Torah thought: Ki Teitzei
Sep. 4th, 2017 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThe part that caught my attention during the kriah* this Shabbat (parshat Ki Teitzei) was about yibum (aka levirate marriage) (Devarim/Deuteronomy 25:5-25:10). These days, it's definitely possible for there not to be a relevant brother, which would mean the situation would be irrelevant. And now that I reread the verses, technically it only applies if the brothers live together (though that part seems not to be much paid attention to, I guess 'just to be on the safe side').
Anyway. The real part that hit me is that it's about making sure there's a child so the dead husband's name is not lost in Israel. There is nothing about the wife's name possibly being lost. There is no parallel gender-reversed situation. Women aren't part of history in that way, or not quite independent adults. Yet another place where I'm now thrown out of the (not-really-narrative) text, one that hadn't struck me before.
I wish there were more places I felt included in the text, instead of excluded.
* Happy to translate anything someone wants more information about, just let me know.
ETA: no clue why paragraphing is failing on this post, even after having added paragraph breaks in html. ::sigh:: I don't have the energy to figure out another possible solution. ::double sigh::
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Oh, it was about a missing close quotes in an a href tag. Fixed.
Anyway. The real part that hit me is that it's about making sure there's a child so the dead husband's name is not lost in Israel. There is nothing about the wife's name possibly being lost. There is no parallel gender-reversed situation. Women aren't part of history in that way, or not quite independent adults. Yet another place where I'm now thrown out of the (not-really-narrative) text, one that hadn't struck me before.
I wish there were more places I felt included in the text, instead of excluded.
* Happy to translate anything someone wants more information about, just let me know.
ETA: no clue why paragraphing is failing on this post, even after having added paragraph breaks in html. ::sigh:: I don't have the energy to figure out another possible solution. ::double sigh::
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...
...
Oh, it was about a missing close quotes in an a href tag. Fixed.