Hebrew Concept Research Articles

Angels of Destruction (Mal’akhei Ḥabalah): Two Millennia of Jewish Horror

Abstract This article traces the meanings and uses of the Hebrew concept mal’akhei ḥabalah [angels of destruction], a common designation for monsters that has been mentioned in Jewish texts for over two millennia. Thus far, scholars have considered mal’akhei ḥabalah only in isolated contexts. In contrast, we examine these monsters’ long history, which provided Jews with familiar horror images and figures to visualize and embody experienced and anticipated fears and threats. We argue that Jewish references to them were intended to horrify in order to deter people from sin and to express God’s might and authority, thus maintaining religious and communal order in Jewish societies. At the same time, mal’akhei ḥabalah were used to articulate the crises that threatened and challenged the existing social and political order. Although mal’akhei ḥabalah developed within religious interpretations, by the modern era they expanded their applications and relevance for various avenues of Jewish life.

Mystical Emulations, Inverted Echoes

Mystical Emulations, Inverted Echoes

Land Tenure and the Biblical Idea of Social Justice

AbstractThe Bible should be read, first and foremost, as the history of the people of Israel as they developed a distinctive understanding of social justice. One way of making sense of the Hebrew concept of social justice is in terms of montheism, not as an abstract theological proposition, but rather as an experiential notion that was tied to the organization of Hebrew life. Monotheism was a social innovation that made all people equal. Egalitarian land tenure was the economic corollary. Since land was understood as a gift from God, its use was to serve as the basis of a rough degree of social equality. Monotheism remains an ideal that has not been achieved precisely because land tenure arrangements create a social hierarchy that legitimizes control by elites and undermines a universal system of values. The modern world has yet to resolve the problem of social inequality, but a better understanding of the Bible may help us find a way.

Światło z Bezkresu – pochodzenie pleromy według dzieła Ocarot Chaim („Skarbce życia”) rabina Chaima Vitala – wstęp, tłumaczenie, komentarz

The presented text contains an introduction, translation and commentary on the stages of the manifestation of the deity and the pleromatic emanation presented in the Ocarot chajim (Treasures of Life) treatise by rabbi Chajim Vital, a disciple of Isaac Luria. This work is the most systematic display of Lurianic metaphysics. In the introduction, the author situates the position of the treaty in the broader context of Lurianic literature. Then he discusses the diff erences and similarities between the ancient Hebrew concept of prophetic spirit transmission, and the Gnostic, Platonic and Neoplatonic understanding of the process of emanation. The translated source text and commentary analyze the act of self-contraction of infi nity and the emergence of a plerome as given in the form of a dialectical game of linear and circular sefi rots until the final emergence of megaanthropos – Adam Qadmon.

A existência humana como resposta: a antropologia cristã à luz da compreensão bíblica do ser humano

O presente artigo indaga pelo sentido antropológico do ser humano no contexto bíblico da criação e da existência humana. A hipótese é que a recuperação de algumas afirmações-chave acerca do ser humano presentes na Sagrada Escritura poderia lançar luz sobre algumas ambiguidades e dualismos existentes em muitas abordagens antropológicas contemporâneas. Uma análise detalhada do conceito hebraico de nefeš revisará a noção ocidental de alma bem como sua sobrevalorização em detrimento da corporeidade. De outro lado, a descoberta da vocação fundamental e pessoal do ser humano à vida e de sua relação estrutural com Deus e seus semelhantes põe em xeque uma atitude imanentista reducionista, que nada vê além dos limites da subjetividade moderna. O estudo demonstra que a diferença radical do pensamento bíblico-semita em relação ao nosso tempo possui, de fato, um potencial crítico benéfi co a qualquer antropologia cristã e mesmo secular.

The Book of Job: A Greco-Hebrew Rhetorical Drama

<p><em>The Book of Job</em>, as a biblical book, which “does not have a literary parallel in ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature,” continues to be an enigma to scholars. Its puzzles mainly concern its roots, genre and structure. Though the book exhibits a variety of generic features creating the impression of a work of multiple authors, a careful look at its form reveals that for its structural organization, its author has relied much on the form of Greek rhetoric, which Aristotle explains in his work, On<em> Rhetoric,</em> of the mid-350’s BCE. Thus, as a testament of Judeo-Christian faith and the Hebrew concept of divine justice, it has the structural frame of the Athenian judicial rhetoric. Also, it has the generic features of the Greek dramatic, Hebrew epic and fairytale traditions. These features undermine the theory of multiple authorship of the book. Presumably, it was written by a Jew who was well-versed in Hebrew traditions and faith, well-informed on the literary traditions of the time, and well-trained in the art of Greek rhetoric and drama. And hence, <em>The Book of Job</em> deserves to be called a Greco-Hebrew Rhetorical Drama.</p>

Being human

What it is to be human is best understood from the Hebrew concept of the nephesh, best translated as ‘personality’. This controls both thoughts and actions, and even expresses itself through personal property. It is though only by the exercise of a proper selfishness that the nephesh is able to achieve self-fulfilment. This cannot be done either in isolation from others, or without space to listen and to look, or by ignoring one’s failures. In the end everyone’s vocation is to secure both for themselves and others their essential humanity by being their own unique nephesh.

Czas kresu czasów w literaturze apokaliptycznej

Czas kresu czasów w literaturze apokaliptycznej

RE-EVALUATION OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW CONCEPT חסד INTO LOMWE: A COGNITIVE FRAMES OF REFERENCE MODEL APPROACH

This article demonstrates how the Cognitive Frames of Reference model can be applied to translate the Hebrew concept חסד into Lomwe. To accomplish this, the problem with the translation of חסד into Lomwe is presented. Then some of the practical procedure(s) used in the current Lomwe Bible translation project are examined in an attempt to find a suitable equivalent term (word or phrase) for חסד.

Participation in Church or Religious Groups and its Association with Health: A National Study of Young Canadians

The purpose of this study was to determine how participation of young Canadians in a church or religious group correlated with holistic health indicators. Health was viewed in terms of risk and protective behaviors, outward looking prosocial behaviors, and measures of internal feelings, with the composite picture of health connecting to the Hebrew concept of shalom. A separate analysis of sports-involved children was used as a comparator. Children involved in religious groups reported lower participation in risk behaviors, higher prosocial behaviors, but poorer levels of the more holistic measures of health. Sports-connected youth reported more positive holistic measures of health and some increases in overt risk-taking. Our findings raise theological and practical issues regarding how the church understands itself and lives out its mission. They suggest an emphasis on teaching about behaviors and morality rather than an understanding of shalom that is grounded in the Incarnation and in the deeply integrative nature of the Christian life.

The concept of <i>shalōm</i> as a constructive bereavement healing framework within a pluralist health seeking context of Africa

Absence of health, that is, sickness in Africa is viewed in personalistic terms. A disease is explained as effected by ‘the active purposeful intervention of an agent, who may be human’, non-human (a ghost, an ancestor, an ‘evil spirit), or supernatural (a deity or other very powerful being)’ (Foster). Illness is thus attributed to breaking of taboos, offending God and/ or ancestral spirits; witchcraft, sorcery, the evil eye, passion by an evil spirit and a curse from parents or from an offended neighbour. In view of these personalistic theories of ill health, treatment is through ritual purification, exorcism or sacrifices. For an appropriate diagnosis and intervention, it is imperative to determine ‘who’ caused the illness and then ‘why’ it was caused, to which answers are offered through divination by a healer. This interpretive framework, is applicable to all types of sickness, facilitates co-existence of African traditional healing and biomedical treatment, that is, plurality of health seeking practices. The approach fails to offer a constructive approach and contradicts the biblical healing framework whereby one may not have explanatory causes to a situation of ill health. This article engaged the biblical concept of shalōm as a relevant constructive framework. The Hebrew concept of shalōm, though distinctly salvific, is inclusive of holistic and personalistic healing aspects. The concept encompasses constructive aspects of completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquillity, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony and the absence of agitation or discord, which provides a useful holistic healing theological framework. It therefore provides a health and well-being framework that is relational, sensitive and applicable to healing patterns in Africa. Using the case study of the Abaluyia people of East Africa, this article discussed bereavement as a state that requires healing and how the biblical framework of shalōm could be applied in fostering bereavement healing.

The Body of Christ and the Ecumenical Potential of Eucharistic Ecclesiology

There are various theories as to the origin of St Paul's image of the Church as the body of Christ, but it seems to have a particular link with his experience on the road to Damascus. The image has a stark realism and is to be understood in terms of the Hebrew concept of the body as the whole person, not in terms of the Greek idea of the human being as made up of body and soul. For Paul and the Fathers, the Church was sustained as the body of Christ by receiving the body of Christ in the Eucharist. The term, 'mystical body', referred originally to the Eucharist. When, as a result of eucharistic controversy, it was applied to the Church early in the second millennium, the link of Eucharist and Church was quickly lost in the West and a strongly institutional understanding of the Church resulted. Christian East and West split as this understanding took hold, and the Reformers in the West subsequently objected to it also. The development of eucharistic ecclesiology in the twentieth century has helped to bridge the divide between East and West and between 'catholic' and 'protestant' understandings of the Church. The renewed link between the Eucharist and the Church entails renewed links also between the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit, and the Eucharist and the future. All three renewed perspectives are reflected in recent ecumenical agreements.

Messianism in Linear and Cyclical Contexts

AbstractThe Messiah figure originates from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. In a linear setting it interprets his person and work politically, spiritually, and apocalyptically. The New Testament applies this Hebrew concept spiritually and apocalyptically to Jesus of Nazareth: he is unrepeatably and irreversibly the Messiah/Christ of both Jews and gentiles. In the Qu'ran Jesus is known as al-Masih, but there this term merely functions as a name. However, the Islam points to the coming of the Mahdi figure at the end of the times, comparable with the Second Coming in Christianity. Therefore, the Messiah/Christ/Mahdi figure, as a unique figure, is at home in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These monotheistic religions place him, each in their own way, in a linear frame. In modern times cultural anthropologists and other scholars in the humanities have extended the use of the terms 'Messiah' and 'Messianism' to figures and phenomena in cyclical contexts. They do not hesitate to speak about 'the Hindu Messiah' and 'Buddhist Messianism'. The present article explores the nature of both the cyclical and linear views of time and history, investigates the birth and growth of Messianism in these specific settings, with special reference to modern developments, and compares the linear concepts of the Messiah and Messianism with the cyclical ones. At the end the article questions whether the cyclical and linear views of the Messiah and Messianism can be harmonized by the use of the spiral as bridge.

Magda Trocme: A Mother Responds, "Hineni!"

During World War II, the inhabitants of the plateau Vivarais-Lignon amid the mountains of southeastern France shielded between 2,500 and 5,000 Jews and other refugees. Magda Trocmé, the freethinking wife of a Protestant pastor in the plateau town of Chambon-sur-Lignon, was just one of these many rescuers. However, her response to the Jewish refugees deserves study in two respects. First, her actions were not based on religious principles, but on a perceived duty to another in need. Second, her actions exemplify the feminine qualities of rescue. Magda's sense of duty towards others and her readiness to serve can best be described by the Hebrew concept hineni: "Here I am, send me, I am ready to serve you." An examination of Magda Trocmé's actions and mindset reveals a woman who acted towards others as a mother answering a child's call with "Hineni!"

Parks as Shibboleths

Parks as Shibboleths

Continuing Professional Education in Today's Changing World

In his classic work, The Inquiring Mind, Cyril O. Houle noted the value of widespread lifelong learning in professional and vocational accomplishment. The need to maintain and enhance occupational skills has been brought home forcefully by the competition of the market, the rapid advancement of knowledge in every field, the need to cope successfully with larger and more complex forms of ... knowledge and the steady raising of acceptable levels of performance, (1961, p. 81). Despite the age of these words, they are nonetheless true today Houle was also correct in his assessment of a rapidly changing world--especially in the field of adult and continuing In this issue of Adult Learning, a variety of adult and continuing education scholars and practitioners offer an intriguing array of articles that address many of the challenges Houle noted. The articles herein focus on the use of research in improving practice, online professional learning, mentoring and peer-based learning, diversity and multicultural issues in CPE, participation in CPE and ethics. In Mary Ziegler's article, Improving Practice through Action Research, she makes the very strong case that the tenets inherent in action research make it an ideal means of improving practice and therefore a powerful tool for continuing professional education. Ziegler identifies eight steps that frame the action research model she and her colleagues use to help improve practice and promote continuing professional development. In a similar vein, Faye Wiesenberg and Jo-Anne Willment describe how distance-learning technologies used in graduate education help create online learning communities that enhance continuing professional Wiesenberg and Willment note the importance of ongoing reflection, dialogue and mutual respect in both online learning and continuing professional The focus of the issue then shifts somewhat to a more relational aspect of CPE as Catherine Hansman focuses on mentoring and Mary-Jane Eisen discusses peer-based learning as ways to facilitate professional development. Hansman reminds us [as Cervero (1988, 1992) and others have in the past!] that the most models of CPE include opportunities for participants to learn from and in their everyday work practice. These models can include the mentors with who they work. Eisen then introduces us to chavrusa, a Hebrew concept meaning partner-based study, and suggests that our continuing professional education as well as personal development can be facilitated through bi-directional peer relationships. The next two articles in the issue deal with an increasingly important aspect of CPE, intercultural communication and the multilingual and multicultural environments in which CPE is practiced throughout the world. Linda Ziegahn examines three common myths in the area of workplace diversity and suggests that continuing professional educators are in a unique position to help professionals redefine the way they do business, especially around issues of culture and inclusion. Marie Cseh's article on multilingual and multicultural environments gets at the very heart of how continuing education can promote global interconnectedness. She maintains that continuing professional educators are key players in promoting strategic development and fostering effective CPE for practitioners worldwide. Jeffery Alejandro adds a different approach to the role of CPE in today's changing world and workplace. …

Basic Concepts in Rabbinic Hermeneutics

Basic Concepts in Rabbinic Hermeneutics Basic Concepts in Rabbinic Hermeneutics Jose Faur Professor Faur teaches Talmud at Bar-Ban University. He is the author of Golden Doves with Silver Dots: Semiotics and Textuality in Rabbinic Tradition (1986) and In the Shadow ofHistory: Jews and Conversos at the Dawn ofModernity (1992). His latest book, Homo Mysticus: A Guide to Maimonides' Guide (Syracuse University Press), is due for publication this fall. 1. Writing and Interpretation In Western tradition "reading is the counterpart of the act ofwriting."l Its objective is to resolve the "distanciation" and "cultural estrangement" between the text and ourselves. Referring to Plato's theory of writing, Ricoeur explains: Writing and reading take place in this cultural struggle. Reading is the pharmakon, the "remedy," by which the meaning of the text is "rescued" from the estrangement of distanciation and put in a new proximity, a proximity which suppresses and preserves the cultural distance and includes the otherness within the on~ness.2 Ideally, the object ofreading is to penetrate the mind of the author, to become the author, and thus unveil the meaning of the text as intended by the author. Since this ideal is impossible-as Borges (1900-1986) showed in"Pierre Menard, Author ofthe Quixote"-every reading is necessarily a misreading. Hence the preeminence of oral communication over writing in Platonic and Greek philosophical tradition. For the Hebrews "writing" is not structurally connected to "reading." The term qara not only designates 'reading,' but also purely atextual oral activities, such as 'calling' and 'summoning.' Rather, as we hope to show below, "writing" is the counterpart of"interpretation": writing and interpretation are structurally connected to one another. Essential to Rabbinic Judaism is the beliefthat together with the Scripture or Written Law, God gave the Jews the Oral Law. The Ge'onim (heads ofthe Talmudic Ipaul RicoeuT, Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus ofMeaning (Fort Worth: The Texas Christian University Press, 1976), p. 71. 2Ricoeur, Interpretation Theory, p. 43 2 SHOFAR Fa111997 Vol. 16, No. I Academies in Babylonia) taught,3 and Maimonides (1135-1204) later on codified,4 that the Oral Law is the officialpirosh ('interpretation') of the Written Law.5 Accordingly, "interpretation" is intrinsic to the Hebrew concept of "Scripture" and writing. The relation "writing/interpretation" follows a principle of general linguistics, whereby writing-any kind of writing-necessarily involves a mental, unwritten context. "My work consists oftwo parts," wrote Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), "the one present here plus all that I have not written. And it is precisely this second part that is the important one.,,6 Accordingly, for every written text there must be an oral counterpart-a Tora shebe 'alpe. Unlike Derrida's theories, this idea implies that a written text presupposes a privileged interpretation. From the preceding it follows that "interpretation" is not the exclusive privilege of a divinely revealed text: derasha [plural: derashot] 'exegesis,' 'interpretation,' applies also to secular documents.7 More to the point, the sacred text may be the object of human interpretation. The Rabbis taught that the Tora itself has granted this right, mikan shenatna tora reshut li-drosh ('we [learn] from here that the Tora has granted the authority to expound').8 Indeed, Maimonides regarded the right to interpret (lidrosh) Scripture as one of the three basic Rabbinic institutions.9 Some contemporary scholars question the traditional distinction between derash and peshat (usually translated as 'plain sense')10 in Rabbinic literature. It has been noted that interpretations presented by the Rabbis as peshat are in fact homilies, basically not different from derash. 11 Conversely, many Rabbinic derashot do in fact convey the 3Nissim Ga'on, Sefer ha-MafteafJ, ed. J. Goldenthal (Vienna, 1847), 2b. 4Mishne Tora, eds. Katzenelenbogen and Liebennan (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1964), Introduction, 1.3; Pirush ha-Mishnayot, ed. and trans. R. Joseph Qafil,1 (Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook, 1967), 7 vols., vol. I, pp. 1-2, 16. See Joseph Nai,lmias, Pirush Pirqe Abot, ed. L. M. Bamberger (Faks, 5667/1907), I, I, fol. la. 5See my Golden Doves with Silver Dots: Semiotics and Textuality in Rabbinic Tradition (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), pp. II I-I 12. 6Ludwig Wittgenstein, Worterbuchfiir Volksschulen (Vienna: Holden-Picher-Tempsky, 1977...

Religion, Psychotherapy and the Body-Soul Relationship

The split between body and soul in modern psychology and psychotherapy has Greek origins. The opposition of psyche and soma is Greek, as is the central myth of Oedipus. The present paper offers a Biblical integration of body and soul, focusing on the Hebrew concept of nefesh and the Biblical narrative of the Akedah (i.e., the “binding” of Isaac).

The Active Force of Hearing: The Ancient Hebrew Language of Persuasion

he question of the existence of a Hebrew concept of per­ suasion arises as a subordinate pofrit in James BCinneavy's book, The Greek Rhetorical Origins of Christian Faith. Kmneavy's thesis is that the Christian notion of TTIO-TIC, faith as dis­ tinct from the Hebrew concept of faithfulness or trust, 'emunâ, owes its origin the Greek concept of TTIO-TIC, beUef as persuasion or proof. In the process of proving this thesis, Kinneavy cites G. Berfram's Hebrew supplement Rudolf Bultmann's essay on -rreidu} in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Berfram comments that bibUcal Hebrew has no word corresponding TTeidu), to persuade (Bultmann 1). From this, and from the con­ cordance the Septuagint which indeed shows that no Hebrew verb was franslated with Greek ireido) in its active fransitive form, Kirmeavy draws the conclusion that this apparent lack is conceptual—that what is lacking is an awareness of a reflective and analytical concept of persuasion as such (54). In my opinion, this conclusion, whUe not in itself incorrect, is unwarranted by the evidence Kinneavy attests, which instead points a more specifie difference between disparate concepts of persuasion, whether pragmatic and impUdt, as in the Hebrew fradition, or reflective and analytical, as in the Greek.

The Seven Deadly Bad Faiths (Sins): An Existential Interpretation

There are many similarities between the Christian concept of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Stoic concept of internal events, the Hebrew concept of 'awon (sin, punishment), and the existential concept of bad faith. All of these evidence a concern for an internalization of sin or bad faith, which is more common in Eastern than Western religions. These four views are contrasted with the English concept synne which represents the Western extemalization of sin or bad faith. This existential interpretation includes an exploration of 'awon in the Cain and Abel story as well as several reflections concerning the difference between bad faith and good faith.