Chris Weimer

Actually, it's Peter Kirby's site.

gregor

I think that Peter gave management of it to JW last fall.

Loomis

JoeWallack

JW:
Ookay. Let's start looking at Commentary on the offending word of 22:17 in Original language Hebrew with the late, great Rashi:

From Wikipedia:

"Rashi רש"י, a Hebrew acronym for Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (רבי שלמה יצחקי), or Rabbi Shlomo Yarchi (רבי שלמה ירחי), who lived February 22, 1040 – July 17, 1105, wrote the first comprehensive commentaries on the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and Talmud, and is one of the classic Jewish meforshim (commentators). Sources variously give his surname as Yitzchaki, deriving from his father's name, Yitzchak, or as Yarchi, indicating that his family came from Lunel (Yareach, in Hebrew)."

From the boychicks at the Learned Jews For Judaism:

http://www.chabad.org/library/articl...showrashi=true

"17. For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet.

like a lion, my hands and feet As though they are crushed in a lion’s mouth, and so did Hezekiah say (in Isa. 38: 13): “like a lion, so it would break all my bones.”


JW:
And so we have The Rashi, generally considered the greatest Jewish Bible commentator of all time ("the greatest of all time") and known by Rabbinic standards for giving a straight-forward, literal explanation of the text, giving us the Tradition of "like a lion" Kairca 11th century.



Joseph

TRANSLATOR, n.
One who enables two persons of different languages to understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to the translator's advantage for the other to have said.



JP Holding Link To Anti-Semitic Site

Phlox Pyros

Well...ya got me there, Joe. "Like a lion" must be the original reading if Rashi proclaimed it so in the 11th century.

Apikorus

I always thought that Muhammed Ali was "the greatest of all time."

At any rate, Rashi's biblical exegesis relies heavily on midrash (though not in this particular instance). Is Joe some kind of Jewish fundamentalist?

JoeWallack

JW:
Strawman.

JW:
Tinman. (Doesn't want to get rained on)

Rashi is well known for commentary on the plain and simple meaning by Rabbinic standards. Apikorus, if you don't like being known as "Tinman" for the rest of this Thread you can kiss my Midrash.



Joseph

TRANSLATOR, n.
One who enables two persons of different languages to understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to the translator's advantage for the other to have said.


JP Holding Link To Anti-Semitic Site

JoeWallack

JW:
When considering Commentary we also need to consider Masorah. Here is an introductory article at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masoretic_Text

"The Hebrew word mesorah (מסורה) refers to the transmission of a tradition. In fact, in a very broad sense it can refer to the entire chain of Jewish tradition (see Oral law). But in terms of the masoretic text the word mesorah has a very specific meaning: it refers to concise marginal notes in manuscripts (and later printings) of the Hebrew Bible which note textual details, usually about the precise spelling of words.

The oldest manuscripts containing substantial parts of the Masoretic Text known to still exist date from approximately the ninth century, and the Aleppo Codex (possibly the first ever complete copy of the Masoretic Text in one manuscript - see the Aleppo Codex article) dates from the tenth century, but there are many earlier fragments that appear to belong in the same textual family. For example, amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls and fragments found at other places in the Judean desert, there are some which differ from the Masoretic Text in only about 1 letter of each 1000 letters. Of course, there are also fragments showing a much larger difference."


JW:
So some of the earliest extant Masoretic manuscripts will have notes in the margins indicating textual variation and sometimes brief discussion of variation.



Joseph

TRANSLATOR, n.
One who enables two persons of different languages to understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to the translator's advantage for the other to have said.


JP Holding Link To Anti-Semitic Site

Apikorus

Joe, Rashi is not a good example of a pashtan (plain sense exegete). His grandson, Rashbam, would be a better example. Rashi writes that every Israelite birth during the Egyptian captivity was sextuplets, that Reuven merely rearranged Bilhah's furniture, etc. Have you read much Rashi?

Loomis

The Rashi was clueless regarding Isaiah 38:21~22. Those verses (21 & 22) belong between verses 6 and 7.

The Rashi was also clueless regarding Deuteronomy 32:8. It should read “sons of El,” and not “children of Israel.”

To his credit, (through his testimony of silence) the Rashi does appear to know that YHWH was never in the scene at Genesis 14:22.