Judaism

Targum: Preserving “God’s Word”

In the comments on my previous post Joel asked about the origins of the “theologizing” in Targum Ruth. This morning he further commented,

I’m just now getting into 2nd Temple lit, but the Targums fascinate me, especially as a tradition in which a traditional text was developed for a specific purpose and accepted without what we know of today as reactionary calls of ‘changing God’s word.’

Joel brings up some good points about Targum. (A month ago I posted a basic definition of Targum and I refer you to that.) The specific origins and use of the Targumim has generated a fair amount of debate, particularly in scholarship lately. There are three likely contexts in which the Targumim were used: the synagogue, private study, and in the Bet Midrash (school). The origins, however, likely go back to synagogal use. If I may quote myself from the Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible:

The origins of the Targumim can probably be traced back to the liturgical practices in the synagogue. The Mishnah (c. 200 AD) states that the reading of the biblical text in a synagogue was to be accompanied with an appropriate translation so that all might understand the text being read (m Meg. 4.4). Rabbinic texts make it clear that the meturgeman, the one who translated the biblical text into Aramaic during the synagogal service, was not allowed to read from a written text, so that the congregation would not confuse the translation with the actual holy, written word. This leads to the possibility that the physical texts that we study today may not, in fact, represent the actual targum as recited in the synagogue. Nonetheless, the written targumim that we can study share this same respect for the Bible as God’s word and exhibit this in the nature of the genre.

So to Joel’s point, while we may not know if there were “reactionary calls of ‘changing God’s word’” there were clearly barriers and delimiters put in place so that the God’s word would not be change or confused with the Targum. In that sense I think that there were definitely concerns that Scripture remain unchanged. Remember, the whole reason for the Targum was to preserve the reading of Miqra/Scripture in Hebrew long after Hebrew as understood by the congregation hearing the words read aloud. Far from changing Miqra, Targum ensured that it could be crystalized.

Furthermore, Targum was never to exist without the Tanakh (although one can read a Targum and it is fully comprehensible without the source text), in fact, we discussed at IOTS how many and likely most manuscripts have the biblical text right there in the Targumic manuscript, usually alternating verse by verse with the Aramaic, although some are in parallel columns. (See the image below of TgLam 3:18.)

The result is that the community was able to both preserve Scripture without any alterations while providing a comprehensible rendering (in the linqua franca)¹ and commentary. We might compare it with a Christian congregation today where the passage from the Bible is read and then the preacher offers their “rendering” in a more colloquial English followed/interspersed with the sermon. Not a precise analogy, but I think you get the idea. The Bible is still sacrosanct, but the need to translate (even the English translation!) and interpret is recognized.

TgLam 3:18, Solger MS

Although I want to be quick to note that the Targumim continued to be read and studied in communities long after Aramaic ceased to be understood. In that sense, they themselves passed into a kind of sacred status. [↩]

Myth, origins, and to whom does to the Torah belong?

Feb 2nd, 2010

by Christian Brady.

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The Washington Post ran a very interesting exposé-type piece on Sunday by Martha Wezler revealing that a Torah rescuing Rabbi’s miraculous claims about his discoveries may be less than true.

Rabbi to the Rescue: Menachem Youlus is called the Indiana Jones of Torah recovery and restoration. But there are doubts about his thrilling tales. – washingtonpost.com.

The core of the story is a claim by Rabbi Youlus that he discovered two Torah scrolls in a mass grave in Ukraine ended up with five different buyers. Obviously something isn’t kosher. What is particularly interesting to me are two points, the ethics and the discussion of myth at the end of the piece.

Rabbi Youlus, photo from Washington Post

On the first, the author quotes several people who work with various Jewish organizations that seek to restore stolen and lost Jewish art and property to the communities from which they were taken. Something that I believe is, by and large, a good and noble cause. On first blush we might think that Youlus is also doing something good and noble (leave aside for the moment the question of his veracity) by “rescuing” these Torah scrolls and returning them to use in Jewish communities. Except those Jewish communities are almost always in the US and the purchase those scrolls at significant cost. Would it not be better to restore the scrolls to the community from whence they came? In the cases cited in the story there are not only Jewish communities reestablishing themselves in those Eastern European regions, but there are also the active organizations that I just referenced. Is this any better or different than the original theft of Jewish items during the war? (Youlus claims to remove many of these scrolls at night, through espionage, and in other questionable but very exciting sounding methods.)

Then there is the question of myth. When those who have purchased these scrolls were asked by the author of the article about whether or not they could be certain that Youlus was telling the truth, given that there were now five “owners” of the two Ukranian Torah scrolls, there is a reluctance to admit any wrong doing. One person said that revealing Youlus’ deception would be a “disservice of a greater truth,” remembering those who suffered and died because of the Nazis.” But Prof. Dwork of Clark University rightly, in my opinion, points out that

such tales can play into the hands of Holocaust deniers. For her, the historical record must be “absolutely crystal clear. Anything that deviates from that one whit does the memory of the Holocaust a huge disservice,” she says.

I will let the author conclude the story herself, but I think that theft and deceit should be revealed for what it is. A “greater good” is not served by such dissembling. Truth is the greater good.

As for Youlus’s Torah rescue stories, Berenbaum came to his own conclusion. “A psychiatrist might say they are delusional. A historian might say they are counter-factual. A pious Jew might call them midrash — the stories we tell to underscore the deepest truths we live,” he says. Midrash, in this context, refers to the ancient tradition of rabbis telling anecdotes and fables to convey a moral lesson. “Myth underscores the deepest truth we live,” Berenbaum says.

But for Kushner, who to honor his father bought a Torah he believed was from a mass grave, “It’s better that I should know the truth than I should go on the rest of my life believing in a myth.”

New book on Lamentations

Jun 19th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

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This week I have been trying to focus on research and writing. I was more successful than I expected, if I am honest with you. One of the pieces I was working on was a chapter for a forthcoming book on the versions and receptions of the Book of Lamentations. This is shaping up to be a very nice volume and the editors have given me permission to share the TOC with you. In addition to a chapter on the Targumic interpretation of Lamentations my contribution includes a transcription of TgLam from Codex Vaticanus Urbinas Hebr. 1 (the images from the older but incomplete Solger MS can be found here as well) and a new translation. I have also updated my translation of TgLam on this site and on the NTCS site.

Now, to the book. It will be published by Pater Noster (I believe that is still true) and will be made up of a series of “soundings” that will each be approximately 2,000 words with the main chapters being 6,000 words or so. The appendices will also greatly add to this volume, putting the MT, LXX, and Targum in one place along with at least portions of Lamentations Rabbah and Aquinas’ commentary. I think this is going to be a “must have” volume for anyone beginning a study of the reception and theology of Lamentations.

Great is Thy Faithfulness?
Toward Reading Lamentations as Holy Scripture

Edited by Robin Parry and Heath Thomas

PART I: PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

Introduction – Robin Parry and Heath Thomas

Ch 1: ‘Holy Scripture’ and Hermeneutics: Lamentations in Critical and Theological Reflection - Heath Thomas, Southeastern Seminary

Ch 2: “The Theology of Lamentations” – Paul House, Samford University

PART II: LAMENTATIONS AND ITS RECEPTIONS

Soundings: Jewish reception studies

1. Isaiah 40-55 – Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, University of Aberdeen

2. LXX – Kevin Youngblood, Freed-Hardeman University

3. Targum – Christian M.M. Brady, Penn State University

4. Lamentations Rabbah – Jacob Neusner, Bard College

5. Rashi – Mayer Gruber, Bar-Ilan University of the Negev

6. Jewish Worship – Elsie Stern, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

7. Post-Holocaust Interpretation in the 1960s and 1970s - Zachary Braiterman, Syracuse University

Soundings: Messianic Jewish reception studies

Lamentations in Messianic Judaism – Richard Harvey, All Nations College (UK)

Soundings: Christian reception studies

1. Patristic Interpretation – Dean Wenthe, Concordia Theological Seminary

2. Aquinas – Dominic Holtz OP, Aquinas Institute

3. Calvin – Pete Wilcox, Litchfield Cathedral, UK

4. Lam. in Eastern Orthodoxy – Eugen Pentiuc, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology

5. Christian Worship – Andrew Cameron-Mowat SJ, Heythrop College, University of London

Soundings: Artistic and Contemporary reception study

Musical Responses to Lamentations – F . Jane Schopf, Rose Bruford College (UK)
Lamentations and Rembrandt van Rijn – Heath Thomas, Southeastern Seminary
Psychological Approaches to Lamentations – Paul Joyce, University of Oxford
Feminist Reception(s) & Lamentations – Heath Thomas, Southeastern Seminar

PART III: LAMENTATIONS AS HOLY SCRIPTURE

Ch 3: “Jewish Theological Reflections on Lamentations” (TBA)

Ch 4: “Christian Theology and Lamentations” – Robin Parry

Ch 5 “Christian Pastoral Reflections on Lamentations” – Ian Stackhouse

Conclusion – Parry and Thomas

PART IV: APPENDICES OF PRIMARY TEXTS AND INTERPRETERS

Appendix 1: A Translation of MT Lamentations and LXX Lamentations in parallel columns (Kevin Youngblood)

Appendix 2: A translation of Targum Lamentations (Christian Brady)

Appendix 3: Lamentations Rabbah (c. 30,000 words). (Jacob Neusner)

Appendix 4: Aquinas’ Commentary (c. 27.000 words) (PD)

(NOTE: we have not decided whether or not to include all the long appendices)

Baltimore Hebrew U and Towson U merge

Jun 18th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

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Not sure if you all had heard the news yet or not:

Towson U. Nears Merger With Baltimore Hebrew U.

Ninety years after its founding, Baltimore Hebrew University is being absorbed by Towson University in order to survive.

The two colleges had already approved the merger, and yesterday the Maryland Higher Education Commission signed off on the deal, according to The Sun, in Baltimore. The University of Maryland’s Board of Regents could make the arrangement final on Friday.

Baltimore Hebrew was founded in 1919 to train teachers for Jewish schools and has evolved into a specialized center for studying Jewish culture, Jewish literature, and the Hebrew language. The university also trains executives for Jewish federations, community centers, and community-relations and family-service programs.

But declining enrollments and rising costs made it necessary for the university to seek a new business model. Under the merger, its programs and courses will be offered by different departments at Towson, The Sunreported. Baltimore Hebrew’s Joseph Meyerhoff Library, with some 80,000 volumes, will be housed on one floor of Towson’s Albert S. Cook Library. —Eric Kelderman

Posted on Thursday June 18, 2009 | Permalink |

Yeshiva and Hebrew Union College facing tough times

Apr 17th, 2009

by Christian Brady.

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In the Inside Higher Ed Quick Take’s I cited in the previous post there is also news that Yeshiva is changing their policies following the Madaff debacle wherein they lost millions. HUC may have to close two of their US campuses due to financial shortfalls. It is tough all around.