Tanach Thoughts

 This is a continuation of this post , which is merely my translation into English of an excellent list of different sorts of commentators on Tanach, provided by the website of the late Nechama Leibowitz. Just putting this out there for anyone's use. Professor Shlomo Dov Goitine Henry George (not Jewish) Rabbi Mordechai Gimpel Yaffe (Techelet Mordechai) Rabbi Shlomo Dubno Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (Michtav Me'Eliyahu) Rabbi Hertz Naftali Homberg (Hakorem) Rabbi David Tzvi Hoffman Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Horwitz (Be'er Yitzchak) Rabbi Yeshiayah Halevi Horwitz (the Shl"ah) Chaim Hazaz Rabbi Wolf (Binyamin Ze'ev) Heidenheim) (RaVe"h) Rabbi Eliezer Halevi Heilperin (Bi'urei Mohara"l) Rabbi Efraim ben Shimshon (Rabbeinu Efraim) Rabbeinu Asher ben Yechiel (Ro"sh) Professor Yosef Heinman Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn (Nimukei Rashi) Rabbi Meir Simcha Hakohen of Dwinsk (Meshech-Chochmah) Rabbi David Halevi Segal (Divrei David)...

 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...

Note: I started writing this review shortly after the end of the third lockdown, but never got around to finishing it (translating the section below), so the result is that this is being published over a month after I first started writing this.  Yes! After five weeks (the duration of the third lockdown here in Israel) of chipping away at the book named in the title, I've finished it and can now share with the world all of my very important thoughts on a book that I'm not sure very many people in the world are even aware exists...but I take what I can find (and yes, I found it next to the neighborhood's genizah can)... Introduction To The Holy Scriptures is my translation of the title which is מבוא לכתבי הקודש - Mevo Lekitvei Hakodesh. It was originally written by Shmuel Shrira in Russian, according to Zalman Shazar , who wrote the introduction to the Hebrew edition. Apparently the two were among a group of scholars funded by Baron  Günzburg , which is how they met. My tho...

 Wow is the only way I can describe this cool find from earlier this evening: A list of Tanachic commentators , many I've never heard of. It's from Nechama Leibowitz z"l's site and I'm translating it into English (on the site each name leads to a short bio about that person, so recommnded you check out the original, if you can). As it's long, I'll only post part of it now (letters א-ב), and the rest further posts. Also, I've had another post in the oven for a while now, but been busy... R' Aharon abu Alrabi R' Yonah ibn Janach R' Yosef ibn Caspi R' Avraham ibn Ezra Dr. Yehudah Even Shmuel R' Don Yitzchak Abravanel R' Natan Marcus Hakohen Adler Arnold Bogomil Ehrlich R' Yosef Chaim Azulai (the Chida) R' Yonatan Eibschutz R' Yissachar Ber Eilenburg R' Ze'ev Wolf Einhorn (Maharzu) R' Yisrael Isserlein R' Yosef Albo Prof. Chanoch Albeck R' Avraham Aligeri R' Eliezer of Beaugancy R' Eliyahu Krem...

 "Pride Rock! So majestic, so mysterious, so...bizarrely named. Pumbaa, how can a rock be proud?" "Well, actually, I think it's a metaphor--" These words come to mind with the twin names Reuel and Deuel. Reuel is actually a name that belongs to multiple people in Tanach: There's of course Yitro, AKA Reuel, and then there's Esav's son Reuel, and Reuel ben Yevanyah of the Tribe of Binyamin, and of course, Reuel, father of Elyasaf, the Nasi of Gad in the desert. That's quite a quartet: Two Israelites, a Midianite and an Edomite. All descendants of Avraham, of course. Then there's Deuel, father of Elyasaf, the Nasi of Gad in the desert. Wait, what? Yup. Elyasaf's father is at time called Reuel and at time Deuel. What's going on? Well, people with double names aren't that rare in Tanach. In fact, I think that a great many mysteries in Tanach could be solved with properly identifying certain people with other people. But that's of c...

 ...is not something you'll find in this post. In recent months I've discovered a few commentators that I wasn't aware of or was aware of but not really familiar with, and I thought I'd write a little bit about my impressions of them here. This certainly does not do justice to their character or commentaries. Philo of Alexandria  - Everyone's probably heard of Philo. Though not everyone really knows who he was. Many of Philo's views on Judaism are still shrouded in mystery, but here's a short summary of what we know: He was a religious, observant, Jewish philosopher living in Alexandria in Egypt in the decades prior to the destruction of the Second Temple. His birth-name probably was Philon (Philo in Latin languages) which means "friend". Rabbi Azaryah de Rossi translated his name into the Hebrew "Yedidyah", but there were even tannaim at the time who had non-Jewish names, such as Antignos of Socho, so more likely that Philon really was h...

 Just a couple of additions to what I wrote here  on the connection between Egypt and Yehudah: Zerach, son of Yehudah - Similarly named: Zerach the Cushite, who Rabbi Ahron Marcus says was the son-in-law of Pharaoh Shishak. In my opinion, Zerach and Shishak led armies of a unified Egypt - Egyptians, Libyans and Cushites. Achan son of Carmi, a descendant of Zerach, in Aramaic means "snake", so we've got another "snake name" to add to Nachash, Nachshon and Saraf.