Lebanon Following Halacha?

While reading some old Human Rights Watch reports (I clearly have too much time), I noticed the following description of Lebanese (and Palestinian) rape laws:

Forced sex, on the other hand, is inadequately defined in Lebanese law. The definition of rape explicitly excludes forced sex in marriage, and the rape of a virgin by means of deception is potentially subject only to a fine (article 518).  If a rapist marries his victim following the crime, the law exonerates him (article 522). Similar legal provisions pardoning an alleged rapist if he marries his victim exist in countries like Bahrain, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The majority of countries in the region also do not criminalize marital rape.

In the Torah we find that  a man who seduces an unmarried girl, is forced to marry her. Clearly there is a difference between seducing a girl and raping her, and yet I'm sure that the same logic lies behind both rules. The traditional explanation for the rule in the Torah - is that "In those days" once a girl was seduced, no one would want to marry her - and hence the man who seduced her must be made to pay for the her new status - and marry her. I'm sure the same logic applies in Lebanon. While the Rabbinic Halacha long ago made this injunction irrelevant, it appears that some in the Middle East continue to mirror its logic.

New Explanation for the Jewish Burqa

Ynet was allowed to interview a Burqa cult member. Well almost. They were allowed to write the questions on a piece of paper, then leave the room, and have her husband read her the questions.

I was most amused by the rabbi interviewed at the end of the video. His explanation was that the burqa was a time saver - the woman could wear whatever she wanted, put on her makeup, and not have to worry about modesty - she can just cover up! Then when she goes back home, she just takes off her burqa and...she's all ready again!


Note -if the video doesn't work try watching it here.

Best Handyman Ad Ever?

The Ad reads:

Lady Your Husband is a Tzadik!

He earns a living/ Prays in a shul/ Sets times for Torah Study/ May he be blessed!

Because of all of this…He didn't have time to fix the..

Door of the cupboard/ The net on the window/ The dripping tap/Tthe broken window pane/The lock that doesn't close/Tto hang the picture/Fix the floor etc..

All the work will be done at reasonable prices by a god fearing jew - Motti - 050-5324054

The only curious thing about this ad, is that I'm not sure that in the Haredi public a man should be addressing women..

Hat Tip: Oneg Shabbat

Mysterious Engravings In The City of David

According to Ha'aretz:

Mysterious stone carvings made thousands of years ago and recently uncovered in an excavation underneath Jerusalem have archaeologists stumped.
Israeli diggers who uncovered a complex of rooms carved into the bedrock in the oldest section of the city recently found the markings: Three "V'' shapes cut next to each other into the limestone floor of one of the rooms, about 2 inches (5 centimeters) deep and 50 centimeters long. There were no finds to offer any clues pointing to the identity of who made them or what purpose they served.

Weirdly enough these look somewhat like the "Stargate" symbols. I'm sure all the conspiracy nutcases are going to have a field day with this one.

Does an Eye for an Eye Ever Actually Occur In The Bible?

Jonathan Romain argues in the Guardian:

Perhaps – in keeping with the Trade Descriptions Act – the good book should be renamed The Complicated Bible, a reminder that we have the task of sifting between the acceptable and unacceptable parts, and, just as importantly, not to be worried by such an admission. As the 10th-century Jewish scholar Saadiah Gaon put it: "The main causes of irreligion are the weak and ridiculous arguments advanced in defence of faith."

His example of how Judaism chooses its parts - the interpretation of an eye for an eye. However this led me to thinking an interesting thought..is an eye for an eye ever invoked in the bible? Can you think of even one case in the bible where the hero justifies his actions by stating his acts were an "eye for an eye"?

The Perfect and the Good

Opinio Juris has a great post about a failed attempt to promote an international treaty regarding  the use and manufacture of cluster bombs, which is a telling moral story. The new treaty would have been less restrictive than a former 2008 "Oslo treaty". However, very few nations that actually use or manufacture cluster bombs had ever actually signed the Oslo treaty, and hence this new treaty would have been a large improvement on the status quo. The Signatories to the Oslo treaty  refused to "lower the bar", and insisted that all nations should sign the older, stricter, Oslo treaty. The end result was that the newer treaty has collapsed. Opinio Juris sums up:

So we are left with an extremely restrictive cluster bomb treaty that doesn’t reach 85 percent of the world’s cluster bombs, and we reject a less restrictive treaty that would have a wider much more effective reach.  I get the idea that international law has an important expressive value, but surely practical reach has got to considered at some point.

In other words - the international community has rejected a treaty that would have significant gains, because it wasn't perfect, thereby leaving the world with no gain whatsoever.

It is not hard to relate this to our religious experience. Too often I've seen religious people insist on a standard that is impractical for everyone to follow, only to be left with nothing at all.

A Cow and A Sheep

Most Hebrew speakers if asked, would tell you that Rachel is a baby Sheep (lamb). However what does Leah actually mean? Some sources explain that Leah actually means a cow - either from Arabic or from the ancient Akkadian.

So basically the two daughters of Lavan were named a Cow and and a Lamb..very fitting for a Shepard. Weirdly not one of the tribes has a name that is connected to the family profession.

Note: I remember that Da'at Mikrah has a similar explanation, but not owning a copy, I couldn't check my memory. Kasuto explains that Le'ah is named after a word for a deer..

Eating a Mummy?

I was reading through the excellent new Hebrew Blog "Jews on the Moon" where he refernced an answer by the Radbaz allowing the eating of ancient Mummy meat. (שו"ת, ח"ג סימן תקמ"ח). Apparently it used to be quite common to seek out dried ancient mummies as medicine - and the Radbaz allows it based on the idea that it is a medicine and not being ate out of a love for the smoky flavor.

Searching online, I found referenced another historic account of this mummy eating in Judaism, at an 1868 book called שערי ירושלים - 

הספרדים עושים עוד היום רפואת (מומיא)

הנעשה משחיקת עצמות יבשים של מתים אשר ימצאו במדבר בין החול. כי בדרך ההולך

למעקא יש מדבר גדול ויש מקום מלא הול ונקרא ים החול וכשבא ח ה סערה מגביה

את החול למעלה מעשרי׳ אמה ומכסה כל אשר יעבור דרך שם אף רחוק מי ל . והולכי׳

לשם אנשי׳ וע״י חיפוש רב ימצאו שמה חתיכות בצורת אדם שחורי׳ יבשי׳ כאבן כי גדול

שבאנשי׳ המונח •תחת החול נהיבש ונעשה כאצבע ומוכרי׳ אוהו לאשטייק. והספרדי׳ כשיש

להם איזה חולה ימים רבי׳ ר״ל. ליקחי׳ וטוחנים אותו היטב הדק וטשטם משקל קצוב

אל מי דבש וישתה החולה מידי פ עם בפע׳ בשלש לילות. לשני שתזתו ירחצו אותו ויעטוהו

בשמלה לבנה וישכבוהו במטה על מצע לבן. הנשי׳ אשר המה בנדת דומן לא יכנסו

להבית. !כל עת האריך המדיה למעניתו. הן יזיק לחולה ולנפשן. החולה ישכב בדד וגם

לא ימצא בבית שום נשש תי או תרנגולי׳ וישמרוהו מריה השום והבצל • מאכל המולה

בכל תשעת הימים רק מלב ממאה ולהם :

Translation:

The Sefradim to this day make a medicine out of Mummies, that is made out of grounding dried bones that are found in the desert in the sand. On the way to Mecca there is a vast desert known as the the Sea of Sand and when a storm comes it raises the sand more than 20 Ammot, and it covers all that pass there, to an area as wide as a mile. People go there, and after vigarous search they find black pieces in the shape of men, dry as a rock. The greatest of men placed under the sand dries up and becomes like a finger, and they sell this to ???. And the Sefradim when they have a sick man (god forbid) take from this a set amount and add it to honey and water and give the sick man to drink from time to time for three days....

Yuck, though I strongly suspect that many of these mummies were just fakes, and that this is somewhat of an 18th century urban legend. I look forward to a fuller telling at "On the Main Line", as this would seem to be his type of story.

For people searching for more Mummies in medicine -

http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/T8CJ01IFD8BPCRT62

Goldberg on the Israeli Media Campaign

Goldberg has just noticed the Israeli campaign to encourage Israelis abroad to return to Israel (I wrote about it weeks ago):

"I don't think I have ever seen a demonstration of Israeli contempt for American Jews as obvious as these ads. I understand the impulse behind them: Israel wants as many of its citizens as possible to live in Israel. This is not an abnormal desire. But the way it is expressed, in wholly negative terms, is somewhat appalling. How about, "Hey, come back to Israel, because our unemployment rate is half that of the U.S.'s"? Or, "It's always sunny in Israel"? Or, "Hey, Shmulik, your mother misses you"? 
These government-sponsored ads suggest that it is impossible for Jews to remain Jewish in America. How else are we supposed to understand the "Christmas" ad? Obviously, assimilation and intermarriage are issues in America in ways they aren't in Israel. Israel has other problems of course, such as the fact that many of its rabbis act like Iranian mullahs. (I'm not even going to try to unpack my complicated beliefs about intermarriage and assimilation and life in the Diaspora here; that's for a book. But let me just say that intermarriage can also be understood as an opportunity.)
The idea, communicated in these ads, that America is no place for a proper Jew, and that a Jew who is concerned about the Jewish future should live in Israel, is archaic, and also chutzpadik (if you don't mind me resorting to the vernacular). The message is: Dear American Jews, thank you for lobbying for American defense aid (and what a great show you put on at the AIPAC convention every year!) but, please, stay away from our sons and daughters.

The one point that I think is arguable, is that the ad isn't against Israelis married to American Jews, but rather married to non Jews. I am not sure why this story has suddenly woken up now. Perhaps they have only just started running the ads in the USA?

Andrew Sullivan has taken it one step further, with a post "Netanyahu's War On Christmas" - explaining that this is a sign of how paranoid Israel has become. This is clearly going a step too far - it is not paranoia. The ad is not really attacking American Jews, so much as showing the Israeli misunderstanding of the diaspora communities.

Related articles

• Netanyahu's War On Christmas (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• See a collection of Parodies here.