{"id":120387,"date":"2018-02-06T18:41:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T02:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=120387"},"modified":"2021-05-16T15:56:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T23:56:02","slug":"tabletmag-how-jews-should-deal-with-gentiles-according-to-this-weeks-daf-yomi-talmud-study-as-little-as-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=120387","title":{"rendered":"TabletMag: HOW JEWS SHOULD DEAL WITH GENTILES &#8211; According to this week\u2019s \u2018Daf Yomi\u2019 Talmud study, as little as possible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe id=\"lbry-iframe\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/$\/embed\/Let_s-Talk-Talmud!\/2448c17e736fa1f58b15f55eb280679ce07092a4?r=HYELYErhnaXxzcxogNDNuMQbVAhLjbwU\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.tabletmag.com\/jewish-life-and-religion\/254657\/daf-yomi-228-how-jews-should-deal-with-gentiles\">Adam Kirsch writes<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The nominal subject of Tractate Avoda Zara is idol worship, one of the worst sins in Judaism. But as Daf Yomi readers complete our third week of studying this tractate, it is becoming clear that the real concerns of the rabbis are much broader than idolatry. In effect, they are aiming to regulate all of Jews\u2019 relationships with non-Jews. Nowhere, perhaps, is the gulf between the Talmudic worldview and the experience of modern American Jews more evident than here. American Jews live in a world that, while certainly not free of anti-Semitism, is marked by a historically unprecedented openness and trust between Jews and non-Jews. After all, this is a country where President Barack Obama, a Christian, hosted an annual Passover Seder in the White House&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Such stories tend to suggest that the safest course for Jews was to avoid gentiles altogether, and Tractate Avoda Zara clearly uses idol worship as an excuse to separate the Jews from the pagan world that surrounded them. It is not just heresy the rabbis want to stamp out\u2014indeed, actual idol worship seems to be the least of their worries\u2014but excessive intimacy of any kind. We saw earlier that Jews could not do business with gentiles near their festival days, nor sell them items that might be used in pagan rituals. The mishna in Avoda Zara 14b goes further: a Jew should not sell gentiles large livestock because they will be used to violate the Shabbat prohibition on labor.<\/p>\n<p>More troublingly, Jews should not leave small animals alone with gentiles, or entrust their sheep to gentile shepherds, because they are likely to use them to commit bestiality\u2014a law that speaks volumes about the rabbis\u2019 estimation of pagan morals. In addition, a Jew should not entrust his child to a gentile teacher \u201cto teach him to read books or to teach him a craft.\u201d It is not entirely clear whether this prohibition, too, stems from sexual fears, or whether it has more to do with the chance that the teacher will lead the child into apostasy. Broadly speaking, \u201cone may not seclude oneself with gentiles,\u201d since the assumption is that they will try to do a Jew harm.<\/p>\n<p>Other prohibitions are meant to discourage social intercourse with gentiles. Jews may not go to places of amusement, such as circuses, theaters, and stadiums, for two reasons: not only are pagan sacrifices performed there, but they are what the Bible calls \u201cthe seat of the scornful,\u201d homes of levity and frivolity. Any time spent there is time lost to Torah study. Moreover, Jews should not praise gentiles, especially women; according to Rav, \u201cit is prohibited for a person to say: How beautiful is this gentile woman!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adam Kirsch writes: The nominal subject of Tractate Avoda Zara is idol worship, one of the worst sins in Judaism. But as Daf Yomi readers complete our third week of studying this tractate, it is becoming clear that the real &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=120387\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,29181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jews","category-talmud-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120387"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139395,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120387\/revisions\/139395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}