Tanach Thoughts

A strange idea just came to mind: In the past, some scholars have proposed identifying the minor judge Avdon ben Hillel ( Shoftim 12:13-15 ) with the minor judge Bedan ( Shmuel 1:12:11 ), because of the similarity of the name Bedan (בדן) with the end of Avdon's name (בדון), and the fact that Shmuel nonchalantly mentions Bedan though we the modern-day readers, have no earthly idea who he is. It's a fascinating proposal. I found myself thinking about this on Shabbat and today, and suddenly realized that Pir'aton, the hometown of Avdon, is in Menashe (having previously thought for some reason that it was in Ephraim). This is significant because Divrei Hayamim 1:7:17 mentions a descendant of Machir, son of Menashe, named Bedan! I have yet to check whether the chronology works out, but the possibility of another reference to Avdon/Bedan in Tanach is tantalizing. I'm probably not the first to wonder about this connection, though. But it's late and I'm typing from my ...

This post title is based on this post title because the subjects are similar. I read a very interesting essay on Shabbat by Yitzchak Avishur . It's titled (in Hebrew) "Literary Inventions and Historiographical Descriptions in Chronicles 1:5 - Which Tiglath Pileser Exiled Be'erah the Reubenite Prince?" As you can already guess from the post title, the answer to the essay's title's question is Tiglat Pileser I , who lived around the year 1100 BCE. Avishur examines the different events described in Chronicles 1:5 and points out that it would be illogical to think that the verse "his son Beerah—whom King Tillegath-pilneser of Assyria exiled—was chieftain of the Reubenites" ( ibid. 6 ) refers to the same event described in the verse "So the God of Israel roused the spirit of King Pul of Assyria—the spirit of King Tillegath-pilneser of Assyria—and he carried them away, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought t...

In the vast realm of phobias in which there's a phobia for everything from benches to books, one stands above all: Fear of boats. Okay, not really. I just wanted to be somewhat dramatic. This will be a fairly short post because I need to get back to studying for exams, but the other day I read an interesting essay by Shmuel Schnitzer , who was a journalist and also translated many books from various languages into Hebrew. In a book of essays written in memory of Moshe Goldstein (still not sure who he was, but from the book he seems to have been some sort of academic scholar, possibly of biblical studies), Schnitzer published an essay dedicated to understanding the verse "ודן למה יגור אוניות", typically translated as "And Dan—why did he linger by the ships?" ( Judges 5:17 ), which comes from the Song of Devorah. In this particular verse, she seems to be rebuking Dan. Schnitzer argued that it would make more sense to understand the word "יגור" not as ...

Well, it has definitely been too long. I started the draft of this post a month ago but haven't gotten around to finishing it and posting it. My bad. My head hasn't been in the game. If you were checking back every now and then, waiting - I apologize. So, the moment you have all been waiting for: Why is Devorah a Levite? This is part two of the two-part series presenting my theory on the true tribal identity of the judges Barak and Devorah. Part one may be viewed here . I'll note that I've added another point on Barak about the etymology of his name. That was one of the points I'd thought of over a year ago, but forgot to put it in the post. It's there now. Though many of the proofs used for Barak cover also Devorah, she also has some unique points in her own right: Point A:  The midrash ( Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 42:7 ;  Tanna Devei Eliyahu Rabbah 9:1 ) says that Barak was also known as Lapidot, and that his real name was Michael. He was the husband of Devorah an...

 This'll be a two-part series on a theory I had about two and a half years ago. While gathering info on the minor judges (the ones we know little about from p'shat Tanach), it occurred to me that we also know little about Barak's background as well, even though he's one of the better-known judges. After that, it occurred to me that we know little about Devorah as well. As you may have realized from the title, I eventually came up with the hypothesis that both of them may have been Levites. In this post I'll I'll talk about Barak, and Devorah will be the subject of the second part. I will also do my best to explain why this is totally different from when Ben Tzion Luria claimed Shmuel was from the tribe of Binyamin . Barak: Master Warrior of the Galilean Levites Point A: The midrash ( Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 42:7 ; Tanna Devei Eliyahu Rabbah 9:1 ) says that Barak was also known as Lapidot, and that his real name was Michael. He was the husband of Devorah and an A...

 I started this blog for, among other things, tracking my family tree project, but haven't actually made an update on that in awhile. So here's the update: I've finished Yehudah, Binyamin and almost all of the tribeless, except for people I noticed I had forgotten while working on other tribes. All that's left for V1, which is in Hebrew, is Levi and the last of the tribeless. About a 1/3 of Levi is already complete. Now to the main subject of the post: There's an interesting gemara in Temurah 16a: "תנא הוא עתניאל הוא יעבץ ומה שמו יהודה אחי שמעון שמו עתניאל שענאו אל יעבץ שיעץ וריבץ תורה בישראל" "A tanna taught in a baraita : The same person is known as Othniel and he is also known as Jabez. And what is his actual name? Judah, brother of Simeon, is his name. He was known as Othniel, as God answered [ ana’o El ] his prayer. He was also known as Jabez [ yabetz ] because he advised and spread [ ya’atz veribetz ] Torah among the Jewish people." I...

 As it turns out, Gidon had a sidekick. Well, not quite a sidekick. He's called a "na'ar" in Hebrew. A young assistant. Kind of like an intern, except with stealth and fighting capabilities. Like a spy plane. Okay, I'll stop. His name was Purah, which is exceedingly interesting. The word Purah will be familiar to some of us from Anim Zemirot: "Purah Bedorcho Be'vo'oh Me'edom". Purah means "winepress" in old Hebrew. Why is this interesting? Because Gidon's story opens up with him beating wheat in... a winepress ! As I heard from Rabbi Uzi Bienenfeld, Gidon did this because he didn't want the Midianites to discover him and take what precious little food his family had.  In that part of the story, the more well-known word for winepress was used - "Gat". But the two words mean the same thing. Gidon's story begins in a winepress, and then he has an assistant named "winepress" sneaking with him to spy on th...

 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...