Q. Did Shakespeare really write his plays?
A. I was tempted to say, “How should I know?” – and to add that this isn’t a question for a rabbi. Then I decided that it is part of a problem that has plagued Jews and Judaism for centuries. Put simply, the problem is, “Are things always what they seem?”
Satan hauls Job up before God and says the supposed righteous man is only a fair-weather tzaddik. God Himself doesn’t get off scot-free since long before Job, Abraham wonders if the Judge of all the earth isn’t really rather unjust. Solomon is accused of lending his name to various books which were only included in the scriptures because of his supposed authorship.
Shakespeare’s plays were, some say, really by Christopher Marlowe (I don’t know whether it makes it better or worse to hear some Jews say that Marlowe was really Jewish). This kind of things goes on and on.
Then come the revisionists: the Jews are an inferior race, there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, there wasn’t a Holocaust, the Zionists plotted 9/11. The Jews and Israel suffer constantly from propagandist distorters who peddle their stuff all over the world and so many people believe them.
Did Shakespeare write his plays? Are things what they seem? An educated generation should look into the facts for themselves, and not listen to those who say, “Don’t confuse me with the facts – my mind’s made up!”
Leprosy
Q. Are the Biblical laws about leprosy in a house still relevant?
A. Yes, but only if you take them metaphorically. There is a well known interpretation that reads m’tzora, “a leper”, as motzi ra,” one who utters evil talk”. A scandal monger brings suffering upon others (both those who hear his words and those he talks about) – but also upon himself and his own house. A family that indulges in evil talk harms the whole neighbourhood and the whole of society.
The Talmud (Arachin 16a) gives a number of explanations of these laws and suggests that “leprosy” in a house is caused by meanness. If you are mean and thoughtless towards your neighbour then both your house and his are losers. The Talmud also says, at the end of tractate Sukkah, “Woe to the wicked and woe to his neighbour – but when someone is good and generous, it is good to be his neighbour.
Q. I am left-handed and this caused me problems at school, where they tried to force me to use my right hand and in fact the teacher hit me with her ruler if she caught me writing with my left hand. I just wondered if there was a Jewish angle on the problem.
A. Very much so. From Biblical times onwards there appears to have been a feeling that the right hand was more important. Taking a few examples almost at random, Jacob called his youngest son Benjamin, “son of the right hand” (Gen. 35:18). He put his right hand on Ephraim’s head (Gen. 48:14). Batsheva sat at Solomon’s right hand (I Kings 2:19).
The Psalmist says of God, “Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8).
The famous oath says, “If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand wither” (Psalm 137:5). In a metaphorical fashion, God is said to have a right hand; “Your right hand, O Lord, is glorious” (Ex. 156).
Halakhah likewise attached greater significance to the right hand because it was regarded as the stronger hand. The wedding ring is placed on the first finger of the right hand. The m’zuzah is placed on the right-hand doorpost. T’fillin are placed by the right hand (the stronger) on the left arm.
The prejudice against the left hand led the Kabbalah to believe that the sitra achra – the other (i.e. evil) side, was sitra smola, the left side. Obviously this prejudice was found in many cultures; the Latin word “sinister”, symbolic of hidden evil, literally means “left”.
However, Jewish tradition must not be used to justify well-meaning but unwise attempts to force children out of left-handedness, whether by smacking them with a ruler or otherwise.
The Jewish rule is clear: if a person is left-handed, that, for them, is their stronger hand, and the stronger hand in that case is used to place t’fillin on the weaker arm, the right one. In Judaism, therefore, those who are left-handed are not regarded as left out.