Abstract: This article serves two purposes: first, it underscores the pivotal role of Hebrew terminology in the Middle Ages, particularly its importance in the study of language grammar, and the profound questions that research should address to comprehend it. If we consider terminology as the "meta-language of language," a mirror of a language's linguistic thought, then we can delve into the linguistic perspectives it articulates. The second purpose is to illuminate the grammatical terms that emerged in the Jewish center of Byzantium and that reflect the linguistic tradition in this community, specifically in the essay Eškol Ha-Kop̅er of the Byzantine Karaite sage Yehuda Hadassi (the 12th century). So, in the second chapter, I will trace Hadassi's terms related to phonology and morphology while trying to demonstrate their origins, unique characters, and connection to the grammatical concepts they express. As I shall show, in the 12th century in Byzantium, Hebrew grammatical terminology was still in its formative stage. Hadassi's use of the early Karaite terms and epithets, along with Byzantine-Karaite ones, Tiberian school, and Andalusian system terms, the traditional and the innovative, showcases the diversity of their origins. Some terms are exclusive to the Byzantine school, and some are believed to be his own creations. This diversity and the unique characteristics of the terms make the 12th-century Hebrew grammatical terminology a fascinating subject of study. Another prominent characteristic of that school's grammatical terminology is that its terms were more "descriptive" than "defining." This means that many of the terms used by Hadassi are figurative and even picturesque, indicating their immaturity. Some of them are worded in a cumbersome way. Despite their immaturity and awkwardness, the terms have generally succeeded in satisfactorily clarifying the grammatical phenomena and reflecting the linguistic perceptions that prevailed at their times.
Abstract: Scholarship on constituent order in Biblical Hebrew is largely limited to the analysis of narrative prose. Those few studies which pay attention to poetic literature enjoy no consensus concerning the roles which Information Structure and poetics play in determining the clausal constituent order, nor do they concern themselves with the implications of deviant constituent order for larger patterns of discourse structure. In this paper, I argue for the analytical primacy of poetic cognition over Information Structure – which may or may not coincide one with the other. Constituent order patterns used to structure poetic discourse through shaping line groupings include repetition, symmetry and constituent-specific strategies of tail-head linkage and inclusio, of which I will illustrate with examples drawn from Psalms 1–25, 51 and 91. These structures account for non-default constituent order at the clause-level – when Information Structure lacks explanatory power – and shed light on the previously unappreciated contribution of constituent order patterns across poetic lines in determining larger discourse structures.
Abstract: The intersection of literary structure and leitmotif presents a fertile ground for research in the Hebrew Bible. Rather than attending to various forms of parallelism and strophic formula, all of which are commonplace for poetic analysis, this article addresses the deep structure of Lamentations 2:1–10 in three parts. First, unit delimitation is reasoned by the exceptionally rare occurrence of an extended third-person account with god being described as the agent. Second, unit segmentation is identified by juxtaposed paratactic rhetorical devices denoting an irrevocable reality. Third, the semantic architecture is selectively traced by identifying inclusios indicative of finality. Combined, the text reveals one of the darkest sagas in the Hebrew Bible, where death hopelessly and impassably lives beyond all means of ascent.
Abstract: The following essay considers the re-use of Exodus 32–34 in Numbers 11 with an eye toward the interplay between divine anger and divine favor as they relate to Yhwh's interactions with Moses and Israel. After an opening section outlining recent scholarship on Numbers 11, the core of the essay documents both lexical and thematic elements shared between the texts, which, when taken together, suggest an intentional connection. This, then, leads to the concluding section, wherein I consider how apprehending the relationship between Exodus 32–34 and Numbers 11 may interact with our understanding of the chapter's composition, its function within Torah's narrative arc, and what we are to make of its characterization of Moses.
Abstract: The account of Yhwh's support of Moses in Numbers 12 raises some key questions concerning Moses's status as Yhwh's spokesman in the Wilderness narratives. The narrative states that Moses had taken a Cushite wife and that his Levite siblings, Miriam and Aaron, objected to his intermarriage. Although some interpreters have argued that Moses had taken a new wife after having allegedly divorced Zipporah, such a contention does not stand up to scrutiny, insofar as Zipporah bat Jethro, as the daughter of a Midianite priest, would have been considered a Cushite in ancient Israel and Judah. The key issue in the narrative is Zipporah's non-Israelite identity, particularly because Moses is a Levite who would be forbidden to marry a foreign woman as stipulated in Lev 21.10–15, esp. vv. 14–15. Yhwh's support of Moses in this instance is surprising. But consideration of several intertextual references indicate that Zipporah is a suitable mate for Moses. Consideration of Exodus 2 and Exodus 18 indicate that no divorce took place between Moses and Zipporah, so that she is indeed still Moses's wife. Examination of references in Song 1:5 and Hab 3:7 indicate that Zipporah is indeed a Cushite due to her dark skin. Despite warnings against the marriage of foreign women in Exod 23:27–33; 34:10–16; and Deut 7:1–8, and a polemic against Midianite women in Num 25:6–16, the account of Zipporah's circumcision of her son, Gershom, in Exod 4:24–26 demonstrates that she is a righteous Gentile that makes her a suitable mate for Moses in the eyes of Yhwh.
Abstract: The present essay elucidates the characterization of God, Moses, and their relationship through the literary category of "character zones." A "character zone" can be thought of as a character's sphere of influence or voice which may overlap and infiltrate other characters' zones and which may contain varying degrees of the narrator's zone. This concept is particularly useful for exploring the relationship between Moses and God. The dynamic of an overlapping character zone is explicitly highlighted when God tells Moses that Aaron "shall serve as a mouth for you, and you shall serve as God for him" (Exod 4:16). The co-mingling of God's and Moses's character zones is explicit. As an exploration of this dynamic, the present essay will explore Moses's characterization in Exod 2:11–14 and highlight ways in which Moses's character zone overlaps with God's and contrasts with God. In the process, this essay will highlight the way that characterization can meet theology in biblical narrative.
Abstract: This paper focuses on wh-based exclamatives, both positive ones and negative ones, and claims that while the former evolve via the speaker's strong (usually negative) stance, the latter evolve via an argumentative stance implying exhaustivity, later turning into a discourse marking constructions of 'indifference', often defined in the literature as 'expletive negation'. These are standardly defined as cases where a sole negator seemingly does not modify the truth-value or truth-conditions of the proposition, or alternatively, the occurrence of a negative marker without apparent negative force. In this paper, I examine the linguistic evolution of wh-based negative exclamatives often defined as expletive negation (EN) and focus my analysis on Hebrew. The main claim is that positive wh-exclamatives and negative wh-expletives evolve via different rhetorical motivations, but in both cases it is the question's initial rhetorically-recruited function that motivates its semantic change (alongside grammatical and prosodic changes) and it is that function that also persists throughout their history. The paper offers constructionalization and grammaticalization processes of wh-EN exclamatives, focusing on the nature of the negator within those constructions.
Abstract: After the idolatry of the golden calf, God tells Moses that the covenant is effectively canceled and that he intends to destroy the Israelites and start over with Moses. Not only does Moses refuse the offer, he convinces God not to destroy Israel, and even to accompany them on the journey to the Promised Land (which God initially had refused to do). Finally, Moses receives from God a personal theophany (a revelation of divine glory), accompanied by a new revelation of the meaning of the divine name (beyond that given in Exodus 3). This new revelation signifies a change in God's modus operandi with Israel from a conditional to an unconditional covenant, evident from a comparison of Exod 20:4–6 with Exod 34:6–7. This essay explores the nature and significance of the shift between Exodus 20 and 34, grounded in God's mercy or love, while noting analogous shifts in Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Through an examination of the pattern underlying these shifts, the essay reflects on what the significance of this pattern might be for understanding the complicated characterization of the God of Israel.
Abstract: Constructions in the Hebrew Bible which consist of two or more contiguous verbs yet convey the idea of a singular event have broadly been subsumed under the term "hendiadys" – a label which is applied both to verbal and nominal constructions in which two elements together express a single idea. Hebrew grammars vary in their treatment of such verbal constructions, either understanding one of the verbs adverbially, or logically subordinating one verb to another, or else reanalyzing one verb as an interjection of sorts. Most grammars and analyses focus primarily on biverbal constructions, likely due to their preponderance in the Hebrew Bible; however, there are also a number of triverbal constructions that can help us open up new avenues of research into Hebrew verbal syntax. In this paper, I focus on triverbal constructions in BH prose, mainly drawn from the Deuteronomistic History and consider them in light of new theoretical developments in Semitic linguistics regarding "Serial Verb Constructions" (SVC). Using a typological prototype-driven approach to SVCs, as developed by Aikhenvald and Andrason, I analyze a number of triverbal sequences in BH. I find that non-canonical triverbal SVCs do occur in the Hebrew Bible, but only within certain parameters and always with at least one verb which, according to Chrzanowski, functions as an auxiliary verb elsewhere. These findings corroborate Andrason's postulate that BH's non-canonical SVCs will exhibit more disunity, which in turn corresponds to the diachronical development of serial verbs in BH.
Abstract: B. Yevamot 44b presents an unusual baraita that is internally incoherent and that contradicts the mishna on b. Yevamot 44a that it is intended to support. The incoherence and contradiction are the result of a difference in the meanings of the facially similar terms "yoẓi" and "kofin 'oto lehoẓi" that appear as parallels in the mishna and the baraita. This article argues that the baraita is likely a redacted version of the parallel tosefta, which was edited in order to achieve structural harmony with the mishna. The false symmetry that resulted from the difference in the meanings of the seemingly equivalent terms posed a dilemma for translators who were left with the unenviable choice of preserving the esthetic symmetry by incorrectly translating the mishna or unnecessarily emending the baraita, or of accurately translating the mishna and preserving the mistake in the baraita while sacrificing the esthetic choice of the author.
Abstract: The article starts with a characterization of Israeli Hebrew, and its development from a conglomeration of written sources going back to classical Hebrew, including ones from about 17 centuries when it was not spoken. As a result, what became accepted as Israeli Hebrew is a merged grammatical (and lexical) system, built upon written sources regarded as the normative standard that should dictate speech norms as well, and that any deviation from it would be detrimental. Some Hebraists question whether a language that was not spoken for so long can still be regarded as "Hebrew," or even as a Semitic language. The average Israeli fails to recognize the inevitability of change in language development through history, and the existence of multiple levels of language uses (registers) side-by-side, each of which is just as legitimate as the other. We follow with illustrations of the expansion of new word formation from existing bases through linear derivation by means of suffixes, a most transparent process, alongside discontinuous (root+pattern) derivation. We will also explore the changing treatment of possessive and existential sentences, the neutralization of numeral gender, the maintenance of fixed stress in certain classes of words, and a certain tendency towards rhythmic alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Some of these have precedents in earlier stages of Hebrew, and demonstrate that change is a natural result of Israeli Hebrew's being a living language, and should not be regarded as evidence of its deterioration, becoming non-Semitic, an artificial hybrid language, or creole .
Abstract: The present study analyzes the love poetry composed in Arabic by the Jewish convert to Islam Ibrāhīm Ibn Sahl al-Isrāʾīlī al-Ishbīlī (1211–1251). Ibn Sahl is considered unique among poets in the Andalusian period. He wrote his poetry in fluent Arabic and was very familiar with the use of Arabic themes and expressions, yet his verses contain allegorical allusions and utterances that hint at a yearning for his Jewish origins and for Hebrew. The discussion will focus on the meanings of Ibn Sahl's love poems, both literal and allegorical, especially the poems devoted to the figure of "Moses" and the various meanings that can be attached to it. A significant question that Ibn Sahl's love poems raise is how to understand the status of the beloved figure of "Moses" ('Mūsā'): Is the poet referring to the Moses the prophet, who serves as a mask behind which Ibn Sahl can express his yearning for the Jewish faith into which he was born, or is his intention to express his ardent love for "Moses", hidden behind a ṣūfī mask, in an imitation of the ṣūfī poets whom he encountered in Andalusia? Another important question is whether Ibn Sahl's use of ṣūfī terminology was a result of his contacts with ṣūfī scholars, headed by the mystic philosopher Muḥyi al-Dīn Ibn ʿArabī (1165–1240), a native of Murcia and author of Turjumān al-ashwāq ('Interpreter of Desires'). The present study will attempt to answer these questions.
Abstract: In several biblical passages where the MT has [inline-graphic 03] 'report', one or more of the early versions has "name" '[inline-graphic 04]'. While it is possible to explain these ancient renderings either as pseudo-variants or as interpretations of [inline-graphic 03] in their source text, the evidence suggests that the translators had a Hebrew Vorlage that differed from the MT in most of these instances. The present article is devoted to analysis of the relevant texts.
Abstract: The feminine voice audible in the work of Esther Shkalim (b. 1954), a Mizrahi Israeli feminist woman poet, is a unique, dualistic, and complex poetic voice; alongside the protest expressed in her poems against the Mizrahi tradition of her mother and grandmothers, who believed in silencing the feminine voice and restricting it to the circumscribed domestic environment, there is an expression of her deep connection to them and to their tradition. The Serah poems discussed in this article express Shkalim's feminine and Mizrahi identity and are representative of the whole corpus of her poetry, which is a part of the phenomenon of Mizrahi feminism and its literary expressions. Serah daughter of Asher, and granddaughter of Jacob, is mentioned twice in the Hebrew bible, and nothing is recorded concerning her except her name and that of her father. In rabbinic literature, however, she is depicted as a wise woman with power and influence. In Persian-Jewish folklore she is seen as a saintly figure. In Esther Shkalim's poems, written under the inspiration of these traditions, she examines her relationship with the figure of Serah, and also with the women in her family who believed in her powers and prayed to her. Serah symbolizes the traditional heritage of Mizrahi women, and Shkalim feels the pain of the rejection of this heritage within modern Israeli society. Her poems reflect one of the sensitive social issues that Israeli society has been contending with from its early days up to the present: the pain of immigrants from Oriental countries to Israel who felt that Ashkenazi Israeli society had not given their heritage the place it deserved.
Abstract: This article seeks to establish parameters for determining whether something should be treated as a loanword or a short code-switch in Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. Such classifications are increasingly being used to support different exegetical or historical claims but without any clear basis for classification. In fact, even in the study of modern languages and contact linguistics it is not readily agreed whether a single word code-switch can truly be distinguished from a loanword (or to what extent). These problems are exacerbated by the fact that Biblical Hebrew is an ancient language with a limited and unbalanced corpus, comprised entirely of literary texts. By examining a number of cases (from uncontroversial cases to more liminal ones) this article proposes a set of six principles to be taken into consideration when trying to determine whether something is a loanword or a short code-switch in Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic.
Abstract: In this essay, the text of Megillat Ahimaatz offers a window into compositional conventions, particularly around liturgy, as well as understandings of writing at a pivotal moment, and in a pivotal location: southern Italy (Apulia) in during the 9th–11th centuries. Both writing technologies and ritual performances (liturgical and magical) occupy prominent places in Megillat Ahimaatz, and the text seems to reflect a moment of great cognizance concerning the significance of writing and performative power and praxis, particularly among Jews but also in other communities, as well, as viewed through Jewish eyes. In this essay, I will (1) outline the text's general interest in writing, writers, performers, and performance, after which I will (2) present the specific varieties of writing and performance that occur in Megillat Ahimaatz. Finally, I will (3) examine the scroll's specific vocabulary for writing (texts and practices) and similarly, I will consider the way liturgical performance is described. These elements – narrative and lexical – when read together offer a window into at least one writer's understanding of his tradition at a pivotal crossroads in Jewish literary and liturgical history.
Abstract: Late antique rabbinic Judaism famously left no manuscript traces. Without material evidence regarding early rabbinic practices of reading and writing, scholars have struggled to close the theoretical gap between the physical remnants of epigraphic and ritual writing from Jewish communities in this period and the portraits of reading and writing preserved in medieval manuscripts of late antique rabbinic literature. Yet, Karen Stern has observed that virtually all of the methods adopted to date ultimately privilege rabbinic writings by treating them as the hermeneutical frame through which the material evidence is interpreted. This article asks if we can reverse that hermeneutic hierarchy by (re)reading the literary tradition in light of the insights brought to us by the traces of material writing from the period. As a case study, this article takes the material evidence that visitors to the Dura Europos synagogue engaged with the prepared pictorial texts and architectural spaces of the synagogue in deeply interactive ways – rubbing and touching images and even emending and adding their own words and images to those in the prepared environment. When we reconsider early rabbinic traditions in light of this popular interactive disposition towards text and image, it emerges that many early rabbinic thinkers likewise approached written and pictorial texts as inherently contingent products that invited the continued intervention of other human hands. Moreover, one discovers that many rabbinic texts theorized this interactive relationship as a manifestation of a fundamental continuity and permeability between text and the material world.
Abstract: In this study I discuss the meaning of the preposition בֵּין from a diachronic perspective. While in Classical Biblical Hebrew (CBH) the preposition always means 'between' (with a single possible exception), from the time of the exile onwards it also takes on the meaning of 'among', probably under the influence of Aramaic and because of the disappearance of the composite preposition בְּקֶרֶב, which led to the reconfiguration of the use of prepositions such as בֵּין and בְּתוֹךְ. Both meanings ‘between’ and ‘among’ for the preposition בֵּין are known and reported in various lexica and reference grammars, yet they have never been considered and explained from a diachronic standpoint.
Abstract: This essay examines examples of the Oral Torah as a concrete, material phenomenon in late ancient rabbinic sources. The oral nature of oral Torah, both as an ideology and as a description of rabbinic textual practices, can elide some of the more evocative discussions of the nature of oral Torah. Previous discussions, such as Wollenberg (2019), have shown that the nature of the written Torah was often understood as unstable, changing, and mutable. This essay explores the other side of that equation, exploring discussions of oral Text as concrete, enduring, and unchanging. Two main examples are studied: the first from a passage in the Palestinian Talmud, and the second in a passage from the Babylonian Talmud. The Palestinian Talmud draws a dense network of connections between Torah scrolls, oral teachings, rabbinic sages, and the imagery of death and memorialization. The Babylonian Talmud similarly extends the value of rabbinic oral teaching into the World to Come, showing that while the associations between teaching, death, and eternal life manifest differently, they are still present in different rabbinic contexts. Taken together, these inscriptions of a concrete and material Oral Torah are fully realized in the body of the rabbinic sage. Other scholars have also shown that rabbinic sages become an embodiment of Torah: this essay examines the nature of rabbinic Torah, as discussed in rabbinic literature, to understand how that embodiment comes about.
