Thinking about how, in Judaism, redeeming captives is considered a "great mitzvah," something that takes precedence over even supporting the poor, and the cash bail system.

1/x thread

Maimonides writes that ignoring the need to redeem captives goes against “Do not harden your heart or shut your hand against your needy fellow” (Deut 15:7) and “Do not stand idly by your neighbor’s blood” (Lev 19:16), among other Torah commandments.

The Shulchan Aruch (a significant Jewish law code) writes: “Every moment that one delays in freeing captives, in cases where it is possible to expedite their freedom, is considered to be tantamount to murder.”

If a community is in the middle of building a synagogue and the need to redeem captives comes up, they're ordered to dismantle the synagogue and sell the bricks and wood and use that money to redeem captives.

In the US, in many places, they use cash bail when someone is arrested ostensibly as a way to force a defendant--one who has not been convicted of any crime--to return for the trial.

This is a memo to white folks who have gotten activated to fight for social justice over the last four years, as part of resisting the agenda of the current administration:

The work isn't over. We're glad you're here, and we need you to keep showing up.

1/x Thread.

Imagine a world in which every shooting by police of an unarmed Black person was met with the energy and urgency of the 2017 Women's March or the airport protests after the Muslim Ban was announced.

Imagine people mobilizing every time a state wanted to pass draconian abortion restrictions the way they did when the Affordable Care Act was up for a repeal in 2018.

Imagine the canvassing, the text banking, the GOTV work that has happened in 2018 and 2020 happening every single time, for every single election. Imagine what might be possible.

Imagine the outcry and passion for immigrant rights, for just immigration laws that has happened over the last few years continuing to happen, in an ongoing way, until every last person yearning to breathe free is safe.

Since we’re talking about the King James Bible, I’ll just point out a few places where it’s clear how there’s always loss in translation. Like, if you’re only relying on the English there are things that just plain don’t make sense. But in the original? Lots clearer. 1/x Thread.

“And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.”

I mean, what??

In the Hebrew her name is Hava /חוה because she is the mother of all living/haye/חי (and you need enough Hebrew to understand what the vavs and yuds are doing here).

“And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”

Again, this makes no sense and honestly is a bad translation, I know how they got “prince” but שרית should be “you have striven +

Or “contended” or “struggled” or “wrestled” with God /Elohim/aka the “El” suffix and the word for wrestled I didn’t transliterate, in the past tense it’s “sarita” so even if you don’t know conjugation you can already figure out how sr + el gets you close to Israel, yes?

None of this is clear in the KJV.

Or a third example.

“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you... Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God... +