Hebraic Outlook on Color: ha-KushiymBy Hadar ha-Aryeh Adon Shem Tov ben Kushiym ha-Isuni

"Kushi Man, selling leopards as was common in ancient times.

"Kushis," when spelled out fully (meaning with a 'Vav'), is 736. "Yefat Mareh (of a beautiful appearance)" is also 736.
- Rashi

"Scripture teaches that everyone acknowledged her beauty just as everyone acknowledges a Cushite’s blackness".
-Rashi

Cushite, a nickname for a woman of special beauty and fine character.
– so Sifre par. 99.

Another midrash finds that “ Cushite” in gematria comes to he same as “yefat-to’ar” or “good-looking”
- Tanhuma Tzav 13.

The term Cush was not specific for the Cushite nation proper, but applied to all very dark skinned nations or individuals as well. Only the context will tell which is meant.

For instance, Herodotus let's us know that Cushites were in Asia and Africa when he mentions eastern and western Cushites differentiated by hair texture. And Josephus mentions the Western Cushites and seems to class the Sabaeans with them.(Antiquities I.vi.2) [3]

Zerah was most likely a Western Cushite, for the reasons given in the article. But why can't an Arab be Cushite? GENESIS places a Sheba and Dedan in both Shem (GEN 25:2) and Ham's (GEN 10:17) territorial lineage.

(Ham -> Cush -> Ra`amah -> Sheba and Dedan)

(Shem - -> `Eber -> Joktan -> Sheba)

(Abraham -> Jokshan -> Sheba and Dedan) (Abraham -> Midian)

Cushites and Arabians are coupled in Psa 72:10, II Chr 21:16 and especially Isa 43:3. [2] In Arabic the title, Zirrih (magnificent) has the same triliteral root as Zerah. Arabic, Egyptian and Hebrew are all "Afro-Asian" languages.

The incident involving Moses' wife also shows an Arabian Cush. In Exodus Moses only has one wife, Zipporah the Midianite. Miriam calls her a Cushite. The extra-Biblical Ethiopian wife does not travel with Israel in Sinai. Extra-biblical sources do not present her as ever leaving Ethiopia. So Miriam's Cushite is evidently also a Midianite and so Hab 3:7 grouping Cushan with Midian.

Anthropology is loathe to classify Africans, Arabs and Indians as one ethnic taxon based on color. The ancients did. It's similar to the moderns classifying Europeans, Arabs, Indians and even Ethiopians as Caucasians. *

Was Elijah fed by crows (which of course are Black) or Arabs or a clan called the Crows of the Arabs? For the Hebrew speakers Arabs, evening, and crows come from the same root and the word play on dusky color is intended.

In Hebrew, to this day, Cushi means a "black"-skinned person. The Israelites used the term even in describing themselves at times:

a - In the Bible Israelites named Cushi are Yehudi ben Kushi (Jer 36:14),[2] Zephaniah ben Kushi (Zep 1:1) and Kush ben-Yemini (Psa 7:1).[2] The Talmud even refers to Saul ben Kish (Saul's father was named Kish,1 Sam. 9:1, 3; 10:11, 21; 14:51; 2 Sam. 21:14 ; possibly an allusion to Kush? Kish and Kush, are from the same root "ksh") [2] in Cushite terms.

Kish in Hebrew means "bow" or "bent" as one does with the bow, Kish is taken from the same root (ksh) as Kush, Kush in ancient times was referred to as the "Land of the Bow", said to have the greatest archers in the world; with bows so large and difficult to use that only they could weild them. Nubian mercenaries were famed throughout the ancient world and enlisted by the ancient Egyptians since the most earliest of times. Therefore by on using the term Kish it can b a strong allusion to Kush, both fundamentally referring t the same thing; the kushite and his bow were as synonymous with each other as his skin color.

Ancient Kushi ben Israel, notice he is carrying the Bow (Ksh)

* We also find that many of the ancient Israelites, Judahites, Levites and Benjaminites:
1. A Levite, 1 Chr. 23:21, 22; 24:29. [2]
2. A Levite, 2 Chr. 29:12. [2]
3. Great grandfather of Mordecai, Esth. 2:5.[2]
+ All said above examples already mentioned. [2]

* It must also be remembered that unlike name of today, in Hebraic ones name was sacred, meaningful and descriptive or an inward or outward qualities and/or appearance.

b -Rabbinic midrash 'attempts' makes this all metaphorical though (though all reasonable evidence weighs against the obvious). The reasoning is that Cushi means outstanding. The Greeks thought of the Ethiopians as outstanding too. To them, the people with longest lifespan, the tallest height, the handsomest faces and the most pious actions were Ethiopians.

In light of the above Jer 13:23 can bear a new interpretation. . . . [2]
Is there anything intrinsically wicked about Cushites or leopards?

Cushites were salesmen of live leopards and leopard skins all over the ancient world. Who'd buy a spotless leopard skin? The spots are its beauty. The Cushites skin is his beauty.

The prophet seizes on this common market connection to sound home his point.

"Would the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? (No!) Then may you also do GOOD that are accustomed to do evil."

Answering the question yes destroys the logical conclusion. Be steadfast in doing good and don't exchange it for evil. Be unchanging in doing good instead of flopping with the worthlessness of evil.[/q1]

References and Footnotes:

[1] An Inclusive Identity for Kushi, Yafeu ibn Taom
http://www.fortunecity.com/millenium/zebedee/67/LandBow.htm

[2] Tanakh, Artscroll

[3] Antiquities I, Herodotus

* There is great evidence to now prove that much of the classical view of race by phenotypical correspondences and likeness can be, and is now being substantiated by direct genetic, linguistic, religish and overall cross cultural data. The observations of "Eastern and Western Kushites (Ethiopians)" is now being vindicated in the arenas of Genetics and Bio-Anthropology along with Cross-Field Research.