Shemini

[Insert standard Meredith warning here]

I've been thinking about God's Glory -- not as an attribute of God, but as the physical entity that appears to the people of Israel in Leviticus 9. It has been suggested that the phrase kevod Adonai, "the Glory of the Lord," was employed by the (late) priestly authors in an attempt to avoid anthrpomorphism. Their God was supposedly more transcendent than J's or E's, so it would have been inappropriate to speak of God Himself appearing before the Tent of Meeting, consuming sacrifices, and so forth.

A similar claim has been made regarding references in the deuteronomic/ deuteronomistic texts to God's "Name" dwelling in a place of his choosing. The latter claim is, however, being called into question on the basis of Akkadian cognates.* It is argued that in the ancient Near East, a one referred to a king's "name" the way English speakers might refer to his "majesty:" it is a circumlocution, to be sure, but ultimately, the referant is the king himself. (To take another example, it is the Pope, not his "holiness," who is currently receiving nourishment through a feeding tube, regardless of how his doctors may address him.)

It seems to me that the same is probably true of God's "glory," which is, after all, used interchangeably with God's proper name (compare Leviticus 9:4 to verses 6 and 23). In these texts, God Himself is in the "cloud of glory." Perhaps this cloud is a cloud of smoke with a divine fire burning at its center, similar to the pillar that guided the Israelites through the wilderness (although the pillar texts would seem to be J). This would (I think) make better sense of this scene, in which God descends and sends forth fire to consume the offerings with which He is presented, after which the people fall on their faces, having "seen" the Lord.

* See Sandra L. Richter's The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology (2002).

Galois is Back!

(Actually, it's been back since the beginning of February, but I haven't been keeping up with blogs.)

For those who don't know/ remember, Galois is a blog by Gabriel Rosenberg that deals primarily with the legal and ethical aspects of the same-sex marriage debate in the United States. Gabriel is a mathematician, but he's made some of the best legal arguments I've seen in favor of same-sex marriage. If you are legally minded and interested in this issue, you would probably enjoy Galois, regardless of your personal position.

A Few Timely Comments

Here is the kiddush that DH used last Purim, in case any of you would like to use it. There may be a revised version by tomorrow.

(Halakhic note: It has been brought to my attention that Ha-gafen covers all beverages just as Ha-motsi covers all foods, so you do not have to -- indeed, should not -- make a separate blessing on the scotch.)

(Note on the note: If this doesn't mean anything to you, feel free to ingore it, or consult your local Rabbi :))

On a very different note, please note (no pun intended; I'm just tired) that today, Ta'anit Esther, is Agunah Awareness Day. An Agunah (pl. agunot) is a woman who has been abandoned by her husband but is unable to remarry because he has denied her a get (religious divorce). You can learn more about the problem and potential solutions here. A prayer for agunot from the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance can be found here.

To those who are fasting, I wish an easy and meaningful fast. To those celebrating Purim tonight and tomorrow, a chag sameach!

UPDATE: This year's kiddush for Purim can be found in DH's Live Journal.

Vayyiqra/ Tsav

For those who are wondering, I did begin composing a post on Vayyiqra, and I had almost finished when I had to stop and get ready for Shabbat. Fortunately, it was a very general post on the subject of sacrifice and contemporary Judaism, so it is just as applicable to this week's parsha, Tsav, as it would have been to last week's. (I'd like to get into more specific issues eventually, but I'd rather deal with general themes first.) Since Purim is this Friday and I have quite a lot to do, I feel entitled to cheat. So here it is, two parshiyot in one:

The hope for a rebuilt Temple and a revival of the sacrificial order has been a relatively constant feature of Jewish eschatology over the centuries. There have, however, been a few variations. In his Guide for the Perplexed, for example, Maimonedes (1135-1204) posits that animal sacrifice was a primitive form of worship designed for primitive people, and that Jews were ultimately meant to move toward higher forms of worship, such as prayer and, ultimately, completely internal worship of the heart.* Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook (1865-1935) envisioned a restoration of the sacrifical order, but one that would be restricted to vegetarian sacrifices along the lines of the biblical meal offering (mincha**). Unsurprisingly, the Reform and Conservative movements embrace the idea that Jewish worship has "evolved" beyond animal sacrifice.

The traditional musaf prayer (an "additional" prayer for Shabbat and holidays) expresses a desire for the restoration of the sacrifical order. The following paragraph comes from the musaf amidah for Shabbat:

You established the Sabbath, found favor in its offerings, commanded regarding the interpretation of its ordinances with the order of its libations. Those who delight in it will be honored forever, those who savor it merit life, and those who love its teachings have chosen greatness. From Sinai, they [our ancestors] were commanded regarding it, and You, Lord, our God, commanded us to offer the Sabbath additional [musaf] offering in the proper manner. May it be your will, Lord, our God and God of our ancestors, that You bring us in joy to our land and plant us within our borders, so that we may offer the sacrifices required of us there, continual [tamid] offerings in their proper order, and additional offerings in the manner prescribed for them. Then we will prepare and offer the additional offering of this Sabbath day before you with love, according to to Your will, as you wrote for us in your Torah, by the hand of Moses your servant, from Your Glory's mouth. . .

The prayer continues with the text of Numbers 28:9-10, which describes the mussaf offering:

On the Sabbath day, two year-old unblemished lambs, and two tenths of an ephah of fine meal mixed with oil, and its libation. The burnt-offering of the Sabbath, in addition to the continual burnt offering and its libation.

The Conservative Sim Shalom siddur (prayer book) offers several alternative versions of the passage. The least radical casts the offending portions in the past tense:***

You established the Sabbath, found favor in its offerings, comanded regarding the interpretation of its ordinances and the order of its libations. Those who rejoice in it will be honored forever, those who savor it merit life, and those who love its teachings have chosen greatness. From Sinai, they were commanded regarding it, and You, Lord God, commanded them to offer the Sabbath additional offering in the propper manner. May it be Your will, Lord, our God and God of our ancestors, Who returns children to their territory,**** that You bring us in joy to our land and plant us within our borders, where our ancestors offered the offerings required of them, continual offerings in their proper order, and additional offerings in the manner prescribed for them. There we will serve you with love and awe as in ancient times. They prepared and offered the mussaf offering for this Sabbath day before you with love, according to your will, as written in your Torah, by the hand of Moses your servant, from Your Glory's mouth. . .

The quotation from Numbers follows but is designated as optional. After the quote, another line is added:

Compassionate King, accept the prayer of your people Israel with mercy, wherever they dwell.

The Sim Shalom also includes an "alternative" mussaf service, which offers a choice of four substitutes for the above paragraph. The first is based on the traditional version but alters it significantly:

You have established the Sabbath, found favor in its offerings, commanded regarding the interpretation of its ordinances with the order of its libations. Those who rejoice in it will be honored forever, those who savor it merit life, and those who love its teachings have chosen greatness. From Sinai they were commanded regarding it, and you have commanded us to serve you in Jerusalem your city, on your holy Sabbath day, on your holy mountain. May it be Your will, Lord, our God and God of our ancestors, Who returns children to their territory, that you bring us in joy to our land and plant us within our borders, and that violence no longer be heard in our land, or destruction within our borders. There may we serve you in love and awe as in ancient times. Compassionate King, accept the prayer of your people Israel with compassion, wherever they dwell.

The remaining three alternatives were composed in English. They make no mention of past, present, or future worship in Jerusalem, focusing instead on the challanges and rewards of contemporary Sabbath observance.

All this variation within the official liturgy of a single movement attests to the controversiality of eschatology and sacrifice -- two issues to which most "modern" Jews devote very little attention. When we envision a better world, what do we see? A return to a better past? A revival of particular elements of the past, altered to suit contemporary mores? An age of peace between Jews and Muslims (with Jewish control of the Temple Mount, of course)? How do we regard those portions of the Torah that deal with sacrifice? Are they of merely historical interest (not that I have any problem with that)? Are they a forecast of the future? Or is there, perhaps, another option?

* Sorry, no citations this time. You'll just have to take my word for it.
** I am aware of the fact that my transliterations have become less and less consistent over time. You'll have to deal with it.
*** This translation is my own. A less literal translation appears in the siddur itself.
**** A paraphrase of Jeremiah 31:17. The editors of the Sim Shalom never missed an opportunity to sneak in a bit of Zionism.

Pekudei and "Pious Fraud"

Since the beginning of the new Daf Yomi cycle, there's been some talk among J-bloggers about "getting in on the action." I don't imagine that I could handle Daf Yomi. (DH and I are learning Tractate Berachot together; it's all I can hope that we'll finish by the next seven-year cycle.) There is, however, another Jewish cycle with which I'd like to become more involved: the weekly Torah reading.

I thought of doing this around Simchat Torah, but there's no good reason not to start now. Here is the plan: each week, I'll post a little something related (however loosely) to the Torah portion and/ or Haftarah. These posts may deal with historical-critical, grammatical, or philospohical issues; I expect that they'll be very quirky. Hopefully, they'll be interesting to at least a few people other than me.

Here's one for this week's portion, Pekudei:

Pekudei is one of a series of parshiyot that focus on the Tabernacle, a tent-shrine said to have been transported by the Israelites throughout their wanderings in the wilderness. For years, I've wondered idly about the historicity of the Tabernacle. Critical scholars generally agree that it is quite out of place in the wilderness setting assigned to it by the biblical narrative. All the same, the Bible's description of the Tabernacle is so detailed that I find it difficult to believe that it is no more than a "pious fraud" of a later age, as Graf and Wellhausen suggested. (DH thinks I might change my mind if I read The Silmerillion, but it's not exactly at the top of my reading list.)

More recently, scholars such as Frank Moore Cross, Richard Elliott Friedman, and Menahem Haran have argued that the descriptions of the Tabernacle do, in fact, have some historical basis. Cross argues (quite plausibly, to my mind) that the descriptions come from plans for the tent-shrine erected by David to house the Ark of the Covenant when it was moved to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6:17). Later, the authors of the Priestly Source (P) incorporated the plans into the narrative of the wilderness wanderings.*

Cross' theory is much more in keeping with my conception of biblical historiography than the Graf-Wellhausen proposal. While I can certainly accept that the biblical authors were often loose with their sources and highly imaginative in their reconstructions of history, I find it difficult to accept that they were responsible for conscious fraudulence, pious or otherwise.

*See Cross, F. M., "The Tabernacle: A Study From an Archaeological and Historical Approach," in Biblical Archaeologist, 10 no 3 S 1947, p 45-68, and
Cross, F. M. "The Priestly Tabernacle in the Light of Recent Research," in Temples and High Places in Biblical Times, Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology of Hebrew UnionCollege-Jewish Institute of Religion, c1981.

Coolness

A blog about mikveh! (Hat tip to Shanna.)

Can We Declare a Holiday?

Check it out:

Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar that is certified kosher by Orthodox Union (OU-D) will be available exclusively from this website starting this March. All of the cheeses in our online store (except for Smoky Bacon Cheddar) are already certified kosher by Tablet-K and certified halal by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA). However, we have received many consumer inquiries about providing OU-certified cheddar, so we are conducting this market test. If successful, we will make this product a permanent addition to our web shopping selection. In the future, we may even explore making it available through your local supermarket. It's coming here in March -- be sure to tell your friends.

Hopefully the Last Summers Post

Cathy Young finally wrote a column on the Summers affair. As expected, it is the most clear-headed take on the subject that I've read, and I've read quite a bit. If you're not completely sick of the whole business by now, definitely check it out.

By the way, if you'd like to read what Summers actually said, it is available here. The groveling letters are here and here.