Yeshiva
Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Bamidbar
- Beha'alotcha
Ask the rabbi: was moshe’s wife tzipora black?
"Cushite." Kush (also mentioned in the Purim
Megila as one end of the Persian empire) is
usually the name for Ethiopia. Kush was the older
brother of Mitzrayim (Egypt) so that makes sense
geographically. Rashi says Tzipora was a
Midianite & not actually black-skinned; this is
rather a euphemism for her beauty (Kushit in
Gematriya equals Y’fat Mare’h; implying that just
as everyone acknowledges an Ethiopian as black,
so all would admit that Tzipora was beautiful.
Note that King Shaul was also called, "Cush ben
Yemini" (Tehilim 7:1) though he obviously was not
from Ethiopia. But it’s also possible that
Tzipora was indeed black, as there is a Midrash
that says Yitro bought her as a young girl from
the slave market, which had people from many
different countries. It’s also interesting to
note that Miriam’s punishment of tzara’at caused
her skin to turn "snow-white," perhaps
contrasting to the black skin of Tzipora, who may
have also been embarrassed by Miriam’s charge that she was neglected by Moshe.
Rabbis in Midrash
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Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 17- "Miracles Don't Make a Messiah (87)
After learning about the unique "mass-revelation" at Sinai, the question was asked: what about the Christian claim that their "messiah also did miracles in front of people. The class summarizes the 3 significant differences between that claim and Israel's "mass-revelation".
