Berakhot 43
Today’s text is full of contradictions; some of it is lovely and inclusive and other parts are disconcerting. The positive theme I gleaned from today’s reading is the importance of showing respect and gratitude for everything we are given on earth, including wine, flowers, spices, plants and trees. But I can’t overlook the homophobic and sexist messages found in the text.
What is truly lovely is the appreciation of everything natural in the world. I especially love this: “Blessing… who has withheld nothing from His world, and has created in it beautiful creatures and trees for human beings to enjoy.” There is special focus on the fragrant world today, with mention of incense, musk, jasmine, balsam, violets and daffodils.
This text can be wonderful and also somewhat troubling: “This teaches for each and every individual, God has made his work pleasant for him in his own eyes.” It reminds us that not only is each person’s work important, that each person should be happy with his own place in the world so that “enabling the world to function properly.” We should appreciate the work everyone does because all of it is significant and contributes to the eco-system of our society and we should appreciate each person on his own terms. But is the text also suggesting that the under-employed or those just plain miserable in their jobs should accept their plight so willingly? Is it suggesting that we all have a preordained role to play in society?
Does this suggest that everyone is already achieving their potential through work (i.e., through rolling in the muck like a pig), and you can trick them into thinking they are doing more than they are, but still they are doing the job of pigs, just with a fancy necklace around their necks: “Hang a heart of a palm on a pig, and he will continue to perform his standard activities. Although hearts of palm are a delicacy, a pig will roll it in the mud as is his wont.” Of course, the text then continues to suggest we should respect the tastes of the pig: “Every creature has its own particular tastes, and one cannot draw conclusions with regard to one based on the standards of another.” So, it’s a bit of dichotomy in what I am trying to glean from this text: on the one hand it seems to respect diversity and on the other, to encourage a classist system.
The text makes a strong case for respecting the dignity of others in this next section: “It is preferable, from an ethical perspective, for one to throw himself into a fiery furnace rather than humiliate another in public.” The story is told of stoic Tamar who is pregnant by her father-in-law but risks death (did they really sentence women to death for out of wedlock pregnancies?) rather than reveal the father of her child. There is another dichotomy in the meaning: a positive statement about respecting the dignity of others, wrapped in the horrible fate of women. And any meaning I thought I found in the text on respecting diversity is subtracted by the discussion of the six things that are disgraceful for a Torah scholar to do, including going out perfumed (for fear of being suspected of homosexual acts) and the prohibition of eating with “ignoramuses” (so much for respecting people as they are and not being judgmental.)
The reference to musk oil brought me back to my adolescent years. Patchouli oil was my scent of choice when I was a teenager in the 1970s. The dusky, moist, exotic scent of musk oil made me feel like I was on the threshold of a life that was more interesting than the one I lived in suburban New Jersey. The scent carried with it the deep longing for an adult life that was yet to come, while I felt trapped in my adolescence, which was primarily centered on my bedroom with the pink shag carpeting, canopy bed, beaded curtains and my books. I remember the musk being really greasy and difficult to wash off when I spilled it on that carpet. I imagine the patchouli scent settled around me like a cloud wherever I went, while I was so focused on dreaming of the life I was yet to live.
Following on the theme of medicinal benefits from the last few days, there are studies that suggest patchouli oil has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties: https://www.healthline.com/health/patchouli-oil#benefits