Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster explains the Jewish perspective of sacrifice within the Old Testament, particularly through the accounts of Jephthah and Micah.
During the present month of Tammuz we’re reading the Book of BeMidbar (‘In the Desert’ i.e. Numbers). The accompanying readings appear to have something in common: they deal on the entire with various interpretations of private sacrifice.
These readings – the Haftorot – balance the emphasis on each ritual and private courage in evidence throughout the Book of BeMidbar. They remind us that ritual and private courage need the sacrifice entailed in preserving home, family and community.
The Sedra of Hukkat (BeMidbar (19:1-22:1) depicts the death of Moses’ elder siblings, Miriam and Aaron. These siblings helped keep the family together, in addition to the broader community of freed slaves. The accompanying Haftorah is that of Jephthah (Judges 11: 1-33).
This is the story of an aggrieved child from the people of Gilead, who’s spurned by his siblings and ‘driven out’ from the house. Yet, he’s a ‘mighty man of valour’. This is a typical theme in Biblical narrative. Joseph and David are also driven out and yet turn out to be leaders of the Jewish people, for posterity.
Jephthah lived ‘within the land of Tov’ (‘good’). Jephthah’s name signifies ‘openness’ and he ‘collected empty people’ as followers. In fact, the Hebrew verb used to depict ‘collected’ is just present in this passage and is said to the concept of ‘gleanings’ or ‘bits and pieces’. In other words, Jephthah appears to haven’t any boundaries and is subsequently open to negative influences. This is in contrast to Joseph and David.
However, possibly in desperation, the Gilead people now need Jephthah due to his physical prowess and approach him. The Ammonites are about to attack. Jephthah agrees to steer the Gilead’s army but provided that he’s appointed supreme leader of the people, along with leading the military. G-d is invoked as ‘witness’ to this promise made to Jephthah.
Before embarking on war, Jephthah remembers the principles set down by Jacob along side his estranged twin brother Esau: first offer gifts, before starting a fight. But Ammon turns him down. They state incorrectly that on leaving Egypt, the Children of Israel travelled through their very own lands without permission. Jephthah puts them right, as stated within the accompanying Sedra (BeMidbar 20:14 ff). He even refers to Balak, King of Moab, an ally of Ammon (Judges 11:25), who ‘didn’t even argue or fight against Israel’. Moreover, 300 years have elapsed between the time referred to by Ammon and now; if the Ammonites have an actual case against Gilead, why wait so long?
Having exhausted every argument, with Divine assistance, Jephthah ‘crosses over’ to defend Gilead. But the concept of victory goes to his head. He will not be trained to cope with it. For he makes a rash promise that if G-d delivers Ammon ‘into my hand’ then (v 31) ‘whatever comes out of the doors of my house to fulfill me on my return in peace … will likely be the Lord’s and I’ll offer it up as a burnt offering.’
This is where the Haftorah ends. But everyone knows what happens next. On return, Jephthah is met by his joyous only child, his daughter. Knowing what he has done, he first blames his daughter for her own predicament (shades of Adam blaming Eve within the Garden of Eden).
But then the daughter offers herself up as a sacrifice, because ‘My father, you opened your mouth to the Lord. Do to me what got here out of your mouth…’ There is a touch here of Jephthah’s name, meaning ‘open’ and likewise a reference to verse 31, where Jephthah states that he’ll sacrifice ‘whatever comes out of the doors of my house ….’ It appears that Jephthah’s daughter is way wiser than her father and knows his limitations. If only he hadn’t made a rash promise and had kept his mouth shut!
Jephthah subsequently won the battle against the Ammonites but not the war. For, by sacrificing his only daughter, he ensured that his family line got here to an abrupt end.
This theme is developed in the next Haftorah. Here we’ve got the Sedra of Balak (BeMidbar 22:2-25:9). As we’ve got seen, Jephthah has already referred to Balak in his arguments against the Ammonites within the previous Haftorah. Balak (‘devastator’) hires the false prophet Bilam (meaning ‘to swallow up’) to curse the Children of Israel.
Bilam has a miraculous turnaround, when as a substitute of cursing, he blesses. In fact his blessing (BeMidbar 25:5-9 ‘How goodly are your tents, O Israel’) has been incorporated into the Jewish prayer service and is one of the famous and loved passages of all!
This blessing ends (v 9) with the depiction of Israel as each a lion and a lion cub (or lioness, depending on the translator!), who once roused …! ‘Blessed be those that bless you and cursed be those that curse you.’
Before that (BeMidbar 23), on Bilam’s advice, King Balak had offered sacrifices to G-d, but in vain. As within the case of Jephthah, this concept of sacrifice was crude and manipulative, and didn’t work for the G-d of Israel: ‘For behold, it’s a people who dwell alone…’ (v 9).
If we turn to the accompanying Haftorah of Micah 5:6-6:8, we learn the true meaning of sacrifice. Speaking within the eighth century BCE, the prophet Micah concentrates on attacking those that accumulate wealth for its own sake, similar to corrupt rulers and judges, along with venal priests and prophets. In other words, Micah attacks those that run society by practising self-aggrandisement on the expense of the exploited.
Thus, Micah appears to be each contemporary and on the ball. He knows that power can corrupt if not properly handled. In his own time, corruption wasn’t necessarily rash, as in Jephthah, nor primarily an issue of sacrificing to ‘false gods’. It was more an issue of private relationships and the way societies can each rise and fall on account of greed, avarice and self-satisfaction.
If Bilam recognized that the Children of Israel were G-d’s people, Micah emphasizes that this doesn’t suggest resting on one’s laurels. The corruption endemic in eighth century BCE society led to the defeat and exile of the Kingdom of Judah: the destruction of the First Temple and the exile to Babylon in around 586 BCE. However, the Northern Kingdom was defeated by Assyria in around 722 BCE and the people deliberately assimilated, in order that Judaism in that a part of the Land died out.
In the last line of our Haftorah, Micah spells out the deceptively easy requirements needed to fulfil G-d’s will: to support the underdog and never to brag.
First, Micah describes how the Judean exile in Babylon – and elsewhere – will give the Jewish people the chance to influence ‘many great peoples, as dew from the Lord and as showers on the grass.’ Cleverly, the word for ‘showers’ here’s a play on the word for ‘great and lots of’, where ‘rav’ becomes the diminutive ‘revivim’. Trickles of goodness will replace the pomp and circumstance related to power and might. In addition, in contrast to this country, tiny showers are rare within the Middle East, and I’m unsure there even is a word for ‘drizzle’ in Hebrew. When it rains, it really rains. Otherwise, the warmth, and sometimes humidity, are intense. Winds aren’t generally breezes (except at night in Jerusalem) but generally overwhelm. Therefore these small acts of kindness are sometimes unexpected and Jews will influence in ways in which are usually not all the time obvious.
And then in verse 5:7, Micah reiterates Bilam’s words, ‘And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the many nations, within the midst of many/great peoples as a lion among the many beasts of the forest, as a lion cub among the many flocks of sheep.’ Ultimately, the Jewish people will prevail over their enemies.
In Chapter 6:1-8, leading as much as what G-d requires of humanity, the scene is ready as a courtroom, with G-d because the plaintiff and the Children of Israel because the defendant. The mountains and hills are judge and jury!
G-d first charges Israel with ingratitude (v 3). ‘Oh, My people, what have I done to you and the way have I overwhelmed you … ? Go on, testify against Me!’ And then G-d reminds the people who, led by Moses, Aaron and Miriam, He, G-d, had taken them out of Egypt. This is a reminder of the previous week’s Sedra depicting the death of Aaron and Miriam.
Then G-d refers back to the parallel Sedra: even Bilam had testified against Balak in defence of the Jewish people and had turned the intended curses into blessings. In addition, hasn’t G-d brought them into the Land as promised?
Then, from 6:6-7, Israel, the defendant, says that they do not have a defence. Unlike Bilam, they know thoroughly that no amount of animal sacrifices will help. They know that animal sacrifice will not be enough. The questions they put to G-d are rhetorical. They expect a negative response. That is why the numbers are exaggerated. ‘Does the Lord really desire 1000’s of rams, tens of 1000’s of rivers of oil?’ Here the word for ‘tens of 1000’s’ (rvvot) reminds us of ‘revivim’, the small ‘trickles’ that G-d prefers to the numerous and mighty.
The individuals are being sarcastic. They then remind us of Jephthah’s recent tragedy on account of rashness. ‘Shall I actually give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul?’ It may even be that the defendant, Israel, is reminding G-d, the plaintiff, of His own demand that His beloved Abraham should himself sacrifice his beloved Isaac to Him, which was nipped within the bud on the last moment.
The people know that spiritual sins need psychological cures, not the supreme sacrificial zeal that can have repercussions affecting the following generation.
It is the person here and now who has to vary, and Micah responds (v 8) that they know thoroughly ‘what the Lord requires of you; nothing kind of than to do justice, love kindness and walk together with your G-d without affectation.’
This very famous injunction is nothing latest for the Jewish people, and definitely not progress of their thought, as many non-Jewish commentators have suggested.
The Jewish people already knew of their hearts that sacrifices and ostentation don’t move G-d. Sacrifices carried out with the appropriate attitude of modesty were to be continued while the Temple still stood. But the lesson to be learned is that how we do things is just as necessary as the tip goal. Sacrifices will be misjudged, after which others (often our youngsters and grandchildren) will suffer. In Chapter 6:8, Micah reminds the Jewish people who the standard of our on a regular basis behaviour is paramount, and it’s the ‘small trickles’ that count.
The order of G-d’s requirement is vital. Justice comes first but should not be over-zealous. Mercy translated into kind deeds tempers justice and equates to like. And how we treat our relationship to G-d is in some ways essentially the most significant requirement of all. ‘Without affectation’ is a possible approximation of a really difficult term, which appears only here and in Proverbs 11:2, where this quality brings wisdom.
Straight after this reading within the synagogue we commemorated the Fast of Tammuz, which ushers in ‘The Three Weeks’. This is a tragic period, reminding us of the Destruction of each Temples (the second in 70 CE), which began on Sunday July 13 (17 Tammuz) with the breach of the Temple.
Micah’s prophecy of hope has turn out to be very famous in the broader world, but is usually cited to the detriment of the Jewish people. It is to be hoped that placing the prophet’s words in context will help reveal that the Hebrew Bible will not be a chronological historical document of progress, but a holistic blueprint of how we must always live our lives in all its complexity.
Its greatness lies not in pious platitudes but in an actual understanding of how human beings function, of how society works and of how difficult it’s to easily live on the planet and survive. Micah’s prophecy is subsequently as relevant today because it was within the eighth century BCE.
 Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster explains the Jewish perspective of sacrifice within the Old Testament, particularly through the accounts of Jephthah...){kind=link}