February ramblings

I've posted what I think about Esau, that he gets a bum rap, & how I think that our Jewish Sages love to demonize him. I asked my Israelite Samaritan friend how Ishaab (to use the IS style) is seen by the IS community. He replied, "As holy as his brother, seeker of peace and pampered by the Almighty, so human and so compassionate." How wonderful!

I saw a review of Gerald Russell's book "Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms: Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East" & ordered the book. I had it shipped to my parents in the US & Dad forwarded it to me here. I am almost finished with the first two chapters, on the Mandeans & the Yazidis. I am reading the chapters in order & will get to the (5th) chapter on the Israelite Samaritans eventually. It is a very good read so far. My IS friend said it is "good and accurate."

I first became aware of the "Samaritans" way back after my (Conservative) bar mitzvah. I received from the synagogue a Hertz chumash which I still have (actually I have my brother's; maybe he has mine?) In his commentary on Genesis 49:7, Yaaqob is giving his blessing to Shehmoon and Libee. The Masoretic Text version reads: "Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." The Hebrew for "Cursed" is arur. Rav Hertz writes in his commentary: "It is characteristic of the untrustworthiness of the Samaritan Text that instead of the reading arur, 'Cursed be their anger,' it has adir, 'How splendid is their anger!'" The IS Version of the Torah reads "Great is their anger, for it is strong, and their wounding, for it is so hard. I will disperse them in Yaaqob and scatter them in Yishraael."

His sneering condescension aside, I think that Rav Hertz completely misreads the Israelite Samaritan version. Adir also means great or mighty, which is clearly the meaning it has in the Israelite Samaritan version. I don't get that Yaaqob is praising or commending his sons' anger at all. Otherwise he would not "disperse them in Yaaqob and scatter them in Yishraael." That Yaaqob wasn't praising their anger is also obvious from Genesis 49:6, which reads not all that differently in the two versions. The Jewish version reads: "Let my soul not come into their council; unto their assembly let my glory be united; for in their anger they slew men, and in their self-will they houghed oxen." The Israelite Samaritan version reads: "In their secret my soul will not be involved, and in their assembly my honor will not be angry; Because in their anger they slew men. And in their will they lamed an ox."

So until I discovered the Israelite Samaritans and their version of our faith, I would read Rav Hertz every year and think "Those poor benighted Samaritans..."

A few Shabbats ago at our synagogue, as we were waiting for 10 men to show up so we could say the afternoon prayers, the discussion turned to whether Jews should or should not go up to the Temple Mount. The guys looked at me and I said that I don't go up there. I wanted to shout, "BECAUSE IT IS NOT THE HOLY PLACE CHOSEN BY GOD!!! THAT IS AARGAREEZEM!!!"

But I didn't. Shouting rarely does any good.

In Exodus 24:7, the Jewish Masoretic Text says, "...we will do and we will hear," whereas the Israelite Samaritan Text says, "...we will hear and we will do." Our Jewish Sages make such a big deal that we declared that we would do God's words even before understanding ("hearing") them & that without doing there can be no understanding. Now that I think about it, I think our reading makes little sense. How can we do God's words if we do not know what they are & what God in fact wants?