tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41963410614292304442024-03-05T23:39:31.896-08:00Calba Savua's OrchardCalba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-55341504810979710042014-05-06T02:34:00.002-07:002014-05-06T02:34:37.489-07:00An Historian at War: From Gershom Scholem's Experiences in 1948<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Gershom Scholem (1897-1982) was a colossal figure in the modern academic study of Judaism. Without Scholem it is unlikely that there would be a serious, disciplined study of Jewish mysticism/esotericism in general, and of Kabbalah in particular. His 1941 <i>Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism</i> is in my estimation quite likely the most widely quoted scholarly work on Jewish mysticism even today.[1] Aside from his scholarly achievements, Scholem also corresponded widely with various people, both famous and now-forgotten, such as Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, and Joseph Weiss.[2] Guy Stroumsa recently published Scholem's correspondence with Morton Smith (1915-1991), a brilliant yet controversial scholar of Judaism and Christianity in antiquity. His discovery of a work he termed the <i>Secret Gospel of Mark</i> resulted in accusations of forgery, which to this day have remained unresolved.[3]<br />
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On August 6, 1948, Scholem sent Smith a letter thanking him for the gift of a book, and filling him in on the recent events of the 1948 war.<br />
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How does an historian, someone used to studying history at a distance from old books and manuscripts, react when brought face-to-face with events of historical magnitude? Scholem appreciates a little bit of romance in his situation, mingled with the feeling that too much "history" is actually rather uncomfortable.<br />
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"<i>The last months have been </i>most<i> eventful and we could go on and on talking about our experiences. It was a great time. Of course, no academic work could proceed orderly, but everybody has had his fill of excitement and work, building fortifications, standing up to shelling and sniping, it was all very much (a little too much, perhaps) “Historic”. I was some kind of porter </i>honoris causa<i> with the Jewish H.Q. and have spent some time on Mount Zion when we took over the ‘Dormitio’ of the Benedictines. The good </i>patres<i> had fled and we had to guard the place. You would not have recognized Jerusalem these days! The shelling (very much English-made) was disagreeable, distasteful and exceedingly noisy. Some fell around our house, but no damage was done. Nobody knows whether the whole thing is going to start anew, and both sides are preparing themselves. The optimism which greeted the second cease-fire has vanished</i>."[4]<br />
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Scholem goes on to write that some of their mutual friends have died, but there is still some humour, as others, like a certain widow, now make for unlikely soldiers as they patrol the city with stenguns. Scholem ends his letter on a sober yet hopeful note that could stand in for the Jewish sector's experience of the Jerusalem siege as a whole.<br />
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"<i>Everybody has become tall and meager and since the end of the siege we are living on food parcels from every corner of Israel. Everybody wanted to do something for us. To which we could not object reduced as we were in physical strength. Let us hope that the tribulations of Israel are soon over. And that we meet again in peaceful employment.</i>"[5] <br />
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[1]The first chapter may be read here. http://www2.trincoll.edu/~kiener/RELG308_Scholem_MTJM_Lecture1.pdf<br />
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[2]http://www.tabletmag.com/100-greatest-jewish-books/144508/correspondence-walter-benjamin-and-gershom-scholem-1992<br />
http://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/correspondence_--gershom_scholem_54234.html?d_view=english<br />
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/new-book-sheds-light-on-kabbalah-scholar-s-tragic-descent-into-madness.premium-1.506635 <br />
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[3]<span class="st">Guy Stroumsa (ed<wbr></wbr>.), <em>Morton Smith and Gershom Scholem</em>: <em>Correspondence</em> 1945-1982 (Brill, 2008).</span> On <i>Secret Mark</i> see Scott G. Brown, <i>Mark’s Other Gospel: Rethinking Morton Smith’s Controversial Discovery</i> (Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2005). http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/press/Catalog/Excerpts/brown.shtml</div>
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[4]Stroumsa, <i>Correspondence</i>, 25-26.</div>
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[5]Ibid., 26.</div>
Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-71852937036521525202013-09-09T22:47:00.002-07:002013-09-09T22:51:51.608-07:00More Terrible Than Even the Persecutions of the Jews: The Mormon Experience in Ha-Magid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 1940,
Darryl Zanuck released a now forgotten film- <i>Brigham Young: Frontiersman</i>. This
was the first sympathetic cinematic portrayal of the Mormon story, and it was
warmly welcomed both by LDS leadership and lay members. The late Davis Bitton pointed
out that the message of the film went beyond just telling the Mormon story, and
was concerned with the present no less than the past.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“<i>I wonder
how many people who saw the movie "Brigham Young" realized that it
was also about the Jews. By this time, the terrible persecution of Jews in
Hitler's Germany was far advanced. Nazi troops had moved into the Rhineland,
Austria, and Czechoslovakia. They had invaded Poland, the Netherlands, and
France. France and England had declared war. Jews were being herded into camps.
Some hid and some fled to safety in other countries. All of this was very much
on the mind of people like Darryl Zanuck. We don't have to guess that this
comparison was in his mind because he said so, and the comparison was also
picked up by many reviewers. A movie about a persecuted religious minority,
driven from their homes and seeking refuge elsewhere was very topical in 1940.
You didn't have to be aware of this sub-text to enjoy the movie, but it was
there and provided some of the motivation that brought it into being</i>.”[1]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">However, this
was not the first time that the Mormon narrative was utilized to highlight the
plight of Jews. In 1902, the Hebrew-language newspaper, Ha-Magid, published a
letter about the rise of anti-Semitism in New-York. This letter by a
correspondent identified only as “a Galician” shared some instances of this anti-Semitism.
In one, Jews were framed for petty theft in order to keep them out of hotels.
In another, a gang of Christian youth attacked Jewish park-goers, beating some
and raping others. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
correspondent made high use of alarmist rhetoric, and referenced the Mormon
experience as an example of what might happen to American Jews if the
anti-Semitic outbursts in New York were left unchecked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“<i>Before antisemitism
appeared in America, the Americans were famed as the most tolerant and free people
in the world, but now that it has appeared here, there are grounds to the fear
that hatred of Jews will develop to a degree unheard of in Europe. That the
Americans are capable of persecuting people with a fury and wrath far
surpassing that of the nations of Europe we know from the persecutions of
Mormons in the previous century, which were more terrible than even the
persecutions of the Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages</i>.“[2]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
correspondent, as it turned out, was wrong. The very next year, a pogrom occurred
in the town of Kishinev, signaling a series of violent attacks in several towns
of the Russian Empire. The degree of official tolerance, complicity, and even
instigation of the violence sent shockwaves throughout the Jewish world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just over a decade later, the Jewish writer
and activist, S. Ansky, witnessed what he termed the destruction of Galicia. The
Russian atrocities against the Jewish communities of Galicia (home of the Magid’s correspondent) in World War One were staggering, but if that wasn’t enough, the
Russian Civil War saw further eruptions of violence, not only under Petlyura,
but also among the Whites and the Reds. The horror of Haun’s Mill was repeated
in town after town and village after village of Jewish Eastern Europe. The
Jewish writer Isaac Babel described in his terse, laconic style a Polish pogrom
in Komarov, and the callousness of the subsequent occupation by the Red Army.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“<i>Last night
Captain Yakovlev's Cossacks were here. A pogrom. The family of David Zis, in
their home, the old prophet, naked and barely breathing, the butchered old
woman, a child with chopped-off fingers. Many of these people are still
breathing, the stench of blood, everything turned topsy-turvy, chaos, a mother
over her butchered son, an old woman curled up, four people in one hut, dirt,
blood under a black beard, they're just lying there in their blood… At night, a
walk through the shtetl. The moon, their lives at night behind closed doors.
Wailing inside. They will clean everything up. The fear and horror of the
townsfolk. The main thing: our men are going around indifferently, looting
where they can, ripping the clothes off the butchered people</i>.”[3]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It wouldn’t
take more than a generation before the Jewish world of Eastern Europe
disappeared almost entirely in the Holocaust. On the other hand, neither Jewish
nor Mormon communities in the United States have been subjected to such
violence and destruction, and one hopes that this is true fifty, seventy, and
one hundred years from now. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Even though
Ha-Magid’s predictions have thus far proved incorrect, the letter is invaluable as an example
of how other minorities could view and use the Mormon experience to relate and
define their own experiences and fears in the new world. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[1] <a href="http://www.ldsfilm.com/movies/BrighamYoung.html">http://www.ldsfilm.com/movies/BrighamYoung.html</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[2]Ha-Magid
(Hamgid L’Israel), July 31, 1902,</span> <a href="http://jpress.org.il/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin_TAU.asp?From=Search&Key=MGD/1902/07/31/6/Ar00602.xml&CollName=MGD_Default&DOCID=49152&PageLabelPrint=&Skin=%54%41%55%48%65&enter=%74%72%75%65&Publication=%4d%41%52&AppName=%32&Hs=%61%64%76%61%6e%63%65%64&AW=%31%33%37%38%33%36%32%33%32%32%37%31%38&sPublication=%4d%47%44&tauLanguage=&sScopeID=%41%6c%6c&sSorting=%53%63%6f%72%65%2c%64%65%73%63&sQuery=%u05d4%u05de%u05d5%u05e8%u05de%u05d5%u05e0%u05d9%u05dd&rEntityType=&sSearchInAll=%66%61%6c%73%65&ViewMode=HTML" target="_blank">A Letter from America</a><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[3]Isaac
Babel, Red Cavalry, 279.</span>Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-29690242489347443742013-09-04T23:13:00.000-07:002013-09-04T23:13:16.061-07:00Celebrations of Learned Men: Nibley, Schoolmen, and the Denial of Revelation<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/cordoba-maimonides-statue-or-moses-ben-maimon-aka-rambam-jewish-quarter-viii-spain-john-a-shiron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/cordoba-maimonides-statue-or-moses-ben-maimon-aka-rambam-jewish-quarter-viii-spain-john-a-shiron.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
John Gee posted an interesting Hugh Nibley quote in a recent blog post. <br />
<br />
<i>I have discussed the supplanting of the gospel by the teaching of the
schools (in ancient times, that is) in a number of studies, but to show
what I mean, one example close to home will suffice. On 23 March 1955, I
engaged in a public discussion in Salt Lake with my friend Sterling
McMurrin. I closed my rather feeble address with the words, "At this
point (i.e., after we have discovered the depths of our own ignorance)
we can begin the study of the gospel; there is no further need for
waiting around until 'history' can make up its mind." Immediately
Sterling (for it was his turn to speak) arose and introduced his own
discourse by saying, "now we will hear the </i>real<i> gospel." This
brought a round of applause from the university crowd--did they realize
what it meant? It was a frank declaration that the celebrations of the
learned men and </i>not<i> the utterances of the prophets comprise the
gospel. This has been the credo of the Christian schoolmen since the
days of Clement of Alexandria: the university--Christian, Moslem,
Jewish, or pagan--has its own religion, and the basic tenet of that
religion is the denial of revelation." (Hugh Nibley, "Nobody to Blame," CWHN 17: 128-29.)</i>[1]<br />
<br />
Sterling McMurrin, of course, was an LDS philosopher often criticial of the church, but still fairly sympathetic to it.[2] Here he forms one half of a classic Nibley construct- the inherent dichothomy between the scholar and the man of god. When institutionalised, such learning becomes a counterfeit gospel, a false priesthood at odds with and fatal to the true gospel.[3]<br />
<br />
"<i>You see the point: The scholar and learned divine
must necessarily get their knowledge from the written word, and then trouble
begins. The prophet, on the other hand, who may well be illiterate, gets his
knowledge by direct intercourse with heaven. The orientation of the two is
entirely different</i>."[4]<br />
<br />
It seems a little inconsistent for a tenured professor to have held those views, but whatever his beliefs, Nibley was nothing if not sincere. At times he even expressed a more-or-less favourable opinion of scholars.<br />
<br />
"<i>Lehi takes his place among the titans of the early sixth century; a seeker
after righteousness, a prophet, a poet, a scholar, a man of the world, a great
leader, and a founder of nations. A thoroughly typical product, we might add,
of 600 B.C. and of no other period in history.</i>"[5]<br />
<br />
While there is some truth to Nibley's claim that pneumatic authority was marginalised, I. E., that the "lights went out,"[6] I contend that his view misunderstands the medieval philosophical and scholastic traditions. Taken as a whole, each of these three religions- Judaism, Christianity, Islam- revolved around revealed tradition. Revelation was central to each, and scholars for the most part agreed that there was a limit to what could be discovered and grasped by human intellectual effort. Divine revelation bridged that gap between man and God, but the rest could, and, indeed, should, be explored to the fullest extent possible.<br />
<br />
The 15th century Karaite authority, Elijah Bashyatchi, stressed that accepting a revealed truth or commandment ought to precede all other inquiries into it.<br />
<br />
"<i>The proper thing for every believer in the Law is to receive these ordinances first by tradition, and only afterward, with the help of his divine Rock, to seek the knowledge of the cause for every ordinance, according to its interpretations, particulars, and biblical examples. This is the way of him who desires and longs for moral perfection... If he were to endeavor first to learn the reasons and the biblical examples for every commandment, and accept it by tradition only afterward, he would be like a man who refuses to eat bread until he learns how it was sown, how it was harvested, how it was ground, and how it was baked, and who would consequently go hungry a long time until he shall have learned its causes and beginnings.</i>"[7]<br />
<br />
The great scholar of esoteric Islam, Henri Corbin, pointed out that for Muslim philosophers, their Greek and Hellenistic counterparts had partaken of revelation, and thus their science was itself a facet of prophetic inspiration.<br />
<br />
"<i>The term </i>hikmah<i> is the equivalent of the Greek</i> sophia<i>, and the term </i>hikmat ilahlyah<i> is the literal equivalent of the Greek </i>theosophia<i>. Metaphysics is generally defined as being concerned with the </i>ilahiyat<i>, the </i>Divinalia<i>. The term '</i>ilm ilahi (scientia divina)<i> cannot and should not be translated by the word theodicy. Muslim historians, from al-Shahrastani in the twelfth century to Qutb-al-Din Ashkivari in the seventeenth, take the view that the wisdom of the 'Greek sages' was itself also derived from the 'Cave of the lights of prophecy'... Philosophical enquiry</i> (tahqiq) <i>in Islam was most 'at home' where the object of meditation was the fundamental fact of prophecy and of the prophetic Revelation, with the </i>hermeneutical<i> problems and situation that this fact implies. Thus philosophy assumes the form of 'prophetic philosophy'... Correspondingly, it is not possible to speak of </i>hikmah<i> in Islam without speaking of mysticism—without speaking, that is to say, of Sufism both from the point of view of its spiritual experience and from that of its speculative theosophy, which has its roots in Shiite esotericism. As we shall see, al-Suhrawardi and, after him, the whole school of </i>ishraqiyun<i> directed their efforts to uniting philosophical enquiry with personal spiritual realization. In Islam above all, the history of philosophy and the history of spirituality are inseparable.</i>"[8]<br />
<br />
Not only was Islamic philosophical enquiry concerned with a revealed text and tradition, gaining "knowledge by direct intercourse with heaven," was not seen as inimical to the scholastic pursuit. The<i> </i>ishraqi school, a highly influential school of thought in the Muslim world, even considered it the defining feature of acquiring knowledge.<br />
<br />
In the Latin West, the attitude of the scholastics to prophecy was complex, but for the famed doctor of the Roman Catholic Church, Thomas Aquinas, revelation still stood at the basis of God's relationship to man. <br />
<br />
<i>"Thomas Aquinas expresses in his </i>De ente et essentia<i> the relationship between the Creator and the fallen creature. According to the idea of the </i>analogia entis<i>, an analogy will always exist between God and man. This analogy is based in man’s being created in God’s image, which is expressed primarily in man’s reason, the direct place of encounter between him and God. For Thomas and the entire Scholastic tradition, reason is seen as the umbilical cord between God and man, and yet reason in itself will never suffice to fully understand and know God. Even if the analogia entis teaching expresses that there is and remains an analogy between God and man, it is far more important to acknowledge in this analogy a greater difference: while man and God can meet, this meeting can occur only on the condition that God never can be completely or fully comprehended.<br />This continued analogy guarantees the possibility that God can lift the veil that lies between himself and man and communicate himself to man. Although before the Fall there was continued openness, after it revelation was required whereby man might commune with God. And if the continued analogy makes continued revelation possible, God’s love makes it necessary. During the entire history of Israel, the prophets are the champions of continued openness and communication between God and man, his instruments through which he seeks to reestablish the broken unity. It is this revealing activity of God’s love that is continued in the vocation of the Christian prophets, whereby Christian prophecy may be seen as the most immediate expression of God’s revealing activity. It is immediate because not only is it a sign of God’s general revealing activity, but it is, in itself, a type of experienced revelation</i>."[9]<br />
<br />
Here, too, man experiences direct communication from God, and this experience is to culminate in man's ultimate goal- union with God.<br />
<br />
"<i>Prophecy is revealing in its mode, inasmuch the prophet considers his or her experience a form of direct communication from God through which God reveals his truths. Second, Prophecy is revealing in its scope, inasmuch as God through the prophet seeks to attain the goal of his activity, namely, to lead man back to his original union with God</i>."[10]<br />
<br />
Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, or more commonly in English, Maimonides, was the seminal figure of medieval Judaism. Physician, scientist, religious codifier, theologian, scholar, politician, philosopher, and benefactor of wide-flung Jewish communities, it is hard to exaggerate Maimonides' influence on both his contemporaries and subsequent generations, down to the Judaism of today. Maimonides was also widely read in a Latin translation, where his Guide for the Perplexed with its resolution of the supposed inconsistencies between the Bible and the science of the day in turn influenced the scholastics. <br />
<br />
As Abraham Joshua Heschel noted, Maimonides (oft considered the arch-rationalist) was practically obsessed with the idea of prophecy.<br />
<br />
"<i>During his youth, he delved into the arcana of prophecy, and his deep thoughts about it became the nucleus of his intellectual and spiritual life. Only this personal motive offers an explanation for the extraordinary centrality of prophecy in Maimonides' philosophy, for the intellectual passion with which he asked himself these questions.</i>"[11] <br />
<br />
A recent academic study highlighted the centrality of the Torah in Maimonides' thought.<br />
<br />
<i>"The prophecy of Moses is distinguished from the prophecy of other prophets in four respects. The most significant of these differences is that “the prophets other than Moses received prophecy in an allegory or riddle, while Moses received his prophecy clearly and lucidly.”<br />From this description it follows, as Maimonides states, that Moses’ prophecy was rooted in the intellect alone, while the prophecy of the other prophets depended on the human imagination and the senses. Describing the prophecy of Moses in the seventh of his thirteen principles, Maimonides wrote: “There remained no veil he did not rend and penetrate, nothing physical to hold him back, no deficiency, great or small, to confuse him. All his powers of sense and imagination were suppressed, and pure reason alone remained.” Thus, the Law of Moses, the </i>Torah<i>, is as close to reason, that is philosophy, as any law can be. This closeness leads Maimonides to emphasize, in his legal writings, that </i>halakhah<i> is based primarily on the </i>Torah<i>, rather than on rabbinic deductions. For the same reason, he relies on the philological considerations laid out in the </i>Treatise on the Art of Logic<i> for his interpretation of the Bible for the masses; it is in this way that he can bring their understanding of the biblical text, and particularly their understanding of the nature of God, closer to philosophic truth. Finally, syllogisms listed in the </i>Treatise on the Art of Logic<i>—again philosophic arguments—make it possible for him to show the religious person who has studied philosophy that no contradiction exists between biblical teachings, correctly interpreted, and philosophic truths.</i>"[12]<br />
<br />
The Torah's importance for Maimonides stemmed from it being a revealed text, and not only that, but revealed by the highest level of prophecy attainable by man. The talmuds were secondary in importance (though still authoritative) when it came to establishing legal rulings, as the reasoning was a natural, human process and thus inferior to the pure reason of revelation.<br />
<br />
There is much more that could be said on the topic, but Nibley's sharp dichothomy between schoolmen and revelation simply does not withstand scrutiny. Not for Islam, not for Christianity, not for Judaism. The university, or the pursuit of knowledge in general, is no more in opposition to the gospel than any other human endeavour could be. It all depends on how we approach it. <br />
<br />
[1]http://fornspollfira.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-little-nibley.html<br />
<br />
[2]As an example, see https://dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V17N01_20.pdf<br />
<br />
[3]Hugh Nibley, <i>Leaders and Managers</i>. http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=578<br />
For a critique of another false dichothomy in Nibley's commencement speech, see http://www.withoutend.org/boss-critique-nibleys-leaders-managers/<br />
<br />
[4]Nibley, "<span id="publication_header_title">Prophets and Scholars," in </span><i>The World and the Prophets</i><span id="publication_header_title">. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=54&chapid=489</span><br />
<span id="publication_header_title"><br /></span>
<span id="publication_header_title">[5]Nibley, </span><span class="userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><i>An Approach to the Book of Mormon</i>, p. 39. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=60&chapid=581 Even this positive appraisal was qualified. "</span><i>Lest we hastily conclude
that Lehi was but a typical wise man of his age, and no more, we have but
to set up his story and his sermons beside the stories and sermons of his
great contemporaries of the East and West. What a contrast! For all their
moral fervor, nothing could be less like the inspired utterances of the man
from Jerusalem than the teachings of the great Greeks, with their worldly
wisdom and their bleak pessimism." An Approach</i>," p. 43-44.<br />
<br />
[6]A representative example of Nibley's view on apostasy is found in his "<span id="publication_header_title">The Passing of the Primitive Church: Forty Variations on an Unpopular Theme," in </span><i>When the Lights Went Out: Three Studies on the Ancient Apostasy</i>. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=43&chapid=217 "<i>The call to repentance
of the apostolic fathers is a last call; they labor the doctrine of the Two
Ways as offering to Christian society a last chance to choose between saving
its soul by dying in the faith or saving its skin by coming to terms with
the world. They have no illusions as to the way things are
going: the church has lost the gains it once made, the people are being
led by false teachers, there is little to hinder the fulfillment
of the dread (and oft-quoted) prophecy, "the Lord shall deliver the sheep
of his pasture and their fold and their tower to destructions."
The original tower with its perfectly cut and well-fitted stones is soon to
be taken from the earth, and in its place will remain only a second-class
tower of defective stones which could not pass the test... The apostolic fathers
take their leave of a church not busily engaged in realizing the kingdom
but fast falling asleep; the lights are going out, the Master has departed
on his long journey, and until he returns all shall sleep. What lies ahead
is the Wintertime of the Just, the time of mourning for the Bridegroom, when
men shall seek the Lord and not find him, and "seek to do good, but no
longer be able to</i>."<br />
The talmudic pericope on the controversy of the oven of achnay depicts the tension betwen pneumatic authority on the one hand, and the idea expressed in the talmudic dicta "a sage is greater than a prophet," and "prophecy has been taken away from the prophets and has been given to the sages," on the other. Even here, however, the question is nuanced. If God gave the law to his legislators, are they allowed to arrive at their own interpretations, conclusions, and rulings, or not?<br />
<br />
[7]Elijah Bashyatchi, <i>Adderet Eliyahu</i>, as quoted in Leon Nemoy, <i>Karaite Anthology: Excerpts from the Early Literature</i>, p. 242.<br />
<br />
[8]Henry Corbin, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The History of Islamic Philosophy,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> vol. 1, p. xv-xvi</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></b></span> http://www.amiscorbin.com/textes/anglais/Hist_Iran_Phil_Corbin_part_I.pdf For example, even the pagan god Hermes Trismegistus was considered to be the prophet Idris, that is, Enoch. This facilitated Muslim adoption of the science in the <i>Corpus Hermeticum</i>. See Kevin van Bladel, <span class="st"><i>The Arabic Hermes:</i> <i>From Pagan Sage</i> to Prophet of Science. Following the term coined by Marsilio Ficino, this concept in Christian thought is generally termed <i>prisca theologia</i>. Rabbi Yosef Shelomo Delmedigo expressed one of the Jewish approaches to this. "<i>Plato's opinions are similar to the opinions of the Sages of Israel and in a few instances it appears that he spoke as a Kabbalist. No fault can be found in his words, and why should we not accept them, for they belong to us, and were inherited by the Greeks from our ancient fathers?</i>" For the fuller quote, and a discussion of the various <i>prisca</i> theories, see Moshe Idel, "Prisca Theologia in Marsilio Ficino and in Some Jewish Treatments," in </span>Michael J. B. Allen, Valery Rees, and Martin Davies, ed.,<i> Marsilio Ficino, His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy</i>, p. 137-158.<br />
<br />
[9]Niels Christian Hvidt, <i>Christian Prophecy: the Post Biblical Tradition</i>, p. 124<br />
<br />
[10]<i>Ibid</i>., p. 125.<br />
<br />
[11]Abraham Joshua Heschel, <i>Maimonides: A Biography</i>, p. 26. See also the essay on Maimonides in Heschel's <i>Prophetic Inspiration After the Prophets: Maimonides and Others</i>. <br />
<br />
[12]Arthur Hyman, "Maimonides as Biblical Exegete," in Dobbs-Weinstein, Goodman, Grady, ed., <i>Maimonides and His Heritage</i>, p. 10.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-29695978706984450402013-07-25T08:50:00.001-07:002013-07-25T08:50:09.725-07:00Two Pockets
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Page 50 of the book "Siach Serafei Kodesh," contains the following teaching of the Hasidic Rebbe Simcha Bunim of Przysucha.<br /><br />"I further heard it said in
[R. Simcha Bunim's] name that each and every person should have two pockets to
be used when needed. In one pocket "For me was the world created (Mishnah, t.
Sanhedrin 4:5)," and in the other, "I am but dust and ashes (Genesis
18:27)."<br /><br />According to the same source, R. David of Lelov added that many err and
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To my mind, this represents a very novel way of finding balance between two religious extremes. On the one hand, we are in God's image and likeness, and are the reason for the creation. Focusing on that alone can lead to pride. On the other hand, we are lowly, helpless, and hapless. Focusing on that, however, leads to depression, dejection, and a sense of futility which Maupassant brilliantly explored in his short story, "The Venus of Braniza." Recognising that there is a time and place for both sentiments helps us ascend higher up the rungs of the ladder leading back to God.</div>
Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-87315120422052835932013-07-24T23:45:00.003-07:002013-07-24T23:45:47.895-07:00Mormon Gathering in the Ottoman EmpireAs yesterday was Pioneer Day, I thought it would be interesting to post a little-known source regarding the Mormon doctrine of the gathering.<br />
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In 1889, Fred Stauffer, of the "Turkish Mission," wrote to the apostle George Teasdale, mission president in Europe.<br />
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"The Turks have of late passed strict laws prohibiting any of their subjects from leaving the empire. Many who have attempted to leave have been taken and imprisoned, that was the case with two parties in Sivas this week. Hence the idea of having a gathering place in Asia Minor or Palestine is very pleasing to the Saints because they are all anxious to gather to one place where they can be more fully instructed in the ways of God"[1]<br />
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While I hesitate to term this an important interim step in the development of the gathering, it is still a fascinating document. President Ferdinand Hintze explored the possibility of establishing a Mormon colony near Jerusalem. He considered it "a good plan for us to settle in Palestine and make a colony there."[2]<br />
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In this, he was highly influenced by the Mormon converts in the German Colony of Haifa. The colony was established by members of the Temple Society from Württemberg. This Millenarian group broke off from the Lutheran church, and sought to pave the way for the return of the Messiah by redeeming the Holy Land through communal agriculture.[3] Ironically, they were actually preceded in this by two former Mormons, Warder Cresson, and George Adams.[4]<br />
<br />
As Stauffer wrote to Teasdale, founding a Mormon colony in Palestine, or Turkey, would allow the saints- barred by Ottoman laws from emigrating outside the Empire- to gather to a central location and live the gospel as an united community.<br />
<br />George Q. Cannon concurred. "It appears that the time must soon come when a gathering place for those who obey the gospel in those regions must be appointed, so that they can be taught the principles of righteousness in a body and not be left in their scattered condition."[5]<br />
<br />
Gathering was vital to early Mormonism. If not to the Zion in Missouri, then to the Rocky Mountains. If not to the Rocky Mountains, then to some central spot locally. The theology, as ever, was tempered by pragmatic considerations. Later, even this was deemphasised, and members of the church encouraged to build up their local communities. <br />
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As far as the Mormon dream of an agricultural colony in the East goes, it never materialised, but that is another story. <br />
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[1]The Latter-Day Saints Millennial Star, vol. 52, p. 395.<br />
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[2]<span class="st">Rao H. </span><span class="st">Lindsay, <em>The Dream of a Mormon Colony in the Near East</em>. Dialogue 1 (<wbr></wbr>Winter 1966), p. 52. http://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V01N04_52.pdf</span><br />
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<span class="st">[3]http://www.gameo.org/encyclopedia/contents/T460.html</span><br />
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<span class="st">[4]Ruth Kark </span><i><span class="st">Millenarian and Agricultural Settlement in the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century, </span></i><span class="st">Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1983. http://geography.huji.ac.il/.upload/RuthPub/Num%2030%20Millenarian%20and%20Agricultural%20Settlement%20in%20the%20Holy%20Land.PDF</span><br />
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<span class="st">[5]Lindsay, Mormon Colony, p. 53. </span><br />
Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-35520338002896951292013-07-22T23:09:00.002-07:002013-07-22T23:09:44.273-07:00Seek Ye Out of the Best Books: An Approach to Academic Study and FaithAccording to one of the early revelations of Joseph Smith, the Latter-day Saints are commanded to "teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith."[1] <br />
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In a classic article on the inner meaning of the Bible in Medieval Judaism, Frank Talmage provides food for thought on the role that secular, academic study of scripture can play for the believer.<br />
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"When the late Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Abraham Isaac ha-Kohen Kook, was asked concerning the legitimacy of the findings of modern biblical scholarship for the pious Jew, he replied... that although one need not blindly accept them, neither must one blindly reject them: "For the purpose of Torah is not to tell us simple facts and stories. Its essence is that which lies within (<i>tokh</i>), the inner elucidation of the material." If anything, he continues, should modern biblical scholarship challenge traditional understanding of the Torah, all the better! For it will spur on the pious Jew to probe more deeply and search out the Torah's profounder intents."[2]<br />
<br />In other words, we need not fear challenges posed by secular, academic studies of scripture even when they contradict or challenge our beliefs. Some of the findings are legitimate, others are not. However, even those which are not still serve a valuable purpose by encouraging us to dig deeper into the meaning of our scriptures. We needn't always take a conservative stance in regards to scripture, where the litmus test for the validity of academic studies is whether or not they conform to and confirm our presuppositions. Academic study can transform our understanding and bring us closer to truth when we use it as catalyst for seeking deeper knowledge, even "by faith."<br />
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[1]Doctrine and Covenants 88:118.<br />
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[2]Frank Talmage, "Apples of Gold: The Inner Meaning of Sacred Texts in Medieval Judaism." http://www.lineas.cchs.csic.es/inteleg/sites/lineas.cchs.csic.es.inteleg/files/Talmage-Apples.pdfCalba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-82824077178807924052013-07-08T10:38:00.002-07:002013-07-08T10:38:37.778-07:00A Mystical Motive for Haredi Opposition to the BYU Jerusalem Center<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span>The BYU
Jerusalem Center began construction in 1985, and almost immediately encountered
opposition from the Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, sector. I turned four in 1988,
the same year that the Center was completed. I was thus too young to remember
much of the controversy, but I do that the bulk of the Israeli population was
indifferent, and those who were acquainted with members of the church tore up
posters and fliers distributed by Haredi anti-missionary activists. They never
allowed protests to be held in the neighbourhood where we had our small meeting
house, either. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anti-missionary sentiment
was perhaps the most obvious cause of Haredi opposition, however, even this
doesn’t adequately explain why the opposition from some Haredi groups was
fiercer than that from other groups. Writing in 1988, the Israeli journalist
Amnon Levy pointed out other factors which came into play.</div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“When Rabbi
Yitzhak Kaduri, the foremost Kabbalist in Israel, declares that the Admor of Ger’s
illness is caused by the construction of the Mormon university on Mount Scopus,
the Hasidic court [of Ger] wages an all out war against the Mormons, and the Ger
representative in the Knesset is even instructed to call for a vote of no
confidence in the government and to threaten to resign from the coalition. All
this because the Hasidim accept the decrepit Kabbalist’s vision as meaningful, undisputed
fact.”[1]</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.kaduri.net/_Uploads/ImagesGallery/23RabbiHand.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kaduri.net/_Uploads/ImagesGallery/23RabbiHand.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Widely
celebrated as the greatest Kabbalist of the past thirty years, Rabbi Yitzhak
Kaduri was well over one hundred years old when he died in 2006. Thousands
flocked to him for amulets, blessings, and prognostications for matters ranging
anywhere from finding a good match, to curing childlessness, to mysterious health
issues, to demonic possession, to financial woes. I personally know dozens who
turned to him, and were you to recommend a good clinic or financial advisor
instead, would look at you as though you were mad. By virtue of his mastery of
Kabbalah and the aura of ascetic holiness surrounding him, Kaduri was
considered to be in control of divine and hidden processes in both this world
and the one beyond. This allowed him to diagnose the true root of any issue and
prescribe the correct cure- usually a unique permutation of the divine name-
which would then be written on an amulet given the supplicant. This ability was
not restricted to amulets. Kaduri frequently spoke out on matters of national
policy, connecting the visible manifestation to another separate, spiritual
issue; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the deep link between them concealed
below the surface. Thus it was with the building of BYU Jersusalem. The Center,
according to Kaduri, was the cause of the mysterious, debilitating illness which
struck the Hasidic Rebbe of Ger in 1985. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc_2gmZ_WPx9zB16LoQxNMZ0whig9ii6sNBD_35iwFYAelJMN-hJf63ZLs-QXB4g57v8msi-0d8pISU-tMpVJ3Go7gAeVVFc6LgSYYF4LyQhKtN9Cd3QRxFOE_ugmpKNQa4GC6SrphMA/s1600/Simcha_Bunim_Alter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEc_2gmZ_WPx9zB16LoQxNMZ0whig9ii6sNBD_35iwFYAelJMN-hJf63ZLs-QXB4g57v8msi-0d8pISU-tMpVJ3Go7gAeVVFc6LgSYYF4LyQhKtN9Cd3QRxFOE_ugmpKNQa4GC6SrphMA/s1600/Simcha_Bunim_Alter.jpg" /></a><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Rabbi Simcha Bunim Alter was the fifth
Rebbe (or Admor) of the Hasidic court of Ger. On the one hand he did things
like institute daily study of the much neglected Talmud Yerushalmi, and fought
against social ills such as smoking. On the other hand, he was extremely
reactionary, and bitterly campaigned against what he saw as the twin evils of
Christianity and the secular world. Politically, he achieved a lot of pull, and
unusually for a Hasidic Rebbe, was very supportive of the Sephardic faction in
the Haredi world. Kaduri was prominent in that marginalized faction, which
helps explains why he was close to Alter. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the Hasidim themselves, they certainly
believed in an unseen world where the supernatural regularly intruded upon
this, the seen world. Miracles, visions, dreams, prophecies, and curses, these
were all mysterious, but very real and very present. This is why they believed
Kaduri’s diagnosis, but their vehemence towards BYU is better explained by the
role that Alter played in their lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
Hasidic Rebbe is a tzaddik- a holy man- who intercedes with God on behalf of his
followers, drawing down blessings upon them. He also purifies and uplifts their
souls. In return they are to cleave to him, and support him materially. The
tzaddik, as famously formulated, is the foundation upon which the world stands.
He is literally the link between his followers and God. Alter fell mysteriously
ill in 1985, becoming unable to communicate with his followers, and, indeed,
barely functioning at all. This sent shockwaves throughout his court, and
Kaduri’s declaration galvanized them into action against the cause of their
Rebbe’s affliction. So, in the case of Ger, the motivation behind Hasidic
opposition to the BYU center was as much personal as it was anti-missionary.
Alter never recovered, but died in 1992. Since then, Mormons have largely faded
from Hasidic memory, and one is far likelier to encounter negative sentiment
stemming from LDS proxy work for the dead than from anything to do with Alter
or Kaduri.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[1]Amnon Levy, "The Ultra-Orthodox," (Heb.), Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, Ltd., 1988, p. 22.</span></div>
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Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-51678782621754563712013-01-21T09:26:00.001-08:002013-01-21T09:29:39.934-08:00Isaac Luria and the Spiritual Benefits of Reading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Worlds Without End, one of the more engaging Mormon-themed blogs, recently had an interesting discussion on the psychological (and spiritual) benefits of reading the Book of Mormon somewhat like one would do with a novel. That is, a “casual, straightforward read.”[1]</div>
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There is an early modern precedent for this kind of reading of sacred writings. R. Isaac Luria Ashkenazi (the Ari, or Arizal), a seminal figure in the history of Jewish mysticism, was, in Lawrence Fine’s memorable phrase, “physician of the soul.” The cosmos was held to be mirrored in the human body and soul, so both the heavenly and the earthly affected and influenced each other.[2] Luria’s primary disciple, R. Hayim Vital Calabrese, described in some detail Luria’s activity as the spirit’s doctor. “He [Luria] would not reveal any of the mysteries of this holy knowledge to one in whose soul he perceived, with the [aid of the] Holy Spirit, a blemish- until he gave him penitential acts to straighten out all that he did crookedly. And like the expert doctor who prescribes for each sick person the proper medicine to cure this illness, so too [Isaac Luria] may he rest in peace, used to recognize the sin, tell him where he incurred a blemish, and prescribe for him the penitential act needed for this transgression in order to cleanse his soul, so that he could receive the divine light, as it is written: “O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved” (Jer 4:14).”[3] In order for man to positively influence and heal processes in the divine (as well as receiving revelation), his soul must first be purified and refined. To this end, Luria prescribed particular practices. Vital collected as many reports of these varied practices as possible. R. Avraham Ha-Levi Beruchim, another disciple of Luria’s, shared with Vital Luria’s advice on how to attain the Holy Spirit. Of the three practices prescribed, two reflect traditional modes of ascetic piety- avoiding idle talk, and performing midnight vigils in which one weeps for the lack of esoteric knowledge. [4] The third practiced involved the method for reading the Zohar, the premier work of Jewish mysticism. “He [Beruchim] should only study the Zohar in such a way that increases his familiarity of its contents, without in-depth, intensive study, about forty or fifty pages a day, and that he should read the Zohar frequently.”[5] When combined with the other two practices, reading forty or fifty pages of the Zohar each day without pause for detailed study forms praxis for attaining the Holy Spirit, among the highest levels of revelation and inspiration. </div>
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However, as noted above, Luria prescribed practices on an individual basis. Just as patients visiting a doctor may not all have the same illness, so too did Luria’s “spiritual patients” have individual needs. This “remedy” of reading the Zohar like a novel was specific to Beruchim’s condition. Luria himself did not use it, but devoted himself to very intensive study of the Zohar. Luria once addressed the question of why he was able to attain more inspiration than either Hayim Vital or R. Moshe ben Yaakov Cordovero, despite their own deep study of the Zohar. “He [Luria] told me that while it was true that we had exerted ourselves [in study] more than any others of our generation, but we didn’t do as he did, for he would deprive himself of sleep for several nights poring over a single Zohar passage. Sometimes he would also seclude himself during the nights of the six weekdays, intensely studying a single Zohar passage only. Most of the time he wouldn’t even sleep during the course of those nights.”[6] As Ecclesiastes wryly observed, there is nothing new under the sun. Luria was not a psychologist. I doubt that he would even have found much value in it, but he sometimes presaged modern psychological trends in interesting ways.[7] We may not always share the same assumptions, concerns, or worldview, but there is value in listening to the voices of the past. At the very least they can point us in intriguing directions.</div>
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[1] <a href="http://www.withoutend.org/not-so-novel-read-book-mormon">http://www.withoutend.org/not-so-novel-read-book-mormon</a><br />
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[2]See Lawrence Fine, “<em>Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship</em>,” p. 141-144, 150-258, and Pinchas Giller, “<em>Reading the Zohar: The Sacred Text of the Kabbalah</em>,” p. 38, 41-42. Compare also R. Hayim ibn Attar’s remark in his commentary, “<em>Or ha-Hayim</em>.” “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, that is, He created something even more cherished and excellent- the earth, on which the heavens depend. All this He achieves through Israel, His holy people, on whom the maintenance of both worlds depends, as is known to those adept in the innermost chambers of true [I. E. esoteric] knowledge.”</div>
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[3]Hayim Vital, “<em>Shaar Ruah ha-Kodesh</em>,” p. 40, as translated in Fine, “<em>Physician</em>,” p. 152-153.<br />
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[4]Interestingly enough, ritual immersion in the mikveh is not prescribed, though Luria attached the utmost importance to it. Fine noted that, “Luria regarded ritual immersion as essential to the attainment of the Holy Spirit. Immersion was believed to be a purifying exercise of such importance that it was to be practiced with the utmost diligence and regularity (“<em>Physician</em>,” p. 263).” It could be that Luria considered it unnecessary for Beruchim, but I think a likelier view is that immersion was a given, not needing special mention. As far as arising at midnight to weep and lament, Luria has added an interesting twist. The prevalent practice in Safed was to arise at midnight and weep for <em>the exile of the Shekhinah</em>. Beruchim himself was an enthusiastic practitioner, reportedly waking all the scholars of the town every midnight for the vigil. See the sources in Lawrence Fines “<em>Safed Spirituality: Rules of Mystical Piety, the Beginning of Wisdom</em>,” p. 47-53.</div>
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[5]”<em>Shaar Ruah ha-Kodesh</em>,” p. 36. Translation mine. There is a practice among North African and Middle-Eastern Jews of gerisah, that is, reciting the Zohar aloud even if one doesn’t understand a single word, but it is not the same as Luria’s advice. As a scholar Beruchim would have been able to understand what he was reading, he was merely to avoid intensive study.</div>
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[6]Ibid. R. Moshe Cordovero was the foremost Kabbalist of Safed before Luria’s arrival. </div>
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[7]See the studies mentioned in Walker Wright’s Worlds Without End post.</div>
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Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-12606450732462625412012-05-14T15:13:00.000-07:002012-05-14T15:15:08.246-07:00How Beautiful Upon the Mountains: Jewish Interpretations of Isaiah 52, Pt. 1<br />
After Sunday School yesterday, I decided it would be interesting to do a series of blog posts on Jewish interpretations of Isaiah 52. Walker Wright has already posted on both the Dead Sea Scrolls and LDS interpretations of the same chapter, so I'm going to refer the reader there rather than going over it again.<br />
<a href="http://walkstar.blogspot.com/2010/12/isaiah-according-to-abinadi-qumran.html">http://walkstar.blogspot.com/2010/12/isaiah-according-to-abinadi-qumran.html</a><br />
The first interpretation I'll discuss is less an interpretation than it is a use of Isa. 52:7. In the Babylonian Talmud there is a long list of various dream symbols and their range of meanings. A word on the psychology of dreams might be helpful. Carl Jung wrote that dream symbols, subliminal aspects of our daily lives, are "the almost invisible roots of our conscious thoughts." As a result, they play a crucial role in the interpretation of dreams. "That is why commonplace objects or ideas can assume such powerful psychic significance in a dream that we may awake seriously disturbed, in spite of having dreamed of nothing worse than a locked room or a missed train." Jung goes on to say that the reason dream symbols are so vivid is due to the dissimilarity between them and our conscious thoughts in which we "restrain ourselves within the limits of rational statements."[1]<br />
Granted, my dream where I approached someone at night and began running past them as soon as I felt something wrong, too late though as a knife flashed in the dark, that dream disturbed me more than I ever was by any door, but Jung does have a point. Things we see in dreams can stand for something deeper. That being said, Trachtenberg, in his classic study of Jewish "magic," pointed out a different approach to dreams. I might as well mention that this approach is still favoured by many people around the world. Not everyone puts stock in Western psychological paradigms.<br />
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In the long pre-Freudian centuries, before the mystery of the dream was reduced to all too human terms, when men still listened for the voice of God in the still of the night, dreams played a greater role in shaping ideas and actions and careers than it is easy for us today to believe. If we have come to look upon these nocturnal visions as the products of experience, we have simply reversed the older, though not yet altogether discarded, view which made of them initiators of experience. The supernatural world communicated with man through the dream, and spoke words of counsel and command which he felt impelled to heed.[2]</blockquote>
There were many different approaches to dreams and their sources. Whether they be 1/60th of prophecy, or revelations to the soul in its nightly journey, dreams (though not all) were considered another form of interraction between this world and those beyond it, conveying information impacting the future.<br />
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Since unfavorable as well as favorable dreams come true, and the event therefore came to be regarded as the consequence of the dream, it was believed that if one could somehow nullify the dream itself in advance its effects would be obviated.[3]</blockquote>
Using much the same idea behind the Western scientific process, events were observed and the cause deduced from the effect. It seemed to work in many cases.<br />
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Once the dream has been experienced, however, other means must be adopted to forestall its consequences.[4]</blockquote>
Nothing, of course, is infallible. Very few people rely solely upon Plan A, without also having Plans B, C, and so on. Jewish dream interpreters had various methods in place for when the dream couldn't be avoided.<br />
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Still a third method is to recite, immediately upon waking, a Biblical verse suggested by the dream, which contains a promise of good.[5]</blockquote>
Here, then, is the talmudic passage. <br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One who dreams of a mountain should arise and recite, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger of good tidings (Is. 52:7)," before he is overtaken by another verse, "For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing (Jer. 9:9)."[6]</blockquote>
This use of the Bible to ensure a favourable outcome to the future, not to mention that it also controls the negative outcome, underscores both the centrality and the power of the Bible in early Judaism. Howard Schwarz's Tree of Souls expands on those themes. The Torah not only was the means for creating the world, but sustains its very existence.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thus not only was the Torah created prior to the creation of the world, it was the vessel by which the world was created. Thus the universe was created through the letters of the Torah. So too did God declare, at the time of man’s creation, that the world was created only for the sake of the Torah, and that as long as the Jewish people occupy themselves with the Torah, the world will continue to exist. But if the Jewish people abandon the Torah, God will return all of creation to a state of chaos.[7]</blockquote>
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this method of assigning biblical verses to symbols in order to affect a dream's outcome doesn't appear to be a part of Christian dream-lore. At least, I was unable to find anything similar.<br />
<br />
[1]Carl G. Jung, "Man and His Symbols," p. 43.<br />
<br />
[2]Joshua Trachtenberg, "Jewish Magic and Superstition," p. 230.<br />
<br />
[3]Ibid, p. 244.<br />
<br />
[4]Ibid.<br />
<br />
[5]Ibid, p. 245.<br />
<br />
[6]Babylonian Talmud, t. Berachot 56b. Further examples of the positive verses are found on p. 245 of Trachtenberg. " If one dreams of a well, he should say, "And there Isaac's servants digged a well" (Gen. 26:25); of a river, "Behold I will extend peace to her like a river" (Is. 66:12); of a bird, "As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem" (Is. 31:5); of a dog, "Against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog whet his tongue" (Ex. 11:7); of a mountain, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger of good tidings" (Is. 52:7); of a <i>shofar</i>, "In that day a great <i>shofar</i> shall be blown" (Is. 27:13); of a bullock, "His firstling bullock, majesty is his" (Deut. 33:17); of a lion, "The lion hath roared, who will not fear?" (Amos 3:8); of shaving, "Joseph shaved himself and changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh" (Gen. 41:14); and so on. "<br />
<br />
[7]Howard Schwartz, "Tree of Souls," p. 249.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-2861221962603433822012-05-04T18:38:00.001-07:002012-05-04T18:38:41.769-07:00Hugh Nibley and the Wisdom of the ZoharHugh Nibley. One the one hand, a brilliant, erudite man. On the other hand, well, let's just say I am far from being uncritical of Hugh Nibley's work. His methodology tends to be outdated now and has been for a while. His greatest weakness to me is what amounts almost to a disregard for historical developement and different cultural significances when choosing his parrallels. He seemed to presuppose an unchanging, universal perspective. The kind of approach heavily indebted to James Frazer's Golden Bough. Carl Jung and Mircea Eliade were probably the best known proponents of that school.<br />
Not that such a universal approach can't yield valuable insights, but a nuanced approach which takes into account the differences as well as historical developments is going to yield far more valuable insights. Sure, one could use Lurianic texts to elucidate Ptolemaic hypocephali, but unless care is taken with the differences, the results would be skewed.<br />
This being said, Nibley's work was pioneering and important. Much of Mormon scholarship would not exist today if it weren't for his efforts. Nibley's greatest strength was not taking scriptures at face value. Perhaps I should say he looked beyond a Mormon point of view and tried reading them from an Ancient Near Eastern one. He also went into great depth, though not always in the right direction. Lehi as a Bedouin is a classic example. There is and was more to the Middle East than just Bedouins, indeed, there has always been a sharp distinction between them and the settled populations until just recently. I grew up near a Bedouin village in northern Israel and in my childhood the last of the great marauders had just begun dying off. Bedouins raids were a fact of life for farmers until the 1930s and 40s.<br />
There are quite a few passages in 1 Nephi, such as the divine instruction to light no fires, or the panic surrounding the broken bow incident, that make little sense if Lehi were a desert adept. <br />
<br />
It is nice to see Nibley referenced by non-LDS scholars.<br />
In the introduction to part V, section I of the third volume of his "The Wisdom of the Zohar", Isaiah Tishby wrote, "These two tendencies: the positing of a Temple in the upper world, and interpretation of the Tabernacle, the Temple, and all their related equipment as symbols of cosmic and supernatural phenomena, are developed and expanded much further in rabbinic aggadah[3] and Christian theology[4]."<br />
Footnote number four references H. Nibley, "Christian Envy of the Temple." Nibley's article is available online in its entirety. <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmaxwellinstitute.byu.edu%2Fpublications%2Ftranscripts%2F%3Fid%3D61&ei=coSkT6yBGMitiQL3grzBAg&usg=AFQjCNED0PWcR0eQhsDWDVPNsmUQkzY_2g&sig2=dwxsxZe0IS4EHloDfhuvXw">http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGMQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmaxwellinstitute.byu.edu%2Fpublications%2Ftranscripts%2F%3Fid%3D61&ei=coSkT6yBGMitiQL3grzBAg&usg=AFQjCNED0PWcR0eQhsDWDVPNsmUQkzY_2g&sig2=dwxsxZe0IS4EHloDfhuvXw</a> Definitely one of his better efforts.<br />
"The Wisdom of the Zohar" is an important work in the study of Jewish mysticism, and won Tishby the Bialik and Nordau Prizes. It made available in accessible, Modern Hebrew important passages from the Zohar. The Zohar was originally written in arcane, obscure Aramaic, making it hard for the lay reader to understand. Even traditionally, many Jewish communities ritually recited the Zohar without an understanding of the text being considered necessary.<br />
While there were other Hebrew translations with commentaries, such as R. Yehudah Ashlag's edition, Tishby's anthology provided scholarly introductions and notes. The essay on the development of Zohar criticism is particularly valuable. If you are looking for a way into the Zohar and Kabbalah in general, I would highly recommend Tishby's three volumes.<br />
Appearing in a footnote like that is not bad for a complete hack and laughing stock of the academic world like Nibley, as some would have it.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-23403658069213770362012-05-04T16:33:00.000-07:002012-05-04T16:38:30.960-07:00N-Town and Writing on the Ground<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/BLCD/mid/c667/c6676-06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" mea="true" src="http://molcat1.bl.uk/IllImages/BLCD/mid/c667/c6676-06.jpg" width="274" /></a></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, <br />
They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.<br />
Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?<br />
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.<br />
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.<br />
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.<br />
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.<br />
-John 8:3-9.</blockquote>
At least for me, this is one of the most enigmatic moments in the New Testament. Jesus, almost oblivious to the going-ons around him, crouches, scribbling something on the ground. Just what he wrote is never revealed and the text indicates that Jesus' spoken words- not the written words- were what affected the scribes and Pharisees. Yet, was the act of writing really unrelated to the events? From a literary point of view, I would have to say absolutely not. First off, the act of stooping and writing appears twice. It is obviously more than just an irrelevant aside, besides, I see no indication of the author of John being that execrable an author. Also, most early versions and references do not mention the act of writing.[1] An odd detail to add if it had no bearing on Jesus' words. Furthermore, is it reasonable to suppose that the scribes and Pharisees paid no attention whatsoever to Jesus' strange behaviour, that none even attempted to see what he was writing? <br />
It seems likely to me at least that the writing had some bearing on the words Jesus spoke. The solution adopted by the author (or authors) of the N-Town play, <em>The Woman Taken in Adultery</em>, is as good a guess as any. By fleshing out the dry bones of a story, drama can often reveal important insights. A story has to be shown in order to be effective. Mere declamation wont do. <br />
The N-Town author discovered an important plot device in the act of writing on the ground, using it to propel the story forward to its conclusion.<br />
<br />
<em>Jesus</em>. Look which of you that never sin wrought,<br />
But is of life cleaner than she;<br />
Cast at her stones, and spare her nought,<br />
Cleant out of sin if that ye be.<br />
<br />
<em>Here Jesus, again stooping down, shall write on the ground, and all the accusers, as if put to shame, shall go apart into three separate places.</em><br />
<br />
<em>Pharisee.</em> Alas, alas I am ashamed!<br />
I am afeard that I shall die;<br />
All my sins, even properly named<br />
Yon prophet did write before mine eye.<br />
If that my fellows that did espy,<br />
They will tell it both far and wide;<br />
My sinful living if they out cry,<br />
I wot never where my head to hide.<br />
<br />
<em>Accuser</em>. Alas, for sorrow mine heart doth bleed!<br />
All my sins yon man did write;<br />
If that my fellows to them took heed,<br />
I cannot me from death acquit.<br />
I would I were hid somewhere out of sight,<br />
That men should me me nowhere see ne know;<br />
If I be take, I am afflight<br />
In mickle shame I shall be throw.<br />
<br />
<em>Scribe</em>. Alas the time that this betid!<br />
Right bitter care doth me embrace;<br />
All my sins be now unhid:<br />
Yon man before me them all doth trace.<br />
If I were once out of this place,<br />
To suffer death great and vengeance able,<br />
I will never come before his face,<br />
Though I should die in a stable.[2]<br />
<br />
As in John 8, Jesus invites the scribes and Pharisees to execute the law in its full severity, <em>provided</em> <em>they are free from sin</em>. Ashamed, the accusers all leave in different directions, each having seen Jesus write out the exact sins they were guilty of commiting. That, according to the N-Town play, was the purpose of writing on the ground. The play in its entirety, in the original Middle English is available online.[3] In terms of simplicity, immediacy and emotional impact, <em>The Woman Taken in Adultery</em> is one of the finest medieval plays. <br />
<br />
[1]http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/TCG/TC-John-PA.pdf<br />
<br />
[2]Adapted by A. C. Cawley, "Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays," pp. 140-141.<br />
<br />
[3]http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/sdnt24frm.htmCalba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-30108566076272295302012-05-02T19:23:00.002-07:002012-05-02T19:34:54.399-07:00Abraham's Divine Power of SpeechHasidism preserved a remarkable tradition of the creative, divine powers of speech. The power of speech, of course, is connected to letter esotericism.<br />
In Judaism there was an early and sustained fascination with letters, their power and meaning. The roots of letter esotericism could be said to go back as far as the book of Genesis itself. God commands, things obey. This process was accomplished by the medium of speech. In Pirkei Avot 5:1, one of the earliest rabbinic texts, we read that God created the world by ten utterances. As speech consists of sounds represented by letters, it is logical to conclude that letters themselves have power and intrinsic meaning. Letters have individual sounds and in different combinations yield different words with different meanings. Ayin-Nun-Gimel is <em>oneg</em>- delight. Change the sequence and you get <em>nega</em>- blight or disease. God didn't say "<em>kartina maslom</em>" and there was light. He said "<em>wa-yehi or</em>." For the ancient Jewish exegetes the word choice wasn't arbitrary or randomn.<br />
<br />
As an example of this, the Tabernacle in the wilderness was believed to be modelled after the cosmos. Bezalel the architect and craftsman who constructed the tabernacle, knew,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
How to combine the letters by which the heavens and earth were created. It is written here (Exod. 35:31): "And He hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding, and in knowledge." It is written elsewhere (Prov. 3:19): "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding He established the heavens."<br />
<br />
It is also written (Prov. 3:20): "By His knowledge the depths were broken up."[1]</blockquote>
That is to say, Bezalel knew which letters were used in which combinations in order to bring about the desired results.<br />
In 3rd Enoch the theme of mystical creation by letters is continued.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Rabbi Ishmael said: ‘Metatron said to me: “Let me show you letters out of which heaven and earth were created. Letters out of which oceans and rivers were created. Letters out of which mountains and hills were created. Letters out of which trees and grass were created. Letters out of which the stars and constellations, the moon and the sun, Orion and the Pleiades and all kinds of lights of the firmament were created. Letters out of which the ministering angels were created, each letter flashed time after time like bolts of lightning, time after time like torches, time after time like flames, time after time like the rising of the sun, moon, and stars.” I approached him, and he seized me with his hand, lifted me with his wings, and showed me all those letters that were engraved with a pen of fire on God’s throne, and fiery sparks and lightning were coming out of them and covering all the chambers of the seventh heaven.’[2] </blockquote>
The five openings of the mouth is part of the classification system the Sefer Yetzirah uses for the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each "opening" is a position of the tongue for producing speech. <br />
In a discourse by the Hasidic master R. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl (1730-1798), the letter <em>heh,</em> which changed Abram's name to Abraham, symbolised the five openings. Abraham was given mastery over the openings and the powers they regulated. According to the Chernobyler, in each letter of the alphabet is hidden some of the divine light which is what brings life and blessings into the world.<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Abraham our Father so served God with love that he came to be called “Abraham My Lover” (Isa. 41:8). God gave over to him the conduct of all the worlds, placing within him this speech, centered in the five openings of the mouth. This is the meaning of God’s adding the <em>heh</em> [ = five] to Abraham’s name; it was through this that he became “father of many nations,” father and leader of the great host of the world’s peoples, by means of these five openings of the mouth…<br />
<br />
His leadership is to be in all the worlds. That was why Abram did not father children; until he had reached the point at which speech was given to him, he could not yet be a father. Abraham did father children, for those openings of the mouth by which he conducted all the worlds had now been given him. Surely through that word he could draw forth offspring for himself as well.[3]</blockquote>
The power of procreation is linked to the power of creation, both being dependant upon the divine potency inherent in pure, divine speech. I did not include R. Menahem Nahum's discussion of the rung of sacred speech. Rungs of course are what allow one to climb a ladder.<br />
Martin Buber, in his Ten Rungs, adapted a Hasidic interpretation of Jacob's ladder, emphasising the universal, ethical aspect.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Man is a ladder placed on the earth and the top of it touches heaven. And all his movements and doings and words leave traces in the upper world.[4]</blockquote>
The more traditional formulation is theurgic- by performing the commandments, man not only draws divine power into this world, but increases the power of Heaven above. In Joseph's dream, after all, the angels both descended and ascended upon the ladder.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The goal of man's coming to this lower world is to adapt himself to Torah and commandment[s], which are a ladder that stands on earth and the top of which reaches to Heaven, in order to draw down, by his performing the Torah and commandment[s], influx upon all the worlds, and to give power to the supernal retinue.[5]</blockquote>
For the Chernobyler, this is achieved primarily by means of pure, holy speech. <br />
R. Meir ha-Levi of Apta, a later Hasid, provides another description of this process.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The supernal light is emanated into his heart, and the influxes go by his mediation, by the way of the five places of his mouth...[6]</blockquote>
Until Abraham perfected by loving service- acts of worship motivated by love- his ascent to the rung of sacred speech, he lacked the power to bring forth offspring. Having attained that rung, Abraham shared the divine power to create and to produce life. Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl's homily stops short of pursuing the implications to their logical, but radical conclusion. Man is capable of attaining a level of holiness in which not only is God's power delegated to him, he governs the worlds also. This form of theosis is not post-mortal, nor is it eschatological, but available in the here-and-now through elevating the profane and mundane to holiness.<br />
<br />
[1]Babylonian Talmud, t. Berachot 55a.<br />
<br />
[2]Rachel Elior, "Jewish Mysticism: The Infinite Expression of Freedom," p. 108. <br />
[3]Arthur Green, "Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl: Upright Practices, The Light of the Eyes (Classics of Western Spirituality)," pg. 161-163.<br />
<br />
[4]Martin Buber, "Ten Rungs: Collected Hasidic Sayings," p. 34.<br />
<br />
[5]R. Aharon Shemuel ha-Cohen, translated in Moshe Idel, "Hasidism: Between Ecstasy and Magic," p. 143.<br />
<br />
[6]Ibid, p. 204.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-90491399282780891632012-05-01T21:12:00.000-07:002012-05-01T21:12:26.715-07:00The Council of SoulsFound something too good to pass up. In fact, it deserves to be posted in its entirety, dealing at it does with an obscure strand of Jewish thought on the preexistence and prehistory of the soul, or, at least, some souls. <br />
This is from Howard Schwartz's "<em>Tree of Souls: the mythology of Judaism</em>". <br />
<br />
196. THE COUNCIL OF SOULS<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The souls of the righteous existed long before the creation of the world. <br />
God consulted these souls in creating the universe, as it is said, <em>They dwelt there in the king’s service </em>(I Chron. 4:23). God called upon the souls of the righteous, who sat on the council with the Supreme King of Kings, to come together. He then took counsel with them before He brought the world into being, saying, “<em>Let us make man</em>” (Gen. 1:26). So too did they help Him with His work. Some assisted in planting and some helped create the borders of the sea, as it is said, <em>Who set the sand as a boundary to the sea</em> (Jer. 5:22). Nor does God make any important decision without consulting the Council of Souls. So too did God take counsel with the souls of the righteous. He asked them if they were willing to be created. And that is how the souls of the righteous, including the souls of Abraham and the other patriarchs, came into being. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
While there are traditions that God took council with the angels or a divine partner such as Adam in creating the world, here the phrase, “<em>Let us make man</em>” from Genesis 1:26 is said to refer to a Council of Souls (<em>nefashot shel Tzaddikim</em>), with whom God consulted before creating the world. These souls of the righteous are said to have existed before the creation of the world. In fact, it is not specified that they were created by God at all, but only called together by God before He created the universe. <br />
Further, they not only give their consent for the creation of the world, but they participate in it, assisting God in planting and creating the boundaries of the sea. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev interprets God’s consulting with the souls of the righteous to mean that He asked them if they were willing to be created. <br />
Evidence of a divine council can be found in several biblical passages, such as Psalms 82:1, which states that <em>God stands in the divine assembly; among the divine beings He pronounces judgment</em>. Here the term for the divine assembly is “<em>adat el</em>.” In <em>Canaanite </em><em>Myth and Hebrew Epic</em>, Frank Moore Cross describes this council as the Israelite counterpart of the Council of El found in Canaanite mythology, referring to El, the primary Canaanite god. It would thus seem that this obscure Jewish tradition is directly drawn from the Canaanite. Psalm 82 adds a strange twist to this myth: God appears to condemn the gods of the Council of Gods to death: “<em>I had taken you for divine beings, sons of </em><em>the Most High, all of you; but you shall die as men do, fall like any prince</em>” (Ps. 82:6). This might be interpreted to mean that monotheism declares the death of polytheism. <br />
Jeremiah 23:18 also describes a divine council: <em>But he who has stood in the council of </em><br />
<em>Yahweh, and seen, and heard His word—He who has listened to His word must obey</em>. Another reference to the divine council is found in 1 Kings 22:19-22, where God addresses the host of heaven, asking who will entice Ahab, <em>and a certain spirit came forward and stood </em><em>before the Lord and said, “I will entice him</em>.” Other passages suggesting the existence of heavenly beings with whom God discusses His decisions include Isaiah 6 and Job 1-2. <br />
Usually the term, “the souls of the righteous,” refers to the souls of the pious who have died, and whose souls have ascended to Paradise. By pre-existing, these souls become identified as primordial gods, such as are found in other Near Eastern mythologies. By calling them together as a council, God implicitly recognizes their power. It must be assumed that the council of souls gave its approval for the creation of the universe, since God proceeded with it after that. Another possible explanation would be to identify “the souls of the righteous” in this midrash with the angels. In other sources, God is said to have consulted with the angels before creating man, and there are traditions and countertraditions of the notion that the angels somehow participated in the creation of the world itself. See “Creation by Angels,” p. 116. However, it would be highly unusual to refer to the angels as “the souls of the righteous,” although Philo does refer to angels as “unbodied souls.” A prooftext for the existence of such a council of souls or angels can be found in Daniel 4:14: <em>The matter is by decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones</em>. Both of these terms, the “watchers” and the “holy ones,” suggest some kind of supernatural figures from the heavenly realm, whether angels, souls, or additional divinities. The Council of Souls may also be identified with the heavenly court, and identified as the Watchers. See “The Heavenly Court,” p. 208, and “The Watchers,” p. 457. There are parallel myths about God consulting the angels, rather than souls, in the creation of Adam. The text of Genesis 1:26 states that <em>God said: “Let us make man in our </em><em>image, after our likeness</em>.” But in the <em>Pseudo-Yonathan Targum</em> on Genesis 1:26, this is changed to read: “And God said to the angels who minister before him, who were created on the second day of Creation. `<em>Let us make man in our image, after our likeness</em>.’” See “Creation By Angels,” p. 116. In <em>Genesis Rabbah</em> 8:9 the question of how many deities created the world is directly broached: “How many deities created the world? You and I must inquire of the first day, as it is said,<em> For ask now of the first days</em> (Deut. 4:32).” The rabbis subsequently debate whether the first sentence of Genesis describes creation by one God or by many, since <em>Elohim</em> is plural. Read this way, the first line of Genesis reads: “<em>In the beginning Gods created the heaven and the earth</em>.” That such a debate can take place at all is remarkable, considering the centrality of monotheism. But it is also a tribute to the open-ended willingness of the rabbis to explore even apparently heretical interpretations of the Torah. The existence of this discussion and the fact that it was recorded in a primary text such as <em>Genesis Rabbah</em>, indicates that the “heretical” had some advocates among the rabbis. Perhaps it harks back to a residual pagan myth, a Canaanite myth about a council of gods. Such divine councils rule in Mesopotamian, Babylonian, and Canaanite mythology. In the Babylonian epic <em>Enuma Elish</em>, Marduk is made head of the divine council by defeating Tiamat, the personification of the sea. It is likely that the existence of such a council in Jewish tradition is a remnant of such an ancient myth. Ugaritic texts describe the abode of El, the primary Canaanite god, and his council on the mountain of El, where the gods are seated at a table. El’s abode is said to be in the north. This setting and location is echoed in Isaiah 14:13: “<em>I will sit in the mount of assembly, on the summit of Zaphon</em>.” (<em>Zaphon</em> is Hebrew for “north.”) God’s perplexing use of the first person plural in verses such as <em>Let us make man in </em><em>our image</em> (Gen. 1:26), <em>Behold the man has become like one of us</em> (Gen. 3:22), and <em>Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there</em> (Gen. 11:7) can be explained as addressing the divine council. This same usage is found in the Ugaritic texts. Most midrashic texts interpret “<em>Let us</em>” as God addressing the angels. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sources: <br />
<em>Genesis Rabbah</em> 8: 7; <em>Maggid Devarav le-Ya’akov</em> 1; <em>No’am Elimelekh, Bo</em> 36b. <br />
Studies: <br />
"<em>Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic</em>" by Frank Moore Cross, pp. 36-43, 186-190. <br />
“<em>The Council of Yahweh in Second Isaiah</em>” by Frank Moore Cross. <br />
“<em>The Council of Yahweh</em>” by H. Wheeler Robinson. <br />
“<em>God and the Gods in Assembly</em>” by Matitiahu Tsevat. <br />
"<em>Assembly of the Gods: The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature</em>" by E. Theodore Mullen. </blockquote>Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-69599382810915290852012-05-01T20:14:00.001-07:002012-05-03T16:25:47.785-07:00Moshe Idel and Joseph Smith<br />
I'm always interested when references to LDS history appear in unrelated studies. <br />
Moshe Idel's 2008, <em>The Angelic World: Apotheosis and Theophany,</em> has several references to Joseph Smith. Since the book has yet to appear in English, I'll quote the relevant bits.<br />
After a short paragraph on Emanuel Swedenborg and his Jewish sources, Idel says the following on Joseph Smith.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I should remark that it is possible that angelologies from a Jewish source also influenced the founder of the Mormon faith, Joseph Smith. Hence, the founders of two new forms of Christianity, both with a clear revelatory form having to do with angels, religions in which the concrete dimension is obvious- needed this Jewish concept. If Jarl Fossum is correct in his conclusion that this ancient concept of the great angel, creator of the world and giver of the Torah, influenced the emergence of the gnostic movement, then here again there lies before us an example of the formative role of Jewish angelology in the developement of religious developements outside the world of Judaism. (Pg. 73)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
See for now the controversial article by Owens, Joseph Smith and Kabbalah, pg. 117-194, which also contains a list of Kabbalistic sources which supposedly were in the library of Joseph Smith's teacher. The connection between Enoch-Metatron in Jewish tradition and Mormonism was first noted by Harold Bloom, in his book The American Religion, pg. 99, 105. I can't go into the details of the controversies created by Owens' article and the doubts about Smith's relationship to the Kabbalah. It seems that the matter of kabbalistic connections is more complicated and interesting than what can be learned from the currently published documents. (Pg. 156)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
See the above, in the introduction, for Joseph Smith's studies with Alexander Neibaur, a figure of Jewish extraction who seemed to have known Kabbalah. See also the end of chapter 4. (Pg. 194)</blockquote>
Idel's source was Lance S. Owens' <em>Joseph Smith and Kabbalah: The Occult Connection</em>, published in Dialogue, Fall 1994. <a href="https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V27N03_131.pdf">https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V27N03_131.pdf</a> <br />
I confess a certain fondness for Owens' article, despite disagree with much of its conclusions, particularly the portrayal of Neibaur as a kabbalist. <br />
More on that later. <br />
Owens did attempt to fit Joseph Smith into the larger patterns of Western esotericism by utilising lesser-used sources. That in itself is an interesting, commendable venture, even when the degree of success is questionable. As Idel said, "the matter of kabbalistic connections is more complicated and interesting than what can be learned from the currently published documents." <br />
William Hamblin's rebuttal of Owens is, I think, ultimately succesful, some minor points notwithstanding.<br />
<a href="http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=8&num=2&id=229">http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=8&num=2&id=229</a><br />
Also, one of my older blogposts deals with the supposed similarities between the Zohar and the King Follet Discourse. <a href="http://calba-savua.blogspot.com/2010/01/joseph-smith-and-beginning.html">http://calba-savua.blogspot.com/2010/01/joseph-smith-and-beginning.html</a><br />
I will post further mentions of LDS history in other works as I come across them. If you know of any, feel free to post them in the comments section.<br />
<br />Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-70450891652902811852011-08-26T08:22:00.000-07:002011-09-23T22:27:52.161-07:00A Response to Rob Bowman: Early Jewish Mysticism Pt. 1<a href="http://www.toratemet.net/image/users/21292/detail/big/151163.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 632px; height: 700px;" src="http://www.toratemet.net/image/users/21292/detail/big/151163.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />Rob Bowman wrote a blogpost critiquing an installment of Daniel Petersen's column in the Deseret News.[1] <br />My previous post details why one of Bowman's assumptions is untenable, mainly, the position that the word midrash generally means a specific Tannaitic body of literature. I've shown that there is no reason for that to be considered the default definition. He used that assumption in an attempt to show that Petersen misrepresented his source.<br />In this post I'll examine another statement of his on which much of Bowman's argument hangs.<br />Before doing so it is worth explaining my use of the word "mysticism." I use it here in a general sense, the imperfect equivalent of the Hebrew term "<em>torat ha-sod</em>," similar to how Gershom Scholem used it in his book "Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism." I will be using it interchangeably with "esotericism."<br /><blockquote>We need look no further than Patai’s book, from which all of the Mormons derive the quotation, to discover that the text dates from at least six centuries later than Aqiva. In Patai’s “Chronological List of Sources” at the back of the book, the “Midrash Alpha Beta di R. Akiba” is listed as originating from the “8th-9th” centuries. In another book, Patai explains the religious context of the work:<br />“The foundations of medieval Kabbalism were laid in Babylonia and Byzantium in the 7th and 8th centuries, when a number of Midrashim with marked Kabbalistic tendencies made their appearance. Several of these (e.g,, the Alpha Beta of Rabbi Akiba and the Midrash Konen) deal with the mysteries of Creation and the structure of the universe.”<br />That’s right, the quotation comes from a foundational work in the development of the medieval mystical Jewish tradition known as Kabbalah. This isn’t just Patai’s opinion. It is the scholarly, academic consensus.</blockquote><br />Rob Bowman goes on to say that,<blockquote>The fact that Peterson and several other Mormon apologists resort to utilizing such a quotation while failing to describe its source accurately is especially troubling. This is the only quotation in Peterson’s article that he does not identify specifically. Clearly, had he done so, it would have weakened his argument. Each of the Mormon apologists cited here had the wherewithal to track down the source of the quotation and to state accurately the period of history and religious perspective from which it originated. I make no judgment as to why they all failed to do so.</blockquote><br />Unfortunately, beyond stating a range of dates for the composition of the Ottiyot de-Rabbi Akiva (ORA), Rob Bowman has not accurately stated the religious perspective from which it originated. A glaring example is that none of the other references provided by Bowman state that the ORA is markedly Kabbalistic.<br />Aside from inaccurately describing the religious perspective and not discussing what kind of text the ORA is, Bowman has failed to address important issues affecting the dating of the concepts presented in the work. He has not discussed a single primary source beyond providing the full quote as it appears in "The Messiah Texts", nor said which part he considers late.<br />Looking at the quote from Patai's "The Hebrew Goddess," I am at a loss to find exactly which tendencies in the ORA Patai saw as markedly Kabbalistic. <br />Try as I might, I just can't find any. There is no mention of such key Kabbalistic concepts as <em>Ein-Sof</em> or <em>Ayin</em>, no emanations (<em>Sefirot</em>) of the Godhead and their role in the universe, no feminine aspect of God which must be reunited with God, nothing which is specific to the Kabbalah. <br />If Bowman would assert that there is something explicit or implicit in the text which could be considered specifically Kabbalistic then he must make a case for it. <br />Kabbalah is often used to refer to all forms of Jewish mysticism, but this usage is sloppy. Though the Kabbalah shares strong affinities with earlier mystical trends, such as the Merkabah mystics or the German Pietists (Hasidei Ashkenaz), as a distinctive movement it mainly stems from 12th century Provence. <br />Rob's "Proto-Kabbalistic" is not a very useful term generally. I don't know of a single Jewish esoteric text or tradition which couldn't with some justification be called proto-Kabbalistic. It is possible to write many entries on this alone, but a few examples should suffice.[2] <br />My highschool was not far from Or Haganuz, a Jewish community formed on Kabbalistic ethics and ideals as formulated by a disciple of R. Yehudah Leib Ashlag. Ashlag was a pivotal 20th century Kabbalist who translated the Zohar into Modern Hebrew and attempted to popularise its teachings. His goal was to create an altruistic community based on living the Torah (or rather, the true meaning as revealed by Kabbalah) for Torah's sake. By accepting the life of "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" they would be fulfilling the purpose of creation and would ascend as it were on a ladder to God and cleave to him completely.[3] <br />Or Haganuz takes its name from a Jewish tradition regarding the light of creation, and literally means the hidden, or concealed light.<br />Howard Schwartz provides a brief explanation.<br /><blockquote>Everyone is familiar with the words of Genesis 1:3, <em>And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light</em>. But the ancient rabbis, who scrutinized the words of the Bible for every hidden mystery, wondered what light this was. After all, God did not create the sun, the moon, and the stars till the fourth day. So what was the light of the first day?...<br />The rabbis conclude that the two lights—that of the first day and that of the fourth—are different. The light of the first day is a primordial light, what is called the or ha-ganuz, or hidden light. This resolves the problem. But it also raises a whole series of new questions—What was the nature of that sacred light? Where did it come from, and where did it go? These questions have been debated among the rabbis for many centuries, and they arrive at a variety of explanations.[4]</blockquote><br />The concept of this light is important to many, if not most, kabbalistic systems, and in its hasidic form exemplifies the philosophy of Or Haganuz's settlers.<br />This is seen in the teachings of the Rav Kook, who was a seminal figure in modern Judaism and Israeli history. He served as chief rabbi in British Mandate Palestine and did much to bring the gap between the secular Zionist movement and the reactionary orthodox community. For him they both had that part of the truth which the other lacked. The middle path, combining the zealous activism of the former with the deep religiosity of the latter, would help bring salvation to the world. <br /><blockquote>When I lived in London I used to visit the National Gallery, and my favourite pictures were those of Rembrandt. I really think that Rembrandt was a Tzadik. Do you know that when I first saw Rembrandt's works, they reminded me of the legend about the creation of light? We are told that when God created light, it was so strong and pellucid, that one could see from one and of the world to the other, but God was afraid that the wicked might abuse it. What did He do? He reserved that light for the righteous when the Messiah should come. But now and then there are great men who are blessed and privilaged to see it. I think that Rembrandt was one of them, and the light in his pictures is the very light that was originally created by God Almighty[5]</blockquote><br />This light is what sustains and rejuvenates the world, and is expressly manifest through ethical behaviour.<blockquote>The enlightenment of holy men is the basis for the spiritual illumination that arises in the world, in all human hearts. The holy men, those of pure thought and contemplation, join themselves, in their inner sensibilities, with the spiritual that pervades all. Everything that is revealed to them is an emergence of light, a disclosure of the divine, which adds life and firmness, abiding life and spiritual firmness, which gives stability to the whole world with the diffusion of its beneficience.<br />A life-giving illumination flows always from the source of the Torah, which brings to the world light from the highest realm of the divine. It embraces the values of the spiritual and the material, the temporal and the eternal, the moral and the practical, the individual and the social. These spell life to all who come in contact with them, and guard them in their purity. <br />Meditation on the inner life and moral conformity must always go together with those qualified for this. They absorb the light pervading the world, which abides in all souls, and they present it as one whole. Through the influences radiating from their life and their fellowship with others, through the impact of their will and the greatness of their spirirtual being, through their humility and love for all creatures, they then disseminate the treasure of life and of good to all.<br />These men of upright heart are channels through which light and life reach to all creatures. They are vessels for radiating the light of eternal life. They are the servants of God, who heed His word, the messengers who do His will to revive those near death, to strengthen the weak, to awaken those who slumber.[6]</blockquote><br />The Rav Kook's view here is drawn from a core Hasidic concept- the Tzadik.<br />This is not the place to discuss Tzadikism in depth, but a few words by way of explanation are necessary.<br />Tzadik is Hebrew for righteous. In Hasidism though it came to represent a special class of leader, a holy man who is the intermediary between the world of God and the world of man. He is the pipeline which draws the holy downwards and the profane upwards. Since he cleaves whole-heartedly to God, his disciples cleave to him. He can intercede for them and raise them up, transforming everything into holiness.[7]<br />There is a famous Hasidic tradition from the circle of R. Elimelech of Lizhensk, adapted by Martin Buber for the opening portion of "Or Haganuz," his collection of Hasidic stories.<br /><blockquote>R. Eleazar said: "The light that the Holy One, blessed be He, created on the first day- Adam could see with it from one end of the world to the next. Since the Holy One, blessed be He, looked at the generation of the Deluge and the generation of the Division and saw that their deeds were wicked, He concealed the light from them. And for whom did he conceal it? For the righteous in the future to come."[8] <br />Hasidim asked: "Where did he conceal it?"<br />They were answered: "In the Torah."<br />They asked: "If so, will the Tsadikim not find some of the light as they study Torah?"<br />They answered: "They certainly will find some."<br />They asked: "If so, what will the Tsadikim do when they find some of the concealed light in the Torah?"<br />They answered: "They will reveal it in the way they live."[9]</blockquote><br />Apart from the ethical interpretation, there is another aspect of the hidden light which played an even greater role in Kabbalah.<br />In that classic of Hasidic hagiography, "In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov," a story is told of how R. Baruch was having his oxen sold in a distant town, but worried that they might have been stolen. He sent R. Yosef Kaminker to the Baal Shem Tob (Besht) who then opened the Zohar and read from it.<br /><blockquote>"I see that R. Baruch's oxen have not been stolen." <br />R. Yosef asked the Besht, "Is that really written in the Zohar?" <br />The Besht replied. "This is what our sages said about the verse 'And God saw that the light was good.' They said that it is good to hide it, since with the light of the six days of Creation, one could see from one end of the world to the other. Where did the Holy One, Blessed be He, hide it? He hid it in the Torah. And when they said 'for the righteous in the future to come,' this means for the righteous who will come into the world. Whoever attains the light hidden in the Torah can see with it from one end of the world to the other. Do you suppose that I only saw the oxen? I also saw something which happened in the Jewish community of Amsterdam."[10]</blockquote>We aren't told what the Besht saw in Amsterdam, but this use of the hidden light is also characteristic of R. Isaac Luria (the Ari) in the hagiography which grew around him. <blockquote>The hidden light was in him, reaching from one end of this world to the next. He was able to illumine and explain the words of R. Shimon bar Yohai. As it is written in Shivhei Ha-Ari, everything the Ari achieved came from the Zohar.[11]</blockquote><br />R. Azriel of Gerona, a leading Kabbalist of the generation before the Zohar had the following to say about the hidden light. <blockquote>This first light is like the light of thought in which a man sees all that he wishes to look at... and this is the light of wisdom which would rest upon the prophets and crown them with its light, and they would see visions by power, visions of whatever could be, from one end of the world to the next. As long as the soul is pure it shows in her its power and increases, shining brighter and brighter. This light is set apart for the righteous, as they posess a clean and pure spirit, and this light is called the light of life.[12]</blockquote><br />Other Kabbalists focused on the implications of the hidden light for creation. R. Shimon ibn Lavi was born in Spain but during his childhood his family was forced to move to Morocco due to the Spanish Expulsion. He was active during the early 16th c. and composed "Ketem Paz," a very important commentary on the Zohar. In it he expresses an idea very similar to the slightly later one found in Lurianic Kabbalah- Tzimtzum, or contraction. The "mystery of expansion" where light is emanated and fills the universe, thus bringing everything into existence, is considered exile, since the light leaves God. The light is then retracted and concealed, since it is too powerful for anything to continue existing in its glare.[13] <br />This concept of a primeval, hidden light appears both in the talmuds and in various midrashim. One of these quotes has already been mentioned in connection with Buber's anthology.<blockquote>R. Eleazar said: "The light that the Holy One, blessed be He, created on the first day- Adam could see with it from one end of the world to the next.</blockquote>Fourth Ezra, a work from around the late 1st c. CE, also knows of such a light.<blockquote>Then You commanded that a ray of light be brought forth from your treasuries, so that your works might then appear.</blockquote>This goes back as far as the Hellenistic Jewish writer Aristobolus.<blockquote>The first [day], the one in which the light was born by which all things are seen together.[14]</blockquote>Should we consider these as proto-Kabbalistic? That designation quickly becomes meaningless. These texts are not proto-Kabbalistic, even though many of the Kabbalists are often closer to those texts in their thoughts on the nature of this light than the Amoraic statements are. <br />I doubt that Rob Bowman would consider 1 Corinthians 15:29 proto-Mormon just because LDS use it as a prooftext for the doctrine of proxy baptism.[15] <br />It is also highly doubtful that he would consider Ezekiel 1 proto-Kabbalistic, even though terminology drawn from it forms an important part of Kabbalistic teachings and modes of expression. Shaul Magid explains how Ezekiel's vision played a role in the way certain Hasidic movements perceived God's interaction with the universe.<blockquote>R. Gershon Henokh suggests that the telos of Ezekiel’s vision was to reveal the place where divine concealment (koah ha-hester) begins to reveal itself, resulting in the realization that divine absence is itself divine.<br />"At that time it was God’s will to show Ezekiel how God fills the entire creation. Therefore, he showed Ezekiel the first [highest] place where He could be apprehended until the place that was necessary, i.e., the place of His concealment. <br />That is, until the world of formation [‘olam ha-yezerah].<br />As it is explained . . . in the world of emanation, holiness and goodness are<br />dominant. <br />This is also true in the world of creation. In the world of formation, however, good and evil are balanced. Therefore, it is only in the world of formation that the power of divine concealment begins. God wanted to show Ezekiel that the power of concealment is itself from God."<br />R. Gershon Henokh utilizes the Lurianic notion that the chariot is housed in the world of formation (yezerah)—the first world where good and evil appear as distinct—as a support for the Maimonidean claim that the chariot represents metaphysics. <br />That is, metaphysics is the highest realm of speculation of the divine because it is the first place where God is hidden. Divine absence becomes the first stage of our apprehension of God. The first human apprehension of God is His absence. <br />For R. Gershon Henokh, the purpose of the vision is for Ezekiel to see and communicate that God’s absence (evil) is the result of divine will.<br />The Lurianic interpretation of the chariot of Ezekiel lowers the status of the prophetic vision to a place that is accessible to the human intellect and experience, that is, the angelic world where good and evil are already distinct.[16]</blockquote>There is a Zohar section discussing the elements of Ezekiel's vision.<blockquote>From these two sparkling spirits the wheels (<em>Ofannim</em>) are created, and they are holy, their nature being like that of the creatures... "It flashed up and down among the creatures" (Ezekiel 1:13). What does "it" refer to? This is the holy spirit... When spirit was composed within spirit, there emerged from them the illumination of one creature, which lies above the four wheels.[17]</blockquote> <br />Another example that has a little more bearing on the ORA is gematria. Like everyone else in Israel of the days of a single TV station, I grew up watching the comedy program "Zehu Zeh." Every Friday during the Gulf War, it hardly seems an exaggeration to say that it kept the country sane. One of the best-loved characters was the Baba Bubah, a parody of a senile old Moroccan Kabbalist who interpreted contemporary events by exaggerated and implausible use of gematria. <a href="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vQtoD9L-1Rg/1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 125px; height: 100px;" src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vQtoD9L-1Rg/1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />There are and were several radio shows featuring experts in gematria who use it to resolve issues in the callers' lives, and even many internet sites with gematria calculators. In the popular imagination, Kabbalah and gematria are practically synonymous. <br />The Sabbateans used gematria heavily in their attempts to prove that Sabbetai Tzvi was the Messiah. A generation earlier in what was then part of the Polish Commonwealth, R. Shimshon of Ostropol devoted his life to nullifying the power of the demonic agents of evil- <em>kelipot</em>, that is, shells. For him these <em>kelipot</em> were manifested in Christianity. There are numerous instances of fierce anti-Christian mystical polemic in his writings. He used gematria to show that King David provided a key to nullifying the power of Christ. If the numerical values for two of the names of Christ in R. Shimshon's teachings are combined- beam (<em>korah</em>) and hunger (<em>raav</em>, consisting of the same letters as raven, which is the antithesis of the dove)- they result in <em>sar pah</em> (Prince Snare). Psalm 124:7 reads,<blockquote>Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we are escaped.[18]</blockquote> <br />Gematria has very ancient roots, and was used in the talmuds as well.<blockquote>Satan has no permission to act as accuser on the Day of Atonement. Whence [is that derived]? — Rama b. Hama said: "The numerical value of Ha-Satan in gematria is three hundred and sixty-four, that means: on three hundred and sixty-four days he has permission to act as accuser, but on the Day of Atonement he has no permission to act as accuser.[19]</blockquote><br />The ORA was important to the developement of the Kabbalah because instead of statements scattered here and there, it presented an extensive treatise on the inner meaning of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and, by extension, the possibilities inherent in those letters. There are few concepts in the ORA which can't be found in earlier writings, and this is partiularly true of the quote in question. <br />Joseph Dan has this to say on what sort of text the ORA is.<blockquote>This <em>midrash</em>, usually regarded as one collected in the seventh century, is actually an anthology that is distinguished from other similar ones by its keen interest in both cosmogony and mystical literature, but first and foremost by its structure as a commentary on the shape and meaning of the letters of the alphabet. It includes among other things, a brief description of the ascent of Enoch and his transformation to Metatron.[20]</blockquote><br />Gershom Scholem, father of the modern study of Jewish mysticism and Joseph Dan's teacher, briefly discussed the ORA as it relates to the textual history of the "Shiur Komah."<blockquote>Two manuscripts of <em>Shiur Komah</em> versions partially survived on parchment pages in the Cairo Genizah... Further fragments are extant in <em>Hekhaloth Rabbati</em> and <em>Hekhaloth Zutarti</em>... Another fragment is preserved in the so-called <em>Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba</em>, which, to be sure, was edited later than the above-mentioned pieces but nevertheless preserved a great deal of the old <em>Merkavah</em> material.[21]</blockquote>In other words, according to Scholem and Dan both, the ORA was an anthology of older material. Bowman's emphasis on the late date of the ORA implies that anything in it must be regarded as having a 7th-9th c. provenance. This does not take into account the nature of the ORA. Bowman would need to show that the quote in question is late, since there is sufficient evidence for the continuity from earlier times of the concepts in said quote. Bowman's argument can be illustrated by an admittedly imperfect analogy. If I had written a newspaper editorial on Elizabethan and Jacobean dramaturgy and quoted the following from Charles and Mary Lamb's "Tales from Shakespear" without mentioning the source, would it mean that this scene was from 1806?<blockquote>Iago knitted his brow, as if he had got fresh light on some terrible matter, and cried: 'Indeed!' This brought into Othello's mind the words which Iago had let fall upon entering the room, and seeing Cassio with Desdemona; and he began to think there was some meaning in all this: for he deemed Iago to be a just man, and full of love and honesty, and 'what in a false knave would be tricks, in him seemed to be the natural workings of an honest mind, big with something too great for utterance: and Othello prayed Iago to speak what he knew, and to give his worst thoughts words. 'And what,' said Iago, 'if some thoughts very vile should have intruded into my breast, as where is the palace into which foul things do not enter?' Then Iago went on to say, what a pity it were, if any trouble should arise to Othello out of his imperfect observations; that it would not be for Othello's peace to know his thoughts; that people's good names were not to be taken away for slight suspicions; and when Othello's curiosity was raised almost to distraction with these hints and scattered words, Iago, as if in earnest care for Othello's peace of mind, besought him to beware of jealousy: with such art did this villain raise suspicions in the unguarded Othello, by the very caution which he pretended to give him against suspicion. 'I know,' said Othello, 'that my wife is fair, loves company and feasting, is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well: but where virtue is, these qualities are virtuous. I must have proof before I think her dishonest.'</blockquote>In Hardin Craig's edition of Shakespeare's plays this takes up 91 lines!<br />Joseph Dan brings up another issue which has bearing on this discussion.<blockquote>It is sometimes difficult to decide when a text serves as an influential source for further creativity, and when its message is simply reproduced, so that the individuality of both the source and the medieval follower is completely negated.[22]</blockquote>Rob Bowman hasn't even attempted to show that the ORA quote falls into the former category, he merely asserts that it is.<br />Lawrence Schiffman discusses Enochian and Hekhalot material in particular, but his observations hold true for Jewish mystical works in general.<blockquote>The notion of a developing literature of “booklets” that he has explored so carefully regarding 1 Enoch (VanderKam 1984, 17-101) is clearly the correct method with which to understand the eventual emergence of 2 and 3 Enoch as well. These works are composites of documents that were themselves put together from other minor protodocuments, a phenomenon clearly emerging from the results of VanderKam’s detailed research… The close relationship of our official Enoch literature- or better, the various booklets- with other texts (not just traditions) highlights the value of this literary-historical model. Had I sought to work on 2 Enoch and its relation to 1 Enoch, this approach would have been enough to provide a model to understand the development of 2 Enoch… It turns out that “booklets,” or better, short treatises, are the building blocks of all the hekhalot-type texts, as shown by Peter Schafer (1983).<br /> In fact, texts as we know them, independent compositions, are a misnomer for these “texts,” since different manuscripts have different mixes of common, but not always present, building blocks. With this model in mind we can grasp that, like 1 Enoch and 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch is such a composite.<br />However, 3 Enoch is not just a composite of text traditions such as those found in 1 and 2 Enoch. The circle that produced, exported, composed, redacted, copied, and studied traditions like those in 1 Enoch and 3 Enoch produced various booklets which still circulated in different forms and in different languages after the so-called 1 and 2 Enoch came into being as redacted texts. Some of the original documents circulated in translation. These traditions somehow mixed with those of the hekhalot trend and were redomesticated as part of the emerging textual tradition of late rabbinic/early medieval Jewish esotericism.[23]</blockquote><br />Aside from these matters of text, Joseph Dan explains another aspect of Jewish mysticism which Bowman has ignored.<blockquote>These three subjects- homiletical interpretations of Ezekiel 1, of the first chapters of Genesis, and magic- constitute by far the majority of the parallels found between talmudic and midrashic literature and the esoteric literature. It is true that it is nearly impossible to describe the beginnings of these phenomena, which are so closely integrated with all other aspects of Jewish religious expression from biblical times to the period of the Talmud and Midrash, including the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea scrolls, and early Christian works. One may try to show the beginning of a specific idea or concept in this vast panorama, but the subjects as a whole seem to have been of continuous interest to all trends and tendencies within Jewish culture.[24]</blockquote>Bowman has asked, or, rather, presented his readers the wrong question. <br />The kind of questions that should be asked relate to how was the text composed; is it a single composition or is it an anthology; how were traditions transmitted; what in the text is genuinely new or otherwise marks a departure from older texts and traditions; does the designation "medieval" imply a new historical era at this point in Jewish history or is there a continuum in ideas. Bowman declares that the quotation has a medieval theology yet he doesn't show that it is so. His analysis of the quote is just as inadequate.<br /><br />Continued in the next post...<br /><br />[1]Rob Bowman's post can be found at http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2011/08/did-joseph-smith-restore-theosis-part-four-esoteric-jewish-theology-and-joseph-smith%E2%80%99s-doctrine-of-exaltation/ and Daniel Petersen's article at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700168175/Joseph-Smiths-restoration-of-theosis-was-miracle-not-scandal.html<br /><br />[2]Other examples include the heavenly Jerusalem, Enoch-Metatron, Shiur Komah, the golem, heavenly ascents, and the Sepher Yetsirah. On the origins of the Kabbalah as a distinct movement see Gershom Scholem, "The Origins of the Kabbalah", Isaiah Tishby "Wisdom of the Zohar" vol. 1, Joseph Dan "Early Kabbalah", and Moshe Idel "Kabbalah: New Perspectives". For an example of a genuinely proto-Kabbalistic text, see Ronit Meroz "The Middle Eastern Origins of Kabbalah."<br /><br />[3]Boaz Huss, "Altruistic Communism," pp. 125-126.<br /><br />[4]Howard Schwartz "Tree of Souls," p. Lxxii.<br /><br />[5]From the "London Jewish Chronicle," September 13, 1935, p. 21. http://asimplejew.blogspot.com/2007/10/rembrandt-rav-kook.html<br /><br />[6]Abraham Isaac Kook, Ben Zion Bokser (ed.) "Abraham Isaac Kook: The Lights of Penitence, The Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems," p. 208-209. Bokser's introduction provides an excellent sketch of the Rav Kook and his outlook.<br /><br />[7]Chapter 3 of Gershom Scholem's "On The Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah" discusses the developement of Tsadikism, as does Arthur Green's "Typologies of Leadership and the Hasidic Zaddiq" in "Jewish Spirituality: From the Sixteenth-Century Revival to the Present." <br /><br />[8]Babylonian Talmud, t. Haggigah 12a.<br /><br />[9]http://www.schocken.co.il/?CategoryID=165&ArticleID=447 see also Oded Israeli's 2010 lecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwGOSWLREJM&feature=youtu.be<br /><br />[10]"Shivhei Ha-Besht" 5:13.<br /><br />[11]Shaul Magid "Hasidism on the Margin: Reconciliation, Antinomianism, and Messianism" p. 69.<br /><br />[12]Isaiah Tishby, "Commentarius in Aggadot, auctores R. Azriel Geronensi" p. 111.<br /><br />[13]Haviva Pedaya "Or Ke-Tavech Ve-Or Ke-Maatefet" http://havivapedaya.com/drupal/node/22 . The existence in North Africa of Kabbalah independent of and predating the Safed center should suffice to illustrate the inaccuracies in the "Hebrew Goddess"'s overview of the Kabbalah. "An important new development took place following the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, which brought about a powerful upsurge of Messianic longings for redemption, and resulted in the migration of several leading Spanish Kabbalists to the town of Safed in the Galilee. Within a few years thereafter, Safed became the new center of the Kabbala, and held this position for a short but remarkable period in the 16th century. From Safed, the Kabbala spread rapidly to all the Asian, African and European centers of the Jewish diaspora." <br /><br />[14]4 Ezra 6:40 and Aristobulus, fragment 3. Translation is from James L. Kugel "The Bible as it Was" p. 57.<br /><br />[15]See J. Trumbower, "Rescue for the Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non-Christians in Early Christianity," pp. 55-57. <br />"I agree with Rissi and Hans Conzelmann (and, for that matter, with Mormon prophet Joseph Smith), that the grammar and logic of the passage point to a practice of vicarious baptism of a living person for the benefit of a dead person." Trumbower's endorsement, however, is far from unqualified. For him, the main difference is one of scale, the ancient texts painting a more limited picture of those eligible for such baptism.<br /><br />[16]Magid, "Hasidism on the Margin" p. 57.<br /><br />[17]Isaiah Tishby, "Wisdom of the Zohar" vol. 2, p. 598. <br /><br />[18]Yehuda Liebes, ""Jonah as the Messiah ben Joseph." For a general overview of gematria, as well as examples of Sabbatean gematria, see Gershom Scholem "Kabbalah" pp. 337-343.<br /><br />[19]Babylonian Talmud, t. Yoma 20a. The same Parchment and Pen blog has a post discussing Christian gematria. http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2009/12/walid-shoebat-youtube-video-on-the-mark-of-the-beast/<br /><br />[20]Joseph Dan, "Jewish Mysticism," 1, p. 156. In a different book, Dan points out the difficulty of deciding what came first in what work. "The schools of the gaonim, the leaders of the great academies in Babylonia, preserved the tradition of Hekhalot mysticism. Rav Hai Gaon, in the beginning of the eleventh century, mentioned in his writings many of the Hekhalot texts. It is difficult to know, whether this intrrest was only literary, or whether there was creative, mystical activity in these schools. The work of editing and preserving many of the Hekhalot texts was undertaken in Babylonia in this period, but how much of the material which has reached us was traditional, and how much was the result of the creativity of these editors we cannot ascertain. Thus, for example, the great anthology of esoteric speculation concerning the alphabet, cosmology, the heavenly realm,the angels and the divine name, known as the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba or The Letters of Rabbi Akiba, was most probably edited in Gaonic Babylonia. But what parts of this vast collection were ancient, and what were added by the editors, cannot be stated with any certainty. For, the work contains a brief description of the story of Enoch and his rhetamorphosis intoo the Prince of the Countenance, Metatron, along with a list of the secret names of Metaron. The problem is: Did the brief version, included in the Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba, precede the long, detailed version in 3rd Enoch, or vice versa? That is, did some late editor compare the abridged version and add it to an alrteady extant anthology attributed to the ancient sage? There are several philological elements which support each of these possibilites, and a decision either way is impossible at this time."<br />"Gershom Scholem and the mystical dimension of Jewish history," ch. 3.<br /><br />[21]Scholem, "Mystical Shape of the Godhead" p. 276-277.<br /><br />[22]Dan, "Jewish Mysticism," 1, p. 248.<br /><br />[23]Lawrence H. Schiffman, "3 Enoch and the Enoch Tradition," in Boccaccini (ed.) "Enoch and Qumran Origins: New Light on a Forgotten Connection" p. 160.<br /><br />[24]Dan, "Jewish Mysticism," 1, pp. 85-86.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-46326043425101721892011-08-18T18:36:00.000-07:002011-08-24T22:06:36.038-07:00A Response to Rob Bowman: Midrash<a href="http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/2/28/Akiba_ben_joseph.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 103px; height: 282px;" src="http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/2/28/Akiba_ben_joseph.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<br />Evangelical writer Rob Bowman recently wrote a post on the Parchment and Pen blog which I feel is worth responding to.
<br />The piece is entitled "Did Joseph Smith Restore Theosis? Part Four: Esoteric Jewish Theology and Joseph Smith’s Doctrine of Exaltation."[1] It is itself a response to a short article by Daniel Peterson in the Desert News[2].
<br />I do find the accusations in the article of misrepresentation unfortunate, but I am not going to deal directly with them here. Rob is intelligent and usually very reasonable, not to mention civil. I want to deal with the substance of his arguments rather than fling mud back and forth.
<br />Before commencing my response I would state that, whatever my personal convictions, I am not making a case for theosis in the modern LDS understanding of it. Such really is beyond the scope of this post. In other words, it isn't necessary to believe in the LDS concept of deification in order to appreciate the criticisms I raise.
<br />A bit of background on who I am. My name is Allen Hansen, and despite the American-sounding name (my Hebrew one is different), I was born and raised in Israel, and have Jewish heritage. I am also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I don't have a formal degree, but I do spend quite a bit of time with Jewish history, both primary and secondary sources, but enough about me.
<br />One of the Rob Bowman's main arguments is outlined as follows.
<br /><blockquote>So, just what text is this? The title is worded somewhat differently from one reference to another, but the Hebrew title is <em>’Otiyot De’Rabbi ‘Akiva’</em>. In English it would be something like <em>The Alphabet of Rabbi Akiba</em>. (The Hebrew <em>Aleph Bet</em> and the Greek <em>Alpha Beta </em>are equivalent references to the first two letters of the alphabet, and similar in meaning to our idiom “the ABCs.”) This sounds like an impressive text; after all, Akiba, or more properly ‘<em>Aqiva</em>’, was one of the “founding fathers” of rabbinical Judaism, a noted and highly respected rabbi who lived through both of the Jewish-Roman wars of AD 66-73 and 132-35. If the quotation came from Aqiva, as Bickmore implies (without directly making that claim), that would be impressive indeed! Peterson’s description of this source as “an early Jewish midrash” implies that it originates from the same era of history as Aqiva. But does it?</blockquote>We'll start this off by looking at how Rob Bowman identifies <em>midrash</em> (pl. <em>midrashim</em>).
<br /><blockquote>The term <em>midrash</em> generally refers to a body of Jewish exposition of the Torah that began to be compiled in the second century AD, much of which eventually led to the publication of the Talmud (in two major compilations, ca. 400 and ca. 500). The term also refers to a sizable body of post-Talmudic literature. However, when Peterson refers to the source of his quotation as “an <em>early</em> Jewish midrash,” the use of the term “early,” especially in the context of his argument for the doctrine in question as “ancient,” clearly implies that the text is pre-Talmudic.[3]</blockquote>
<br />For Rob Bowman the main definition of <em>midrash</em> is a specific body of Jewish expository literature spanning the second to fifth centuries CE, with a secondary meaning of a body of post-talmudic literature.
<br />Not only is his definition idiosyncratic it is also misleading.
<br />Reuven Hammer explains a little better what a <em>midrash</em> is.
<br /><blockquote>What exactly is "midrash?" Midrash is both a process and a product.
<br />It is a method of study and interpretation of the Bible and it is the name given to the literary works that emerge from that study. A midrash is both the individual interpretive comment to a work or a verse and also the book into which these individual pericopes have been incorporated.[4] </blockquote><em>Midrash</em> primarily refers to a method of scriptural exposition and interpretation rather than collections of it. The latter is clearly a secondary, albeit important usage.
<br />Would midrash generally reffer to a <em>collection</em> of <em>midrash</em> rather than the process of <em>midrash</em> itself? The container rather than the content?
<br />That hardly seems a reasonable position, especially when a good number of <em>midrashim</em> are found in non-<em>midrashic</em> works, such as the Palestinian (or Yerushalmi) and Babylonian Talmuds.
<br />This is somewhat akin to stating that fable generally reffers to literary collections such as Aesop's, La Fontaine's and Krylov's rather than to a literary genre.
<br />It can refer to such, to be sure, but again, it is a secondary meaning not a primary one.
<br />Bowman's definition would be more relevant if we were speaking of the body of works known as <em>halakhic midrashim</em>. What Hammer terms classic midrash. The extant halakhic midrashim consist of the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimeon bar-Yohai (or a good deal of it), Sifra, Sifrei Numbers, and Sifrei Deuteronomy. In addition, there are fragments and portions of lost halakhic midrashim. These are Mekhilta Deuteronomy, Sifrei Zuta Numbers and Sifrei Zuta Deuteronomy.
<br />Eight works in all.[5]
<br />It is a different matter when we come to the body of works known as aggadic midrashim.
<br />The terms halakhah and aggadah require some explanation before proceeding further.
<br />Halakhah is how Jews are meant to live the 613 positive and negative commandments which make up the Law of Moses, or Torah. Halakhah is the practical application of the Torah. For example, the Torah states that every seventh year is to be a sabbatical for the land, and no agricultural work should be done. Halakhah details just how this is to be done- what constitues agricultural work, how are you affected if you work but don't have a field, and so on. Another example would be the biblical prohibition on boiling a kid in its mother's milk. This was expanded to prohibit consumption of all dairy and meat products together, and how long of a wait there should be between eating them.
<br />Halakhah is considered binding, even though many groups differ in the details of a specific halakhah.
<br />Aggadah, on the other hand, is everything not covered by halakhah.
<br />In Midrash Numbers Rabbah 13:15 it is stated that the Torah has seventy faces, or as we might put it, seventy aspects. The number seventy in rabbinic though expressed a totality rather than merely a specific ammount. Thus, Torah covered all aspects of life, past, present and future. Midrash keeps the Torah a living law, relevant for each age. Judah Goldin, one of the great midrashic scholars of our age, had the following to say. <blockquote>Authority [of the sages] protected exegesis from many possibilities of arbitrariness; but by the same token, so long as it remained sensitive to the requirements of the age, authority had the sanctions to extract from the Written and Oral Law such conclusions as would re-enforce the permanent relevance of Scripture and the legitimacy of the moment's needs for adequate and immediate attention...To paraphrase a remark of the Gaon Saadia: No generation was left without the necessary resources for deriving from the Torah the guidance and the practices which were appropriate to the age.[6]</blockquote>
<br />Some midrashim deal with halakhah, some with aggadah, some discuss specific verses, others biblical narratives and themes. Still others are grouped around the Jewish liturgical calendar.
<br />Halakhic midrash is a group of midrashim focusing mainly on halakhah, but aggadah is also discussed. In agaddic midrash this ratio is reversed. Neither deal solely with one or the other.[7]
<br />The aggadic midrashim we posses (which are numerous) date to no earlier than the fifth century CE, the majority being later than that. For example, in the group of midrashim known by the attachment of "rabbah" to their title[8], the earliest, Genesis Rabbah, dates to sometime after 400 CE. Numbers Rabbah, the latest, reached its final form in 11th c. Narbonne.[9]
<br />When it comes to midrash, "early" and "late" are very relative and subjective, complicated further by the process of textual transmission and repeated redaction.
<br />This problem plagues a good deal of Jewish texts written before the early modern era.[10]
<br />Bowman hasn't discussed this important aspect of Jewish literature in his blogpost. It significantly weakens his case, as will be shown later on.
<br />Apart form older ideas, late midrashim are known to contain entire pericopes much older than the work itself.
<br />A work entitled "Midrash haGadol" illustrates the phenomenon, as well as the dangers of making assumptions based on the date of a work's appearance.
<br />Composed by the Yemenite rabbi David b. Amram Adani in the 14th century, according to Bowman's thinking the "Midrash haGadol" would simply be a late medieval work. This it certainly was, but we would fall into the trap of oversimplifying the issue.
<br />It was written by a medieval rabbi, quoting from indisputably medieval sources such as Maimonides, but it also includes a great deal of extremely old material. The Mekhilta de-Rabbi Shimeon bar-Yohai was reconstructed from quotations found in the "Midrash haGadol" and corroborated by findings in the Cairo Genizah which predate Adani's work.
<br />Saul Lieberman provides a specific example of ancient material found in it, from Midrash haGadol Wa-Yegash, p. 688.
<br /><blockquote><strong>And Joseph made ready his chariot</strong> (Gen. 46:29). This was not because he lacked slave or servant who could make it ready for him, but to inform you that Joseph rejoiced much and did not take greatness unto himself in that hour for the heart is carried away by joy, etc., and he did not appear to him [Jacob] that selfsame day, but sent five other horses by his first son. Jacob said "Is this him." [Joseph] sent five other horses by his second son. Jacob said "Is this him," and only after that did he appear, so his [Jacob's] soul would not fly away causing him to die.</blockquote>The Genizah yielded the following, which, if anything, is fuller than Adani's midrash.[11]
<br /><blockquote>It is written And Joseph made ready his chariot and also for the heart is carried away by joy and by hatred a convention is broken, for you find it in Pharaoh as it is written <strong>and he made ready his chariot</strong> (Ex 14:6), for by hatred convention is broken.
<br />The king does not go out to meet a man, but Joseph honours him, for he went up to meet his father, as it is written <strong>and presented himself unto him</strong>. Joseph appeared on the third day, he did not appear that selfsame day but sent on the first day five horses. Jacob said "This is Joseph," and on the second day [Joseph] sent ten horses and Jacob said "this is Joseph," but after that he appeared unto him, so his soul should not fly away causing him to die, and thus the Holy One, blessed be He, will do in the future to come, first sending the messenger, as it is written (Isa. 52:7) <strong>How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and afterwards that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth</strong>!</blockquote>
<br />Adani's work is medieval, but many of his sources and quotes are far older. He compiled and redacted them, resulting in a new work, but it would be folly to judge all the parts based on the date of the work's composition.[12]
<br />Deuteronomy Rabbah is another case in point.
<br />It was thought to have been a medieval work from the 10th century. On the basis of many Greek loanwords and the lack of any references to the Babylonian Talmud this has been shown to be an early work, but as Strack and Stemberger have noted, "due to its turbulent textual history... a more precise dating between c. 450 and 800 is extremely difficult."[13] There is also material in it which is demonstrably old.
<br />One of the midrashim in that work relates to a cunning plan by Hiel, an Israelite collaborating with the prophets of Baal.
<br /><blockquote>And the prophets of Baal knew that Baal as unable to cause fire to come forth of its own accord. What did Hiel do? He stood before the Prophets of Baal and said to them, "Take courage and oppose Elijah and I will make it seem to them that Baal sent fire for you." What did he do? He took two stones in his hands and hatcheled flax and entered inside of Baal, because he was hollow. And he struck the stones one against the other so that the flax was ignited.[14]</blockquote>
<br /><a href="http://www.tali-virtualmidrash.org.il/userfiles/Eli30-Prophets-of-Baal---Du.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 240px;" src="http://www.tali-virtualmidrash.org.il/userfiles/Eli30-Prophets-of-Baal---Du.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<br />This fresco is from the synagogue wall at Dura Europos, a town on the right bank of the Euphrates, and dates from the middle of the 3rd century CE.
<br />It depicts the prophets of Baal around a hollow altar with a man inside it. A snake is about to bite the man in the altar. This detail is found in the continuation of the same midrash.
<br /><blockquote>Elijah, enlightened by the Divine Spirit, said to God, "Lord of the Universe, I asked a great thing of you and you did it—to restore the spirit of the woman of Zarfat`s son. But now I ask that you `raise up` this villain within the Baal." God immediately ordered a snake to bite Hiel in his heel, and he died. Thus it is written: <strong>If they should hide at the summit of Mt. Carmel</strong> (Hosea 9:3).</blockquote>
<br />As I said above, "late" and "early" are relative terms when it comes to midrash. When compared to halakhic midrash, the "Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva" would be a late midrash. If compared to an aggadic midrash it is neither particularly late nore particularly early, but it is early for a mystical midrash. A late date for a midrash does not necessarily mean that the individual concepts and components contained in it are as late.
<br />There is an important aspect of the Oral Torah which we haven't discussed yet- the strong aversion to writing it down.
<br />The Oral Torah was the counterpart of the Wriiten Torah, or the Pentateuch. It consisted of the teachings of the sages, passed down by the authority of tradition.
<br />One of the aversions to writing it down had to do with the function of memory and oral recitation in ancient society, which might seem counterintuitive to us.
<br />There is a famous story in Plato's "Phaedrus" illustrating the difference between true memory and mere reminders.[15]
<br /> <blockquote>The story goes that Thamus said many things to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts, which it would take too long to repeat; but when they came to the letters, “This invention, O king,” said Theuth, “will make the Egyptians wiser and will improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and wisdom that I have discovered.” But Thamus replied, “Most ingenious Theuth, one man has the ability to beget arts, but the ability to judge of their usefulness or harmfulness to their users belongs to another; and now you, who are the father of letters, have been led by your affection to ascribe to them a power the opposite of that which they really possess.
<br />For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them.
<br />You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.</blockquote>
<br />Written reminders are useful but there is the distinct risk that they will become crutches to students who rely on them too much. Oral teaching required a teacher and this would ensure the proper transmission of tradition and wisdom.
<br />This attitude was shared by at least some Jews, as seen in a group of texts known as the Sar Torah texts. They relate how a student is unable to retain anything in his memory may summon an angel known as the Sar Torah, or prince of the Torah.
<br />Here is one example.
<br /><blockquote>He adjured me by the great seal, by the great oath, in the name of <em>Yad Naqof Yad Nakuy Yad Heras Yad Suqas</em>; by his great seal, by <em>Zebudiel Yah</em>, by <em>Akhtariel Yah</em>, by heaven and by earth. As soon as I heard this great secret, my eyes became enlightened. Whatever I heard- Scripture, Mishnah, anything else- I forgot no more. The world was made new for me in purity, and it was as if I had come from a new world. Now: any student (<em>talmid</em>) who knows what he learns does not stay with him should stand and say a blessing, rise and speak an adjuration, in the name of <em>Margobiel Giwat’el Ziwat’el Tanariel Hozhayah Sin Sagan Sobir’hu</em>, all of whom are Metatron.[16]</blockquote>According to Michael Swartz, "these texts are an indication of the centrality of memorized knowledge in the scholastic society formed by rabbinic Judaism."[17]
<br />This being said, there was another reason why it was better that the Oral Torah an oral, rather than a written teaching.
<br />In the Pesiqta Rabbati 14b we encounter the following.
<br /><blockquote>The Holy One, blessed be He, knew that the Nations would translate the Written Torah and read it in Greek. And they would say: 'The Jews are not Israel!' Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to Moses: "O, Moses! The Nations will say, 'We are Israel! We are the children of the Omnipresent!' And Israel, too, will say, 'We are the children of the Omnipresent!' And the scales are in balance!"
<br />Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to the Nations: "You claim to be my children, but I recognize only the one who holds my mystery in his hands! He alone is my son!" They said to Him: "What is this mystery?" He said to them: "It is the Mishnah!"[18]</blockquote> You weren't Israel if you did not participate in God's mystery- the Oral Torah.
<br />Jaffee looks a little closer at written vs. oral authority.
<br /><blockquote>The rabbinic insistence upon oral, memorized mastery of learned tradition is part of a larger cultural discourse about the nature of books and learning that occupied both pagan and Christian intellectuals of the late Roman and early Byzantine East. All granted that books contained important knowledge. At issue was whether the book was the essential vessel of knowledge or, to the contrary, the
<br />book's knowledge was most authoritatively represented in the person of the teacher of the book... In some settings, the book was clearly the key and the teacher merely the occasion for opening the mind of the student to the venerable words of the author.
<br />In others, the book was but a stepping stone to the living teacher, who authoritatively embodied the teaching of the book. In the former setting, the student was the disciple of the book's (often long-dead) author, and only through convenience associated with the living teacher who taught the book.
<br />In the latter, the student was the disciple of the living teacher; the author of the book effectively effaced by the authoritative embodiment of the book in the Master.
<br />Rabbinic discipleship in Roman and Byzantine Palestine, as it is reflected repeatedly in texts generated from Galilean discipleship circles, is clearly at home in the latter camp. Torah was certainly found in the Book authored by Moses. And all rabbinic Sages and their disciples were, in this sense, disciples of Moses who knew him through his book. But mastery of Moses' written Torah was preliminary to the mastery of an unwritten Torah, knowledge of which was possible only by immersing oneself in a web of human relationships constituted by the discipleship circle of a particular living Torah Master.
<br />The traditional embodiment of Torah was not found in a written collection of wise teachings offered by Sages, although there is growing reason to suspect that such written collections existed at an early stage.
<br />Rather, real Torah was found in the mouth of the Teacher, the Sage whose own discipleship to a previous master now entitled him to represent himself as an authoritative teacher.[19]</blockquote>If an oral tradition took precedence over a written one, then not just anyone could lay claim to it like they could with a written text. Of course the traditions were written down in private notes, but these had no authoritative status.
<br />Lest Rob Bowman accuse me of using a late source, here is a quote from the Babylonian Talmud, t. Sanhedrin 59a, which indicates that the Torah was a mystery in the techinal sense.
<br /><blockquote>How do we know that even an idolator who studies Torah is like the high priest? The verse says, "<strong>Which if a man do them, he shall live by them</strong>." It is not said priests, levites, Israelites—but <em>man</em>. Hence you learn that even a gentile who studies Torah is like a high priest.</blockquote>
<br />If the reluctance to commit the Oral Torah to writing was strong, all the more so its avowedly esoteric teachings. Even their oral teaching followed certain restrictions among sages.
<br />This is stated in the Mishnah, t. Hagigah 2:1.
<br /><blockquote>The laws of incest may not be expounded before three persons,
<br />nor the Account of the Creation before two, nor the Chariot before one unless he is wise and able to understand on his own.</blockquote>
<br />There is one more point that Rob made regarding midrash which needs correction. The talmuds didn't grow out of midrash per se. They revolve around the Mishnah, the ancient codification of halakhah, and discuss it and its applications and implications in more detail.
<br />My next post will examine the Ottiyot de-Rabbi Akiva and its central concepts, as well as deification in ancient Judaism.
<br />To sum up this post, Rob Bowman is incorrect in stating that midrash generally reffers to a body of Jewish literature rather than the process of relating the biblical text to the needs and mood of the age (and vice-versa). Midrash has never really died out.[20]
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<br />[1]http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2011/08/did-joseph-smith-restore-theosis-part-four-esoteric-jewish-theology-and-joseph-smith%E2%80%99s-doctrine-of-exaltation/
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<br />[2]http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700168175/Joseph-Smiths-restoration-of-theosis-was-miracle-not-scandal.html
<br />
<br />[3]Rob Bowman corrected his statement after some criticism from Bill Hamblin and myself. The original read as follows.
<br />"The term midrash is usually (though not always) used in religious scholarship to denote a body of Jewish exposition of the Torah that dated before and around the time of the Mishnah (compiled ca. AD 200) and thus well before the Talmud (compiled in two editions centuries later). When Peterson refers to the source of his quotation as “an early Jewish midrash,” this context of pre-Talmudic Jewish teaching is clearly indicated."
<br />That statement was then corrected to this. "The term midrash generally refers to a body of Jewish exposition of the Torah that began to be compiled in the second century AD, much of which eventually led to the publication of the Talmud (in two major compilations, ca. 400 and ca. 500). When Peterson refers to the source of his quotation as “an early Jewish midrash,” this context of pre-Talmudic Jewish teaching is clearly indicated."
<br />
<br />[4]Reuven Hammer, "The Classic Midrash: Tannaitic commentaries on the Bible,
<br />Classics of Western spirituality (vol. 83)," (Paulist Press, 1995), p. 14.
<br />
<br />[5]Hammer, "Classic Midrash", pp. 20-21.
<br />
<br />[6]Judah Goldin, "Studies in Midrash and Related Literature," eds., Barry L. Eichler and Jeffrey H. Tigay; (Philadelphia: JPS, 1988), p. 237.
<br />
<br />[7]Hananel Mack "The Aggadic Midrash Literature," (Heb.) (M.O.D Publishing House: Tel-Aviv, 1989), pp. 10-15. There is also an English translation available, but I haven't read it.
<br />
<br />[8]An Aramaic word meaning "great" or "large" or "major."
<br />
<br />[9]See H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger, "Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash," trans. Markus Bockmuehl, 2d ed. (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1992), p. 279.
<br />
<br />[10]There are many examples. To name but one, the Sefer Yetsirah had five major recensions, the last as late as the 18th century,, and a bewildering array of variant readings.
<br />
<br />[11]Saul Lieberman, "The Yemenite Midrashim: Their Character and Value," (Heb.) (Jerusalem, 1940), p. 4.
<br />
<br />[12]For more examples, see Lieberman's monograph "Yemenite Midrashim," pp. 5-7 in particular.
<br />
<br />[13]Strack & Stemberger, "Introduction," p. 308.
<br />
<br />[14]Midrash Numbers Rabbah, 11:20, Lieberman's edition. http://www.tali-virtualmidrash.org.il/ArticleEng.aspx?art=14 .
<br />See also H. Kraeling, "The Synagogue: The Excavations at Dura Europos, Final Report VIII, Part 1" (Ktav, 1979), p. 140.
<br />
<br />[15]Plato, "Phaedrus," 274e-275a. The translation is from "Plato in Twelve Volumes," Vol. 9, trans. H. N. Fowler. (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925).
<br />
<br />[16]David J. Halperin, "The Faces of the Chariot," (Mohr Siebeck, 1988), pp. 378-379. Swartz says of the Sar Torah traditions that “the earliest explicit indications of the Sar-Torah phenomenon, then, date from the tenth century. However, there are other elements of the phenomenon that have earlier origins. The archangel figure of Metatron appears in the Talmud and in the seventh–century Babylonian incantation bowls, although not as the Sar-Torah.” Swartz, "Scholastic Magic: ritual and revelation in early Jewish mysticism," (Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 213.
<br />
<br />[17]"The Cambridge Companion to the Talmud and Rabbinic Literature,"
<br />Ed. Charlotte Elisheva Fonrobert, p. 212.
<br />
<br />[18]Martin S. Jaffee "Oral Transmission of Knowledge as Rabbinic Sacrament: An Overlooked Aspect of Discipleship in Oral Torah" in "Study and Knowledge in Jewish Thought," Vol. 1, ed. Howard Kreisel (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, 2006), p. 71. Jaffee goes on to say this.
<br /> "While in its other rabbinic contexts it seems to bear the meaning of a hidden or secret message, its usage in the present polemical context suggests another dimension of its meaning. Here Mishnah, rabbinic oral tradition, is raised to the
<br />theological level of a ritual mysterion, a sacramental medium the incorporation of which secures a participation of the believer in the life of the Church, the Mishnah has the power to convey transformative blessing to the individual."
<br />
<br />[19]Jaffee, "Oral Transmission," pp. 72-73.
<br />
<br />[20]See "Modern midrash: the retelling of traditional Jewish narratives by twentieth-century Hebrew writers" by David C. Jacobson, 1987. Israeli writer Meir Shalev had a column in which he examined contemporary events through biblical narrative and vice-versa. In 1985 they were published in book form as "Tanakh Achshav!" (Bible Now!). As an example, Shalev relates Isaiah's naming of his son Mahershalalhashbaz to a Bedouin in 1979 who named his newborn twin sons Begin and Sadat. Midrash also has a strong presence in the pop culture of my generation of Israelies. To name but a few, the songs of Meir Ariel, Ehud Banai and Idan Riachel are often very midrashic. I intend on posting in the future about severalof them, a glimpseinto traditional modes of expression in modern garb.
<br />Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-19007426176338257642011-05-03T20:17:00.000-07:002011-05-03T23:02:03.827-07:00Seder Eliyahu Rabbah on Eternal MarriageI promised to post an ancient Jewish source supporting the notion of eternal marriage. This is in the interest of fairness. <br /><blockquote>In the future, God will be seated in His great academy, and seated before him will be the righteous of the world, they and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, and their manservants, and their maidservants, their household needs will be taken care of for them. As it says: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My spirit, etc.," and "And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids, etc. (Joel 3:1-2)"<br />"Rise up, ye women that are at ease. (Isa. 32:9)" <br />-Seder Eliyahu Rabbah 4:19.</blockquote><br />Seder Eliyahu Rabbah purports to be a series of instructions on the history and destiny of the world, given by Elijah the prophet to R. Anan, a Babylonian <em>amora</em>.<br />God presides over his heavenly academy (<em>beit-midrash</em>). The righteous participate in its study sessions. They are organised according to the same social units they had on earth. The family (or rather household to a modern audience) still exists as an individual unit. Father, mother, children, and household servants. The organisation of the heavenly family may be identical to the earthly one but there are some important differences in other aspects.<br />All equally participate in God's academy. The prooftexts from Joel and Isaiah show that even female servant, a low rung on the social ladder, will receive an outpouring of God's spirit. To eliminate distractions from Torah study with God, all needs are provided for, presumably by the angels, since the Seder Eliyahu depicts them as less privileged than the righteous. <br />All in all, a remarkable picture.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-33518346128187257072011-04-29T06:40:00.000-07:002011-05-02T06:20:01.317-07:00Did Saadia Gaon & Maimonides Believe in Eternal Marriage?I'm very much in favour of using sources from the ancient world to explore our scriptures and doctrines. <br />They deepen and enrichen our understanding because, lets face it, we live in a time far-removed from that of the scriptures. Our understanding is not necessarily their understanding. <br />If you were to give a Russian a dozen roses they would ask who died. An even number of flowers in Russian culture is used for mourning, not for romantic or thoughtful gifts. Hilary Clinton commited a major <em>faux pas</em> when she sent birthday congratulations to the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych <em>before</em> his birthday. For Russians and Ukrainians, this is considered very bad luck, nd a possible jinx. It simply isn't done. Many years ago, when I was a little kid, some BYU Jerusalem professors had been with the students to a cemetary in Israel. My Dad asked them how it had been. It was alright, the professor said, but the cemetary was in a terrible condition, little rocks all over the graves! We spent most of the time clearing them off.<br />Dad had to explain that leaving small rocks on a grave is a Jewish custom and not a lack of proper maintenance.<br />These are all examples of how easy it is to misunderstand a living culture, let alone a dead one several millenia removed from us. <br />What I find problematic is trying to force our own understandings unto the past. Particularly doctrinal understandings. Mormonising the sources, so to speak. <br />To avoid any misunderstanding, let me state that I believe in the doctrines of the Restoration. What I don't believe in is making texts say something that they don't.<br />This gives us a distorted view of both past and texts. <br /><blockquote>This colloquy between Jesus and his Sadducean detractors does not question or throw doubt, in proper cases, on the eternal verity that the family unit continues in the resurrection. Jesus had previously taught the eternal nature of the marriage union. "What therefore God [not man!] hath joined together, let not man put asunder." That is, when a marriage is performed by God's authority—not man's!—it is eternal. See Matt. 19:1-12. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." (Eccles. 3:14.)<br /><br /><strong>Indeed, almost the whole Jewish nation believed that marriage was eternal, and that parents would beget children in the resurrection.</strong> Those few who did not believe that marriage continued after death and among such were the Sadducees, who could not so believe because they denied the resurrection itself—were nonetheless fully aware that such was the prevailing religious view of the people generally. Without doubt Jesus, the apostles, the seventies, and the disciples generally had discussed this doctrine.<br /><br />The Sadducean effort here is based on the assumption that Jesus and the Jews generally believe in marriage in heaven. They are using this commonly accepted concept to ridicule and belittle the fact of the resurrection itself. They are saying: 'How absurd to believe in a resurrection (and therefore in the fact that there is marriage in heaven) when everybody knows that a woman who has had seven husbands could not have them all at once in the life to come.'<br /><br />A most instructive passage showing that the Jews believed there should be marriage in heaven is found in Dummelow. "There was some division of opinion among the rabbis as to whether resurrection would be to a natural or to a supernatural (spiritual) life," he says. "A few took the spiritual view, e.g. Rabbi Raf is reported to have often said, 'In the world to come they shall neither eat, nor drink, nor beget children, nor trade. There is neither envy nor strife, but the just shall sit with crowns on their heads, and shall enjoy the splendor of the Divine Majesty.' But the majority inclined to a materialistic view of the resurrection. The pre-Christian book of Enoch says that the righteous after the resurrection shall live so long that they shall beget thousands. The received doctrine is laid down by Rabbi Saadia, who says, 'As the son of the widow of Sarepton, and the son of the Shunamite, ate and drank, and doubtless married wives, so shall it be in the resurrection'; and by Maimonides, who says, 'Men after the resurrection will use meat and drink, and will beget children, because since the Wise Architect makes nothing in vain, it follows of necessity that the members of the body are not useless, but fulfill their functions.' The point raised by the Sadducees was often debated by the Jewish doctors, who decided that 'a woman who married two husbands in this world is restored to the first in the next.'" (Dummelow, p. 698.)<br /><br /> How much nearer the truth were these Jews, on this point, than are the modern professors of religion who suppose that family love, felicity, and unity cease simply because the spirit steps out of the body in what men call death!<br />Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary</blockquote><br />The very first problem to present itself is one of chronology. Saadia Gaon was born in 882 AD and died in 942. If we assume that Jesus died somewhere between AD 28-33, then Saadia is separated from him by almost eight hundred and fifty years! Maimonides was a couple of centuries later even than that, from 1138-1204.<br />Such late sources by themselves are very poor indicators of what beliefs 1st-century Jews would have held. <br />If this was the extent of the problems posed by this source, then things might not be so bad. My blog post would certainly be shorter. <br />No such luck.<br />I might be a little hard on McConkie. Most of this is not so much his fault as the fault of his source- Dummelow's commentary.<br />The whole thing is available for free through <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=wJgAAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=dummelow&hl=en&ei=OOG8TZPzI5P0swOK4-y7BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false">google books.</a> <br />The Reverend John Roberts Dummelow in 1908 had edited a work entitled "The One Volume Bible Commentary." This was a fairly critical work for 1908, but in terms of Jewish and New Testament scholarship anything that old tends to be positively primeval. So many new directions and, indeed, new sources had opened up since then that our understanding of those topics is vastly improved. <br />Dummelow's provides no citations for the quotes listed above. By modern standards that is entirely unforgiveable in a scholarly source. I did however manage to track down the sources used. <br />The first source is the only one to predate Jesus' mortal ministry.<br /><blockquote>I shall destroy all iniquity from upon the face of the earth, and every evil work shall come to an end; and there shall appear the plant of righteousness; and it shall be a blessing, and deeds of righteousness shall be planted with joy for ever. <br />And now all the righteous shall escape, and shall live till they beget thousands; and all the days of your youth and of your old age you shall fulfil in peace. Then shall the whole earth be tilled in righteousness, and it shall all be planted with trees, and filled with blessing. And all luxuriant trees will be planted in it; and they will plant vines in it, and the vine which they plant will produce a thousand measures of wine, and of all seed which is sown upon it. <br />Each seah will produce a thousand seah; and every seah of olives will produce up to ten baths of oil. And as for you. cleanse the earth from all uncleanness, and from all injustice and from all sinfulness and godlessness; and all the unclean things that have been wrought 'on the earth' remove from the earth. And all the children of men are to become righteous and all nations shall serve and bless me, and all shall worship me. <br />And the whole earth shall be freed from all defilement and from all uncleanness, and wrath and castigation: and I shall not again send a Deluge upon it unto generations of generations and for ever.<br />-1 Enoch 10:16-22, trans. Matthew Black.</blockquote><br />This passage does not imply eternal marriage in the LDS understanding of the term.<br />As William R. G. Loader wrote, "the images of the future do not include sexuality as a theme, although some statements imply it. The abundant fruitfulness to which 10:17-19 looks forward, when Michael rejuvenates the earth, will include that people “will live and beget thousands and all the days of their youth and their old age will be completed in peace” (10:17). This means that the author does not envisage that human beings will live like undying angels, without further need for procreation, nor that they will be in the kind of holy context where sexual activity would be out of place."[1]<br />Likewise, Nicklesburg, in page 49 of his commentary on 1 Enoch, explained the biblical imagery underlying 1 Enoch's concept of the future, "most of the major sections of 1 Enoch– drawing on Isaiah 65-66 for their inspiration– envision a renewed earth and a restored Jerusalem as the setting for the long life that the righteous will enjoy after the judgment."<br />What presents us here, then, is an ideal, rejuvenated earth in which the righteous will live as long as the antediluvian patriarchs, if not longer, and will beget thounds of children. The trees will be just as productive, yielding colossal quantities of fruit and oil. After living a long life, the righteous will die.<br />Nothing so far about eternal marriage.<br />As for the so-called Rabbi Raf, he seems to be Rabbi Judah the Patriarch, known by the honorific Rav. Rav was the chief (though not the only) compiler and redactor of the Mishnah and one of the most significant authorities among the ancient sages. Rabbi Raf is pointless tautology, much like saying Rabbi Rabbi.<br /> <blockquote>In the world to come there is no eating nor drinking nor begeting nor give and take nor jealousy nor hatred nor competition, but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads feasting on the brightness of the divine presence (Shekhinah), as it says, "And they beheld God, and did eat and drink (Ex. 24:11)."<br />-Babylonian Talmud, t. Berachot 17a.</blockquote> <br />This talmudic passage is a little ambiguous. Rav might have been referring to a corporeal state or he might have meant a bodiless one. Be that as it may, Rav is saying that the existence of the righteous in the world to come will be extremely different than what we know from earthly experience. The prooftext is meant to show that basking in God's splendour is what replaces physical meat and drink.<br /><blockquote>Or shall he ponder and say, 'Those in this world, shall they eat, drink and be married, or no?'<br />We should know that they will eat and drink like us, and be married, as is elucidated by the Sareptan widow's son and the Shunamite's son, who lived in this world, ate, drank and were worthy of marriage. One of the sages said that he was of the seed of one of them.<br />-Saadia Gaon, the Book of Beliefs and Opinions, the seventh article, chapter five.</blockquote><br />I've rendered a fairly literal translation, following R. Yosef Qafih's first-rate Hebrew translation. Saadia Gaon, one of the most influential figures in Judaism, was embroiled in a polemic against those who denied the resurrection and particularly against those who spiritualised it. Any brief sketch According to Saadia, the resurrection takes place in this world. Here on earth, not in heaven. Not a general principle, the resurrection is restricted to the righteous and penitent among the children of Israel. It is a reward for the righteous. For him the resurrection is also an indication of God's power and preeminence, because if he once created us <em>ex nihilo</em>, then he can certainly recreate us from the same even after our bodies have entirely decayed away. This world, the world of the resurrection, is a transient and corporeal one and we will be transfered from it into the world to come, which is in heaven. There we neither eat, drink, nor live a married life. Saadia uses Moses as an example. Moses ate and drank before ascending Mt. Sinai, but while there he went without those things. Moses' experience symbolises what is to come. When he ascended Mt. Sinai and was directly, but temporarily, in the presence of God then eating, drinking and sex were a non-issue for him. They played no part at all in that experience. If that held true for the mortal Moses the more so when we will live permanently in God's presence.<br />Yosef Qafih says that he couldn't find a source for Saadia's statement regarding the two sons, but thinks that it might be emmendated to read "as is elucidated by the Sareptan widow's son and the Shunamite's son, and the dead which Ezekiel brought to life." The sage mentioned by Saadia is R. Judah b. Bathira, who declared that he was descended from the dead in Ezekiel's vision.[2]<br />At any rate, Saadia's concept of marriage was not eternal marriage. Marriage was a condition of this world. It lasted as long as people were in this world.<br />Saadia was very insistent that resurrection was part of <em>this</em> world, not the one to come.<br />Marriage was what legitimised sexual activity. Sexual activity was a bodily function (or appetite), like eating and drinking. Resurrection, after all, related first and foremost to the body. Eating, drinking and sex were (indeed, are) the epitome of earthly life.[3] <br />The last quote is the most problematic of all. It is distorted almost beyond recognition.<br /><blockquote>We can see from those treatises that the people whose souls shall return to their bodies will eat, drink, copulate, beget children and die after a very long life, a life as long as life is in the days of the Messiah. Indeed, the life after which there is no death is the life in the world to come, since there is no body in it. We believe, as any man of understanding verily does, that in the world to come souls are bodiless as the angels are. This explanation, that the body is the sum of instruments required for the soul's actions, has already been explained in an examplary fashion... Here it has been explained that the entire purpose of the body is the recption of food for sustaining the body, and begeting similar ones for the continuance of that body's kind. When that purpose is removed then it [the body] becomes unnecessary. That is, in the world to come, which is what our sages of blessed memory have elucidated, that in it is neither eating, nor drinking, nor usage[4], which is explained by the absence of a body. The Blessed One would not invent things in order for them to remain unused, and would not do anything without a reason, and heaven forbid that his acts would be like those who worship idols, "Eyes have they, but they see not, they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not (Ps 115:5-6)."<br />-Maimonides, the Treatise on Resurrection.</blockquote><br />Maimonides had written a book entitled <em>The Guide of the Perplexed</em>. This book reconciled traditional Jewish beliefs with the mysteries of Aristotelian philosophy. <br />His book inspired many who were far more radical than he himself. They were embroiled in a sharp disoute with the traitionalists, who assumed that Maimonides was just as radical and that he denied the reality of the resurrection. He wrote the Treatise on Resurrection in order to defend himself from those charges.<br />Maimonides was not only a reknowned philosopher but also a gifted physician. I ommited the passage describes the three groups of functions the body is divided into.<br />For Maimonides, like Saadia, marriage wasn't eternal. It lasted only until man went to the heavenly realm, which is entirely bodiless. The resurrection isn't permanent. It is followed by another death, and then entry into perfect world which is that of the disembodied spirit.<br />None of what McConkie used support his claim.<br />This is not to say that there aren't Jewish sources indicating a belief in an eternal marriage. <br />There are some, but Dummelow's didn't include them. For the sake of fairness, I'll dedicate a future blog post to at least one of them.<br />My post though is more about the use of sources than eternal marriage in ancient Judaism. <br />To sum up my post, never use Dummelow's, there are far too many better ones out there, and McConkie's commentary should be used only with great caution. Elder McConkie being an apostle of the Lord had many good spiritual insights and he could bear powerful witness of the atonement, but he was not a great New Testament scholar.<br /><br /> <br /><br />[1]<em>Enoch, Levi, and Jubilees on sexuality: attitudes towards sexuality in the Early Enoch Literature, the Aramaic Levi Document, and the Book of Jubilees</em>, pg. 80.<br /><br />[2]Babylonian Talmud, t. Sanhedrin 92b.<br /><br />[3]I'm indebted to my friend Walker for that phrase.<br /><br />[4]Usage was a rabbinic euphemism for sex.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-35529413600949332342011-04-18T20:04:00.000-07:002011-04-18T22:12:45.026-07:00Nine Thousand Myriads of AngelsEvery Jewish community's Passover Haggadah contains the following statement.<br /><blockquote>"And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt," not by means of an angel, and not by means of a seraph, and not by means of a messenger. On the contrary, the Holy One, blessed be He, by His own glorious self [did it]...<br />"For I will go through the land of Egypt," I, and not an angel.<br />"And will smite all the firstborn," I, and not a seraph.<br />"And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements," I, and not a messenger.<br />"I the Lord," it is I and none other.</blockquote><br />The Yemenite Jews follow a slightly different Haggadah, one based on R. Saadiah Gaon's rescension in the 9th century CE. Theirs contains an additional midrash on the same topic. Despite a reference in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews, it isn't that well known, undeservedly so. <br />I transcribed this from a 1953 Folkways recording of a Yemenite Passover in Jerusalem.<br /><blockquote>Our rabbis of blessed memory say: When the Holy One, blessed be He, went down against the Egyptians in Egypt, nine thousand myriads of angels went down with Him; some of them angels of fire, some of them angels of hail; some of them angels of shaking; some of them angels of quaking; some of them angels of trembling. Trembling seized all who beheld them.<br />They said unto Him: 'Master of the World, when a king of flesh and blood goes down to battle, his ministers and servants surround him lest harm befall him. <br />Now, Thou art the King of Kings and Thou knowest full well that we are Thy servants and they [the Israelites] are the children of thy covenant. Let us go down and make war with them [the Egyptians].' <br />But He replied: 'I will have no peace of mind until I Myself go down. <br />I myself in My glory, I Myself in My grandeur, I Myself in My holiness. I am the Lord, I am he, and none other [will go down].</blockquote>Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-78873720139311685812011-04-11T21:02:00.000-07:002011-04-11T22:11:07.089-07:00Who is Like Unto Thee Among the GodsPopular wisdom has it that when gods (<em>elohim</em> or <em>elim</em>) appear in the Bible, and does not refer to God, that it was a term designating judges or magistrates.<br />I have several other blog posts showing why this was not so, but one can never have enough primary sources. Here is another, rather an important one, which explains what the word gods could mean in early Judaism.<br />The <em>Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael</em> is a midrashic collection of treatises and homilies grouped around the book of Exodus. The traditions in it are mainly Tannaitic, that is, dating from before the early 3rd century AD.<br />A sizeable treatise inside the <em>Mekhilta</em> is the <em>Shirta</em>, which expounds the Song at the Sea (Exodus 15). The topic of course is celebrating God's might and his deliverance of Israel from Pharaoh's army. When the midrash reaches Exodus 15:11, it naturally discusses what the word <em>elim</em> meant. <br />The translation is Judah Goldin's.<br /><blockquote>Another interpretation of WHO IS LIKE UNTO THEE, O LORD, AMONG THE ELYM: Who is like unto Thee among those who minister before Thee on high, as it is said, "For who in the skies can be compared... A God dreaded in the great council of the holy ones... O Lord God of hosts, who is a mighty one, like unto Thee, O Lord" (Ps. 89:7-9). </blockquote><br />This reference to the celestial retinue and the courts on high are a clear indication that <em>elim</em> did refer to divine beings, though usually understood as angels. This is borne out by Hebrews 2:5-9 where the Hebrew <em>elohim </em> is rendered as angels.<br /><em>Shirta</em> contains four other explicit interpretations of the word <em>elim</em>. Out of these, two are word plays (mighty men and mutes, respectively) and are irrelevant to this discussion. The other two read "Who is like unto Thee among those who call themselves divine?" and "Who is like unto Thee among those whom others call divine and there is absolutely nothing to them?"<br />The first is a polemic against the cult of emperor worship so prevalent in late antiquity. The additional proof texts list Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Prince of Tyre. <br />Those whom others called divine yet are worthless are idols. People see them as something divine when they really are not.<br />All three of these interpretations sees <em>elim</em> as divine beings, whether they truly are divine such as angels, or rulers who call themselves divine, or idols which men call divine.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-41533508425959005012011-04-03T20:50:00.000-07:002011-04-03T22:00:19.825-07:00The Heavenly Coronation of King DavidOne of the songs I learned as a child was this one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PPkOEIKYZ0 , though the melody we sang it to is more like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKgHLBAtCdA&feature=related<br />The words are <em>David melech Israel khai ve-kayyam</em> (David, king of Israel, is alive and well). They are taken from an incident related in the Babylonian Talmud (t. Rosh ha-Shanah 25a) regarding the blessing of the new moon. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi sends R. Hiyya to bless the new moon and report back if all goes well by sending a signal containing the phrase "David, king of Israel, is alive and well." <br />The link between King David and the moon did not originate with R. Judah. It is found in Ps. 89:37-38. "His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established for ever as the moon; and be steadfast as the witness in sky." <br />In early Judaism David was considered by many to still be alive, and that he would be the messiah. Others considered him more than a messiah, but a divine figure, if not a secondary god.<br /> "One passage says: <em>His throne was fiery flames</em> (Dan. 7:9) and another<br />passage says: <em>Until thrones were placed; and One that was ancient of days did sit</em> - there is no contradiction; One (throne) for Him, and one for David: <br />this is the view of R. Akiba. <br />Said R. Jose the Galilean to him: 'Akiba, how long will you profane the Divine Presence [<em>Shekhinah</em>]!<br />Say rather, one for justice and one for mercy.' <br />Did he accept this from him, or did he not accept it? - come and hear: 'One for justice and one for mercy'; this is the view of R. Akiba."<br />-Babylonian Talmud, t. Hagigah 14a.<br />More on this controversy can be found in pg. 47-48 of Alan Segal's "Two Powers in Heaven" and in Daniel Boyarin's "Border Lines" pg. 140-145. <br />The following source should illustrate my point on David's role as a divine co-ruler with God. <br /><em>Eleh Ezkerah</em>, or the Midrash on the Ten Martyrs, was one of the most popular and influential texts in Judaism. it was composed in Geonic times, but based on several earlier traditions. The "Ten Martyrs" relates how the Roman emperor decreed that ten leading Jewish sages were to be seized and put to death. They were to be punished vicariously for the sin of their ten ancestors. They sold their brother Joseph into slavery, an act which Torah states is punishable by death.<br />Rabbi Nehunia ha-Qanah sends his disciple R. Ishmael on a heavenly ascent to <br />discover if the decree was decreed in heaven as well. If it were an earthly decree, then they could overturn it by their piety and mystical powers.<br />R. Ishmael discovers that God has allowed the decree to stand in order to fulfil the demands of justice, and in return for the deaths of the ten sages, Rome will be obliterated.<br />When R. Ishmael returns, the ten sages submit to the yoke of heaven and are cruelly executed by Rome.<br /><em>Eleh Ezkerah </em>is, historically-speaking, a jumbled mess. The ten martyrs did not all live and die at the same time, and the political and religious reality of life under the Byzantine Empire rubs shoulders with those of the Bar-Kochba Revolt and the Hadrianic persecutions.<br />What follows is part of the earlier <em>Eleh Ezkerah</em> material included in the mystical text <em>Heichalot Rabbati</em>.<br />Heichalot Rabbati, Apocalypse One, translated by Morton Smith. I ammended the translation slightly to better fit the biblical references in the original.<br /><blockquote>[Segansegael, the Prince of the Presence, said to R. Ishmael] “My friend, sit in my bosom and I shall tell thee what is to come upon Israel.” <br />I sat in his bosom and he gazed upon me and did weep, and his tears ran down continually from his eyes and fell upon my face. <br />I said to him, “Why does your Excellency weep?” <br />He said to me, “My friend, come, and I shall take thee in and teach thee what is laid up for Israel, the holy people.” <br />He grasped me by my hand and took me in to the inmost chambers and to the most secret rooms and to the treasuries. He took tablets and opened them and showed me letters written with griefs each different from the other. <br />I said to him, “For whom are these?” He said to me, “For Israel.” <br />I said to him, “And can Israel bear them?” <br />He said to me, “Come tomorrow and I shall teach thee of griefs yet different from these.” On the morrow he took me in to the inmost chambers and showed me griefs more bitter than the first: "Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity (Jer. 15:2)." I said to him, “And did then, your Excellency, Israel alone sin?” <br />He said to me, “Griefs more bitter than these are laid on them anew each day. And when, assembling in synagogues and schools, they say, ‘Amen. Let the great name be blessed,’ we do not permit these [griefs] to go forth from the inmost chambers.”<br />When I went down from before him I heard a voice speaking in the Aramaic language, and thus it said:<br />“The holy shrine shall be a ruin;<br />and the temple, a fire burning;<br />“And the dwelling of the king, desolation;<br />and she in whom the king rejoiced shall mourn as a widow;<br />“And the virgins and the youths shall be spoiled;<br />and the servants of the king, be killed;<br />“And the pure altar, polluted;<br />and the table which was set before the Lord, taken as spoil by the enemy;<br />“And Jerusalem shall be desolation;<br />and the land of Israel trembling.”<br />When I heard the voice of this vision I was terrified and struck silent and fell backwards. But then came the angel Hadariel and gave me breath and spirit and stood me upon my feet. He said to me, ”My friend, what came over thee?” I said to him, “Your Excellency, is there no restoration for Israel?” <br />He said to me, “Come, and I shall bring thee in to treasuries of consolations and to treasuries of salvations and shall show thee.” He brought me in to treasuries of salvations and to treasuries of consolations and I beheld the companies of ministering angels, that they were sitting and weaving garments of salvations and making crowns of life and fixing in them precious stones and pearls and compounding all manner of spices and perfumed wines for the righteous. And I beheld one crown which differed from all the [other] crowns, and the sun and the moon and the twelve signs of the zodiac were fixed in it. I said to him, “Your Excellency, for whom are these crowns?” <br />He said to me, “For Israel.” <br />“And that different crown, for whom is that destined?” <br />He said to me, “For David, the king of Israel.” <br />I said to him, “Your Excellency, show me the glory of David.” <br />He said to me, “My friend, wait for three hours until David cometh hither and thou shalt behold his greatness.” <br />He took me and seated me in his bosom.<br />He said to me, “What dost thou see?” <br />I said to him, “I see seven lightnings which strike as one.” <br />He said to me, “My son, close thine eyes that thou not be shaken by those that shall go forth to meet David.” At once, all ophanim and seraphim and the holy beasts and treasuries of snow and treasuries of hail and clouds of glory and planets and stars and ministering angels and fiery spirits of the fourth heaven cried out in tumult, saying: “For the chief musician, a psalm of David. The heavens are telling the glory of God (Ps. 19:1-2).” <br />And I heard a sound of a great uproar which came from Eden, saying: “The Lord shall reign forever and ever (Ex. 15:18).” <br />And behold David, the King of Israel, came first, and I beheld all the kings of the house of David following after him, and each had his crown on his head and the crown of David was more brilliant and differed from all the other crowns and its splendor went forth from one end of the world to the other. <br />When David went up to the great temple which is in the firmament, there was set for him a throne of fire which was forty parasangs in height and double in length and double in breadth.<br />And when David came and sat down upon his throne which was prepared for him opposite the throne of his Creator (and all the kings of the house of David sit before him, and all the kings of the house of Israel stand behind him) at once David arose and uttered songs and praises [such as] ear hath not heard from [the creation of] the world. <br />And when David began and said, “The Lord shall reign forever and ever!" Metatron and all his servants began and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, all the earth is full of His glory (Isa. 6:3),” and the beasts praise God saying, “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His [dwelling] place (Eze. 3:12),” and the firmaments say, “The Lord shall reign forever and ever,” and all the earth saith, “The Lord has been King (Ps. 93:1), the Lord is King (Ps. 10:16), the Lord shall be King, forever and ever (Ex. 15:18),” and all the kings of the house of David say, “The Lord shall be King over all the earth, in that day shall the Lord be one and His name One (Zech. 14:9).”</blockquote><br />The angel Sagansegael (one of the titles of Metatron) weeps over the woes awaiting Israel. R. Ishmael leaves the treasury and hears a <em>bath kol</em> (a voice serving as heavenly oracle) reciting an Aramaic lament over Jerusalem and its temple. Aramaic, as shown by the Babylonian Talmud, t. Sotah 33a, served as a direct conduit of revelation between God (or his Shekhinah) and man. Aramaic bypassed the ministering angels, who only know Hebrew. R. Ishmael is overwhelmed by the horrific news until he is revived by an angel, who shows him a scene of consolation and salvation. The Revelation of St. John and the later, Gnostic "Dialogue of the Saviour" both have new garments given to God's people when salvation occurs, but the imagery can be found as early as Zechariah 3. Revelation 2:10 describes a crown (as do several other New Testament books) given to those that overcome. <br />While it can't be emphasised enough that crowns weren't pretty little trinkets, but had definite associations of dominion and victory, I don't see the need to labour the point.<br />The similarity between Revelation and this passage of <em>Heichalot Rabbati</em> doesn't point to any direct dependance, but to shared aspects of culture and historical circumstance. <br />David's crown differs from all the other crowns, and it contains emblems of the agents through which God ruled the universe. <br />"And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good (Gen 1:16-18)." At the end of Genesis Rabbah 6:9 we read about Joshua's greatness in commanding the sun and moon to be still "which are they who rule the world from one end to another." <br />Just like the sun, the glory of David's crown shines from one end of the world to another. <br />David is accompanied by the same heavenly beings that accompanied God's <em>merkabah</em> in Ezekiel 1. He is then seated upon an enormous throne of fire. Psalms and other scriptures applied to YHWH are recited, but YHWH is nowhere to be seen in all this.<br />That thrones belong to both earthly and heavenly kings is self-evident. As can be seen from the talmudic passage quoted above, both R. Akiba and R. Jose saw in the interpretation of Daniel 7:9 as a throne for David the implication that David was a divine figure, participating in God's rule and kingship. A secondary god, as I stated earlier. In <em>Heichalot Rabbati</em>, so do all the kings of Judah and Israel to a lesser degree, as well as the children of Israel.<br />One final aspect of David's coronation that I would like to consider is the material which the throne is made of- fire.<br />Daniel 7:9 says that throne which the divine figure is seated on is fire. <em>Shiur Qomah</em>, a mystical text closer in time to <em>Heichalot Rabbati</em> draws on the same imagery in Daniel, describing a fiery throne used by Metatron, God's viceroy. This is in addition to a description of God as a fiery being. <br />In parting, I would like to share a statement in <em>Shiur Qomah</em> regarding Metatron that sums up the attitude of the mystics towards man sharing in God's power. <br />"The name of the lad is the name of his master." <em></em>Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-70226851525092205212011-02-02T08:53:00.000-08:002012-05-05T20:46:10.586-07:00An Early Redaction of IsaiahThis quote by Michael Fishbane is absolutely essential in gaining an understanding of the biblical tradition and its interpretation.<br />
<blockquote>
Even in the language of the prophets, speaking under divine revelation, we can detect inner biblical exegesis. In Isaiah 29, the prophet is denouncing the people of Judah; they have been the object of his scorn throughout the preceding oracles and no new subject has been introduced. In Isaiah 29:9–11 we would expect to find that it is the people of Judah who are referred to as drunk and who totter and who cannot fathom the prophetic visions given to them. But by the addition of a few words the oracle becomes—by inner biblical exegesis—a rebuke of false prophets. The passage is not easy and requires a close reading; the inner biblical exegesis—the words added by an interpreter—are italicized in the following quotation from Isaiah 29:9–11:<br />
“9. Be astonished and dazed, revel and be, blinded: you have drunk, but not from wine; totter, but not from drink;<br />
10. For YHWHa has poured over you a spirit of stupefaction: He has closed your eyes—<em>namely, the prophets</em>—and your heads he has cloaked—<em>the seers</em>;<br />
11. All prophetic visions shall be sealed from you ….”<br />
Without inclusion of the italicized words it is YHWH who has closed your eyes and cloaked your heads. The object of the denunciation is unspecified. Because of what preceded, however, it would seem that the object was the people of Judah. By the addition of the italicized words—“namely, the prophets” and “the seers”—the object of Isaiah’s scorn has shifted from the people to (false) prophets and seers who do not speak with the true word of God.<br />
Moreover, by the addition of the italicized words, a common biblical literary construction called chiasmus has been disrupted. Here is another clue that we are in the presence of inner biblical exegesis. Chiasmus derives etymologically from the Greek letter chi, which looks like an x; chiasmus refers to a rhetorical construction of an <em>a, b; b’, a’</em> type. In such a construction, the linguistic features of a second line invert (usually by means of synonyms) those of the preceding one.<br />
In Isaiah 29, without the words added by inner biblical exegesis, we have a perfect chiasmus in which a second line is inversely parallel to a first line, literally:<br />
“He has closed your eyes;<br />
Your heads he has cloaked.”<br />
Here—in the original—it is the people who do not see. In this quotation of Isaiah 29:10, without the inner biblical exegesis, we can identify the preserved original oracle. By the explicatory addition “the (false) prophets” and “the seers,” they—the false prophets and the seers—become the cause of the people’s blindness. The result is that an oracle condemning the people is transformed into a rebuke of false prophets.<br />
Without going into further detail (but relating to this same example), we simply observe that in the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Bible, parts of which may date from the third century B.C., this process of exegesis within the text of Isaiah was taken further, for there the abruptness of the intrusion was smoothed over. And a later Greek version, known as the Lucianic recension, went still further in an effort to improve on the Septuagint version without (apparently) ever consulting the Masoretic Hebrew version.<br />
From the viewpoint of the exegetical process, the textual strata represented by the Masoretic text and by the Septuagint and its Lucianic recension reflect continuous rereadings of the original oracle. Moreover, this example represents the most invasive exegetical procedure, which, in the final Hebrew text, transforms the meaning of the passage and disturbs its syntactic balance—a matter later translators into Greek tried to rectify.<br />
Moreover, this striking transformation of an oracle against the people into one against false prophets shows the extent to which the interpretive tradition might introduce a new authority into a received tradition, so that these <em>human</em> comments compete with and ultimately transform the focus of the ancient, <em>divine</em> words. The privileged voice of divine revelation and the human voice of instruction have become one. That this paradox not always perceived is a measure of the scribes’ success in subordinating their voice to that of the tradition. Even more paradoxically, in the end it is <em>their</em> interpretations that have become the received tradition; their oral traditions are the written text given to the community.</blockquote>
<br />
Fishbane, Micheal. “The Earliest Biblical Exegesis is in the Bible Itself.” Bible Review, Fall 1986, 42-45.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-72453400131990822172011-01-29T08:17:00.000-08:002011-01-29T08:52:41.984-08:00What did the Stone Tablets look like?<a href="http://godwhisperers.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/mosesHeston2703_468x611.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 468px; height: 611px;" src="http://godwhisperers.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/mosesHeston2703_468x611.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I am doing some research into the interpretation of the stone tablets which Moses brought down from Sinai, and came across an interesting tangent. Try imagining Moses at and advanced age (or Even Charleton Heston in his prime) walking down a steep mountainside with those two stone whoppers! He then throws them down with enough force to smash them.<br />We could say that God gave Moses superhuman strength (the text does not indicate such), or we could look for a reasonable interpretation, even if it means relinquishing some of our favourite images. <br />Writing on stone was very common in Egypt of the late Bronze Age. Hundreds of examples have been found. Papyrus was very expensive, so for scrap paper or scribal excersizes, pottery shards and stone flakes were used instead. Here is but one example, recovered at the Valley of the Kings (Deir el-Medina).<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAPiSsa09htUiDXHLdFhCJP1dvuLmr4o2WwwMNatvUNt-_SxrIulQZptJAxseaw2Az4oVlji86H59YYiqPz9tRBOxbfkxG9L0e38lFxhMOQgzmujM9G5GXdWiKc86c0Rmml3K9nyQoOsM/s1600/stone+flake.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAPiSsa09htUiDXHLdFhCJP1dvuLmr4o2WwwMNatvUNt-_SxrIulQZptJAxseaw2Az4oVlji86H59YYiqPz9tRBOxbfkxG9L0e38lFxhMOQgzmujM9G5GXdWiKc86c0Rmml3K9nyQoOsM/s200/stone+flake.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5567650854722759842" /></a><br />Stone flakes of this size could contain around twenty lines of text on both sides, could be easily carried, and easily broken.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-21748704355603513762011-01-28T07:49:00.000-08:002011-01-28T13:15:28.611-08:00Milk and Meat- Why Not?Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk. <br />-Exodus 23:19.<br /><br />This short injunction forms a major part of the dietary (<em>kashrut</em>) laws in Judaism. Even people who are otherwise lax in their observance of those laws will generally not eat meat and dairy products together (or pork, but we won't go into that).<br />Regardless of whether or not someone accepts the latter rabbinic interpretations as valid, a significant question still remains. What was the reasoning behind the biblical injunction?<br />Maimonides, in the 12th, century proposed an ingenious solution, similar to the ones he came up with for other strange prohibitions in the Bible. It was meant to counter idolatrous practices.<br /><blockquote>As for the prohibition against eating meat in milk, it is in my opinion not improbable that— in addition to this being undoubtedly very gross food and very filling— idolatry had something to do with it. <br />Perhaps such food was eaten at one of the ceremonies of their cult or one of their festivals <br />-<em>The Guide to the Perplexed</em> 3:48.</blockquote><br />In 1929, archaeological discoveries at Ugarit seemed to prove that Maimonides was right. <br />Claude Schaeffer discovered a Canaanite religious text which read in part "t\b[h g]d\bh\lb. annh[.]bhm’at". Charles Virolleaud translated the first three words as "Cook a kid in milk."[1]<br />H. L. Ginsberg picked up the ball and ran with it. <br />He wrote that the reason the Bible forbade cooking a kid in milk was because it had to do with pagan gods and goddesses. The ritual described in the Ugarit text <br />“symbolizes the suckling of the newborn gods!”[2]<br />Unfortunately, Ginsberg and his followers were quite wrong about the connection between the Ugarit text and the biblical injunction. <br />Basically, the entire reading is wrong. There is no room for an 'h', TBH means to slaughter, not to cook, and GD is coriander.[3] <br />There have been many other attempts to solve the biblical puzzle, ranging from it being a prohibition on incest, to animal cruelty prevention, to being a mere practicality.<br />Ethnoarchaeologist Gloria London has an intriguing theory on the reason for the prohibition. In Cyprus, observing how traditional potters work, she was approached by an old woman who told her that “you never put meat into a clay pot with milk.”<br />London explains that "in times when people used porous clay pots to cook, everyone avoided cooking meat in containers used for milk products."<br />She goes on to say that "Not only did “others” refrain from mixing meat and milk in antiquity, they do so to this day. From about 300 B.C.E. in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible), the Hebrew word for “milk” was translated to the Greek word <em>galaktos</em>. To this day, traditional Cypriot potters make a goat-milking pot used by women, the <em>galaftiri</em>. It has an open mouth and side spout unlike jars used to process meat products. These pots are never used for meat. Nor are cooking pots ever used for dairy. The shape of the pot says it all—milk or meat. Rather than a dietary restriction limited to a single group of people, it was common practice to keep all ceramic pots used for milk versus meat separate...<br />Normally in antiquity, as in the Troodos Mountain villages of Cyprus to this day, meat is reserved for special occasions with family and friends. It would be terrible to ruin a fine meal with sour meat as a result of boiling it in a dairy pot. Simple logic kept dairy pots separate from pots used to cook meat. It’s possible that the Bible’s commandment to separate meat and milk boils down to good housekeeping. The straightforward, practical understanding of the Biblical passage originates in the prosaic perspective of a kitchen. It comes from those who make the pots, feed the animals, milk the goat, make the yogurt and cheese, cook the meat, and serve family, friends and community."[4]<br />The theory, interesting as it is, suffers from some fatal flaws. <br />First of all, if this was such a commonsensical and practical matter, "good housekeeping", why would it need to be regulated? Why include it in a list of laws governing a covenant relationship? Why the specific mention of kids and mothers instead of milk and meat?<br />The answer seems to lie in a different direction entirely. <br />Philo, the Jewish Alexandrian philosopher of the 1st century CE, nailed it on the head.<br />The reason was to avoid mixing life and death, for it is “grossly improper that the substance which fed the living animal should be used to season or flavor it after its death.”[5] <br />Jacob Milgrom expands this thought.<br />This prohibition is, thus, simply another instance of the emphasis on opposites characteristic of biblical ritual and practice: to separate life from death, holy from common, pure from impure, Israel from the nations. The reverence for life and Israel’s separation from the nations are ideas reflected throughout the dietary laws. For example, the reverence for life is reflected in the blood prohibition. Separating Israel from the nations is reflected in the prohibition against eating certain animals such as pig and crustaceans.<br />Thus the prohibition against cooking a kid in its mother’s milk conforms neatly with Israel’s overall dietary system.<br />The command not to boil a kid in mother’s milk is first set forth in Exodus, where the context in which it appears shows that it probably applies only to kids sacrificed on one of the Israelites’ pilgrimage festivals. By the time the command appears again in Deuteronomy, however, it is apparent that it has been transformed into something much broader, a new dietary law.<br />It is easy to see why this prohibition would have been so quickly integrated into the Israelites’ dietary system. It embodies two common biblical themes: reverence for life, even dumb animal life, and Israel’s separation from the nations.<br />This life-versus-death theory also completely and neatly elucidates the other biblical prohibitions mentioned earlier that, heretofore, have been explained as having humanitarian motives. However, the common denominator of all these prohibitions is that they prevent fusion of life and death. Thus, the life-giving process of the mother bird hatching or feeding her young should not be the occasion of their joint death (Deuteronomy 22:6). The sacrifice of the newborn may be inevitable, but not for the first week while it is constantly at the mother’s breast (Leviticus 22:27); and never should both the mother and its young be slain at the same time (Leviticus 22:28). By the token, the mother’s milk, the life-sustaining food her kid, should never become associated with its death."[6]<br /><br /><br />[1]Ugaritic Texts, 52:14.<br /><br />[2]H. L. Ginsberg, <em>The Ugarit Texts</em>, pg. 77.<br /><br />[3]Milgrom, Jacob, <em>You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk</em>, <em>Bible Review</em>, Summer 1985, pg. 48-55.<br /><br />[4]London, Gloria, <em>Why Milk and Meat Don't Mix, Biblical Archaeology Review</em>, Nov/Dec 2008, 66-69.<br /><br />[5]Philo, <em>De Virtute</em>, 143.<br /><br />[6]Milgrom, BR, Summer 1985, pg. 48-55.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4196341061429230444.post-89278800197864044982011-01-22T22:46:00.000-08:002011-01-23T00:50:02.978-08:00John the Baptist and the Essenes<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/John_the_Baptist_in_the_desert.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 586px; height: 413px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/John_the_Baptist_in_the_desert.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />One of the riddles posed by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is what John the Baptist's relationship to the Essenes and the Qumran community would have been like. Was he a member of that community or not? Even if we approach this question cautiously, it seems a strange and striking coincidence that two groups in the same region (the Judaea, wilderness) at the same time (the early part of the first century CE) would be teaching a similar ideology (repentance, ritual purification, and an imminent eschatology), yet not have any contact or relationship one with another, be it positive or negative. <br />In a classic study, Otto Betz proposed that John the Baptist grew up in the Essene community, but left it to act as a prophet, preaching repentance to the wider Jewish community.[1]<br />I find this view not only appealing, but very persuasive too. It takes into account not only the similarities but also the differences between John and the Essenes.<br />I see no reason to believe that John lived in a cultural vacuum. Where and who we grow up around influences the path we take and the way in which we view things, be we prophets or be we laymen. <br /><blockquote>In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, <br />And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. <br />For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. <br />And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.<br />-Matthew 3:1-4.</blockquote> <br />The Gospel of Matthew describes John the Baptist in terms reminiscient of the prophet Elijah's physical appearance, but also as the fulfilment of Isaiah 40:3.<br />The Essene community saw the same Isaiah verse as a call to separate themselves from the community at large and live in the wilderness as part of God's true society. <br /><blockquote>When such men as these come to be in Israel, conforming to these doctrines, they shall separate from the dwelling-place of the men of perversion in order to go to the wilderness to prepare there the way of truth, as it is written (Is.40:3): ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God!’—this means the expounding of the Law, decreed by God through Moses for obedience, that being defined by what has been revealed for each age, and by what the prophets have revealed by His holy spirit. <br />-Manual of Discipline 8:12–16.</blockquote><br />This Manual of Discipline (<em>Serech ha-Yahad, or the Community Rule</em>) contains the rules of conduct to be followed by all those associated with the Essenes. <br />Josephus writes that although the Essenes did not utterly reject marriage, they would seek out "other persons' children, while they are pliable, and fit for learning, esteeming them to be of their kindred, and form them according to their own manners."[2] It seems more than likely that if John was brought up in an Essene environment then the same Isaiah verse that formed a large part of the Essene identity would shape the way that John (and his followers) conceived of his own mission.<br />Ritual purification was important to all Jewish groups, and Qumran was no exception, with several ritual pools (<em>mikveh</em>) being found there. still, the mere ritual of immersion was considered ineffective if the individual did not repent and accept upon himself God's commandments, as interpreted by the <em>Yahad</em> (the way the Essenes seemed to have refered to their community). <br /><blockquote>So shall all together comprise a <em>Yahad</em> whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity and righteous intent, caring for one another after this fashion within a holy society, comrades in an eternal fellowship...<br />Yet he cannot be justified by what his willful heart declares lawful, preferring to gaze on darkness rather than the ways of light. With such an eye he cannot be reckoned faultless. Ceremonies of atonement cannot restore his innocence, neither cultic waters his purity. He cannot be sanctified by baptism in oceans and rivers, nor purified by mere ritual bathing. Unclean, unclean shall he be all the days that he rejects the laws of God, refusing to be disciplined in the <em>Yahad</em> of His society.<br />-Manual of Discipline 2:24-25, 3:3-6.</blockquote><br />Josephus writes of John the Baptist that he was "a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to for the remission of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness."[3] <br />Otto Betz described another common thread between John and the Essenes, the combination of the priestly and the prophetic. <br />"In ancient Israel the spirit of prophecy often opposed the theology of the priests (see, for example, Amos 5:22; Isaiah 1:11–13; Jeremiah 7:21–26). The prophets warned the people not to rely too heavily on the Temple and on the atoning effect of sacrifice. Both the Essenes and John the Baptist, however, succeeded in combining the prophetic and the priestly ideals in a holy life, ritually pure but characterized by repentance and the expectancy of the final judgment. John’s disciples were known to fast (Mark 2:18) and to recite their special prayers (Luke 11:1). These two acts of piety also appear in the Qumran texts. Infraction of even minor rules was punished by a reduction in the food ration, which meant severe fasting (Manual of Discipline 7:2–15). And there are several special prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among them are the beautiful Thanksgiving Hymns from the scroll found in Cave 1. Cave 11 also produced a scroll of psalms in which new prayer were inserted into a series of Psalms of David.<br />The Qumran Essenes separated themselves from the Jerusalem Temple and its sacrificial cult. The Temple’s offerings of animals were replaced by the “offerings of the lips” (that is, prayers) and by works of the Law. Man must render himself to God as a pleasing sacrifice; he must bring his spirit and body, his mental and physical capacities, together with his material goods and property, into the community of God. In this community all these gifts will be cleansed of the pollution of selfish ambition through humble obedience to the commandments of God (Manual of Discipline 1:11–13)."[4]<br />In ancient Israel, the temple linked God and man and the sacrifices in it atoned for Israel's sins and transgressions. The Essenes considered the contemporary priests who officiated at the temple to be corrupt and perverse. The separatist community of the Essenes saw itself as truly holy, and applied the role of the temple to their community. <br /><blockquote>When such men as these come to be in Israel, then shall the party of the <em>Yahad</em> truly be established, an "eternal planting" (<em>Jubilees</em> 16:26), a temple for Israel, and- mystery!- a Holy of Holies for Aaron; true witnesses to justice, chosen by God's will to atone for the land and to recompense the wicked their due. They will be "the tested wall, the precious cornerstone" (Isa 28:16) whose foundations shall neither be shaken nor swayed, a fortress, a Holy of Holies for Aaron, all of them knowing the Covenant of Justice, and thereby offering a sweet savor. They shall be a blameless and true house in Israel, upholding the covenant of eternal statutes. They shall be an acceptable sacrifice, atoning for the land and ringing in the verdict against evil, so that perversity ceases to exist.<br />-The Manual of Discipline 8:4-10.</blockquote><br />John taught a similar doctrine.<br /><blockquote>Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: <br />And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.<br />-Matthew 3:8-9.</blockquote><br />Acording to Betz, "this famous saying contains a marvelous play on words in Hebrew. “Children” is <em>banim</em>; “stones” is <em>abanim</em>. The saying thus presupposes the idea of a living temple “of men.” John is saying that God can create genuine children of Abraham “from these stones” and build them into the sanctuary of His community. In the Temple Scroll from Qumran, God promises that he will “create” a sanctuary at the beginning of the new age; this he will do according to the covenant made with Jacob at Bethel (Temple Scroll 29:7–10). At Bethel, Jacob had declared: “This stone [the pillar that Jacob had erected] shall become the house of God” (Genesis 28:22). Both the Qumran community and John the Baptist believed in the creative power of God that will manifest itself at the end of time, as it did in the beginning. Then God will establish the true sanctuary and the ideal worship, which are anticipated both in the life of the Qumran community and in the life that John preached."<br />There are many more similarities between the life and teachings of John and the Essenes, but there are also some important differences which need to be pointed out.<br />The Essenes were a closed community within Israel, concerned with their own salvation, whereas John saw himself as a reforming prophet reaching out to all his people.<br />He didn't turn the people into monks living in the wilderness, but after repenting and being baptised they went back to their lives, their families and their jobs. John was the voice in the wlderness, the people weren't. <br />John also was outspoken in his politics, attacking the Herodians for their moral depravity, something the Essenes do not appear to have done. <br />I will leave Otto Betz the final word.<br /><blockquote>Both biblical traditions—the priestly one and the prophetic one—influenced the Essenes just as they did John the Baptist.<br />I believe that John grew up as an Essene, probably in the desert settlement at Qumran. Then he heard a special call of God; he became independent of the community—perhaps even more than the Essene prophets described by Josephus. With his baptism of repentance, John addressed all Israel directly; he wanted to serve his people and to save as many of them as possible.<br />The Essenes of Qumran no doubt prepared the way for this prophetic voice in the wilderness. They succeeded in combining Israel’s priestly and prophetic heritage in a kind of “eschatological existence.” The Essenes radicalized and democratized the concept of priestly purity; they wanted a true theocracy and sought to turn the people of God into a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:5–6).<br />A particular motif of their peculiar piety was the eschatological hope. In the age to come, they believed, there would be only one congregation of holy ones in heaven and on earth; then angels and men would worship together. Therefore, the liturgy and the sacred calendar used in heaven for the time of prayer and the celebration of the feasts served as a model for Essene worship even in the present. In heaven, animals are not sacrificed and offered to God; the angels use incense and sing hymns of praise. Therefore, on earth they had no need of the Jerusalem Temple. The Essenes believed that a living sanctuary of holy men could render a more efficient ministry of atonement than animal sacrifices, offered by an unclean priesthood (Manual of Discipline 8:6–10; 9:4–5).<br />But the Essenes also incorporated the traditions of the prophets into their beliefs. The prophet had little if anything to do with the Temple and sacrifice; the prophet tried to accomplish atonement through his personal commitment and effort to change the hearts of his audience. Because the Essenes were a movement of repentance, they adopted the prophetic tradition, despite their leadership of priests. Their Teacher of Righteousness was a priest who acted in a prophetic way.<br />This was true as well for John the Baptist. He was the son of a priest and practiced the laws of priestly purity in a radical way. But in his ministry for Israel he acted as a prophet, as the Elijah redivivusf to announce the coming of the Messiah. In his baptism, both traditions were combined, just as they were in the Essene philosophy: the priestly laws of ritual purity were combined with the prophetic concern for repenting, returning to God and offering oneself to Him. Accordingly, it is reasonable to conclude that John the Baptist was raised in the tradition of the Essenes and may well have lived at Qumran before taking his message to a wider public.<br />-Otto Betz, <em>Was John the Baptist an Essene</em>?</blockquote><br /><br />[1]Betz, Otto. <em>Was John the Baptist an Essene?. Bible Review</em>, Dec 1990, 18-25.<br /><br />[2]Josephus, <em>The Jewish Wars</em>, 2.8.2 <br /><br />[3]Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18.5.2.<br /><br />[4] Betz, BR, Dec 1990.Calba Savuahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02161376199754614838noreply@blogger.com0