Righteous Gentiles in the Hebrew Bible

Jeffrey K. Salkin

Description

Who are the ancient role models for the sacred relationship
between Jews and non-Jews today?

Now more than ever, gentiles are an integral part of the Jewish community. But they are not new to the Jewish story. In fact, righteous gentiles go back to Abraham. The story of the Jewish people can’t be told without them.

Noted author and educator Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin provides an informative and inspiring look at the sympathetic non-Israelite characters of the Hebrew Bible and the redemptive relationships they had with the Jewish people. Relying on biblical and extra-biblical sources, he introduces each character, drawing lessons from the life of each that will be relevant to you, whatever your faith tradition. They include the …

• First gentile to bless a Jew
• First woman to hear the Divine voice and save a Jewish baby
• First teacher of morality to the Jews
• First gentile mother of Jewish children
• Gentile midwives who invented civil disobedience
• Mother of Moses and nurturer of the Jewish people
• Father-in-law and teacher of Moses
• First “gentile Zionist”
• Gentile warrior who fought for the Israelites
• Gentile contractor for Solomon’s Temple
• Gentiles who acknowledged God and repented
• Creator of the Second Jewish Commonwealth

Sujets

• Biblical Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Hebrew Bible
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 07 février 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235785
• Langue: English

Extrait

RIGHTEOUS GENTILES
IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

ANCIENT ROLE MODELS FOR SACRED RELATIONSHIPS
RABBI JEFFREY K. SALKIN
Foreword by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis Preface by Phyllis Tickle
P RAISE FOR R IGHTEOUS G ENTILES IN THE H EBREW B IBLE : A NCIENT R OLE M ODELS FOR S ACRED R ELATIONSHIPS
The idea of the righteous gentile is an important bridge linking Judaism to other faiths. It demonstrates how diversity among faiths is not some cosmic error but is in accord with a divine plan. Most Jews and Christians (and others) know little or nothing about this deeply embedded concept, or about its biblical roots, history, and present significance. Salkin skillfully fills this gap with a book I found absorbing and informative, and plan to use in my own teaching.
-Harvey Cox , Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University
In presenting the too often neglected yet positive role of non-Jews in the Hebrew Bible, Rabbi Salkin makes serious scholarship delightfully accessible, raising contemporary concerns about how Jews relate to non-Jews in our families and in our lives. Even knowledgeable readers will learn from the vast and eclectic array of Jewish and non-Jewish sources used to examine these fascinating righteous gentiles. Jews and non-Jews alike will surely use this book as an original and engrossing resource for exploring our shared biblical heritage.
-Rabbi Avis D. Miller , president, Open Dor Foundation
In our religiously diverse world, Jeffrey Salkin offers us a much needed book. He presents the richly textured lives of important righteous gentiles in the biblical narrative, and in so doing teaches us the life-transforming power of interfaith encounters.
-Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso , author, God s Paintbrush and God s Echo: Exploring Scripture with Midrash
Salkin manages to bring forth the light of righteousness out of the shadows of biblical history. This is a new and fresh look at the biblical narrative.
-Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar , senior rabbi, Congregation B nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim, Chicago area; author, The Bridge to Forgiveness: Stories and Prayers for Finding God and Restoring Wholeness
Christian and Jew alike will appreciate not only the content of this well-researched book but also its loving style. Rabbi Salkin gets it. God s people are one.
-The Rev. Donna Schaper , senior minister, Judson Memorial Church, New York City; author, Sacred Speech : A Practical Guide to Keeping Spirit in Your Speech and Raising Interfaith Children
Righteous Gentiles in the Hebrew Bible :
Ancient Role Models for Sacred Relationships
2008 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing
2008 by Jeffrey K. Salkin
Foreword 2008 by Harold M. Schulweis
Preface 2008 by Phyllis Tickle
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed at the bottom of this page, or e-mail your request to [e-mail]
Biblical quotations come from the JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1999). Most of the rabbinic quotations come from the Judaic Classics Deluxe Edition (Skokie, IL: Davka Corporation, 2007), and the Soncino Classics Edition DVDs (Skokie, IL: Davka Corporation, 2007).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Salkin, Jeffrey K., 1954-
Righteous Gentiles in the Hebrew Bible: ancient role models for sacred relationships / Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin; foreword by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis; preface by Phyllis Tickle.-2008 quality paperback ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-364-4 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-58023-364-3 (pbk.)
1. Righteous Gentiles in the Bible. 2. Gentiles in the Old Testament. 3.
Justice (Jewish theology) 4. Bible. O.T.-Biography. 5. Bible. O.T.-
Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS1199.N6S325 2008
221.9'22-dc22
2008035872
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover Design: Jenny Buono
Cover Art Jupiter Images Corporation
For People of All Faiths, All Backgrounds
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone] www.jewishlights.com
For
The Reverend Richard Burnett, Columbus, Ohio ,
and
The Reverend Geoffrey M. Hoare, Atlanta, Georgia ;
two Jethros
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
1. Melchizedek
The First Righteous Gentile and the First Person to Bless a Jew
2. Hagar and Ishmael
The First Woman to Hear the Divine Voice; the First Jewish Child to Be Saved from Death
3. Tamar
The First Teacher of Morality to the Jewish People
4. Asnat
The First Gentile Mother of Jewish Children
5. Shifrah and Puah
The Righteous Midwives Who Invented Civil Disobedience
6. Bityah, Pharaoh s Daughter
The Mother of Moses and Nurturer of the Jewish People
7. Jethro
The Father-in-Law and Teacher of Moses
8. Rachav
The Prostitute Who Was the First Gentile Zionist
9. Yael
The Gentile Warrior Who Fought for the Israelites
10. Hiram
The Gentile Contractor for Solomon s Temple
11. Naaman
The Syrian General Who Acknowledged God
12. The Sailors and the Ninevites
Gentiles Who Acknowledged God; Gentiles Who Repented
13. Ruth
The Classic Convert to Judaism
14. Cyrus, King of Persia
The Creator of the Second Jewish Commonwealth
15. Dama ben Netinah
A Postbiblical Righteous Gentile and Exemplar of Honoring Parents
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments

About Jewish Lights
Copyright
Foreword
P ity the children pounded daily by the relentless stream of stories reported in the media-the reports of greed, exploitation, violence, and the racial, ethnic, and religious xenophobia that tear us apart.
The flickering shadows of television and movies cast a pall of anxiety over our youth. They have been counseled to suspect the neighbor and to be wary of the stranger; every stranger is a potential enemy. But children need heart. They need strength to resist the pessimism and cynicism that depresses the human spirit-not a Pollyanna fixed smile, but what psychoanalyst Erik Erikson called a positive ratio of trust versus mistrust. 1 Trust is indispensible for their vitality and their hope for a better future.
Where in this dark century, blotted by politicides and genocides, can one find trust in the other? Jeffrey Salkin focuses his searching intelligence upon righteous gentiles in the Bible who risked life, limb, and reputation to protect and save people of another faith and fate from the clutches of predators. Our children need authentic, moral heroes-not celebrities of fame, fortune, and power, but men and women who lived out the potentiality of goodness.
Through the study of these persons and in the recognition of their altruism, child and parent are helped to overcome their sense of abandonment and isolation. Through these biblical heroes of all faiths they are helped to ground their own moral identity. Old and young are sustained in bitter times by the knowledge that there is decency in the world and that they are not alone.
Out of the evidence of righteous acts by non-Jewish biblical heroes we learn of the need for heroes from the other side. Gentiles need Jews as heroes, and Jews need gentiles as heroes; African Americans need white heroes, and white heroes need African American heroes; Palestinians need Israeli heroes, and Israelis need Palestinian heroes. We are instructed to love the stranger and to celebrate the love the stranger shows us.
Salkin s book speaks of morale and morality in a way that deepens the significance of the stranger in our midst. The nineteenth-century Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen observed that in the stranger man discovers the idea of humanity. 2 The rabbinic Sages in the Talmud 3 noted that one verse in the Bible is reiterated no less than thirty-six times: To love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 4 The recognition of the goodness of strangers so regretfully ignored, unsung, unpreached, untaught, must be placed high on the agenda of secular and religious institutes of learning and of those preaching from the pulpits of churches, mosques, and synagogues.
The biblical text in which communities of faith must read comes from the gentile man of righteousness, Job. Job represents the transcendent universality of authentic relationship with the other:
For I saved a poor man who cried out, the orphan who had none to help him. I received the blessing of the lost; I gladdened the heart of the widow. I clothed myself in righteousness and it robed me; justice was my cloak and turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was father to the needy and I looked into the face of the stranger. I broke the jaws of the wrongdoer and I wrested prey from his teeth.
-Job 29:12-17
The narratives of gentile moral heroes lovingly portrayed in this book leave us with a double mandate: remember the evil, and do not forget the good. In memory, the blessing and the curse are interwoven. Choose the blessing that the curse does not overwhelm us.
R ABBI H AROLD M. S CHULWEIS
Preface
L ike many other Southerners, I have long known that the notion of righteous gentiles had a special pertinence for me and mine. In the nineteenth-century South, and especially in border states like my native Tennessee after the War Between the States, it was not uncommon for land-rich but cash-poor gentiles to marry wealthy, but largely mercantile and un-landed Jews, for obvious reasons. One would hope, of course, that some natural affection was also involved