"Instead of stinging nettle, myrtle will rise" (Isaiah 55:13)
 "Instead of evil, good will rise." (The Malbim's Interpretation)
Myrtle Rising
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Comments Policy
  • Aliyah
    • Mini-Intro
    • General Cultural Insights
    • School Tips
  • Kli Yakar Index
  • Privacy Policy

Fascinating Anthropology & Why Hashem Chose the Jews: Rav Avigdor Miller on Parshat V'Zoht Habracha

17/10/2019

2 Comments

 
Note: We don't read V'Zoht Habracha this Shabbat; there's a special Shabbat-Sukkot reading for this Shabbat. V'Zoht Habracha is read on Simchat Torah.

Rav Avigdor Miller's dvar Torah Parshat V'Zoht Habracha: And He Came Shining is really, really fascinating.

He delves into the meaning behind the famous story of Hashem going to the other nations and offering the Torah.

It's not literal, of course. And Rav Miller explains what was really going on.

He also explains the Gemara referring to the nations' protestations at the End of Days, when the nations will complain, "Oh, but You didn't FORCE us to keep Torah like you did with Am Yisrael! So how can you blame us?" And what all that means and how Hashem responds.

Rav Miller goes through different cultures throughout history, which I love reading.

In my youth, I was even intrigued by the differences between Americans & Canadians.

I studied anthropology (the study of cultures) in college and still maintain a fascination for other cultures, which is yet another reason why I love living in Eretz Yisrael. It's a different culture that I get to "study." And there are so many different cultures of Jews here! I'm even married to a different kind of Jew! (My husband is Moroccan-Israeli while I'm Ashkenazi-American.) 

Just in our apartment building, we've got 4 different kinds of Chassidus, 2 different kinds of Litvish, 3 different kinds of Sephardi, plus different nationalities — ​this is tremendous fun for someone with an anthropological bent.

But to get back to the point...

A Detour into the Fascinating Topic of Anthropology

One of the things I learned in anthropology was something that anthropologists don't really want you to learn.

​And that's that some cultures' values are wonky, or even extremely repellent & immoral.

The anthropologists who settle down to live among the objects of their study tend to romanticize their subjects. They end up viewing them with more amusement or positivity than the culture actually deserves.

My professor himself went to live among the natives of Alaska and developed a great fondness for them. I must admit that seeing how real multigenerational-family igloos operate was pretty cool. And it was funny hearing his stories of his own adjustment to living with them.

But some of the books we had to read, books that were the culmination of years of intimate observation & involvement in tribes of the Amazon jungle or the African plains, held some very disturbing information.

In short, some cultures hold very different values, including some very ugly ones.

In another phase, I started reading what's known as "captivity narratives," which are about white people captured by various Native American tribes.

Initially, I'd read a book about colonial American women written by a white liberal female professor (of course!) and she whitewashed the real behavior of Native American abductors by plucking out the more civilized anecdotes for her book.

I had no idea that her compassionate and fastidious Native captors were actually the exception and not the rule. 

The red-haired Mary Jemison is the most famous of the Native Americans' white captives. Her real story, as chronicled in the 19th century (found online), shows extreme savagery as part of her adopted tribe's tradition. Yes, she chose to stay with the Senecas and liked them, but she also needed to lower her standards to accept the extreme brutality and atrocity admired in her adopted tribe — including that of her second husband. (Although she stressed that he never treated her personally with any such cruelty.)

She was even kind of proud of her second husband's heartlessness because she adopted the Seneca attitude that unmerciful cruelty toward the most helpless and innocent is somehow manly and heroic.

Another narrative involved the capture of a pregnant white pioneer. She suffered terribly and eventually returned to her people, traumatized for life.

I found myself skipping entire sections of the narratives due to the extreme brutality of the tribes, making the sections too disturbing to read.

(Without going into detail, their treatment of captives, including children & babies, sometimes did not differ much from the way the Nazis treated the Jews.)

And lest you think that the tribes only behaved that way because of those who think that the white people started it first, please know that these horrific "traditions" preceded the white arrival. Meaning that previously, the Native Americans carried out these horrific rituals on captives from other tribes.

In other words, their treatment of white captives was simply a continuation of their traditional treatment of captives and not something learned from or incited by white mistreatment of Native Americans.

The point is that in society at large, there is a massive romanticization & justification of different cultures, both present-day and in our past.

But Hashem sees the truth.

And He chose us.

How Can We Fight Darkness Today? There's So Much of It!

We Jews, including we religious Jews, have problems today.

Okay, we were never perfect.

(Had we been, Mashiach would've come long before.)

But we simply aren't as bad, generally speaking, as the surrounding nations.

Rav Miller goes into this at length, and he is sometimes very sharp about it (which I greatly enjoy) in this dvar Torah.

For example, in addition to his knowledge of history, Rav Miller himself lived in Lithuania (while attending the Slabodka yeshivah) and describes Lithuanian culture of that time.

Who knew that a young Rav Miller was ready to rumble with a drunken Lithuanian who called him a dirty Jew? Fortunately, Rav Miller's yeshivah friends saved him. Rav Miller the American Yeshivah Bachur didn't know that Lithuanians always kept a knife in their boot.

Even now, most of our dysfunction infiltrated from the influence of our surrounding environment; it's not innate to us.

In fact, most of the Jews who get so outraged by Jewish dysfunction (REAL dysfunction, I mean, and not political incorrectness) are outraged BECAUSE they're Jewish. Meaning, because their Jewish hearts cannot stand injustice. (There's also often a bit of hypocrisy and projection mixed in there too; nonetheless, there's no denying that we are the original Nation of: "Tzedek, tzedek tirdof — Justice, justice, thou shalt pursue.")

And there is still a lot of good to say about us, despite all the dysfunction & the problems.

You can't fight darkness with more darkness.
​
To fight darkness, you need light.


Rav Miller ends with the reassurance that if we take a baby-step toward Hashem by making an opening as minuscule as the eye of a needle, He'll expand it for us like a grand entrance and shine His Light on us. 
Picture
2 Comments
Leah
18/10/2019 15:49:10

Shana Tova Myrtle!!! Chag Sameach! Beautiful article. I always wonder about the Hashem "going around" to the other nations and bam! Here yuo go giving us gemshaht Torah with Rav Avigdor Miller, zt'zl.
Awesome Torah and awesome perspetive. It was their depravity and cruelty that disqualified them to receive the Torah. It was their very own base nature that spoke for itself. Wow! I had no clue.
This clues me in to why I could not find a source for which nations answered what and how they answered.
I am 18 pages into the 32. Fascinating and in the usual Rav Miller style: a hint of enhancement on his incredulity of the audacity of the other nations vile behavior mixed with his brilliance and polished style.
Enjoy the remainder of the beautiful holy chagim and glean their special infusion of kedushah!!!
Leah

Reply
Myrtle Rising
18/10/2019 17:27:52

A gutten moed, Leah.

Rav Miller's insights into that event were also a big chiddush to me, for which I'm also grateful.

Totally agree with your perceptions of his dvar Torah and thank you so much for your beautiful wishes -- wishing you the same!

Thank you.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Help a frum family get their children back!:
    http://www.myrtlerising.com/blog/please-help-frum-family-under-attack-from-esav

    Picture
    Please note this is an affiliate link. Meaning, I get a small cut but at NO extra cost to you. If you use it, I'm grateful. If not, you still get a giant mitzvah connected to Eretz Yisrael.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Myrtle Rising

    I'm a middle-aged housewife and mother in Eretz Yisrael who likes to read and write a lot.


    Picture
    Sample Chapters

    Categories

    All
    Aliyah
    Anti Jewish Bigotry
    Astronomy
    Book Review
    Books
    Chagim/Holidays
    Chinuch
    Coronavirus
    Dictionaries
    Emuna
    Eretz Yisrael
    Erev Rav
    Gender
    Hitbodedut
    "If The Torah..."
    Jewish Astrology
    Kav Hayashar
    Kli Yakar
    Lashon Hara
    Love
    Minchat Yehudah
    Mishlei/Proverbs
    Netivot Shalom
    Parenting
    Parsha
    Pele Yoetz
    Perek Shira
    Pesach
    Politics
    Prayer
    Purim
    Rav Avigdor Miller
    Rav Itamar Schwartz
    Rav L.Y. Bender
    Recipes
    "Regular" Jews
    Rosh Hashanah
    Society
    Sukkot
    Tammuz
    Technology
    Tehillim/Psalms
    Teshuvah
    The Lost Princess
    Tisha B'Av
    USA Scary Direction
    Women
    Yom Kippur

    Jewish Blogs

    Daf Yomi Review
    Derech Emet
    Going...Habayitah
    Halacha Q&A
    Hava haAharona
    Lazer Beams

    Miriam Adahan
    My Perspective

    Shirat Devorah
    Shuvu Banim
    Spiritual Coaching
    Tomer Devorah
    Toras Avigdor
    True Tzaddikim
    Tznius Blog

    Yeranen Yaakov
    Rabbi Ofer Erez (English)
    Rabbi Ofer Erez (Hebrew lectures)

    Jewish Current Events

    Hamodia
    Lemon Lime Moon
    Shuvu Banim
    Sultan Knish
    Tomer Devorah
    Yeranen Yaakov

    Jewish Health

    People Smarts
    Heliotrope Holistic Health Services

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    RSS Feed

    Copyright Notice

    ©2015-2021 Myrtle Rising
    Excerpts and links may be used without express permission as long as a link is provided back to the appropriate Myrtle Rising page.

Home/Blog

Contact

Comment Policy

Aliyah

Kli Yakar in English

Copyright © 2020
Photos used under Creative Commons from Brett Jordan, BAMCorp, Terrazzo, Abode of Chaos, Michele Dorsey Walfred, marklordphotography, M.Burak Erbaş, torbakhopper, jhritz, Rina Pitucci (Tilling 67), Svadilfari, kum111, Tim simpson1, FindYourSearch, Giorgio Galeotti, ChrisYunker, Jaykhuang, YourCastlesDecor, bluebirdsandteapots, Natalia Medd, Stefans02, ElleFlorio, Israel_photo_gallery, Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet, BradPerkins, zeevveez, dfarrell07, h.koppdelaney, Edgardo W. Olivera, nafrenkel88, zeevveez, mtchlra, Liz | populational, TraumaAndDissociation, thinboyfatter, garofalo.christina, skpy, Free Grunge Textures - www.freestock.ca, Nerru, Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith, trendingtopics, dolbinator1000, DonkeyHotey, zeevveez, erix!, zeevveez, h.koppdelaney, MAURO CATEB, kevin dooley, keepitsurreal, annikaleigh, bjornmeansbear, publicdomainphotography, Leonard J Matthews, Exile on Ontario St, Nicholas_T, marcoverch, planman, PhilWolff, j_lai, t.kunikuni, zeevveez, Ian W Scott, Brett Jordan, RonAlmog, Bob Linsdell, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, aaron_anderer, ** RCB **, Tony Webster, mypubliclands, r0sita, AntonStetner, Zachi Evenor, MrJamesBaker, sammydavisdog, Frode Ramone, Wonder woman0731, wrachele, kennethkonica, Skall_Edit, Pleuntje, Rennett Stowe, *S A N D E E P*, symphony of love, AlexanderJonesi, Arya Ziai, ePublicist, Enokson, Tony Webster, Art4TheGlryOfGod, seaternity, Andrew Tarvin, zeevveez, Israel_photo_gallery, Iqbal Osman1, Matt From London, Tribes of the World, Eric Kilby, miracle design, RonAlmog, slgckgc, Kim Scarborough, DonkeyHotey, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, h.koppdelaney, gleonhard, Pedro Travassos, nociveglia, RonAlmog, Israel_photo_gallery, Septemia, Paulann_Egelhoff, Tatiana12, MAD Hippies Life, Neta Bartal, milesgehm, shooting brooklyn, RonAlmog, smilygrl, gospelportals, leighblackall, symensphotographie, zeevveez, Kyknoord, wotashot (taking a break), Tambako the Jaguar, bitmask, Arnie Sacknooson, mattymatt, Rob Swystun, zeevveez, Dun.can, Tim Patterson, timeflicks, garlandcannon, HRYMX, fred_v, Yair Aronshtam, random exposure, zeevveez, Ron Cogswell, FindYourSearch, Israel_photo_gallery, Serendipity Diamonds, zeevveez, Steve Corey, Dominic's pics, leighklotz, Stefans02, dannyman, RonAlmog, Stephen O, RonAlmog, Tips For Travellers, Futurilla, anomalous4, Bob Linsdell, AndyMcLemore, symphony of love, miketnorton, andydr, BLM Nevada, sara~, Gamma Man, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, robef, European Southern Observatory, Brett Jordan, Johnny Silvercloud, Israel_photo_gallery, smkybear, --Sam--, Paulann_Egelhoff, Selena Sheridan, D'oh Boy, campbelj45ca, 19melissa68, entirelysubjective, Leimenide, dheera.net, Brett Jordan, HonestReporting.com, Iqbal Osman1, One Way Stock, Jake Waage, picto:graphic, Marcelo Alves, KAZVorpal, Sparkle Motion, Brett Jordan, Ambernectar 13, Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis, Steven DuBois, Cristian V., tortuga767, Jake Cvnningham, D'oh Boy, Eric Kilby, quinn.anya, Lenny K Photography, One Way Stock, Bird Eye, ell brown, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, Kevin M. Gill, lunar caustic, gerrybuckel, quinn.anya, Kaz Andrew, kodomut, kayugee, jintae kim's photography, Futurilla, terri_bateman, Patty Mooney, Amydeanne, Paulann_Egelhoff, Mulling it Over, Ungry Young Man, Ruth and Dave, yangouyang374, symphony of love, kennethkonica, young@art, Brett Jordan, slgckgc, Celestine Chua, rkimpeljr, Kristoffer Trolle, TooFarNorth, D'oh Boy, Grace to You, LittleStuff.me, Dikshant Shahi, Kevin M. Gill, philozopher, traveltipy.com, Alan Cleaver, crazyoctopus, d_vdm, tonynetone, penjelly, TheToch, JohnE777, hello-julie, DaveBleasdale, Michael Candelori Photography, andessurvivor, slgckgc, byzantiumbooks, sasha diamanti