{"id":1142,"date":"2014-06-15T11:14:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2014-06-15T11:14:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T18:14:59","slug":"drosh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/norwitz.net\/blog\/2014\/06\/15\/drosh\/","title":{"rendered":"D’var Torah for my Bat Mitzvah"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the drosh, the Torah commentary, I wrote for my Bat Mitzvah on June 14, 2014. \u00a0My Torah portion was\u00a0Sh’lakh L’kha<\/a>, specifically\u00a0Numbers 15:14-16<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I gave a shorter, and less technical version, at the actual service. \u00a0The only changes were to the genetics portion in the beginning (I also did not read anything in boxes). \u00a0Below is the full version, with appropriate links.<\/p>\n

D\u2019var Torah
\n<\/strong>Cyndi Norwitz
\n<\/strong>June 14, 2014<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today I am a woman!<\/p>\n

Yesterday I was a woman. And the day before that. And so on back nearly 35 years. Still, today means something. It doesn\u2019t change who I am physically, but it does change me.<\/p>\n

Today I am a Jew!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a Jew my whole life. So were my parents. And their parents. And their parents. And back as far as my genealogy hobby *cough* obsession can take me. Today though, I\u2019m a different Jew. A year of study and the accomplishments of this ceremony mean something. I\u2019m not more Jewish, but I am more Jewish.<\/p>\n

The stories my family told me are that I am Jewish all the way back. DNA tests confirm that. 94-100% [spoken version: nearly 100%], depending on the algorithms. After the initial influx into Europe about 1-2000 years ago, Jews have been mostly marrying each other to the point that \u201cJewish\u201d shows up as separate as Italian or Finnish. You can\u2019t tell one Jew from another though. Even Ashkenazi vs Sephardic is hard. A Jew from Romania looks like a Jew from Latvia. We just moved around too much. When you look to see which populations this \u201cJewish\u201d group matches best, it\u2019s not other Europeans. It\u2019s non-European Jews, Palestinians, Druse, and other folks from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

One way to get more precise is to look at the paternal line (through Y-DNA) or the maternal line (through mt, or mitochondrial, DNA). Each of us gets our mtDNA from our mothers, and only women can pass it on. [Beginning of section I removed, see end of page for replacement text.] \u00a0Every generation gets exactly the same sequences. Except sometimes, every few thousand years, there is a mutation. Those mutations allow us to track groups through time by location.<\/p>\n

Imagine two sisters. One has identical mtDNA to her mother and passes it on to her daughters, and their daughters. The other sister has a single letter in the DNA that is different, a mutation. She passes that on to her daughters and their daughters. Those two groups are related but no longer the same. Repeat the process over hundreds of generations and you will end up with dozens of groups, each differing from the other by a small handful of mutations. Some of the groups migrate, then split up and migrate again, and you end up with different mtDNA\u2019s all over the world.<\/p>\n

My mtDNA is U6a7a1b<\/a>. The U\u2019s were one of the early splits in human history, after a bunch of us left Africa 60-70,000 years ago. A group of U\u2019s moved from Western Asia into Europe. About 35,000 years ago, U\u2019s split up. The ones that stayed in Europe became the U5\u2019s. U2\u2019s moved into India. The ones that went back to Northern Africa are my people, the U6\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Over the next 30,000 years, the branch of my maternal ancestors split another 5 times, mostly within the Maghreb, Northern Africa west of Egypt. My branch became Jewish and eventually moved to Spain. With the Inquisition 500 years ago, this branch, now Sephardic, spread over Europe, back to Africa and the Middle East, and to the Americas. The furthest back I can take my maternal line, the line I have the least information about, is to my great grandmother Hermina Goldberger of Kosice, Slovakia. I am the only known U6a7a1b from Slovakia outside my immediate family.\u00a0[end of section I removed]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Years before present
\nU6 35300
\nU6a 26200
\nU6a7 Maghreb 29000
\nU6a7a 7600
\nU6a7a1 4700
\nU6a7a1b Sephardic 1400<\/td>\n		“On mtDNA grounds, it is known that after the Out of Africa migration around 59\u201369 kya [thousand years ago], the U branch of macro-haplogroup N spread radially from somewhere in western Asia around 39\u201352 kya. This reached Europe, signaled by haplogroup U5, North Africa by haplogroup U6, and India by haplogroup U2. Coalescence age for U5 correlates closely with the spread of Aurignac culture in Europe and, from an archaeological perspective, it has been argued that Central Asia, not the Levant, was the most probable origin of this migration.\u00a0 In absolute agreement with this vision, we propose that, in parallel, U6 reached the Levant with the intrusive Levantine Aurignacian around 35 kya, coinciding with the coalescence age for this haplogroup.”From:\u00a0The history of the North African mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6 gene flow into the African, Eurasian and American continents<\/a>.\u00a0BMC Evolutionary Biology 2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

So how did my maternal ancestors become Jewish in the first place? One theory, not that we can ever prove or disprove it, is that we were part of the \u201cmixed multitudes.\u201d Torah, in Exodus 12:38, says that as the children of Israel left Pharaoh, \u201cAnd a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.\u201d The word for mixed multitude, \u05e2\u05b5\u05e8\u05b6\u05d1 \u05e8\u05b7\u05d1 (Erev\u2019rav) even shares a root with Maghreb. Related also to words for west, evening, and mixed grill.<\/p>\n

The mixed multitudes get a bad rap. We see the term again in Numbers 11:4 when the people had nothing but manna to eat. \u201cAnd the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting; and the children of Israel also wept on their part, and said: ‘Would that we were given flesh to eat!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But are these the same people? \u201cMixed multitudes\u201d in Exodus, sometimes translated as \u201crabble\u201d or \u201cmany other people\u201d or \u201choard,\u201d is \u05e2\u05b5\u05e8\u05b6\u05d1 \u05e8\u05b7\u05d1 (Erev\u2019rav). But in Numbers it\u2019s \u05d4\u05b8\u05d0\u05e1\u05b7\u05e4\u05b0\u05e1\u05bb\u05e3 (asafsuf), sometimes translated as \u201csome foreigners,\u201d \u201cforeign rabble,\u201d \u201ccontemptible people,\u201d \u201cthe vulgar,\u201d and \u201criff-raff.\u201d The root, \u05d0\u05b8\u05e1\u05b7\u05e3 (asaf) means gather. So asafsuf means a gathering or assembly.<\/p>\n

The asafsuf aren\u2019t the mixed multitudes as most Rabbinic commentators assume, but rather, as one modern commentator puts it<\/a> \u201ccharismatic Israelite trouble-makers.\u201d So when God gets fed up with the kvetching and punishes the asafsuf with a plague, God isn\u2019t killing off the outsiders, but the Jews keeping the people from God\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n

We have a similar story in this week\u2019s portion. Twelve men representing the 12 tribes of Israel go out to spy upon the land of Canaan and 10 of them come back thinking the entire venture is a bad idea. Their crime isn\u2019t their fear of failure, but the dissent they spread among the people through \u201cevil reports.\u201d God kills them off with a plague and everyone else gets an extra 40 years of wandering in the desert.<\/p>\n

\u201cErev\u201d is in the Torah 10 times. With the exception of \u201cmixed multitude\u201d from Exodus, every use refers to the warp and woof of weaving. Specifically to the woof, the thread drawn through the warp yarns to make cloth. When applied to people, most commentators take this to refer those of mixed heritage. Not quite Jews perhaps, but family they could not leave behind.<\/p>\n

The only other time we see \u201cErev\u201d in the Bible is Nehemiah (13:3), where it is translated again as \u201cmixed multitude\u201d and clearly refers to people engaging in intermarriage and their children. It\u2019s a bit of an understatement to say Nehemiah hates intermarriage\u2014he curses Jewish men who married non-Jewish women. He pulls out their hair, even kills some of them. Many commentators cite this passage as proof that God is against intermarriage too. Nehemiah doesn\u2019t compromise; he wants Jews to marry other Jews, period. But what he\u2019s going on about is the effects intermarriage often has: people stop obeying God\u2019s laws. They work on Shabbat, they fail to give their tithes to the Levites, and they don\u2019t teach their children Hebrew.<\/p>\n

We see this throughout the Torah as well. Plenty of non-Jews marry Jews (Moses\u2019 wife Zipporah is but one example) and God is fine with it. But others cause problems. The difference is in their behavior, not their birth. My Torah portion today (Numbers 15:14-16) says \u201cthe same Torah and justice shall apply to you and to the stranger who resides among you.\u201d In other words, if you live with the Jewish people, you have to follow the same laws. And if you do that, you\u2019re the same as us. And if you break God\u2019s laws on purpose, \u201cwhether [you] be home-born or a stranger\u2026that soul shall be cut off from among [your] people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ezekiel (47:21-23) tells that when the Jews came to their land they should divide it by tribe. \u00a0“This is the territory you are to divide among the tribes of Israel.\u00a0<\/span>You are to divide it by lot as an inheritance both to you and to the foreigners living among you who give birth to children living among you; for you they are to be no different from the native-born among the people of Israel \u2014 they are to have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.\u00a0<\/span>You are to give the foreigner an inheritance in the territory of the tribe with whom he is living,\u2019 says\u00a0Adonai\u00a0Elohim<\/span><\/i>.”<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

And what is that word \u201cstranger?\u201d It is not the erev, the mixed multitudes, or the asafsuf, the gatherings, but something completely different. Here it is \u05d2\u05bc\u05b5\u05e8(ger) and it is mentioned dozens of times throughout the Bible. We were strangers in Egypt but, by the time of the Exodus, we were no longer strangers yet strangers lived among us. The verb form is often translated as \u201csojourn\u201d but it is different from mere traveling. The contrast is between a stranger and one who is \u201chome-born.\u201d So a stranger is an immigrant, an alien. Their children are no longer strangers. And children are the point\u2026a ger is someone who isn\u2019t just visiting; they plan to stay. They are converts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leviticus (19:34) says \u201cthe stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jews, like nearly every other population on this planet, often married their neighbors. \u00a0European Jews look different from Indian Jews who look different from Ethiopian Jews. \u00a0Each group looks more like their neighbors, but still has more in common with other Jews than those neighbors. \u00a0I may look Eastern European to a large degree but, when I look at my many thousands of DNA matches over several different companies, matches that generally don’t show up if more than 6-10 generations back, I don’t match a single non-Jew without significant Jewish ancestry, not one. But I match nearly every European Jew I come across, regardless of ancestral location, usually through both my mother’s and my father’s lines; even my husband and I are 7th cousins.<\/p>\n

Throughout Torah and Haftorah we have countless examples of Jewish men marrying non-Jewish women and bringing them into the community. \u00a0This bears out historically too. \u00a0It’s not just Jews; we see “erev,” mixture, in nearly every population on this planet. \u00a0We have periods of just marrying ourselves too. \u00a0No geographic isolation to explain it here, just political. \u00a0The initial influxes of (mostly male) Jews to Europe with the Romans 2000 years ago, as well as immigrations a bit later, involved much intermarriage. \u00a0And this shows up in deep analysis of DNA as well as our looks. \u00a0After that, until the 20th century, intermarriage was rare. \u00a0Jews throughout most of Europe were limited in where we could live or in our professions. \u00a0We often had to wear distinctive clothing and were frequently kicked out of towns or entire countries, invited back, then kicked out again as regimes changed.<\/p>\n

Through it all, we chose Judaism. \u00a0If our spouses were not Jewish, they chose to be a part of our community. \u00a0We taught Judaism to our children, and their children. \u00a0Certainly, many Jews left. \u00a0They converted or lived with the community of a non-Jewish spouse. \u00a0Some Jews converted by force and Judaism was lost over the generations. \u00a0Some just drifted away.<\/p>\n

Somehow, over thousands of years, we still exist as a people. \u00a0We’ve survived oppression, genocide, and periods of calm with intermarriage and children who barely know they are Jewish. \u00a0One phrase we sometimes hear is that Jews are the “chosen people.” \u00a0Certainly many Jews see this as a badge of superiority. \u00a0Many others simply excise the language. \u00a0But I want to embrace it. \u00a0There are multiple paths to God. \u00a0Some evil, some unjust. \u00a0But many valid, righteous, paths. \u00a0We as Jews are chosen to take our particular path. \u00a0The path I was born to. \u00a0The path I chose voluntarily years ago. \u00a0The path I traversed with a year of study to bring me to my bat mitzvah today. \u00a0I am chosen. \u00a0And I choose Judaism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alternate text I read during the service June 14, 2014:<\/p>\n

The stories my family told me are that I am Jewish all the way back. DNA tests confirm that, nearly 100%. After the initial influx into Europe about 1-2000 years ago, Jews have been mostly marrying each other to the point that \u201cJewish\u201d shows up as separate as Italian or Finnish. You can\u2019t tell one Jew from another though. Even Ashkenazi vs Sephardic is hard. A Jew from Romania looks like a Jew from Latvia. We just moved around too much. When you look to see which populations this \u201cJewish\u201d group matches best, it\u2019s not other Europeans. It\u2019s non-European Jews, Palestinians, Druse, and other folks from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

One way to get more precise is to look at the paternal line (through Y-DNA) or the maternal line (through mt, or mitochondrial, DNA). Each of us gets our mtDNA from our mothers, and only women can pass it on. After leaving Africa, my maternal line went to Western Asia, briefly to Europe, then settled in Northern Africa, mostly within the Maghreb, Northern Africa west of Egypt. My branch became Jewish and eventually moved to Spain. With the Inquisition 500 years ago, this branch, now Sephardic, spread over Europe, back to Africa and the Middle East, and to the Americas. The furthest back I can take my maternal line, the line I have the least information about, is to my great grandmother Hermina Goldberger of Kosice, Slovakia.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Sources:<\/h3>\n