Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Tuesday, February 4, 2025
"IN THE BEGINNING" A TRANSLATION PROBLEM
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
How to render the very first verse of the Hebrew Bible
has been problematic for a long time. Most translations have it as :“ In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth.” Some have it as : “In the beginning,
when God created the heavens and the earth..” Everett Fox prefers, “At the
beginning of God’s creating of the heavens and the earth.” I like Speiser’s
rendition: “When God set about to create heaven and earth…” What is the
problem?
The Masoretic text was vocalized between 500-700 CE. So,
we do not know how the original scribes read the text. In our Hebrew Bible, the
very first word of Gen. 1:1 is BERESHIT. And that is, “in the beginning of,”
not, “In the beginning.” The Hebrew word is in construct form attached to a
verb, BARA, ”he created.” That is unusual. Because, grammatically speaking, the construct form should be attached to an
infinitive, like BERO, and not to a past tense form, like BARA, or, it needs to be attached to a noun,
such as “ In the beginning (BERESHIT) of the reign of Jehoiakim” (Jer. 26:1).
However, already a medieval Jewish commentator, Ibn Ezra (d.
in Spain 1167) pointed out that there are examples in the Hebrew Bible when a
construct form is attached to a verb in the past, such as “ When the Lord first
spoke to Hosea-TEHILLAT DIBBER B’HOSHEA” (Hos. 1:2) or, “The city where David
camped” -KIRYAT HANA DAVID”(Isa. 29:1). So, this is not a mistake in the Hebrew
Bible, but a rare yet valid option.
Furthermore, it is interesting to note, as Speiser
already indicated, that the biblical creation story, influenced by the
Babylonian creation myth, ENUMA ELISH, starts, in fact , as, “When (“enuma”)
on high the heaven had not been named…” (ANET, p. 60).
How does a religious naturalist like me deal with the story
of creation? I realize that Biblical editors were not astronomers and did not
know about the Big Bang. They wanted to say that at the beginning of time, when
God was about the create the universe, a supernal light appeared (v.3). The Sun
and the moon were created on day 4!
The ancient Rabbis were aware of the problem and came out
with some fanciful explanations. (See, TheTorah.com, Genesis, “If the
sun is created on day 4, what is the light on day 1,” by Zev Farber). In
reality, in Genesis, we do not have a theory of creation but only a hint that
God gave form to what had previously emanated from the divine energy. (See, Ibn
Ezra on this). Furthermore, the ancient Rabbis stressed (see Gen. Rab. 1:1O) that the letter B (in BERESHIT) is closed on three
sides but is open in the front, to teach us that we should not look back and speculate
on the mysteries of creation that are not available to us. Instead, I would
say, we need to use the light, any
light, to illumine our steps as we forge
a path that is based on justice and peace .
SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com
Monday, January 6, 2025
JEWS WHO CLAIMED TO BE MESSIAH
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
The word “Messiah” (mashiah, in Hebrew) means “anointed.” In the Bible, it is often used for kings and priests. The term took on a different meaning later on. According to the ancient Rabbis, it refers to an individual, presumably chosen by God, who will restore the Davidic kingdom, bring back all Jews to the land of Israel, rebuild the temple of Jerusalem and establish peace among the nations. In Judaism we have had a few contenders to this title. Here below are the most important:
In
the genealogy of Jesus in Mathew 1:16, we read: “Jacob was the father of
Joseph, the husband of Mary, of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ
(“Messiah”).” It is presumed that Jesus was a Galilean Jew, born in
Nazareth around 4 BCE. He probably was a Pharisee, and , like other Jews of his
time, spoke Aramaic. He most likely belonged to a group of charismatic visionaries
who predicted the end of the Roman Empire, causing the ire of the Roman
authorities in ancient Palestine who crucified him around 30 CE.
He was the Jewish leader of what is known as the Bar Kohba
revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Rabbi Akiba considered him the
Messiah. Other Rabbis disagreed. Bar Kokhba established an independent Jewish
state which he ruled for three years as Nasi ("Prince"). However, his
state was conquered by the Romans in 135 following a two and half-year war. He died in 135 CE in battle. After the revolt, Hadrian, the
Roman emperor (he died in 138 CE), changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia
Capitolina.
SABBETAY
ZEVI
A charismatic
mystical Rabbi from Izmir, today in Turkey, he was born in 1626 .But he was
also a manic depressive. He was declared Messiah by one of his followers,
Nathan of Gaza. Because of the attention he gathered, the Ottoman Turks first locked
him up in a castle and then when things got out of hand, they offered him to
test his vocation by summitting to an ordeal. Instead, he accepted to convert
and became a Moslem. His followers, who became known as donmes (“converts “in
Turkish) did the same, maintaining a dual life-style, Jewish at home but Moslem
in the streets. He died in 1676.
JACOB FRANK
His
real name was Yakov ben Judah Leib Frankovich (1726-91). He was born in
Podolia (then Poland, now a region of Ukraine), the son of a rabbi. As a
young man he traveled in the Middle East, where the Turks gave him the surname
Frank. On his return to Poland in 1755, he founded the Frankists, a
heretical Jewish sect. Subsequently, he claimed to be the recipient of direct
revelations from heaven and exhorted his followers to espouse Christianity as
an intermediate stage in the transition to a future messianic
religion. After his death, leadership of the sect passed to his daughter
Eve Frank, but the movement was soon absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church.
Orthodox Jews today still pray for the coming of the Messiah.
Reform Jews, like me, do not. In fact, I consider Messianism as dangerous
because it promotes false hopes, in as much as no single individual can solve
the world’s problems by him/herself. It is better to affirm good will and
cooperation by many people and nations.
SONSINO’S
BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Friday, December 20, 2024
WHAT HAPPENED ON HANUKAH?
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D
This year, Hanukah begins on Wednesday night, Dec. 25, 2024.
The history behind Hanukah is, briefly, this: In the second
cent. BCE, Antiochus IV, the Syrian king, set out to conquer Egypt. While he
was fighting there, Jason, who was deposed from his position as the Jewish High
Priest , left the Ammonites with whom he had taken refuge, and
attacked Menelaus, in Jerusalem, in order to regain the High
Priesthood. A civil war broke out between the two, and Jason successfully
entered Jerusalem. King Antiochus was furious. On his way back from Egypt, the
king attacked Jerusalem, imposed restrictions on Judea, and eventually
desecrated the Temple. In reaction, a priest by the name of Mattathias, and his
sons (called the Maccabees), fought against the Syrians, and were able to clean
and rededicate the temple of Jerusalem to the worship of one God in the year
165 BCE. This rededication is called Hanukah (“dedication” in Hebrew).
The First Book of Maccabees (c.mid-2nd cent. BCE),
states that Hanukah ought to be celebrated for eight days but does not indicate
the reason for it (see, 4:59). It is in the Second Book of Maccabees (c.125
BCE) that we find a rational explanation: It happened that on the same day
on which the sanctuary had been profaned by the foreigners, the purification of
the sanctuary took place, that is, on the twenty-fifth day of the same month,
which was Kislev. And they celebrated it
for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of booths,
remembering how not long before, during the feast of booths [Sukkot], they had
been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals. (10: 6). So,
Hanukah was really like a delayed Sukkot that lasts seven days plus Atzeret, a
one day festival (See, Lev. 23: 33-36; cf. v.39).
The first reference to the lights of Hanukah appears in the writings
of Josephus (1sr cent. CE) who calls the festival “Lights” by saying: I
suppose the reason was this liberty beyond our hopes appeared to us and that
hence the name given to that festival. (Antiquities, 7:7).
In it only in the Talmud, which was edited in
Babylonia in the 5-6th centuries CE that the so-called “miracle” makes
its appearance (under Persian influence?): What is [the reason of] Hanukah? For our Rabbis taught: On the
twenty-fifth of Kislew [commence] the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on
which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden. For when the
Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the
Hasmonean [i.e. Maccabees] dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they
made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High
Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day’s lighting only; yet a
miracle was wrought therein and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days.
The following year these [days] were appointed a Festival with [the recital of]
Hallel and thanksgiving. (BT
Shab. 21b, Soncino).
Later on a midrashic text (c. 9th
cent.) provides another explanation: When the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks,
they entered the temple and found there eight iron spears. They stuck candles
on these spears and kindled them. (Pesikta Rabbati 2: 5).
The festival of Hanukah proclaims many
important values, such as courage, dedication, thanksgiving, and above all, the
right to be different. These are the values we need to stress, and not the
miracle of oil which is not rational, historical or even believable in our
time.
SONSINO’S BLOG, rsonsino.blogspot.com