First of all, Shemot is fascinating for a few reasons. First, the origin of the name 'Moshe', derived, so the text tells us, from 'Min hamayim mishiteehu' or 'I drew him from the water'. So an Egyptian princess, it seems spoke perfect Hebrew. But shouldn't he have been named at his Brit Mila? And shouldn't we have been told what that name was? Josh Waxman on parshablog insists that the definition provided in the text for his name is correct, grammatical contortions notwithstanding, and in any case is better than the alternatives. One of these is 'Moseh', an Egyptian word meaning 'is born', and appended to the name of many Egyptian kings such as Thutmoseh and Ramoseh. Sounds most likely to me, but I guess I don't have a frum agenda.
There is also an interesting reference to 'Bayamim harabim hahem' (roughly 'those many days ago') which of course implies that the text was written many years after the events.
Finally, Shemot seems to be a rich vein for documentary hypotheses research. In the first two chapters god is called 'Elohim' while Tzipora's Midianite father is called Reuel (notice the typically Hebrew 'el' in his name, which means 'see el'). Then in Chapter 3, the YHVH name appears and Reuel is now known as Yitro. Space and audience attention span grow short. The multitudes of readers must get back to work. I welcome all insights on these issues.
Today in 1493: The Jews were expelled from Sicily. The island had been under Spanish control for 81 years. This ancient community had flourished on the island since before the appearance of Christianity, through the Muslim and Norman periods, never suffering the degradations of Jewish communities elsewhere in Europe. They possessed a rich liturgical tradition and even had a university.
But 514 years ago today they were sent off in ships, as their long-time neighbors waved goodbye from Palermo's rooftops. Of course, before departure the crown forced them to pay an extortionate tax, as a sort of going away gift.
Shabbat Shalom.
10 comments:
If you're really interested in DH, I recommend you read The Documentary Hypothesis by Umberto Cassuto. It's a pretty good critique of DH.
DH was a wonderful insight and continues to elicit insights. I know that Cassuto wrote a critical work of DH, though i havent read it. as i recall he didnt accept that the torah was of divine origin.
have you read friedmans 'who wrote the bible?' the title is sort of lame but the book is clear. while DH may not be exactly accurate, i do think that torah is the result of multiple sources and editings over 1000 years.
I really shouldn't do this, but...:
"Sounds most likely to me, but I guess I don't have a frum agenda."
No, you have a different agenda (in the sense that everyone has an agenda).
They can read my post about this, but you *really* see this as the most likely? If you believe the text was written much later, why do you believe that an Egyptian princess was the one who gave the name, such that the most likely alternative is Egyptian? Rather than, say, a Semitic name with a different origin than the one given in the text (which would eliminate any grammatical contortion)? And why an Egyptian name we see elsewhere attached to another part of a name, and here not? And why using a *Shin* to record the phoneme /S/ where elsewhere we see the same phoneme in Raamses with a Samech? The latter is a phonological contortion. (Isn't is an anachronism to assume he gets his name at specifically his brit milah? And who says that that given name matters, if it were in fact given, since he grew up in the palace and went through life with the name Moshe?)
Now that I've stirred up the pot, I'll take my leave. :)
All the best,
Josh
Josh, no pots to stir. I just don’t possess your emuna. To me our Tanakh is an amazing document composed and edited by...brilliant, creative Jewish authors over centuries.
I simply don’t believe. I don’t believe that some Egyptian princess found a little boy among the reeds and named him Moshe, and for many reasons which I wont go into here, but many of which I suspect wouldn't surprise you. But as for the name itself, I’m convinced it is of Egyptian origin (itself part of the larger Hamito-Semitic linguistic family BTW).
I don’t believe in miracles. Therefore, even if a certain Moshe did exist, one on whom the stories were based, the events, supernatural and otherwise, associated with his life simply never happened as reported.
Since I doubt the historicity of the Moshe tales, I also doubt all that came before him.
The brit mila was instituted much later, and I raised it here tongue in cheek. I just assumed that Amram and Yocheved, good yidn as they were, would have named their son at his brit, and that he would have claimed his Hebrew name they gave him rather than use the one bestowed upon him by a shiksheh princess…
As for his name: maybe we’ve got a shibolet/sibolet issue here, where the shin in Moshe could have been a sin?
josh, one more thing:
Samech alternates with sin, particularly in Aramaic (כנס כנש).
Reuel has an 'ayin, not an alef. I would translate it as God is my shepherd, which would fit in with the desert nomad shepherd's life that the Jethro clan led.
goyishe: as for reuel: exactly, kishmo ken hoo. the writers would have bestowed upon the character a name that fit the image.
it is odd though that within two psookim you find the character referred to with two names. anyway, rebbe, i was wondering: if youre so goyishe, why were you sort of offended by my catfish conjecture? or was i magining this?
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