When in doubt, write about books. That’s my motto. And today, I acquired another 39. Counting Samuel, Kings, Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles as two books each, that’s the number of books in the Hebrew Bible. But that shouldn’t surprise you. And aside from two books that arrived from Amazon (Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative; Meir Sternberg, The Poetics of Biblical Narrative: Ideological Literature and the Drama of Reading), they were all gifted to me. Yes indeed.
“Secular Zionism”
17 07 2010In a recent article in Haaretz, Anshel Pfeffer argues against fasting on Tisha B’Av. It is his opinion that the exile has clearly been brought to an end by the establishment of the State of Israel, that the only Jews who now refuse to return to the land are doing so for personal, hypocritical reasons, and that secular Zionists need abandon the fast days that commemorate the putative destruction of our two temples.
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Categories : Jewish Tradition
The Boastings of a Bookish Braggart
25 06 2010The last month-and-a-half, since I last added anything to this blog, has witnessed the purchase of a number of books. Most of them have been fairly minor purchases, although some have set me back considerably. The most expensive set was a new twenty-five volume set of the Babylonian Talmud, published by Oz V’Hadar and replete with just about every major commentary that you can poke a stick at. Runner-up to that prestigious prize would be a new eight volume set of the Palestinian Talmud, published by the same. I have now virtually just about every major midrash that there is, having recently also purchased Mekhilta d’Rebi Ishmael, Sifra and Sifrei, but having also previously acquired a full set of Midrash Rabba, Tana d’Bei Eliyahu, Pirqei d’Rebi Eliezer, Tanhuma, Yalqut Shimoni, Pesiqta d’Rav Kahana and Pesiqta Rabbati. So long as my Primary Literature shelf continues to resist gravity, it is beginning to look very impressive.
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Categories : Personal Reflections
Bible Errata
14 05 2010In Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman refer to the “Buggre All This” Bible of 1651. In this Bible, according to their description, Ezekiel 48:2-6 read as follows:
2. And bye the border of Dan, fromme the east side to the west side, a portion for Afher.
3. And bye the border of Afhter, fromme the east side even untoe the west side, a portion for Naphtali.
4. And bye the border of Naphtali, from the east side untoe the west side, a portion for Manaffeh.
5. Buggre all this for a Larke. I amme sick to mye Hart of typefettinge. Master Biltonn if no Gentelmann, and Master Scagges noe more than a tighte fisted Southwarke Knobbefticke. I telle you, onne a daye laike thif Ennywone half an oz. of Sense should bee oute in the Sunneshain, ane nott Stucke here alle the liuelong daie inn thif mowldey olde By-Our-Lady Workefhoppe. @*Ӯ@;!*
6 And bye the border of Ephraim, from the east fide even untoe the west fide, a portion for Reuben.
Having read this book some fifteen years ago at least, this hilarious passage was my introduction to the world of Bible errata. While fictitious, it is not considerably stranger than some of the errata that do actually exist, and interested readers can look at the Wikipedia entry for a reasonably comprehensive list of them. One in particular is worth noting, as it is presently up for sale.
Printed in 1631, the KJV “Wicked Bible” lacks the negative adverb in the seventh commandment. Enjoining its readers to commit adultery, the Bible was promptly made illegal, and its two printers fined an exorbitant fee and stripped of their printing licenses. All one thousand copies were ordered destroyed by the crown, though collectors will be interested to note that eleven survived the flames. Until now, those copies have either been on display in museums or locked away by collectors, though a copy is presently up for sale at GreatSite.com. Those who have $89,500 to spare on a priceless investment can view the listing on this page. Personally, I would be inclined to save myself $4,500 and buy a first-edition Geneva Bible instead (listed on the same page), but that’s just me.
I came frighteningly close to mortgaging my house in order to get this, though luckily remembered at the last minute that I don’t have one. If I ever do, I think it’s safe to say that it won’t be for long.
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Categories : Bible
The Old Man
9 05 2010Since the great Gershom Scholem, academic study of the Zohar has progressed in leaps and bounds. While he (along with Isaiah Tishby, and others) was inclined to view nearly the entirety of the text as stemming from the 13th century, many scholars today are receptive to the possibility that some larger components of the corpus might owe their origin to a significantly earlier time. That the text was written (or was based on a text written) by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the story of whose transformation I covered here, is patently absurd, but to suggest that the entire Zohar proper originates with Moses ben Shem-Tov, a 13th century Spanish Jew from Léon, might be likewise untenable.
Traditionally published in seven volumes, the first five volumes of the Zohar contain a midrashic homily on most of the parashot of the Torah, while the subsequent two volumes (Tiqqunei HaZohar and Zohar Chadash) contain meditations on the first word of Genesis and quotations of early Kabbalists, respectively. Of the former five volumes, a total of twenty two sources can be delineated, including the largest source, which is that of the main text – considered by Scholem and Tishby as the section most certainly composed by Moses of Léon. Those sources are discussed in this article.
I wanted to comment upon one of those twenty-two sources, which is sometimes labelled “Discourse of the Old Man”. It runs from 2:94b-114a, and constitutes a discourse on the human soul, based upon some passages in Exodus that concern the laws of the Hebrew slave. I have only recently encountered this text and am therefore not at liberty to properly discuss it, but I wanted to share the text’s beginning. I have included it below in my translation. For those who are interested, I include the Aramaic at the end of this post:
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Categories : Translation
Opening up the Doors
4 05 2010I have a genuine problem with appreciating music if the lyrics are grammatically incorrect. Sometimes I make a point, when singing along, of correcting the grammar – even when it means losing the rhyme or the meter. It’s all part of being tremendously anal, I suppose, but one song that I find difficult to dismiss so easily is “Touch Me”, by the incomparable The Doors. It’s a beautiful song and, like all of Morrison’s creations, the lyrics are strangely compelling. And yet… the chorus drives me nuts:
Now I’m gonna’ love you
’til the heavens stop the rain
I’m gonna’ love you
’til the stars fall from the sky
… for you and I
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Categories : Random Musings
The Curious Case of Rabbi Shim’on bar Yochai
13 04 2010As promised, here is the literary analysis of bShab 33b-34a. This narrative concerns Rabbi Shim’on bar Yochai, and I include it both in its original Aramaic and in English (my translation). Considering its length, I’ve appended the Aramaic to the end of this post, so that those who would rather only read it in English need not skip it.
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Categories : All Hail the Sages of Israel!, Jewish Tradition
Damnation, redux
13 04 2010Very recently, I took John Hobbins to task for implying that hellfire and damnation preaching owes its origin to the literature of the Hebrew Bible – a corpus that I attempted to demonstrate was lacking such a concept. While I capitulated slightly in the comments (in that I realise that I may be reading as much into the literature as I had initially accused him of doing), I would like to respond quickly to the second part of his claim. It was in his likewise-recent post that John had made this assertion, and then buttressed it with the suggestion that the rabbis of the Talmud believed in a place called Gehennom. This is perhaps a moot point that I am making, for I am sure that John (along with the majority of my readers) is aware that the Talmud is a highly ideologically variegated corpus and that source texts can be used to justify just about anything. Even so, because John didn’t make it clear (it is made clear in the passage that he linked from Jewish Encyclopedia), I just want to make sure that people understand that Gehennom, unlike Christian depictions of hell, is not a place of eternal damnation. John produced a passage from bBer 28b, and I copy it below (with John’s translation):
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Categories : Jewish Tradition
Yom HaShoah 5770
11 04 2010It is here again; it has been and gone. Another year has passed and, with it, the day on which we habitually pay lip-service to the darkest stain on modern history. I am reminded of a conversation that I had with colleagues at work, some time between last year’s Yom HaShoah and this one. It was a lunch meeting and, eating sushi, one colleague remarked upon the fact that she had not yet seen, and will not see, The Reader. Her reason was simple: it humanises the Nazis. This astonished me and, despite the fact that I appeared to be in the minority, I told her so. “The Nazis were human,” I complained. They were regular people: they loved their wives, their husbands, their children and their land. They enjoyed wine and music and literature, and all the other baggage that goes along with being citizens in a modern, Western, civilised country. They had regular jobs, ate regular food, and laughed naturally at jokes that she and I would find quite funny. And yet, despite all this, they were responsible for the execution of absolutely monstrous crimes. To suggest that they were therefore monsters is to cheapen the event and to rob it of its significance. But what is its significance?
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Categories : Personal Reflections
A Damned Nation?
9 04 2010John Hobbins has baited me with a meme, but I shan’t bite.
The meme requests me to divulge an item of halakhic or aggadic import that is presently considered outdated, but that I believe should be as relevant as ever. I can think of several examples of such items, currently considered relevant but which should be relegated to the bin, but am not at liberty to comment on the inverse. There are no items of halakhic or aggadic import, in my opinion, which possess any relevance at all outside of the liturgical space and, given my non-participation in all things ‘confessional’, I’m therefore not at liberty to comment. This would be a rather short post, then, were it not for the fact that I would like to comment on John’s choice, for I believe that he is somewhat misinformed.
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Categories : Bible
Echoes from the Ether: