NUM100 When the government of Israel airlifted 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel, it was the first time in the history of man that black people were taken from Africa to achieve freedom and not slavery. (Nevertheless, some ignorant Israeli Jews are still prejudiced against black Jews, even though this is totally contrary to Jewish and Israeli law). In fact, in Judaism, blackness is not looked upon as a mark of inferiority, but rather as a badge of merit and something to be admired. The Talmud (Mo'ed Katan 16b) relates that the Scripture calls King Saul a black man (from Ethiopia) (Psalms 7:1) because just as a black man is different in his skin color, so, too, King Saul is different and superior to others in his behavior. The passage continues and asks why Tzipporah, the wife of Moses, was called a black woman [this verse] and answers that just as a black person is different in his or her skin color, so, too, Tzipporah stood out in her good deeds. King Tzidkiyahu was also called a black man (Jeremiah 38:7) to demonstrate Tzidkiyahu's superior moral behavior. Finally, the entire Jewish people are compared to black people before God (Amos 9:7), to demonstrate how different and superior their moral behavior is to the nations of the world.