{"id":53400,"date":"2019-04-08T17:06:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T14:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=53400"},"modified":"2022-10-31T08:33:30","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T06:33:30","slug":"israelite-leader-marries-canaanite-whore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/israelite-leader-marries-canaanite-whore\/","title":{"rendered":"Israelite Leader Marries Canaanite Whore"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[712,711,577],"acf":{"old_id":"53400","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33992,"related_cahpter":"193","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A radical welcome and anti-racist message that echoes through the ages","content":"

\u00a0<\/span>Everyone knows the story of the fall of Jericho. Children\u2019s Bibles contain charming pictures of the priests and ancient Israelites circling the city, blowing horns and shofars, preparing for the grand drama at the end of the seven day cycle: the walls come tumbling down. Of course, those charming portraits don\u2019t also show the massacred men, women, and children, the slaughtered livestock, or the destroyed buildings. Jericho\u2019s legendary destruction gets scrubbed til it\u2019s squeaky clean.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there is no escaping the uneasy feeling that this conquest, like all conquests, is bloody, producing victims, death, and devastation. In such a gruesome tale, we seek sparks of light, openings of love and transformation that can at least pierce the violence and horror, offering us a way forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

One such tale emerges in the subsequent understanding of the harlot, Rahab. She was the one who sided with the Israelite spies against the corruption and cruelty of the Jericho elites. Offering the Israelites shelter and then distraction when they fled away, Rahab is rewarded with the gift of survival, for her and her family.<\/span><\/p>\n

But apparently that kind of minimalist quid pro quo isn\u2019t enough for Judaism\u2019s ancient rabbis. They read into the Hebrew words, \u201cJoshua allowed her to live, <\/span>hech\u2019yeh Yehoshua<\/span><\/em> \u00a0<\/em>(Joshua 6:25)\u201d that he caused her to truly live: not only did he allow her to survive biologically, but he did what it took to let her thrive spiritually. Her accepted her as a convert to Judaism, and then he married her (Megillah 14b)!<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine the impact of the great conqueror of Canaan, the mighty warrior who supervised the slaughter of Canaanite overlords and tyrants, who reaches out to convert and marry one of the lowly Canaanite whores. Isn\u2019t that a powerful stand against a racist condemnation of Canaanites as a group? It may be that the dominant values of Canaanite culture are to be rejected, but the people themselves, well, they are just like us, capable of transformation and embrace.<\/span><\/p>\n

By converting and marrying Rahab, Joshua shows that Judaism at its best isn\u2019t about blood, tribal chauvinism, or racial bigotry. Standing for the illuminating values of Torah, best exemplified in the liberation of former slaves and a commitment to equal law for the citizen and the resident alien alike, Joshua knows that showing is better than preaching. So he elevates one of the most marginal and disdained members of Canaanite culture; he welcomes her into our people, his family, and his marital bed.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is radical welcome, don\u2019t you think?<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: <\/span>Joshua spares Rahab. 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