends on a high note however, envisioning a brighter future for the holy people of Israel.
In our portion we find a very difficult and challenging verse. In the first verse Amos states: “Are you not to Me, O people of Israel, like the Cushites?” Amos is directly comparing the people of Israel with the people of Northern Africa, known for their black skin.
Our commentators over the generations disagree as to the purpose of this comparison. It is meant to state that God despises us just as God despises the Cushites? Or is it meant to make a universal statement that for God, the people of Israel are like any other people?
Joseph Hertz was the Chief Rabbi of Britain in the mid-1900’s. In his traditional commentary on the Torah, he clearly takes the first position. He writes: “Degenerate Israel is no more to God than the despised inhabitants of distant Ethiopia…” According to Hertz there is no lower comparison for the people of Israel than to be compared to the Cushites.
However, Rabbi Gunther Plaut, a contemporary Reform rabbi and author of the Reform commentary on the Torah and Haftarah writes, “there is no warrant for this kind of assessment.” He points out that in the Torah there is a negative image of the Cushites, together with many other peoples – such as the Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Assyrians and the Babylonians – all of whom were traditional enemies of Israel.
For Plaut, the Bible knows no racial prejudice. In fact, Moses himself married a Cushite woman. Whenever the Torah describes a foreign nation, it does so according to language and location. The Torah never mentions race.
Plaut understands Amos’ statement in our haftarah as a proclamation that “God is the God of all humanity and that, as humans, the Children of Israel are no different from the inhabitants of Africa – the Cushites…”
While Amos focuses on the sins of the people of Israel, he reminds them that to be a holy people, they must act in a holy way.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Don Goor