Vayishlach - more sinned against than sinning?

 B"H

Remember when I said some posts might be controversial? You've been warned....

This week's post is based on what I wrote for the Facebook group 'Dvar Torah Database' this time last year. As such, it relies on midrashic texts from sources other than the Midrash Tanchuma for Vayishlach (confusingly, the Midrash Tanchuma text relevant here is from next week's section). However, if you really really want to you can still access the full Midrash Tanchuma text for Vayishlach itself here ;-)

Also, now that I feel a little freer to speak up about conversion politics post-mikveh, the post has been amended slightly. As I said, you've been warned.

Sources:

1) Bereishit 36:11-12

וַיִּהְיוּ בְּנֵי אֱלִיפָז תֵּימָן אוֹמָר צְפוֹ וְגַעְתָּם וּקְנַז.  יב וְתִמְנַע הָיְתָה פִילֶגֶשׁ לֶאֱלִיפַז בֶּן-עֵשָׂו וַתֵּלֶד לֶאֱלִיפַז אֶת-עֲמָלֵק אֵלֶּה בְּנֵי עָדָה אֵשֶׁת עֵשָׂו

2) Bereishit 36:22

וַיִּהְיוּ בְנֵי-לוֹטָן חֹרִי וְהֵימָם וַאֲחוֹת לוֹטָן תִּמְנָע.

3) Sanhedrin 99b

אלוף לוטן אלוף תמנע וכל אלוף מלכותא בלא תאגא היא בעיא לאיגיורי באתה אצל אברהם יצחק ויעקב ולא קבלוה הלכה והיתה פילגש לאליפז בן עשו אמרה מוטב תהא שפחה לאומה זו ולא תהא גבירה לאומה אחרת נפק מינה עמלק דצערינהו לישראל מאי טעמא דלא איבעי להו לרחקה

4) Midrash Tanchuma on Vayeshev, Chapter 1

וכן נתעסק בייחוס בני עשו ואלה תולדות עשו להודיע נוולן, שאת מוצא שהן בני זמה שכן הוא אומר בני אליפז תימן ואומר צפו וגעתם קנז ותמנע ועמלק (ד"ה א א) ותמנע היתה פלגש לאליפז (בראשית לו) מלמד שנשא את בתו, כיצד היה בא אל אשתו של שעיר ועברה וילדה ממנו תמנע ונשאה כנושא בתו של שעיר והיתה בתו, וכן הוא אומר אלה בני שעיר החורי יושבי הארץ לוטן וגו' ואחות לוטן תמנע, מן האם ולא מן האב שהיתה מן אליפז ותמנע היתה פלגש לאליפז בן עשו

We’re all familiar with the genealogies that weave their way throughout Sefer Bereishit. They form an almost comforting counterpoint to the dramas of individual figures – ‘X begat A, B and C; C begat D…’ Yet every so often the steady rhythm of successive generations is interrupted – and what seems like a minor aside in the text can gain much greater significance in the hands of the commentators.

One such ‘aside’ comes in this week’s parsha, during the Torah’s chronicling of Esav’s descendants (source 1 above):

‘The sons of Eliphaz were: Teiman, Omar, Tzepho, Gatam and Kenaz. And Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz; these are the children of Adah, Esau’s wife’

In one brief aside we are introduced to the tribe destined to become the eternal enemy of the Jewish people! Given Amalek’s later significance in Jewish history, and Timna’s status as the only mother mentioned in this genealogy other than Esav’s wives, it’s worth asking – who exactly was Timna?

Jewish tradition offers two different explanations, both startling in their implications. The most challenging one comes from the Gemara in Sanhedrin 99b, where the Rabbis directly blame the Avot for bringing Amalek upon the Jewish people (extracted from Source 3 above):

‘Timna wanted to convert, so she went to Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya’akov, but they did not accept her. So she went and became a concubine to Eliphaz, the son of Esau, saying: ‘I would rather be a servant to this people than a mistress of another nation.’ From her Amalek was descended who afflicted Israel. Why so? Because they should not have rejected her.’

This midrash is extraordinary, especially when we consider Avraham’s fame as the convert par excellence and an enthusiastic recruiter of other converts. However, this is not the only place where the Rabbis rebuke the Avot for not being more open to outsiders to their spiritual tradition – in this same parsha, Dinah’s rape is explained by Rashi as Ya’akov’s punishment for refusing to give her in marriage to Esau, thereby denying his own brother the possibility of spiritual improvement under her influence.

Later commentators (e.g. the Alter of Slabodka - see here for example) have clearly felt uncomfortable with the Gemara’s viewpoint on Timna, and try to excuse the Avot by saying they could sense some flaw or defect in her which would have made it harmful for her to join the Jewish people - as proven by her being Amalek’s ancestress. However, the Gemara quite clearly suggests that Amalek’s enmity towards Israel is a direct consequence of Timna’s rejection by the Avot, rather than an innate trait.

These later comments about Timna’s ‘bad middot’ seem truer to a different tradition concerning Timna found in Chapter 1 of the Midrash Tanhuma, Vayeshev (see Source 4) above) This tradition picks up on an inconsistency between Timna’s lineage as presented here in Bereishit and elsewhere in Divrei Hayamim (which mentions a daughter of Eliphaz named Timna), and resolves this by explaining that Timna was the child of an adulterous relationship between Eliphaz and Seir’s wife, and went on to compound her sinful origins by becoming her own father’s concubine! The implication here is that, far from being a potential Jewess, the mamzeret Timna (and by extension, Amalek) is irredeemably corrupt and the opposite of everything that the Jewish people stands for.

These two very different views of Timna are crucial for how we as Jews today approach the ‘other’ – whether this is the non-Jew wishing to convert, the non-Jewish world at large, or even those Jews who are ‘off the derech’. One approach popular in some parts of the Orthodox world is to write off certain people or areas of experience as being inherently sinful and incapable of any good. ‘Let us follow the example of the Avot’ says this approach ‘and keep ourselves pure, untainted by the corrupting influence of X/Y/Z’.

However, as we can see from the Gemara in Source 3) there is a strong Rabbinic tradition which insists on seeing a person’s potential for spiritual improvement and doing our best to encourage this – to the point of blaming the suffering of the Jewish people throughout the ages on the Avot’s rejection of Timna and Esau! While the isolationist approach may have been more appropriate in previous generations, in today’s open society we cannot afford to ignore the Rabbis’ daring message about how we should relate to those who appear to be spiritually ‘other’ – drawing them closer, not pushing them away.

And we can go further. If (and it is by no means clear) the Rabbis of the Gemara were aware of the alternative tradition regarding Timna as a mamzeret and nevertheless criticised the Avot for rejecting her for giyur, this makes their rebuke even more daring. By contrast, in recent years we have seen a disturbing trend-  not necessarily towards rejection of candidates for gerut at the outset, but towards undermining their status through the spectre of 'retroactive annulment' of their conversions.

Both in Israel and elsewhere the phrase 'once a Jew, always a Jew' no longer appears to apply to gerim. Instead a veritable sword of Damocles hangs over our heads as both our Jewish status and (for women) that of our children is made contingent not only on our behaviour well after the mikveh itself, but also on whether or not the particular Rabbinic authority/Beth Din which oversaw our gerut is approved of by all parts of the Orthodox community - something which is beyond the control of most gerim and which, ultimately, is determined by political factors that have nothing to do with the individual gerim feeling threatened as a result. 

What would the Rabbis of the Gemara, who went as far as to criticise the Avot for rejecting Timna, have to say about the current situation? While I leave that to your imagination, the message they sought to teach is clear. Rejecting or otherwise ill-treating someone who wishes to join the Jewish people - whatever their origins might be - has the potential to create our own worst enemy in the form of Amalek. I can only hope it is a message that those who have trampled on the sensitivities and even the very Jewish status of gerim for their own political ends may one day take to heart.

Shabbat shalom

RPT


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PS A quick google on Timna brings up several interesting articles, including one here by Rabbi Cardozo which puts an interesting twist on the mitzvah of 'blotting out the memory of Amalek'.  Any others, feel free to share in the comments.