Torah Study Blog

Before we can jump into Rabbi Jaech’s Torah Study session for today, let’s review what we know about Joseph. The story of Joseph can be found in the book of Genesis and, at thirteen chapters long, is the most coherent narrative in the Torah.

Joseph was the first-born to Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, and Jacob favored Joseph over his brothers. In addition to having the status of “pet” child, Joseph had an ability to interpret dreams. The story goes that Joseph’s brothers become jealous of Joseph’s elevated status with their father and plot to kill him. Before they can inflict any physical harm, the brothers see a caravan traveling toward Egypt and decide that, instead of killing Joseph, it would be better to sell him into slavery. After a series of adventures, Joseph finds himself in the court of Pharaoh where Joseph uses his ability to interpret dreams to save the Egyptians from starvation, enabling Joseph to rise to a position of prominence.

According to Genesis 41, Pharaoh gave Joseph a wife whose name was Asenath. Asenath’s father was a priest at the great cultic center of the Sun- god, Ra. And her very name, Asenath, means that she belongs to the goddess, Neith, who was the goddess of wisdom and childbearing, among other things.

Joseph was not the only important biblical figure who married the daughter of a priest from another religion. According to Exodus 2, Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of a Midianite priest. There is a story in Exodus 4 when the actions of Zipporah indicate that she may have adopted the customs of the Israelites, as if we could consider her a convert to the religion.

There is no such information about Asenath which gives, those who would like, plenty of room to create possible narratives about her. In two weeks’ time, just after the New Year, Rabbi Jaech will present to us one such narrative.

For this week, Rabbi Jaech led our Torah Study group in a discussion about interfaith marriage.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC), the seminary which ordained Rabbi Jaech, has a policy that applicants who are “married, engaged, or partnered to a non-Jew will not be ordained as a rabbi or invested as a cantor. Moreover, an individual in such a relationship will not be accepted as a student in the rabbinical or cantorial program.” When this policy was questioned, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) responded that, “a Jewish religious profession, who very life is dedicated to setting an example of Jewish commitment to which our people should aspire, cannot serve as a ‘positive Judaic role model’ if he or she is married to a non-Jew.” With this statement, the CCAR made clear that it condones the policy of HUC.

Rabbi Jaech pointed out to us that about a third of our congregants at Temple Israel of Northern Westchester are in interfaith marriages. We welcome non-Jewish members, and they are treated as equal partners in our community. The men in our biblical traditions frequently marry non- Jewish women. It is because of this fact that, although traditional Judaism requires that the biological mother of a person be Jewish in order for that person to be considered Jewish, the Reform Jewish tradition does not. Reform Judaism accepts as Jewish the children of any union where at least one of the parents is Jewish. Also, the Reform Jewish tradition requires that the child has been raised with at least some embracing of Jewish tradition.

Rabbi Jaech shared with us a story about her own family: Her son was raised in the Jewish religion, attending religious school and making his bar mitzvah. When he was older, he brought a friend to their home, and that friend participated in some of the Jewish rituals that Rabbi Jaech habitually did in her home. The friend was born to a Jewish mother, but the family did not observe Jewish traditions, and the friend was unfamiliar with any of these customs. Even so, traditional Judaism would recognize the friend as being Jewish. However, because Rabbi Jaech (who was not yet a rabbi) had not yet converted to Judaism, traditional Judaism would not accept her son as Jewish.

Rabbi Jaech pointed out to us that HUC would not kick anyone out of the rabbinate if they became ordained, and then married a non-Jew. Additionally, no one at HUC goes to the homes of the enrolled students to make sure they are keeping a kosher home or maintaining the Sabbath. The Reconstructionist movement has changed their own policy, and they will ordain people in interfaith marriages. None of our Torah Study members was adamant that they believed in the HUC policy. I, your Torah Study blogger, believes that many of us questioned the wisdom of maintaining such a policy today, and I wonder how long this policy at HUC will remain in effect.

Happy New Year to All! We will be back in two weeks with a further look at the story of Joseph and Asenath.

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misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter