“And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Kushite woman. 2. And they said, ‘Has the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Has he not spoken also by us?’ And the Lord heard it.” [Numbers 12]

Deep in the desert, surrounded by enemies on all sides, fighting  for survival, a tribe barely rescued from slavery discovers their own inner truth:  prejudice runs deep. Miriam and Aaron find profound fault with their brother, Moses, presumably on account of some flaw in Zipporah, the dark-skinned Midianite or Kushite woman he has married.  

Throughout Jewish history our people has struggled with our own implicit prejudice.  In the days of the Talmud there is evidence of at least some modicum of prejudice against those with dark skin.  At the same time, lengthy discourse in rabbinic tradition attempts to explain the Torah’s words in our Torah portion as criticizing Zipporah for something other than her mere skin color; Indeed, she is described as beautiful, and condemned for other traits, including perhaps her foreign status, or some alienation in Zipporah and Moses’ marital relationship.  

Nonetheless, there is clear evidence of a normative inherent prejudice in the ancient Jewish community;  Ham, the son of Noah, deemed the first of the Cushites, is described by the midrash in Bereshit Rabbah as having been cursed because he was “ugly and dark-skinned.”  Numerous other texts hint at or prove that we, like most peoples, often fall victim to the allure of ethnocentrism and prejudice against those who appear different from us.

Admitting such prejudice in our ancient forbears leads some to be chastised, as Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar in the Talmud is by the victim of his own criticism of one who appears different physically.  The victim of his prejudice says to Rabbi Shimon: “Go to the Craftsman who made me and tell him how ugly is the vessel that He has made!”  The lesson seems to be that to criticize the appearance of a human being is to insult God who made us all.  Racism, then, is an affront to God.

Yet we all know, despite all our protestations, that racist and prejudiced attitudes and behaviors abide within our midst, still to this day.  Often abundantly so.  Despite the flourishing of an ever more diverse Jewish community, and our rightful pride in having made great progress, we are far from color-blind.  Abundant evidence surrounds us calling us to acknowledge our need to embrace one another as fellow human beings, children of God, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic status, gender or any other factor that might lead us to prejudice or worse.  The Torah calls us to honor each other and give recognition to the simple fact that each of us is deserving of dignity, respect and justice simply because we are human.

Rabbi Jim Bennett serves Congregation Shaare Emeth and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical  Association.