Tanach Thoughts

So, very exciting news that I got just a last night - I was informed by the editors of the journal Megadim that my article has been accepted for publication. They just recommended a few small corrections. Once I send in the final draft they'll start preparing it for publication, presumably for the next volume (64). Don't remember if I've shared in the past, but I can sure share now that the article suggests a new interpretation for the difficultly-phrased verse in Melachim 2:15:25: " וַיִּקְשֹׁר עָלָיו פֶּקַח בֶּן רְמַלְיָהוּ שָׁלִישׁוֹ וַיַּכֵּהוּ בְשֹׁמְרוֹן בְּאַרְמוֹן בֵּית  מלך  [הַמֶּלֶךְ] אֶת אַרְגֹּב וְאֶת הָאַרְיֵה וְעִמּוֹ חֲמִשִּׁים אִישׁ מִבְּנֵי גִלְעָדִים וַיְמִיתֵהוּ וַיִּמְלֹךְ תַּחְתָּיו." "His aide, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him and struck him down in the royal palace in Samaria; with (?) Argob and the Arieh, and with him were fifty Gileadites; and he killed him and succeeded him as king. The verse describes the assassination ...

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...

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...

A thought that I had a bit earlier: When I think about the word "dvir" (דביר), I understand what it's used to refer to: The inner sanctum of a temple (also borrowed to refer to a city in Eretz Yehudah). But I don't know the etymology of the word. What does the word itself literally mean? What do all of its parts put together mean? Why does dvir specifically mean inner sanctum? Well, I don't have a clear answer on that, but I had a thought: Many letters in Semitic languages are interchangeable and often get switched around. And it just so happens that all of the letters in dvir can be interchanged. In this case, some meaning of the word dvir can be leaned by switching three of its four letters: ד, י, ר with their parallels ז, ו, ל. Keeping the ב, we get the word "Zvul" (זבול) which is also a term used to refer to a temple, or part of a temple. I think that's pretty neat.

I was perusing Nachum on Shabbat when I came across the following verse ( Nachum 2:8 ): " וְהֻצַּב גֻּלְּתָה הֹעֲלָתָה וְאַמְהֹתֶיהָ מְנַהֲגוֹת כְּקוֹל יוֹנִים מְתֹפְפֹת עַל לִבְבֵהֶן", which roughly translates as " And Huzzab is exiled and carried away, while her handmaidens as with the voices of doves, beating their breasts." The reason that I say "roughly" is because the meaning of the word "הצב" - "Huzzab" is unclear. Traditional commentary typically states that it may have been the name of the Assyrian queen. Malbim has a different suggestion which is that Huzzab means that she was led away in a "turtle-wagon" (עגלת צב), and that her name was גלתה - Guletah (Malbim connects this to the root גלת - GLT in Tiglat-Pileser's name. I'm not sure that particular point holds water in the Assyrian language, though). Even before seeing Malbim, it occurred to me that Guletah may indeed be a name and may derive from the Assyr...

Not long ago I was reading a section of Epiphanius's Panarion. Epiphanius was a Jewish apostate who converted to Christianity. He was born in the Land of Israel and eventually became the Bishop of Salamis (no surprise there. Jews + salami...okay, I'll stop...). Epiphanius wrote a book called " Panarion " (thought to mean "bread basket" in Latin or "medicine chest" in Greek) about Jewish, Judeo-Christian and Christian sects from before his time and during his time. The book provides a lot of interesting information. In the section I was reading he discussed a certain Jewish or Judeo-Christian sect (unclear from the bits of information he provides) called "the Osseans" (he writes that it either means "impudent ones" or "strong ones". To me that means that in Hebrew or Aramaic their name was העזיים or העזאיים, since עז (Az) means both strong and impudent. Strangely, I have yet to come across an academic scholar who makes...

Never mind now what animal the Tanachic Re'em was (my favorite opinion is Rabbi Ahron Marcus's, that it was the elephant, but I am aware that the popular opinion is that it was the Aurochs) , Re'em is usually spelled in Hebrew ראם, but there are some variants: רמים (sing. רם - Tehillim 22:22), ראים (Tehillim 92:11), רים (Iyov 39:9-10). Re'em appears to be connected to the word רם - Ram, great (in size). In other words, we are talking about a large animal. I noticed something interesting a couple of days ago. There are two cities in Tanach said to have been called Ramot - ראמות: One is Ramot in the Gilad ( one of the cities of refuge and a Levitical city - Devarim 4:43, Yehoshua 20:8, Chronicles 1:6:65) and the other is Ramot in the territory of Yissachar (later a Levitical city - Chronicles 1:6:58). Anyway, there's no huge chiddush here, I just find it interesting that the root ראם exists also in the names of cities that were likely high up, topographically-speaking...

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 ...