From the Hebrew Press
Israel's Discriminatory Practices Are Rooted in Jewish Religious Law
By Dr. Israel Shahak
(This is an abridged translation of an article by the author published in the Israeli newspaper Davar on March 15, 1995.)
The rabbis of Safad, joined by the Chief Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, recently issued a judgment prohibiting Jews living in the Land of Israel to lease or sell any real estate property to non-Jews. These rabbis are on the State of Israel's payroll. Yet all too clearly, their judgment contravenes Israeli state laws proscribing public expressions of racism and utterances hurtful to human dignity.
Nonetheless, the rabbis of Safad did not invent this prohibition. The racist ruling is part and parcel of Jewish religious law (halacha). Furthermore, all the rulings of Jewish religious law concerning non-Jews, and incidentally, also Jewish women and some other Jewish sectors, are racist and discriminatory. Yet for years such rulings have been routinely invoked by rabbinical courts which are a recognized part of the State of Israel's judiciary.
Two examples show what the application of such laws may involve. According to Jewish religious law, both non-Jews and Jewish women cannot validly testify in rabbinical courts. True, Jewish women are permitted to testify in a few strictly limited matters considered "female affairs." If a case involves "a major judicial effort," however, a Jewish woman's testimony is perforce invalid, because "all women are lazy by nature." But even in cases not involving a "major judicial effort" when Jewish women can testify, a problem appears when the testimony of a Jewish woman is contradicted by the testimony of a Jewish man. Jewish religious law solves this problem by the formula that "a testimony of 100 Jewish women is equivalent to a testimony of a single Jewish man."
The second example concerns the definition of the term "harlot" in Jewish religious law. "We have learned by tradition that the term 'harlot' as designated in the Torah means any woman who is not a daughter of Israel (i.e., not born Jewish), or a daughter of Israel who has had intercourse with a man she is forbidden to marry" (Maimonides, The Book of Holiness, Forbidden Intercourse, Chapter XVIII, Law 1, translated in Yale University Judaica series). According to this racist definition, all women who happen to have been born non-Jewish are automatically considered to be "harlots." On the basis of this definition every female converted to Judaism is still considered by Jewish religious law to be a "harlot"—and as such forbidden to marry a Jewish "priest" (i.e., a supposed descendant from the Biblical "Aaron the priest").4 It is easy to imagine what the Jews would have said if any religion or movement branded all Jewish women as "harlots" and maintained that they remain "harlots" forever only because they were born Jewish.
Source to Article
Israel's Discriminatory Practices Are Rooted in Jewish Religious Law
By Dr. Israel Shahak
(This is an abridged translation of an article by the author published in the Israeli newspaper Davar on March 15, 1995.)
The rabbis of Safad, joined by the Chief Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, recently issued a judgment prohibiting Jews living in the Land of Israel to lease or sell any real estate property to non-Jews. These rabbis are on the State of Israel's payroll. Yet all too clearly, their judgment contravenes Israeli state laws proscribing public expressions of racism and utterances hurtful to human dignity.
Nonetheless, the rabbis of Safad did not invent this prohibition. The racist ruling is part and parcel of Jewish religious law (halacha). Furthermore, all the rulings of Jewish religious law concerning non-Jews, and incidentally, also Jewish women and some other Jewish sectors, are racist and discriminatory. Yet for years such rulings have been routinely invoked by rabbinical courts which are a recognized part of the State of Israel's judiciary.
Two examples show what the application of such laws may involve. According to Jewish religious law, both non-Jews and Jewish women cannot validly testify in rabbinical courts. True, Jewish women are permitted to testify in a few strictly limited matters considered "female affairs." If a case involves "a major judicial effort," however, a Jewish woman's testimony is perforce invalid, because "all women are lazy by nature." But even in cases not involving a "major judicial effort" when Jewish women can testify, a problem appears when the testimony of a Jewish woman is contradicted by the testimony of a Jewish man. Jewish religious law solves this problem by the formula that "a testimony of 100 Jewish women is equivalent to a testimony of a single Jewish man."
The second example concerns the definition of the term "harlot" in Jewish religious law. "We have learned by tradition that the term 'harlot' as designated in the Torah means any woman who is not a daughter of Israel (i.e., not born Jewish), or a daughter of Israel who has had intercourse with a man she is forbidden to marry" (Maimonides, The Book of Holiness, Forbidden Intercourse, Chapter XVIII, Law 1, translated in Yale University Judaica series). According to this racist definition, all women who happen to have been born non-Jewish are automatically considered to be "harlots." On the basis of this definition every female converted to Judaism is still considered by Jewish religious law to be a "harlot"—and as such forbidden to marry a Jewish "priest" (i.e., a supposed descendant from the Biblical "Aaron the priest").4 It is easy to imagine what the Jews would have said if any religion or movement branded all Jewish women as "harlots" and maintained that they remain "harlots" forever only because they were born Jewish.
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