Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Thursday, July 16, 2020
SONSINO'S BLOG: Great leaders-Great legends
SONSINO'S BLOG: Great leaders-Great legends: How Did Our Biblical Characters Gain Legendary Status? BY: RABBI RIFAT SONSINO PRINT · Moses and King Solomon a...
Great leaders-Great legends
How Did Our Biblical Characters Gain Legendary
Status?
BY:
RABBI RIFAT SONSINO
·
Moses and King Solomon are two of the most
popular figures in the Hebrew Bible, but what do we really know about their
lives, and how did they reach such legendary status?
Let’s begin with Moses.
According to the Bible, Moses led our
ancestors out of Egyptian bondage and received the Torah from God on Mt. Sinai.
Historians, however, have found no evidence of a real Moses in any of the
ancient Near Eastern texts. There seems to be a parallel between the birth
stories of Moses and of the Assyrian king, Sargon the great (third millennium
BCE), including how they were each placed in a basket and found in a river by a
young woman.
Rabbinic literature is replete with stories
about Moses that are not found in the Bible.
The sages say he was born and died on the
7th of Adar, that he was born six months after conception already
circumcised, and that he rejected many Egyptian women who wanted to nurse him.
As a young child, he would grab Pharaoh’s crown and put it on his own head. To
determine if baby Moses was a threat, the rabbis tell us, Pharaoh ordered a
shining piece of gold and a hot coal placed before Moses to see which of the
two he would choose. The angel Gabriel guided Moses’ hand to the coal, which
Moses put into his mouth – burning his tongue but saving his life.
In the New Testament, Moses is quoted
frequently and always positively.
In Acts 26:23, it is even claimed that Moses
foretold the arrival of Jesus. In the Quran, Moses (“Musa”) is mentioned 115
times, more than any other person in the book. Even though it repeats some of
the most popular stories about him, there are striking differences between the
Quranic and Biblical versions. For example, in the Bible it is the daughter of
the Pharaoh who acts as a savior (Ex. 2: 5 ff); in the Quran, it is Pharaoh’s
wife, Asiya, who tells her husband to adopt the baby (28:9).
Moses, the charismatic leader of the
Israelites in the Exodus story, became the subject of numerous legends across
religions and time.
As for King Solomon, another legendary hero…
According to the Hebrew Bible, King Solomon
was the son of King David and the second son of Queen Bath-Sheba. He reigned for
40 years (a popular number of years attributed to other kings, like Saul and
David), and died at the age of 80.
He built the first temple of
Jerusalem and represented the Golden Age of the United Kingdom in ancient
Israel. Because of his reputation as a wise person, a number of books were
attributed to him, such as the Song of Songs and the Book of Ecclesiastes, and The Wisdom of Solomon (second century
BCE). The Jewish historian Josephus (first century CE), portrays King
Solomon with a great deal of exaggeration: Not only was he one of the wisest
men on earth, but he was also known as an exorcist, knowing how to expel
demons.
Like Moses, King Solomon is not mentioned in
any ancient Near Eastern text; yet both the Talmud and the Quran consider him a
major prophet.
The Greek Orthodox Church views him as a
saint. In the Midrash, rabbinic imagination about Solomon knows no bounds.
According to Genesis Rabba, he was so wise that he even knew the mysteries of
heaven. Deer and gazelles were his forerunners, lions, and tigers his armor
bearers. Rabbinic legend also tells us that Solomon was punished for his
overbearing pride and removed from the throne by the demon king, Ashmedai.
Also like Moses, King Solomon became the
subject of legend across religions and time. What we know (and don’t know)
about them raises some fundamental questions about who is ushered into the great
hall of heroes in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Let’s take a look at some
of those questions now.
“Who wrote the Bible?”
Most traditional commentators argue that the
books of Hebrew Scriptures were written by the person that appears in the
title. Namely, Moses wrote the Five Books of Moses, Joshua wrote Joshua, Isaiah
wrote the Book of Isaiah, etc.
The majority of modern biblical scholars
would disagree, maintaining that scriptural stories were transmitted orally for
many generations, building upon legends upon legends. Some parts, they argue,
were composed before the others, reflecting the ideologies of different schools
of thought (known as Jahwist Elohist, Deuteronomist, and Priestly) before the
entire text was finally written down by unknown individuals.
“Is the Bible historically accurate?”
The Bible, as we know it, was completed
sometime around the second century BCE. Modern liberal biblical scholars
maintain that it is impossible to assume the accuracy of biblical stories
because we have no way to verify them.
Were Moses and Solomon perfect leaders?
No personality in the Hebrew Bible is
flawless. Moses comes off as an angry leader who berates his own people
and, as punishment, is denied entry into the Land of Israel (Num. 20:10ff).
Similarly, King Solomon is chastised for building temples to idols (I K 11: 7)
and for associating with foreign women (I K 11:1).
“Does it matter that Moses and King Solomon may not have actually
existed?”
Even if we can never prove that these biblical
characters actually existed, they can still serve as role models for us.
Despite their shortcomings, they became paragons of perfection.
In Rabbinic literature, for
example, Moses is described Mosheh Rabbenu as our teacher par excellence, and King
Solomon emerges as the personification of wisdom.
“If the biblical text is not historically accurate in all its
details, how should we read it?”
When we attempt to understand and interpret an
ancient text, such as the Hebrew Bible, we must first figure out its meaning
and scope within the context of the ancient Near East, follow the literary
development of the main personalities involved, and pay attention to their
positive as well as negative traits.
It is only then that we can begin to figure
out what their relevance may be for our time.
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D., is the rabbi emeritus
of Temple Beth Shalom in Needham, MA, and
teaches Ethics at Framingham State University. He also writes at Sonsino’s Blog.
Published in reformjudaism.org on 7/16/20
Monday, July 13, 2020
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
CONFINED TO AN APARTMENT DURING THE CORONA VIRUS
Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.
In Aug. of 2018, my wife Ines and I left our comfortable
condo in Ashland, MA and moved into the independent living section of the Willows,
in Westborough, MA, a suburb of Boston. I was getting closer to my 80th
birthday, had retired from my congregation, and even though I taught part-time,
first at Boston College and then at Framingham State University, I was finding
going up and down the stairs of my second-floor office a bit tiresome. At the
Willows, we got ourselves an apartment with two-bed-rooms and two baths, on the
4th floor, overlooking the main entrance to the complex, right
across from a rehabilitation and skilled nursing center (called, Beaumont), and another building for those who needed
assisted living (called, Whitney Place). For about two years, every night we
walked down to the 2nd floor community dining room and had dinner
with a few friends. A cleaning lady came in every Monday morning and spruced up
the bath rooms and swept the entire apartment- but did not dust! The Willows,
with about 150 apartments in the independent living area, is surrounded by a lovely
courtyard , and has a small gym as well as a library. In the
past, I gave a few public lectures to the residents in the auditorium. Life was
good. And then, early March, 2020, the Corona Virus hit with vengeance, changing
our lives in a dramatic fashion. The impact was nationwide and profoundly
disturbing. More than two million Americans got sick, and even more than 130,000
died. For a while, the country was almost paralyzed.
Right away, the administration, with justifiable concern for
the residents but with excessive zeal, imposed a total quarantine on all of us. We could not
even get out of our living quarters. Meals were delivered to our apartment, the
gym and the library were closed, and family visits were eliminated. All
residents were told to cover their faces with masks, and keep distance from
others. After a month of this restrictive regiment, we felt as if we were in
jail! We were safe but cut off from the rest of the world, except by phone. Quickly,
we realized that many of our neighbors are much older than we are, many of them
depend on aids to move about, and quite a few can get around only in a wheel
chair. Ines and I, however, are healthy enough to engage in physical activities
with greater ease. Once or twice, I sent the managers letters of complaint
regarding the deteriorating quality of our food and the rigid imposition of the
group dynamics on us, but did not get very far.
Things started to ease up by mid- June, 2020. We were able to
move about freely within the complex at any time, and have family visits,
albeit only at the courtyard outside, with masks and appropriate social
distancing. The gym and the library remain closed, and we still received our
meals in our apartment. We were discouraged to leave the campus altogether,
even though many people simply snuck out and did their thing.
At one point, Ines and I thought of moving out altogether
and buying a condo in the neighborhood, but opted against it, because of my
age, now at almost 82, and with the likelihood that we will still need a place
like the Willows, within a few years down the pike. So, we decided to stay put and
do the best we can.
Now, early July, we are still being kept in phase 1, even
though Massachusetts has already moved into phase 3. The management of the
Willows told us that soon things will start to ease up for us as well. I hope
so, because it is becoming too difficult to live with these restrictions.
Sadly, we now realize that our lives have changed
drastically. Until the virus is under control, daily activities that we took
for granted in the past, like traveling, socialization, or going to cultural
activities, will from now on be curtailed for a considerable period of time. In
the future, I hope we can talk about these dark days with awe but also with gratitude
that we survived it all.
July 8, 2020
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