This weekend was my daughter’s high school graduation so my plan of reminding everyone of the role of the Book of Ruth in Shavuot was set aside. There does remain one more day of observance so for my observant Jewish friends, yom tov and hag sameach! Shavuot is the Feast of Weeks, the […]
Targum
52 posts
I finally got around to posting the transcription I made years ago of TgLam for my doctorate and the subsequent book. The text is from the MS Urb. 1, represented without the vocalization. There may be some new errors introduced with the copying and pasting process (and Unicode transitions) but I think I cleaned […]
A great introductory piece by my friend and colleague Willem Smelik. It contains thoughtful reflections on the task of translating sacred writ and the uniqueness of Targum. Not least of which is that it was never to stand on its own. A targum (an Aramaic translation of Scripture) is a translation […]
More from my commentary. This time it is all about personal articles of clothing. (Being in Germany as I write this I chuckle about the debate of shoe v. glove since the German word for glove is Handschuh.) Again, no footnotes have been carried over from the book. Tg Ruth 4:7 […]
I just finished this section and I thought it curious (bizarre, amusing) enough to share this snippet. This is from my commentary on Tg. Ruth. No footnotes are reproduced. The Targumist follows the beginning of verse 8 very closely until he reaches the point where Boaz “was startled and turned […]
Believe it or not, I am still working on my book on Targum Ruth. One of the interesting bits that I came across while doing my translation a few years ago was the translation of MT’s וַיְהִ֗י בִּימֵי֙ שְׁפֹ֣ט הַשֹּׁפְטִ֔ים The Targum chooses to use the term נגיד. The oldest MS, […]
Dineke Houtman sent me word of this new and intriguing book. It’s Brill so save up your shekelim. A Jewish Targum in a Christian World ISBN: 9789004267817 What is the use of a Targum in a cultural setting where Aramaic is not a common language anymore? And why would Christians be […]
A month or so ago I was talking to an old and close friend and we began discussing reviews of our work. This led to discussing how one reviewer misunderstood my conclusions in The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations: Vindicating God. Curious to look at it all again, I pulled up […]
My article “The Conversion of Ruth in Targum Ruth” has just been published in Review of Rabbinic Judaism, Volume 16, Issue 2, 2013. Due to Brill’s generous policies, you may find the article on this site under the “Targum Ruth” tab above.
A long title. I shall have to find a shorter version, but it gets at the challenge we often find in Targumic studies. For those who are not familiar with the Targumim a very simplistic description is this: Aramaic translation of the biblical text PLUS interpretive material. A little more […]