In Israel: Naso
Continue or Stop?
In this week’s reading, Moses gathers up the 70 elders of the people and stations them all around the Tent of Meeting (Num 11:24). Then God comes down in a cloud, and the divine spirit is transferred to the 70 elders. The Torah relates that when the spirit rested on them, they begin to prophesy in ecstasy, and they did not… Did not what? Here is a problem.
The Hebrew text says they did not y-s-f-w. As is well known, the Hebrew writing system sometimes uses consonant letters to represent vowel sounds: vav (or waw) can stand for the vowel-sound u or o, the consonant heh can represent the sound ah (or sometimes o, as in Shelomoh, Solomon), and so forth. The use of these and other consonants to represent vowels is done rather consistently for final vowels (for example, nafshi, “me” or “my soul”) but less consistently elsewhere in the word. So, when the Torah says that the 70 elders prophesied and did not y-s-f-w, it could be saying they prophesied and did not continue (Heb. lo yasefu, from the root y-s-f), or it could mean the exact opposite: they prophesied and did not stop (lo yasufu, from the root s-w-f).
Which is right? Most modern translations understand the text to mean that the elders prophesied once, but then they did not continue—this in contrast to the two men mentioned next, Eldad and Medad, who remained in the camp and apparently did keep on prophesying. This is the understanding that appears in the early midrash Sifre on the book of Numbers (section 95), which was later restated by Rashi (“they prophesied only on that day”). Long before Sifre, the Septuagint translation of the Torah into Greek similarly rendered the phrase, and they did not continue. On the other hand, in Onkelos’s Aramaic targum (translation) of the Torah, this verb appears as did not cease, and the same understanding occurs in the targum Pseudo-Jonathan and elsewhere; see also the discussion in the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 17a.
Interestingly, the same potential ambiguity surrounds the end of the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. Judah accuses his daughter-in-law Tamar of promiscuity, but then he himself turns out to have been the unwitting father of her child: Tamar is exonerated, and Judah did not y-s-f to have sexual relations with her. Here, Onkelos translates the text to mean that Judah did not continue to have relations with Tamar, and the same understanding is found in the Septuagint and virtually all ancient interpreters. According to the book of Jubilees (ca. 200 BCE), however, Judah was informed by angels that his sons had actually never consummated their consecutive marriages to Tamar; if so, one could conclude that in those pre-Sinai days, Judah did not cease to have relations with Tamar—they could be considered legally married. (Nevertheless, Jubilees says the opposite: Judah did not have further relations with Tamar.)
Perhaps the most striking y-s-f ambiguity comes in the Deuteronomy account of the Ten Commandments. There, the Torah reiterates the Ten Commandments and adds that God spoke these things “with a mighty sound/voice and did not y-s-f.” Does this mean that He did not cease speaking, or that He did not continue? As in the passage from this week’s reading, ancient interpreters were divided. Onkelos says He did not cease speaking, perhaps reflecting the fact that in Onkelos’ time, certain “heretics” claimed that the Ten Commandments, first promulgated in Exodus 20, had been the sum total of God’s speech. On the other hand, the Septuagint has the opposite: And He did not continue to speak in this loud voice, presumably suggesting that the public promulgation of laws at Mount Sinai ended with the Ten Commandments—the other laws were given to Moses to be passed on to the Israelites.
Which is right? Perhaps the best interpretation is one that preserves the ambiguity. According to Midrash Tanhuma (Yitro, 11), Moses was not the only prophet present at Mount Sinai: all those prophets who were yet to be born were also present there in spirit. “And not only the prophets,” the midrash continues, “but also all the sages who have [subsequently] come and who are yet to come [were there], as it says, ‘The Lord spoke these words to your whole congregation at the mountain [amidst the fire and the cloud and the deep darkness, a mighty voice that did not y-s-f].’” This means, according to the midrash, that there was truly only one great divine revelation, that one day at Sinai, where all subsequent prophets and sages heard what they were to speak centuries later: it was thus the one-time revelation, “a mighty voice that did not continue.” At the same time, however, these later prophets and sages did go on to speak in the ages to come; in this sense God’s words at Mount Sinai were indeed “a mighty voice that did not cease.”
Shabbat shalom!
Weekly Torah Reading, June 18, 2016
Outside Israel: Naso
The Priestly Blessing
Amid all the different items covered in this week’s reading is the brief commandment to Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with these words:
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make His face to shine and be gracious toward you.
May the Lord lift up His face toward you and grant you peace.
I have translated this three-part blessing fairly literally, so some explanations may be in order. The word “keep” in the first line probably means something more specific in context—like “guard” or “watch over.” In the second line, to “make His face to shine” is a bit more difficult to pin down, but “to be well disposed toward you” might best capture the intended sense. Among other appearances of this Hebrew idiom, the one in Ecclesiastes seems informative, “A person’s wisdom causes His face to shine, and the harshness of His face is changed.” In other words, for God to “make His face shine” is to turn away any harshness or ill feeling and be well disposed.
It seems that the third line’s “lift up His face toward you” should be an intensification (rather than a simple restatement) of this same idea, so, for example, the NJPS translation “bestow His favor upon you”—a more active thing than simply being well disposed—is probably not far off the mark. (I should mention that standard Bible translations are usually not wild guesses, but are based on the examination of the same or similar expressions as they appear elsewhere in the Bible.)
In this connection, it is noteworthy that the Dead Sea Scrolls contain an interesting restatement of the priestly blessing, as follows:
May [the Lord] bless you with all good, and may He keep you from all evil. May He cause your heart to shine with the discernment of life, and may He be gracious toward you with eternal knowledge. May He lift up His gracious countenance toward you for eternal peace. (1 QS Community Rule 2:2-4)
This is an obviously free version (note especially “cause your heart to shine”), but apart from its reworking of the text, it may demonstrate how significant the priestly blessing continued to be throughout the biblical period. Another measure of its importance is its continued use in amulets and other inscriptions—going back to a seventh century BCE copy of the priestly blessing that was found outside the city walls of Jerusalem in 1979.
The Bible itself gives some evidence of how people prized the act of being blessed by the temple priests with these exact words. Psalm 67 begins:
May God be gracious toward us and bless us; may He cause His face to shine with us, Selah.
The psalm ends:
May God, our God, bless us,
May God bless us and may He be revered to the ends of the earth.
It seems likely that this psalm was recited as a follow-up to the priestly blessing, allowing those present to stress how much they wished the priests’ blessing to be carried out.
The Hallel psalms that are recited on Rosh Ḥodesh (the new month) and festivals also contain a reference to the priestly blessing—but here, apparently, the words were intended to be recited by the priests themselves:
By the name of the Lord, may everyone who enters here be blessed! We [priests] bless you from the House of the Lord! The Lord is God—let Him cause [His face] to shine upon us! (Ps 118:26-27)
In short, the priestly blessing was something like the blessing in biblical times—and continues to be long after.
Shabbat shalom!