Tanach Thoughts

I really hope I'll have time soon for the second Dan's naviphobia post (fear of boats, not prophets), but in the mean time, a quick, short note on Ivtzan: Ivtzan (אבצן) was one of the lesser-known judges, although he was made popular because the Talmud identified  him with Boaz. In one of my earliest posts , I brought some suggestions for the meaning of his name. At the time, I was only aware of a place called תבץ (Tevetz), and that seemed too different for a connection to be made, but a few days ago I discovered that there was also a place called אבץ  (Evetz), so it's possible that his name came from that and his name denotes some sort of connection to that place. Likelihood: I won't get into it too much right now, but there's a debate among both commentators and academic scholars on whether Ivtzan was from the Galilean Beit Lechem or the Judean Beit Lechem . A connection to the Galilean town of Evetz seems to strengthen the Galilean identification.

 One of the names that has long puzzled me is Ivtzan. You know, short-time judge from the Book of Shoftim, comes from Beit Lechem. According to the gemara, Ivtzan was Boaz. But that's another story. Perhaps worthy of a post around Shavuot-time. I first began pondering Ivtzan's name around the summer of my fifth year in Yeshiva. For a while I thought it might come from the mineral name Avatz (אבץ) - zinc, but I couldn't find any evidence that Avatz is an old word. Also, why name a person after zinc? A few months ago, I noticed that there was a place in Israel called Tevetz (תבץ). That still doesn't explain the etymology, but it is  a plausible direction. It would work with multiple other names of people that are merely taken from place-names; evidence of early Zionism. However, a couple of weeks ago, while reading Ben-Tzion Luria's Shaul and Binyamin, I came across a paragraph where he pointed out that the meaning of Gilad comes from the treaty between Yaakov and Lav...