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06 June 2019

Rainbow Flags: Gay Pride or Noahide?

3 Sivan 5779
the day of the GP Parade...just before the celebration of Matan Torah...

I took this picture the other day from a bus I was riding on. Note flag. - HDG


My gentle readers may remember my participation in the protest against the "gay pride" parades in Yerushalayim and the rest of Israel last August. This year it's in June...today...just before Shavu'oth, the third major holiday in Judaism.

Although this is a major issue, there is more to it than that. We are all becoming disgusted with the rainbow-designed flags flying in our cities, including Jerusalem, because of who and what they represent, rather than their substance. In a generation where "cultural appropriation" is forbidden and condemned, I want to raise a question: Was there a date before which one could do so with impunity? Meaning, "getting away with it."

In the case of the advocacy of same-gender attraction (SGA for short), the time seems to have begun in 1968 or thereabouts. I was in 7th grade (junior high school in those days; today, Americans call it "middle school") and, as young teenagers were wont to do in my day, there was a sorting out of behaviors due to the impact they would have on how we would be seen, gender-attraction-wise. Because at the beginning of that school year, I was still holding hands with my girlfriends, I was asked whether I was a "lezzie" by one of my classmates. I was not altogether familiar with the vocabulary then, but by the look on her face, I knew I had to think about it quickly. I realized that it meant "do you "like" girls?". I said no, and that was the last time I did a thing like that. We were no longer children — but not quite adults, either.

Since then, "homo" has been replaced by "gay." And "lezzie" (lesbian) has remained. And now an answer to my question (you may have more, and better, ones):

How many of my readers know that "gay" has long-standing earlier meanings having nothing to do with SGA? According to Dictionary.com, it holds a definition rendered "older use" as a result: having or showing a merry, lively mood, and there are several other "older use" and "obsolete" definitions. Click on the "see more" link there to see all of them.

In fact, Gay is still a girl's name! (Here's another link just because you should be aware. A comment pertinent to this post is: "This name is almost never given anymore, as the meaning of the word "gay" has shifted in the past 40 years to mean "homosexual" in mainstream speech." (my emphasis - HDG)) But now the search engines want to show you what a "gay" girl's name should be. I had to use the search phrase "a girl named Gay" to get the links in this paragraph. Little did I know that it's been a man's name too. But nothing to do with SGA, any more than Robin, Pat or Chris.

And let's not go into the British names like Beverly, Evelyn, etc...that started out as men's names. If you're curious, look at the prominent men named Evelyn here. The earliest prominent woman on the list above it was born in 1855, where the earliest man was born about 1655. It was normal back then, I suspect, probably more among royals.

In Hebrew, Sharon (pronounced shah-rón) is a man's name, but I know at least two women with that name off the top of my head. We have plenty of other names like that in Israel.

There was a song when I was young that included the words, "happy and gay" and I defy you to find a link to SGA in it. Warning: qol ishah. I Feel Pretty! from the movie West Side Story (1957). Warning: qol ishah.

Could this mean that over the last 40 years the SGA community committed a crime of a kind of appropriation? Could this be a euphemism for "stealing"?

And now, to the big appropriation crime of the millennia and the topic of this post: The rainbow as a symbol, and its use in a flag.

Yes, I mean the millennia - since the time of Noah, the current father of all the nations. See Genesis/Beresheet, parashath Noach.

The rainbow was the symbol G-d gave to Noah to let him know that He would never destroy the world by flood again. And now, it's been appropriated — er, stolen, from the whole world by a small group of people who want to force us to accept them as worthy of normal — no, special — consideration. Do we want to get used to being disgusted by rainbows because of this? Or do we want to take the rainbow back and place it in its proper context among the vast majority of human beings?

Think about that for a while.

Next time I see rainbow flags, I hope the sight will be due to a celebration of Noah, the father of all the nations (yes, including Jews as well! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are his descendants too.). The whole world will have the choice — and the right — to celebrate.

And rainbow flags will be beautiful for everyone.

Coming up in the month of Heshvan 5780, be"H!



8 comments:

  1. Beautiful article, and so well written.. Thank you..

    and to this your last paragraph:

    'Next time I see rainbow flags, I hope the sight will be due to a celebration of Noah, the father of all the nations (yes, including Jews as well! Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are his descendants too.). The whole world will have the choice — and the right — to celebrate.

    And rainbow flags will be beautiful for everyone.'

    Yes yes yes.. May it happen soon, and i for one, will jump for joy for truly i will be "happy and gay"...

    and the word 'gay'... will be back to what it really is and what it always meant..to be happy.. and the Rainbow colours will again soon be as how God meant it to be - sign to mankind, that He would never again destroy the world with floods. Amen.

    Shabbat shalom..

    anony

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  2. Thank you so much, anony!

    Here's something I hadn't noticed while writing this post:

    Today on the way to the OU Center, hubby and I were walking with Rabbi Sprecher, and we saw some of the rainbow flags. I commented on how the flags could be taken to refer to Noahides, and Rabbi said, yeah! But look, they only have six colors. The rainbow is supposed to have seven, for the 7 Laws.

    I think it's interesting that the color they left out is *indigo* (a deep blue rather like midnight blue, or dark blue-purple). Besides being an interesting color, there are "indigo" children who are very sensitive, to the point of being the kind of people I think R' Lazer Brody would say have some "extra *spiritual* perception" (rather than sensory). Somehow I think this carries a special message for the Jewish people, if we care to read it.

    Shabbat shalom v'hag sameah!

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  3. On the subject of the Rainbow symbol, it is interesting to note the Alt/Far-Right's attempt to appropriate it for their own ends from the other side (by making people associate the rainbow with the Alt/Far-Right) via the Clown World / Honk Honk memes.

    The latter can be summarized as a sort of impotent nihilistic (aka black pilled) view regarding the state of the world, though rather than falling into despair at the increasing degeneracy and bottomless insanity being promoted, those who subscribe to the Clown World perspective (which includes many outside of the Alt/Far-Right) can only laugh and enjoy the decline the best they can before the world hits rock bottom.

    There is also an aspect of the Clown World meme that is relevant to the Jewish people and the Geulah, though in our case it stems from having faith in the future as opposed to living only for today. In a sense it is also somewhat reminiscent of the following story of Rabbi Akiva and the Fox.


    On another occasion they [Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya, Rabbi Yehoshua, and Rabbi Akiva] were ascending to Jerusalem after the destruction of the Temple. When they arrived at Mount Scopus and saw the site of the Temple, they rent their garments in mourning, in keeping with halakhic practice. When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the site of the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, and Rabbi Akiva was laughing. They said to him: For what reason are you laughing? Rabbi Akiva said to them: For what reason are you weeping? They said to him: This is the place concerning which it is written: “And the non-priest who approaches shall die” (Numbers 1:51), and now foxes walk in it; and shall we not weep?

    Rabbi Akiva said to them: That is why I am laughing, as it is written, when God revealed the future to the prophet Isaiah: “And I will take to Me faithful witnesses to attest: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah” (Isaiah 8:2). Now what is the connection between Uriah and Zechariah? He clarifies the difficulty: Uriah prophesied during the First Temple period, and Zechariah prophesied during the Second Temple period, as he was among those who returned to Zion from Babylonia. Rather, the verse established that fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah is dependent on fulfillment of the prophecy of Uriah.

    In the prophecy of Uriah it is written: “Therefore, for your sake Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become rubble, and the Temple Mount as the high places of a forest” (Micah 3:12), where foxes are found. There is a rabbinic tradition that this was prophesied by Uriah. In the prophecy of Zechariah it is written: “There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 8:4). Until the prophecy of Uriah with regard to the destruction of the city was fulfilled I was afraid that the prophecy of Zechariah would not be fulfilled, as the two prophecies are linked. Now that the prophecy of Uriah was fulfilled, it is evident that the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid. The Gemara adds: The Sages said to him, employing this formulation: Akiva, you have comforted us; Akiva, you have comforted us.


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  4. Bs''d
    Indigo/lilac is my favourite colour and it was there in journey from coma back.
    Its on the end of the colour spectrum between MALCHUT and the Keter.
    For sure perverts do not like it!
    It is too pure...

    May we have all PURE ONEG SHABBAT this Shabbat!
    Shabbat Shalom

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  5. Once again, you've created a post bursting with excellent points, Hava.

    I hadn't realized that whole "lezzie" attitude toward 2 innocent girls holding hands in sweet friendship started so early (1968?!). Very disturbing.


    One of the things I admired when I first came to Eretz Yisrael over 2 decades ago was how preteen or sometimes teenage girls freely held hands with each other as they walked down the street. No degenerate labels or attitudes imposed on something sweet & innocent.

    Also, thank you very much for your previous post on Ari Fuld. Very moving and very important.

    Kol hakavod.

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  6. Thank you, Jesterhead, for pointing out that appropriating the rainbow isn't just a minority leftist endeavor, but minority-rightist as well! And thank you for the reminder of some of R' Akiva's most helpful words ever.

    Orna Nitzevet, I was thinking of you when I looked up the rainbow and discovered the missing color. I figured you'd get me on that one if I didn't! Also, your conversation with Devash over the presence of a rainbow flag on her blog triggered the thought process. Why should we be the ones who are ashamed of rainbows anywhere? Thank you and Devash for that.

    I discovered something else when my hubby asked how the SGAs got the rainbow flag. Did they hire some ad agency to come up with it, or what? Wikipedia says they had their own artist, Gilbert Baker. Furthermore, the original flag (I had no idea there was one) had two additional stripes and yet another color, two of which were versions of blue: indigo and turquoise, and the other, hot pink. The hot pink was too rare and expensive compared to the other colors, and the indigo and turquoise were replaced with regular blue for unstated reasons (but we know why, don't we.).

    Myrtle, nasty attitudes towards innocent relationships don't develop overnight! The age innocence gets discarded is getting younger and younger...and this is how "relationships" between men and boys and the like will become mainstream if H' doesn't intervene, but fast! Unless I'm behind the times again, and they have...oy va voy.
    ***

    June 26, 2015 (yes, we're that close to 4 years ago) was a watershed moment for the USA when all 50 states had accepted SGA "marriages" by law.

    And many thanks to Myrtle Rising (and whomever she may have got it from) for the term "same-gender attraction" and its acronym.

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  7. Dear Readers,

    For those who both care and have money to spare for the cause of cleaning up Jerusalem, in particular the Old City:

    There is a building on Har Tzion (!!!) that has gays in it, and Diaspora Yeshiva wants to buy the building and replace those in it with DY or Machon Roni (women's division) students. Please check out the "donate" options here.

    Thank you in advance for the mitzvah of helping clear Yerushalayim - particularly at its heart - of the tumah!

    R' Avraham Goldstein, former Rosh haYeshiva and now in charge of fundraising at Diaspora, explained it to me a few months ago, before Purim if I remember correctly.

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  8. One sin leads to another...perhaps this rape of a 7-year-old girl from a Haredi (seriously religious) family by an Arab in front of his friends, with them holding her down two months ago came first this year???

    It's our responsibility as Jews in our Jewish country to take proper steps to wipe out this sort of horrible thing and punish its perpetrators. Some have suggested the death penalty. How about "exiling" the rest of them from our land???

    This girl and her family must see justice, as must we all.

    In addition to everything else, we need to fight the psychological brainwashing we received in exile (Yes, even the tsabras. They were born here, but the way the courts here treat Arab criminals, with fear and trembling, they might as well have been born in exile like us olim...) as well as the "gentling" well beyond what the goyim would do for themselves if a similar event came up.

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