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Q:

How do we explain the existence of black and brown races? I mean as far as their origin.

A:

Look, probably Adam and Chava were white.  Of course if you go to Brownsville and ask the residents there, they’ll say certainly not.  They say Moses was black and everybody else was black. But we understand from the Chumash that they were white because when somebody comes along who’s not white, it’s mentioned.

Now how do we understand that two parents who are brunette have a son who’s blond?  The answer is that there is a blond ancestor somewhere in their lineage.  But where is the blondness?  The two parents don’t show any signs of blondness.  The answer is they have some recessive characteristic.  They themselves are able only to demonstrate their brunette qualities, but hiding in their genes there is a blond characteristic.

So you see it’s possible to be concealed in the genes certain qualities that were not evident to the parents.

And therefore, Adam and Chava were endowed with genes from which various races were able to develop.  Only that in the case of Adam and Chava, they were white. And probably Kayin and Hevel and Sheis were white too.  But subsequently, in one of the ensuing generations, some of the black genes asserted themselves and that’s how you have races.

TAPE # 223 (July 1978)

Rav Avigdor Miller on The Origin of The Various Races

print

Q:

How do we explain the existence of black and brown races? I mean as far as their origin.

A:

Look, probably Adam and Chava were white.  Of course if you go to Brownsville and ask the residents there, they’ll say certainly not.  They say Moses was black and everybody else was black. But we understand from the Chumash that they were white because when somebody comes along who’s not white, it’s mentioned.

Now how do we understand that two parents who are brunette have a son who’s blond?  The answer is that there is a blond ancestor somewhere in their lineage.  But where is the blondness?  The two parents don’t show any signs of blondness.  The answer is they have some recessive characteristic.  They themselves are able only to demonstrate their brunette qualities, but hiding in their genes there is a blond characteristic.

So you see it’s possible to be concealed in the genes certain qualities that were not evident to the parents.

And therefore, Adam and Chava were endowed with genes from which various races were able to develop.  Only that in the case of Adam and Chava, they were white. And probably Kayin and Hevel and Sheis were white too.  But subsequently, in one of the ensuing generations, some of the black genes asserted themselves and that’s how you have races.

TAPE # 223 (July 1978)

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