Tanach Thoughts

After my recent post on the titular topic, I noticed that Yehoshua 14:15 explicitly states that Chevron was originally named Kiryat Arba after Arba, father of the three main giants who lived in Chevron (Achiman, Sheshai and Talmai). That means that when Avraham was dealing with Efron in Chevron, it likely still hadn't been renamed! Which of course strengthens my suggestion that Chevron was named after Efron. I would suggest that the variant Chevron, which contains the root Chaver (חבר, friend), was chosen because it symbolized the hand of friendship that Efron had extended Avraham, and naming the city after the former was a way of showing thanks to him for that. I was also reminded of two parallels: Goren Aravnah and Shomron. Goren Aravnah or Goren A rnan (the threshing-floor of Aravnah/Arnan) was some sort of threshing compound on the top of what was to become the Temple Mount in the time of David, originally owned by a Yevusi man named Aravnah (in Shmuel) or Arnan (in Chronicl...

I read on Shabbat a cool paper on the meaning of the word "tzinor" (צינור) as it appears in Tanach. The paper, titled "ויגע בצינור", is by linguist Tzion Okashi and was published very recently in a festschrift for linguist Dr. Uri Melammed, "לקט אורות: אסופת מאמרים לכבוד ד"ר אורי מלמד בהגיעו לשיבה", Yerushalayim 2024, pp. 253-263. The tzinor was most famously mentioned by David in relation to his conquest of Yerushalayim. The near-and-dear bit in the post's title refers to the blog's banner, which is a drawing of a midrashic imagining of another of David's conquests, that of an Amalekite city (see more here ). Both conquests featured Yoav ben Tz'ruyah in a lead role. The word tzinor in modern Hebrew means "pipe" but in context doesn't make sense as the meaning of the tanachic word. Shmuel 2:5:6-9 : "The king and his men set out for Jerusalem against the Jebusites who inhabited the region. David was told, “You will ne...

May this post be in merit of our soldiers, a swift return of the hostages and a speedy recovery for Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים). Once I read Yirmiyahu in a single sitting. It took a few hours, to be sure, but I studied it all during one seder erev (evening study period) at yeshiva. It was during the three weeks and I had tears in my eyes part of the time. I had been in the middle of writing an essay comparing Plato's writings with those of Yirmiyahu because of an old tradition that Yirmiyahu met Plato and perhaps even taught him. After going through some Platonic texts, as well as gathering as much info on their purported relationship as I could, I turned to studying Yirmiyahu. And so I read it all. And I was deeply immersed and moved. I found myself deeply relating to Yirmiyahu's difficult life. To this day I feel a deep connection to his character. Two verses in particular caught my eye that night, 9:22-23 : " כֹּה אָמַר ה' אַל יִתְהַלֵּל חָכ...

May this post be a merit for the success of our soldiers and the safe return of all of the hostages that are still alive, and the bodies of the deceased, and a refuah shlemah for Dror Yisrael ben Rut Miriam (דרור ישראל בן רות מרים). As a friend of mine pointed out earlier today, it's somewhat ironic that on the week where we read of Yaakov and Lavan's treaty, Israel is signing a treaty with Hamas (ימ"ש). An interesting midrash notes that the treaty was still valid many centuries later: Midrash Tanchuma Devarim 3:1 "...מכתם זה דוד, שעשה עצמו מך, ותם על שהלך בתמימות עם קונו, אימתי בהצותו את ארם נהרים, מהון כשהלך יואב להלחם עם ארם נהרים, יצאו לקראתו, אמרו לו אתה מבני בניו של יעקב, ואנו מבני בניו של לבן, והרי תנאי שלהם [קיים], דכתיב עד הגל הזה (בראשית לא נב) , כששמע יואב חזר אצל דוד, א"ל מה אתה אומר הרי תנאו שבועת יעקב אבינו, מיד הושיבו סנהדרין שושן עדות, [ללמד] למדוהו ואמרו באמת כך היה, אלא הם עברוהו תחילה, בלעם הרשע מפני מה עבר, לא כך אמר מן ארם ינחני בלק מלך מוא...

I was going to post this yesterday, but I'm swamped with work...let's just call this the Shushan Purim Isru Chag post...😁 For those who don't know, Dura Europos, a city in eastern Syria, was excavated in the 1930's. One of the most incredible discoveries made there was a well-preserved shul . The shul's walls were decorated with beautiful paintings of scenes from Tanach, such as Eliyahu at Mt. Carmel, the Plishtim being punished for taking the Ark, King David, the First Temple and so forth. One of the most fascinating things about these paintings - which are dated to the years 244-245 CE - is that some of them are based on midrashim. For example, the Eliyahu at Mt. Carmel painting clearly shows Chiel Beit Ha'eli hiding in the Baalic altar and being killed by a snake (alluded to in  Shemot Rabbah 15:16  and  Pesikta Rabbati 4 ; stated explicitly in  Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 214 ). With regards to Purim, there's an honest-to-goodness Purim panel at that shul: ...

I thought of an interpretation for Bat Sheva's name ages ago, but only remembered it this last Shabbat during a discussion around the table about unusual Hebrew names. Bat Sheva is usually spelled בת שבע which literally means "daughter of seven", although it might have some connection to the word shvuah שבועה - vow. These are more classic understandings. There are two instances in which her name is spelled Bat Shua בת שוע, both in Chronicles ( Chronicles 1:2:3 ; 1:3:5 ). This variant of the name connects her to Yehudah's wife Bat Shua ( Beresheet 38:12 ) who was evidently named after her father Shua ( ibid. 2 ). Bat Sheva is known to be the granddaughter of Achitophel the Gilonite through her father Eliam; Giloh being a city in the territory of the tribe of Yehudah, so the naming makes sense. The name itself means something like "daughter of salvation/redemption". It could be argued that Bat Sheva is simply a variant of Bat Shua or vice-versa, but I would...

Shanah Tovah to everyone and have an easy fast. A quick realization that I came to shortly before Mincha yesterday: In Shmuel 2:24:18 , David was commanded to build an altar in a place in Yerushalayim called 'Goren Arvanah ha'Yevusi (The Threshing Floor of Araunah the Jebusite)'. Since it was owned by Arvanah, David it bought it from him and built the altar. This story is also recounted in greater detail in Chronicles 1:21:18-28 . Here Arvanah is called 'Ornan'. Subsequently , David decides that the Temple should be built there, and that project was completed by his son Shlomo ( ibid. 2:3:1 ). In other words, this place would become the final dwelling place of the Ark of the Covenant. Now here's what's really fascinating: The name Arvanah, as it's spelled in Shmuel - ארונה - is made up of the word ארון and the letter ה = the word 'Ark' and the letter Heh, one of the letters of the name of Hashem. I.e., the name Arvanah equals Aron H' ('אר...

This idea was suggested by my Tanach chavruta (study-buddy) and I think it is an amazing idea. We are currently studying Esther at a snail's pace. We had previously concluded (this might be the subject of a future post; for now, take my word for it) that Achashverosh was reluctant to wipe out an entire nation from his empire, and was only convinced because of two things: 1. Haman's claim that these people were treacherous anarchists and a danger to the delicate balance and security of the empire. 2. More importantly, the promise of 10000 bars of silver. In light of this, we wondered: Why would Achashverosh join Haman in celebration via feast? Haman was celebrating his potential victory over the Jews. But what did Achashverosh have to celebrate? Money? Nu. He knew the money was coming out of a deal he was not 100% comfortable with. Then my chavruta suggested this: Practically every time feasting is mentioned in Esther, it is in relation to the closing of a deal: 1. A grand feast...

A few days ago I was privileged enough to hear a fascinating short TED-sized lecture by one of the doctorate students in my department at university. This student, a rabbi in his profession, spoke about his doctoral thesis which just recently he handed in to the university's review board and was pending a verdict from them. The thesis, which I won't discuss at length here for a number of reasons, the main being that it's still pending a verdict from the board (and the others being that for the most part, it's not Tanach-related), focused on the Mishmarot Kehunah of the Second Temple Era and later. The Mishmarot Kehunah were the divisions of priests that served at set times year-round. Each division served for about two weeks every year and everyone served together on Chol Hamo'ed. Now, I came up to him after the lecture and asked him a question on one aspect of his theory: Per his theory, the four priestly families that came during Shivat Tzion and recreated the pr...

Last year I made a post about what I perceived (and still do, to some extent), to being a big mystery, and that, is the meaning of David's name. I brought a few theories and suggestions, but nothing solid. A few days ago, a new theory came to mind, which I think is more solid (though not necessarily perfect): Daat Mikra and others suggest that David is a short-form of Dodvayahu, which is a combination of Dod (beloved) and the name of Hashem, so it means = beloved of Hashem. I rejected this option in my previous post, but having thought about it again this week, I think it might point to another possibility: In Hebrew, there are things called "binyanim" (בניינים). Wikipedia  tells me that this should be translated as "grammatical conjugations". In short, in Semitic languages, verbs can be deflected to different tenses and forms. Typically, these are symbolized by verbs in the פעל (P'AL) root. One such form is the פעיל form, which means that someone is active...

 Sometimes I wonder why we read through David's sins in smooth fashion, accepting and moving on, while when certain rabbis - or even non-rabbis - nowadays sin in similar ways, their lives are basically over. Is it because the media causes great hype? Is it because of (somewhat radical) movements such as MeToo? Many believe there was hype over the David and Bat Sheva story way back when it happened, too. But it seemed that people managed to move past that. And there were other sins as well - but ultimately, David came out alright, for the most part. By the way, I'm reminded of a story I heard from one of the rabbis in my yeshiva: One of his sons once went out on a date with a girl from a certain " kavnik " midrasha  and somehow they got to talking about this particular story. The girl announced that of course there was no way that David sinned. That's a very popular view that appears in the gemara, but it's actually the minority view in the gemara. The guy poin...

 Some thoughts on some peculiar name-changes in Shmuel: King Shaul's only surviving son after his fall at the hands of the Plishtim was Yishvi . But upon becoming king of most of the tribes, he's called Ish-Boshet . Not a very honorable name. In Divrei Hayamim we learn that one of his names or maybe his full name was really Eshba'al . Avimelech, son of Gidon, who was also known as Yeruba'al , is called Avimelech ben Yeruboshet . Yehonatan's son Mefiboshet's real name, according to Divrei Hayamim was Merivba'al . We're starting to see a theme here. Most commentators - both ancient and modern - who make note of this, explain it by saying that the author of Shmuel had something against the word "Ba'al", as though it refers to the Canaanite god Ba'al, and he sought to rid Ba'al worship. Bible critics claim this is evidence that Shaul held pagan beliefs and worshiped both Hashem and Ba'al. However, the Tanach is never afraid to point...

  (Image from Shay Charka 's נגיד שבבא בתנ"ך (highly recommended)) Ask just about any bible academic, and they'll tell you that whoever authored Chronicles was basically writing pro-Davidic propaganda. Okay, pro-Davidic-- as opposed to what? Pro-Shaulian, of course. That's right, Am Yisrael's first official king (setting aside whatever halachic status Moshe may have held, and also, l'havdil, setting aside Avimelech, son of Gidon), King Shaul, while mentioned in Chronicles, doesn't get that much limelight, certainly nowhere close to that of David (David's kingdom covers almost all of Chronicles 1, and most of Chronicles 2 is dedicated to his descendants' stories). Bible critics are quick to notice this, and generally deduce that this means that the author of Chronicles was anti-Shaul and pro-Davidic, and did everything in his power to reduce Shaul's role in the history of Am Yisrael. Now me, I believe in our sages' tradition that Chronicles ...

 Malbim on Chronicles 1:9:2  writes that ch. 9 is parallelized by chapter 11 of Nechemiah. The two complete one another. Each is based on different info sources that were in front of Ezra (Nechemiah originally being part of the Book of Ezra). Per this, I had an idea earlier today to try and recreate the full list. I did this by first making a chart that compared both chapters (Apologies in advance that it's only in Hebrew at the moment): דברי הימים א' ט' נחמיה י"א וְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל הִתְיַחְשׂוּ וְהִנָּם כְּתוּבִים עַל סֵפֶר מַלְכֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוּדָה הָגְלוּ לְבָבֶל בְּמַעֲלָם.   וְהַיּוֹשְׁבִים הָרִאשֹׁנִים אֲשֶׁר בַּאֲחֻזָּתָם בְּעָרֵיהֶם יִשְׂרָאֵל הַכֹּהֲנִים הַלְוִיִּם וְהַנְּתִינִים. וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׂרֵי הָעָם בִּירוּשָׁלָ‍ִם וּשְׁאָר הָעָם הִפִּילוּ גוֹרָלוֹת לְהָבִיא אֶחָד מִן הָעֲשָׂרָה לָשֶׁבֶת בִּירוּשָׁלַ‍ִם עִיר הַקֹּדֶשׁ וְתֵשַׁע הַיָּדוֹת בֶּעָרִים. וַיְבָרֲכוּ הָעָם לְכֹל הָאֲנָשִׁים ...