Toby Katz, writing on Cross Currents: It was a Rashi in last week’s parsha: Esav sonei le’Yakov. Our brother Esav tends to hate us, and anti-Semitism has a way of popping up again when and where you least expect it.
DovBear explaining why she's wrong on Cross Currents: It’s not a “Rashi”. It’s a quote from Shimon Bar Yochai that Rashi cites, and you’ve managed to mangle it. The quote doesn’t say that Esav the nation hates Jacob the nation. It says Esav the individual hated Jacob the individual which is obvious from the context.
Yaakov Menken defending her on Cross Currents: Toby Katz didn’t mangle anything at all, she merely knows how to read Rashi and Medrash.... What Mrs. Katz said was a simple matter that we all know to be part of Jewish tradition, [my emphasis] and hardly one to continue harping upon.
Yitzchak Alderstan siding with DovBear on Cross Currents: A third reason [for racism] can be found in the selective reading and misappropriation of rabbinic texts. [my emphasis] Many people “know” that all non-Jews hate all Jews. Chazal said so. הלכה היא בידוע שעשיו שונא את יעקב. Underscoring “halacha” means that this is a fixed, immutable rule. Just how Esav turned into all non-Jews, rather than just one group of them, is a bit of a mystery. In fact, I have a hard time figuring out how Esav the person turned into Esav the nation. Searching a few Torah databases a few years ago, I could find no source before the end of the 19th century that took Esav to mean a group of people, rather than Esav the biblical figure [my emphasid[] – who had every reason to hate Yaakov! Moreover, it is not at all clear whether the word “halacha” belongs there. One source has הלא instead of “halacha.” [and as I have noted the Saperstein chumash translates halacha as "fact" is in, Esav the person's hatred for Yaakov the person was a known fact]
Do you think Menken will tell his co-blogger that Toby's racist reading is more in keeping with Jewish tradition? Do you think he'll tell R' Alderstan that he's misread the Rashi? Do you think he'll concede that I was right all along?
Yeah, me neither.
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