JoelNothman.com

So Sarah sees Ishmael playing.

Rashi says:

this means worshipping idols
or it means performing forbidden sexual acts
or it means murder

Ibn Ezra says:

this is something children do

To redigest some stuff that’s been going around the blogosphere for years…

We all know the story of Lot’s wife who turned back during the destruction of Sodom and became a pillar of salt. Chazal even institute a beracha for when we see this pillar.

Nonetheless as I understand, some rishonim — Rabenu Hananel (990-1053), Hizkuni (13th century), Ralbag (1288-1344) — read the verse differently:

וַתַּבֵּט אִשְׁתּוֹ מֵאַחֲרָיו, וַתְּהִי נְצִיב מֶלַח.

They read “and it [the plain] was a pillar of salt” rather than “she became a pillar of salt”, working off the ambiguity of the third-person feminine subject. And a verse in Deuteronomy might agree in suggesting that sulfur and salt overturned Sodom.
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Apart from beautiful poetic structure of Genesis 9:6 (“שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם, בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ”, “the spiller of man’s blood, his blood by man will be spilled”), it seems to support quite radical capital punishment, or surely avengance at the hand of man. Most modern societies would not support such a simple policy; even early translations and interpretations do not take it literally; but Rabbinic Judaism tends to quite the opposite, possibly to a fault.
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שֹׁפֵךְ דַּם הָאָדָם, בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ

Isn’t it just such a beautiful verse?

In the parasha read this past shabbat, Parashat Pinchas, I noted a sentence fragment that is grammatically troublesome (Num. 26:55):

אַךְ־בְּגוֹרָל יֵחָלֵק אֶת־הָאָרֶץ; לִשְׁמוֹת מַטּוֹת־אֲבֹתָם יִנְחָלוּ׃

I can only translate it approximately while retaining some of the problematic detail:

Moreover, by lot will be divided (ACC) the land; according to the names of the tribes of their fathers will they inherit.

The first stark problem here is that יֵחָלֵק (will be divided) is a passive (נפעל) form, and so should not take a direct object as is marked by the אֶת (ACC) particle. In the present case, the verb seems to take “the land” as exactly this direct object it shouldn’t have. Semantically, one should expect “the land” to be the subject of the passive verb, and not to be marked as an object.

Moreover, it cannot be the subject either, because “the land” is a feminine noun, and the verb requires a masculine subject. I should say that there are a few cases where אֶרֶץ clearly is masculine in the bible (Gen. 13:6; Isa. 9:18 for instance), but this is far from the general rule for what is a fairly common word. (more…)

So here I am, six days from finally leaving Montreal. The return trip begins. I’m still putting in order some of the things I’ll be doing in Europe (London, Amsterdam, Paris, London) not to mention all the things I have to do here before leaving. And all the people I have to farewell, possibly till next time they hit our southern shores.

This morning I finished the largest piece of written work I have ever done. I may have once or twice written pieces of software of similar length, but this paper just kept growing. I’m not certain it’s my best piece of literary work, and I keep findingpoints where I forgot to edit, so there might be some more. Anyway, if you’re bored and feel like looking at my 24,000 word paper on the history of Jewish interpretation of Psalms 62:12, you’re welcome to. Printed it looks more like a book than an essay. I’ve decided I’ll start putting up some of my essays for university courses online in general. So feel free to check them out, even though, again, I don’t promise an exciting read.

So now I have a take-home exam to do, and a linguistics exam tomorrow… Then a whole pile of errands, and one evening I’ll suddenly find myself in an airport, leaving the city I’ve called home for eight months. Weird.

I was using the siddur (prayerbook) “Mizkeret Yerushalayim” for a change this morning, and came across the following line in Psalm 100:

דְּעוּ– כִּי יי, הוּא אֱלֹהִים: הוּא עָשָׂנוּ, ולא (וְלוֹ ק’) אֲנַחְנוּ– עַמּוֹ, וְצֹאן מַרְעִיתוֹ.

Know that the LORD, He is God; He made us and not (as written; read instead: His) [are] we, His people, and the flock of His pasture.

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One advantage of being in North America is that it doesn’t cost inordinate sums of money to bring famous intellectuals to speak to an audience. So while the Jewish community finds itself with one esteemed guest after another here, and I heard from Adin Steinsaltz a couple of weeks ago (he came to Sydney last year but I missed him), tonight I had the opportunity to hear Elie Wiesel speak. The holocaust survivor, acclaimed author, social activist, Boston University professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate lectured and took questions on the topic of “Building a moral society: the urgency of hope”. (more…)

According to an article forwarded to me by my USyd teacher Shani Berrin, excavations in Israel’s north (at Allone Abba) have recently uncovered a stone seal engraved with an image of a bird and an olive branch. It was found within an olive press used during the Hellenistic and Roman periods (4th-1st century BCE), and while its purpose and meaning have not been identified, it is a beautiful reminder of last week’s torah reading.

Shani had sent me this article in response to my asking: Where do these symbols of peace come from? Is the origin within the biblical story of Noah? Is their adoption much earlier, or much later? (more…)

I recently discovered (well, not before he told me), that my brother, Simon, has also started a blog. It turns out he’s written on something a little up my alley, on the idea of not eating nuts in the new year in Judaism. (more…)