In the Torah, Kush was Noah's grandson, the son of Noah's son Ham. As Noah's descendants repopulated the world after the flood, Kush became an ancient kingdom in the southern Nile Valley, often identified with the region now known as Ethiopia in Jewish sources. The term also becomes the adjective used in rabbinic texts to refer to Black people. It has become a slur in modern Hebrew.
Notable Sources
All Sources
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Frogs and Borders
MIDRASH
The plague of frogs more than just tormented the Egyptians. Shemot Rabbah, a medieval midrash on the book of Exodus, explains how the plague of frogs led to the resolution of a territorial dispute with the Kushites.
Dan's Journey to Kush
MIDRASH
One theory as to how to Jews ended up in Ethiopia, perhaps the territory of Kush, is that the tribe of Dan migrated there upon the exile of the northern tribes by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. A tradition included in Otzar Midrashim, a 20th-century collection of many minor midrashic works, recounts a version of that migration.
Maybe Kush is Somewhere Else?
HALAKHAH
Is it possible that Kush is not in Africa? Despite the relative consensus that the land of Kush is in Africa, Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin makes the case that perhaps Kush refers to India.
Perhaps a Western Semitic Tribe?
COMMENTARY
Modern thinkers have continued to question both the location of biblical Kush and the identity of the Kushites. Professor Rabbi Umberto Cassuto, in his commentary on Genesis, proposes that the Kushites of Genesis 10 were a western Semitic tribe and not the kingdom in Africa.
Moses's Kushite Wife
TANAKH
Alongside leading the Israelites through the desert for 40 years, Moses also had a family. While this verse from the book of Numbers raises many questions, it clearly states that Moses's wife was Kushite.
Moses, King of Kush
MIDRASH
The Torah in Numbers 12 notes that Moses' wife — or perhaps one of them, if there was more than one — was Kushite. Sefer HaYashar, a medieval midrashic text, imagines Moses as the king of Kush.
From India to Kush
TANAKH
The book of Esther repeatedly refers to the enormity of King Ahasuerus's empire — 127 provinces! The repeated phrase is "from India to Kush," translated as Nubia in this text.
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