Tanach Thoughts

Yesterday in a certain waiting room I came across a book by Dr. Tzvi Betzer z"l, who was apparently a linguist, and who had passed away about 22 years ago, if I remember correctly. The book, dedicated in his memory, collected some (or perhaps all, I didn't check) of his various papers. Several caught my eye because they discussed topics that sounded relevant for some of my research interests. But one in particular seemed unusual. It was a short essay, more of a note, really, in terms of length, on the term "מסבות שם" (Mussabot Shem) which is typically translated something like "changed names". The term is used in Bamidbar 32:38  in reference to the Transjordanian cities captured by the Reuvenites and Gadites and resettled by their families. As mentioned above, the term is usually understood to refer to the literal names of the cities having been changed by the tribes, because the names had idolatrous connotations. However, strangely enough, in most cases we...

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). I noticed something interesting while reading last week's parasha. After Yosef claims that his brothers came to Egypt to spy on the land, the brothers are forced to leave behind Shimon and go back home to bring Binyamin. Yaakov, naturally, is against this idea. Reuven says the following ( Beresheet 42:37 ): " וַיֹּאמֶר רְאוּבֵן אֶל אָבִיו לֵאמֹר אֶת שְׁנֵי בָנַי תָּמִית אִם לֹא אֲבִיאֶנּוּ אֵלֶיךָ תְּנָה אֹתוֹ עַל יָדִי וַאֲנִי אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ אֵלֶיךָ" " Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him to you.”" What's interesting here is that in this week's parasha it says that Reuven had four sons (and that was the case for later mentions of Reuven's sons). But Reuven doesn't say "You may kill two of  my so...

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...