Hebrew Word Research Articles

Eden

Eden Evan J. Massey (bio) “This isn’t my name,” I said. The Venti Caramel Macchiato and Impossible Sausage Sandwich I’d ordered were addressed to someone named Eden. “Close enough,” the barista replied. “Just take it.” I’ve become accustomed to people struggling with my name; how someone can fumble over four simple letters still ba”es me. I’m usually met with renditions such as Devin, Eric, Edwin, Edmund, Even, or Evans, with an “s,” as if there were two of me—a clone fashioned from my rib. Anyway, maybe the barista didn’t hear me over the bustling of possible descendants from Eden’s exiles, ordering their forbidden cold brews and frappuccinos. And, actually—to keep it real with you—I was quite flattered by the mistake; I didn’t mind being briefly labeled after the biblical garden. We all know the story. Adam. Eve. Serpent and fruit. Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Expulsion. But I’d read that the origin of the word “Eden” derives from various sources; the Persian heden meaning garden, or it may be linked to the Hebrew word for pleasure, delight, or happiness. Scholars claim that the physical garden itself was inspired by sundry estates; the Garden of the Hesperides, the home of golden apples defended by a dragon; the Sumerian city of Dilmun, which was replete with saccharine water and where no one became ill or old. I forget how old I was when I last visited a garden. It was a botanical garden. Yes, there was a girl involved; a girl I’d met—whose name escapes me—on Bumble. The garden was her idea. There was nothing miraculous about our encounter, nothing divine. I only recall her sniffing flowers as married couples posed for photographs under trees positioned in the fields. I wish I could have asked her at that moment these questions: What if God created online dating? What if Eve never swiped right on Adam, or vice versa? Are we all versions of Adam and Eve failing to rewrite Genesis? I wonder what God thought as I’d bend down and bring my nose closer to the stigma of flowers in Lowe’s Lawn & Garden section, where I got paid $13.50 an hour—what I considered good money then—to clock in early and water the plants with a hose that could spume an entire aisle, the drizzle making the plants dazzle, brilliant droplets pearling on every petal. Hours later, little old white ladies would inquire about which flowers and plants would look good in their gardens, and, for some reason, I was convinced their gardens were bigger than my mother’s apartment. I’d stand there pondering a response while imagining flower beds full of blooms, extending for yards and yards, something that would make a florist feel efflorescent ecstasy. I’d left Starbucks. I sat by the window in a Portuguese coffee shop where the attendant told me to hide my water bottle because the owner doesn’t allow outside drinks in the cafe. Sunlight splashed through the window and for [End Page 76] a second I believed that the rays produced more words from my fingers. I was rooted to the chair, reading an Ebook on ancient botany. Marveling at a sketch of a mandrake plant, which was said to have magical powers, and was the main ingredient in the sleep elixir of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra. She exclaims, “Give me to drink mandragora. That I might sleep out this great gap of time my Antony is away.” When disturbed, mandrakes screamed so loud it could kill a human. So, in order to dislodge the plant from the dirt, audacious botanists tied a rope around a dog’s neck and then around the root in order for the dog to prise the plant from the ground. Sometimes—I regret to inform you—the dog died from the screams as the mandrake was being ripped from the maternal arms of Mother Earth. I feel for the mandrake. I feel for every defenseless and beautiful thing facing destruction for the benefit of others. My mother held me after I’d fallen off of my...

Word-Embeddings Distinguish Denominal and Root-Derived Verbs in Semitic

Proponents of the Distributed Morphology framework have posited the existence of two levels of morphological word formation: a lower one, leading to loose input-output semantic relationships; and an upper one, leading to tight input-output semantic relationships. In this work, we propose to test the validity of this assumption in the context of Hebrew word embeddings. If the two-level hypothesis is borne out, we expect state-of-the-art Hebrew word embeddings to encode (1) a noun, (2) a denominal derived from it (via an upper-level operation), and (3) a verb related to the noun (via a lower-level operation on the noun's root), in such a way that the denominal (2) should be closer in the embedding space to the noun (1) than the related verb (3) is to the same noun (1). We report that this hypothesis is verified by four embedding models of Hebrew: fastText, GloVe, Word2Vec and AlephBERT. This suggests that word embedding models are able to capture complex and fine-grained semantic properties that are morphologically motivated.

Why do the ancient texts differ in their translations of אמצים in Zechariah?

Throughout history, the holy scripture has been translated into different languages. One of the purposes of Bible translation is to give readers who do not have knowledge of Hebrew or Greek access to the biblical text. Translators of the Bible are often faced with problems of interpretation, especially when there are Hebrew words that are used only once. Ancient translations of the Hebrew text can assist translators in understanding how their translators understood a problematic word. The ancient translations, however, leave some challenges, especially when they render problematic words differently. These variants may derive from different purposes while translating or a different vorlage. This article argues that the different translations of ‘אמצים’ in Zechariah 6:3 and 6:7 among ancient texts – LXX, Peshitta, Targum and Vulgate – are because of different purposes.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research is a combination of textual criticism with translations.

Robert Alter's New Translation of the Hebrew Bible: An Assessment for Translators

In the introduction to his new translation of the Hebrew Bible, Robert Alter is quite explicit about the task he set himself: “The present translation is an experiment in re-presenting the Bible in a language that conveys with some precision the semantic nuances and the lively orchestration of literary effects of the Hebrew and at the same time has stylistic and rhythmic integrity as literary English.” Alter explains this in more detail in the introduction and in his book, The Art of Bible Translation, with explicit criticisms of other English translations. In this paper I will explore Alter's own norms for translation and how he has applied them, paying special attention to parallel syntax, language level, repetition, wordplay, Hebrew and English word order, poetry in prose, rhythm, names of God, textual criticism, chapter division, and textual structure, as well as what Bible translators can learn from Alter’s translation.

God Becoming Human: Incarnation in the Christian Bible by Reinhard Feldmeier and Hermann Spieckermann

Reviewed by: God Becoming Human: Incarnation in the Christian Bible by Reinhard Feldmeier and Hermann Spieckermann Rebekah Eklund reinhard feldmeier and hermann spieckermann, God Becoming Human: Incarnation in the Christian Bible (trans. Brian McNeil; Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2021). Pp. xix + 457. Paper $80. Originally published in German as Menschwerdung (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018), God Becoming Human is a companion to the two authors' book Der Gott der Lebendigen: Eine biblische Gotteslehre (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011); in English as The God of the Living: A Biblical Theology [Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011]), but it easily stands on its own. It is an exploration of biblical texts through theological lenses, but the two [End Page 498] authors give attention to historical-critical matters along the way, such as the literary history of Genesis and the "History of Religions" approach to the historical Jesus (an approach that the authors concisely refute on pp. 243–46). The makeup of the book signals the respective specialties of its authors in Old Testament (Spieckermann) and New Testament (Feldmeier). Part A covers the "prehistory" of the incarnation in OT texts from the creation narrative through the roles of various mediators ("messengers," kings, priests, prophets, and God's "anointed ones"). One helpful section on "the end of the mediators" takes up the question of why the role of the mediator is discredited and cast aside in Deutero-Isaiah. Another section provides a useful summary on "God's anointed ones" in postexilic literature. The final chapter of part A is an interesting exploration of the Servant figure and the suffering righteous one, but the chapter reorients toward finding traces of resurrection rather than incarnation; it concludes, somewhat surprisingly, with a brief section on John the Baptist. Part B begins with a section on the Jesus of memory and the Christ of faith, with a presumption of essential continuity between the two (readers interested in the recent application of memory studies to the Gospels will not find that theme here). This section initially continues the emphasis on the resurrection but quickly shifts to the origins of claims about Jesus's preexistence and incarnation. Conceptions of incarnation are explored in the Pauline letters, the Synoptic Gospels, the Johannine tradition, and the later NT (with sections on Acts, Colossians and Ephesians, Hebrews, 1 Peter, and Revelation). This summary demonstrates how much territory this book covers; for example, it offers a terse summary of Paul's christology in just under twenty pages. The book aims at an overview of the witness of the whole of Scripture and is not a detailed study of any individual book. The driving force of the book is not the incarnation per se but God's loving desire, often expressed through human mediators, to be in relationship with the creatures made in God's image. To that end, part A often summarizes narratives and themes in the OT, but always with an eye to how they contribute to the tension between God and God's willful creatures. This theme is not quite as prominent in part B, which reads more like christology, but it still supplies the underlying logic. For scholars who are interested in the interaction between Christian theology and Christian Scripture, this is a model example of how to put the two into conversation with each other. As a book interested in the interplay of OT and NT, and in the essential reliability of Scripture's witness to Jesus as the incarnation of God, it could fruitfully be read alongside Richard B. Hays's Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2016), which was published two years before the German edition of this volume but is not listed in the bibliography. Larry Hurtado (whose 2003 book Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003] does appear in the bibliography) is another apt conversation partner. While the book is generally well integrated, inclusion of the discussion of the title "son of man" or "Son of Man" in relation to Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Synoptic Gospels seems a bit disconnected. Oddly, Hebrew words are transliterated while Greek terms are not; English translations are typically...

Zeba A. Crook, ed. The Ancient Mediterranean Social World: A Sourcebook

Zeba Crook brings together essays from members of the SBL Context Group for Biblical Research in this reference work addressing established and fresh topics with a socioscientific framework. The key contributions here are twofold: the collection of 400 primary texts with brief contextual commentary about the text and the hundreds of additional texts listed at the end of each essay, giving the reader ample room to explore the topic in their own time. This work succeeds as an excellent guide to helpful primary sources on given topics and as an excellent reference work for advanced students.The book arranges twenty essays into five parts. Part one contains essays on economy, kinship, and patronage. “Social Interactions” in part two contains essays on honor, shame, collectivism, gossip, space, and gender. Part three covers domestic rituals, public rituals, purity, healing, and alternate states of consciousness. Loyalty, friendship, gifts, limited good, and envy are addressed in part four. The topics of deviance, mockery, secrecy, and the evil eye round out the books’ essays in part five. A bibliography and short biography of the contributors conclude the book.Each essay begins with a two to three-page introduction to the topic. Twenty primary texts are divided into subcategories, introduced with a short contextual commentary about its significance, and translated into English. The texts range from around 1000 BCE to around AD 200 and include various key Greco-Roman historical narratives, letters, inscriptions, OT/NT passages, and Rabbinic commentary. Each essay also contains a list of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin vocabulary words relating to the topic, a select bibliography of six key works in the subject, and a massive list of “additional texts” divided into the same subcategories used in the essay for further exploration by the reader.“Space” by Eric Stewart with contributions by Mischa Hooker and Emil Kramer is a good example of the type of analysis offered in this book. The essay begins with an introduction to spatiality as a means of control by which certain spaces are “appropriated for only those designated tasks, often by seeking to restrict access to them” (p. 124). Discussion of space then moves into binary pairs in which one member is “favored” of the other pairing. The main example given is geography as understood in Greco-Roman thought, which, of course, benefited the Greco-Roman elite authors: “latitudinal zones, or klimata, favors those who living in proximity to the Mediterranean Sea” (p. 125) against those who lived in areas deemed too hot or cold for civilization; cities corrupted by “moral degeneration” against the “idyllic, rustic past” (p. 125) of the countryside; public spaces as inherently male against private spaces as female (a delineation challenged by Susan E. Hylen in an article published after this book). The final example of designated space is “restricted” space that might include “temples, sacred groves, certain cities (or city spaces) . . . [and] the heavenly realm of the gods” (p. 126). The twenty texts on space begin with Homer, Herodotus, and Vergil under the subcategory “The Edges, Range, and Extent of the Oikoumenē,” continue with Pliny the Elder and Claudius Ptolemy (second century AD) under “Centrality and Klimata,” followed by “City and Village,” “City and Countryside,” “Private and Public/Gendered Spaces,” and “Restricted Spaces” with examples from Strabo, 1 Maccabees, Cicero, Thucydides, Mark 6, Xenophon, Columella, Ps 24, Josephus, and Pausanias, respectively. An up-to-date bibliography precedes the “Additional Texts” section, which contains 106 passages (by my count) listed in the above subcategories.As a sourcebook, this work occupies a unique space. It is both introductory and advanced; it gives the introductory but excellent information as one might expect of a good introductory work while its commentary on primary texts and hundreds of gathered references go into more depth than a specialized encyclopedia. The downside of this approach is that some readers, particularly those new to these topics, may feel overwhelmed by the lists of primary texts, and some students may be left wanting a longer orientation to these topics before the commentary on primary texts. Still, each essay very helpfully introduces the topic at hand, and the commentary on 400 primary texts guides the reader to the topic as a way into the advanced study of that topic.This sourcebook is warmly recommended to advanced students seeking to explore social aspects of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially those ready to commit the time to exploring the massive lists of primary texts and vocabulary so helpfully given. For students just beginning their journey into contextual analysis of biblical texts, this work will supplement but not replace an introduction to the social-scientific study of the Bible, instead guiding them for years to come as a key reference work to dive deeper into the social contexts of the ancient world.

Liturgy and Biblical Interpretation: The Sanctus and the Qedushah by Sebastian Selvén

Reviewed by: Liturgy and Biblical Interpretation: The Sanctus and the Qedushah by Sebastian Selvén Michael Gabizon sebastian selvén, Liturgy and Biblical Interpretation: The Sanctus and the Qedushah (Reading the Scriptures; Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2021). Pp. viii + 233. $55.99. Sebastian Selvén's monograph is part of the Reading the Scriptures series published by Notre Dame Press, a series that explores the intersection between biblical studies and theology. S.'s contribution to the series focuses on the role of liturgy in the broader field of reception history; as he writes, "Liturgy is, among other things, an experienced biblical interpretation" (p. 2). Through an assessment of Isa 6:1–5 in the Qedushot and the Sanctus,S. demonstrates how the study of liturgy provides a lens through which to view historical interpretive traditions (i.e., how certain Scriptures have been understood by different communities) as well as how liturgy continues to shape contemporary interpretations of the text. Following a two-part introduction, in which S. explores the nature of liturgy as well as the structure of the Qedushot and the Sanctus, the next three chapters explore three interpretations [End Page 488] related to Isa 6:1–5 that have been influenced by liturgical traditions: the identity of the seraphim, the concept of holiness, and the divine presence of God. In chap. 1, S. argues that liturgy has largely shaped the conventional understanding that the seraphim from Isa 6:1–3 are celestial beings, thus resulting in the later creation of angelic hierarchies by religious communities. Following a textual analysis of the word "seraphim" in Scripture, whereby he demonstrates that the most consistent definition of the Hebrew word is "snakes," S. proposes that the identification of seraphim as angels was influenced by early Jewish liturgy. In Qedusha deYotzer, for example, Isa 6:1–3 is read alongside Ezekiel 1–3, which recounts Ezekiel's interaction with heavenly figures; this intertextual link requires some form of harmonization between the biblical texts (p. 32). In turn, S. argues that the connection between the two passages has affected the interpretation of Isa 6:1–3 and the study of angels generally: "The received understanding of what they [the seraphim] are has to a large extent been shaped by how they are presented in Jewish and Christian liturgy, and the theological background of these liturgies" (p. 31). S. further explores the development of angelology through both traditions, and he argues that the ramifications of grouping Isa 6:1–3 with Ezekiel 1–3 in Qedusha deYotzer continue to shape biblical interpretations of the seraphim today. Indeed, S. posits that the "resistance towards describing them [the seraphim] as serpents" reflects centuries of conditioned readings through church art and liturgical texts (p. 58). The example of the seraphim, then, reveals one way the study of liturgy develops our understanding of historical biblical interpretation: "Liturgy actualizes and prioritizes certain passages, strings them together in different ways, and in this kaleidoscopic reconfiguration of texts, certain meanings emerge from them" (p. 123). In chap. 2, S. focuses specifically on the thrice-holy cry of the seraphim, questioning whether this short pericope originally functioned as a celestial hymn to evoke awe, or as a warning to instill fear (p. 58). Although he argues that the purpose of Isa 6:3 is unclear, he proposes that the standard categorization of the thrice-holy cry as celestial liturgy originates from the very role of Isa 6:3 in Jewish and Christian traditions. In other words, since this passage is used for liturgical purposes in some religious communities, the qedusha became "something possessing its own ontological integrity: a liturgy, performed by the celestial beings, taking place in the heavens" (p. 70). In this case, S. again demonstrates how liturgical traditions shape biblical interpretation. S. also posits that the spotlight placed on Isa 6:3, and in turn the emphasis on "holy," has influenced theological movements in various traditions, including the holiness movement of the twentieth century (pp. 77–79). Since liturgies naturally determine which Scriptures become important or central for communities, they inevitably mold the theological movements who engage with such traditional readings. In chap. 3, S. discusses...

Leather and Leather Trade in Kültepe Texts

Asurlu tüccarlar, Asur Ticaret Kolonileri Dönemi’nde, Anadolu’daki şehir devletlerinde Asur’dan getirdikleri temel ürünler olan kalay ve çeşitli yün kumaşların dışında, Anadolu menşeli bakır ve yün gibi ürünlerin de ticaretini yaparak kazançlarını artırma gayreti içinde olmuşlardır. Tüccarların Anadolu içinde ticaretini yaptıkları bu ürünlere yine Anadolu şehirlerinden tedarik edilen deri ya da post da eklenebilir. Kültepe tabletlerinde “deri” veya “post” anlamında ārum ve maškum adında iki temel terim kayıtlıdır. Toplamda 100’den fazla belgede geçen bu terimlerden özellikle maškum-deri ticari ürün olarak metinlere daha fazla yansımıştır ve yüzlercesinin alınıp satıldığına ya da bir yerden başka yere nakledildiğine dair kayıtlar bulunmaktadır. Metinlerde toplam 45 ārum deri; 1674 maškum-deri kayıtlıdır; ilaveten üç farklı belgede yaklaşık 42 talent ağırlığında maškum-deri kaydı bulunmaktadır. ārum ve maškum terimleri arasında, derinin hangi özelliklerine dair bir fark olduğu açık değildir. Fakat bu kelimeler derinin elde edildiği hayvanlar açısından değil, biçim ya da herhangi bir işlemden geçip geçmediği bakımımdan bir farka işaret edebilirler. Belgelerde ārum-deri büyükbaş hayvanlar dışında başka bir hayvanın derisini tanımlamamaktadır, ancak büyükbaş hayvan derisi için maškum terimi de kullanılmıştır. Deri tabaklama işleminin insanoğlunun üretim teknikleri bakımından ustalaştığı en eski işlerden biri olduğu tahmin edilmektedir. Bu bakımdan, Eski Asur Ticaret Kolonileri Dönemi’nde de deri tabaklama işleminin bilindiği ve uygulandığı açıktır, fakat Kültepe belgelerinde tabaklanmış deriyi diğer post ya da ham deriden ayırt etmemizi sağlayacak net bir delil bulunmamaktadır. Diğer taraftan, CAD A/II, s. 318a’da, İbranicede “deri/post” anlamındaki ‘ōr kelimesiyle ilişkilendirilen ārum-deri, CAD E, 320b’de “çıplak, boş” anlamı verilen erû ve CDA s. 80a’da “çıplak olmak” anlamı verilen a/arûm ve bu kelimeden türetilmiş “çıplak” anlamı verilen erium ile ilişkili olabilir. Dolayısıyla, ārum terimi bir tür işlemden geçirilerek yününden/kılından arındırılmış, yani bir şekilde tabaklanmış deri için kullanılmış olabilir.

Palestinian kindergarten teachers in Israel and Arabic education policy

AbstractThis study aims to explore language education policy among Palestinian Arab kindergarten teachers in Israel, employing the framework of language policy proposed bySpolsky (2009), based on three major components: language practices, language ideologies, and language management. A mixed-method research approach consisting of both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection is employed. A questionnaire was completed by a total of 509 kindergarten teachers. In addition, a semi-structured interview was carried out with 12 kindergarten teachers, selected from among those who answered the questionnaire, in order to gain a deeper understanding about Arabic language education policy. The data revealed that Palestinian Arab kindergarten teachers in Israel mostly use a mixture of Standard Arabic (StA) and Spoken Arabic (SpA) as the medium of instruction, using Hebrew or foreign words only sparingly. They express positive attitudes towards Arabic’s role as an important language in Israel. They also show positive attitudes about StA, believing that it is necessary to master it, yet facing difficulties while using it when speaking with the children. Regarding language management, they conduct activities that help develop StA skills, both for themselves and their students. Finally, there are significant interrelations between the kindergarten teachers’ background variables (religion, type of city they live in, seniority, education, and district) and language practice, ideology, and management. Based on these findings, it is important to construct a clearly-defined StA educational policy in Arab kindergartens.

Validation and cross-linguistic adaptation of the Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment (FDA-2) speech intelligibility tests: Hebrew version.

'Dysarthria' is a group of motor speech disorders resulting from a disturbance in neuromuscular control. Most individuals with dysarthria cope with communicative restrictions due to speech impairments and reduced intelligibility. Thus, language-sensitive measurements of intelligibility are important in dysarthria neurological assessment. The Frenchay Dysarthria Assessment, 2nd edition (FDA-2), is a validated tool for the identification of the nature and patterns of oro-motor movements associated with different types of dysarthria. The current study conducted a careful culture- and linguistic-sensitive adaption of the two intelligibility subtests of the FDA-2 to Hebrew (words and sentences) and performed a preliminary validation with relevant clinical populations. First, sets of Hebrew words and sentences were constructed, based on the criteria defined in FDA-2, as well as on several other factors that may affect performance: emotional valence, arousal and familiarity. Second, the new subtests were validated in healthy older adults (n = 20), and in two clinical groups (acquired dysarthria, n = 15; and developmental dysarthria, n = 19). Analysis indicated that the new subtests were found to be specific and sensitive, valid and reliable, as scores significantly differ between healthy older adults and adults with dysarthria, correlated with other subjective measures of intelligibility, and showed high test-retest reliability. The words and sentences intelligibility subtests can be used to evaluate speech disorders in various populations of Hebrew speakers, thus may be an important addition to the speech-language pathologist's toolbox, for clinical work as well as for research purposes. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on the subject 'Dysarthria' is a group of disorders reflecting impairments in the strength, speed and precision of movements required for adequate control of the various speech subsystems. Reduced speech intelligibility is one of the main consequences of all dysarthria subtypes, irrespective of their underlying cause. Indeed, most individuals with dysarthria cope with communicative restrictions due to speech impairments. Thus, language-sensitive measurements of intelligibility are important in dysarthria assessment. The FDA-2's words and sentences subtests present standardized and validated tools for the identification of the nature and patterns of oro-motor movements associated with different types of dysarthria. What this paper adds to existing knowledge The lack of assessment tools in Hebrew poses challenges to clinical evaluation as well as research purposes. The current study conducted a careful culture- and linguistic-sensitive adaption of the FDA-2 intelligibility subtests to Hebrew and performed a preliminary validation with relevant clinical populations. First, sets of Hebrew words and sentences were constructed, based on the criteria defined in FDA-2, as well as on several other factors that may affect performance: emotional valence, arousal and familiarity. Second, the new subtests were validated in healthy older adults (n = 20), and in two clinical groups (adults with acquired dysarthria, n = 15; and young adults with developmental dysarthria, n = 19). What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Analyses indicated that the new word and sentence subtests are specific, sensitive, valid and reliable. Namely, (1) they successfully differentiate between healthy individuals and individuals with dysarthria; (2) they correlate with other subjective measures of intelligibility; and (3) they show high test-retest reliability. The words and sentences intelligibility subtests can be used to evaluate speech disorders in various populations of Hebrew speakers. Thus, they may be an important addition to the speech-language pathologist's toolbox, for clinical and research purposes. The methods described here can be emulated for the adaptation of speech assessment tools to other languages.

Variations in Bible Translations: Necessity or Impoverishment?

The article agrees that meaning-for-meaning rather than word-for-word sums up the primary scope of translation from biblical texts. Yet Greek and Hebrew words may enjoy the same or at least very similar meanings in different contexts; and the scriptural authors may intend intertextual links between their use of these words. In such cases differing translations can not only be unnecessary but may also lead readers to miss links intended by the authors. This case is established by examining the use of phaneroō (‘reveal,’ John) and diakoneō (‘serve,’ Mark).

Poems translated from the Polish & Introduced by Joanna Trzeciak Huss: Side Commentary, and: Senses, and: Declaration, and: Joyful Mythology, and: Pride, and: Ascension of the Earth, and: At Sea

Poems translated from the Polish & Introduced by Joanna Trzeciak HussSide Commentary, and: Senses, and: Declaration, and: Joyful Mythology, and: Pride, and: Ascension of the Earth, and: At Sea Zuzanna Ginczanka (bio) Translated by Joanna Trzeciak Huss (bio) The seven poems translated here are a sample of the work of a poetic prodigy, Zuzanna Ginczanka (1917–1944), whose life was cut short by the Holocaust. Three of these poems, “Senses,” “Joyful Mythology,” and “Ascension of the Earth,” come from unpublished manuscripts she penned at the ages of 16 and 17. The rest, “Side Commentary,” “Declaration,” “Pride,” and “At Sea,” were likely written at around the same time or shortly thereafter. They were published in 1936 in her one-and-only collection, a thin volume titled On Centaurs. Here, I give a sense of the process of translating three of these poems, something ordinarily hidden from view. The fact that Ginczanka wrote in Polish is, in part, an accident of history, as her Russian-speaking Jewish parents fled Kyiv, the city where she was born, for the Polish city of Równe (now Rivne, Ukraine), home to a variety of ethnic groups, and a crossroads for those fleeing the Russian Revolution. It was in Równe where she adopted Polish as her language of poetic expression, and where Zuzanna Polina Gincburg became Zuzanna Ginczanka. Despite her efforts to acquire Polish citizenship, she remained stateless throughout her life. For many years, Ginczanka was known for a single untitled poem, commonly referred to as “Non omnis moriar” (“I shall not wholly die”), written in Lviv after she was identified as a Jew to the Nazis by her building’s custodian, Zofia Chomina, whom she calls out in the poem. It was to Lviv that Ginczanka had fled from Równe at the beginning of World War II. During the Soviet occupation from 1939–1941, she took part in the literary life of Lviv, translating poetry from Ukrainian and Russian into Polish, including, notably, that of Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka. Following her capture, Ginczanka was able to bribe her way to freedom and move to Kraków, where she was arrested and imprisoned. It now appears most likely that she was executed in the labor camp at Płaszów on May 5, 1944. After World War II, “Non omnis moriar” was introduced as evidence at trial, resulting in a four-year prison sentence for Chomina. In post-war Poland, there was some attempt to collect and bring attention to Ginczanka’s verse, but it was not until the 1990s that a resurgence of interest in her life and poetry began to build. [End Page 163] The Genesis of Zuzanna Ginczanka A biblical streak runs through Ginczanka’s poetry. Hers is the feminine and feminist voice taking on the chorus of the patriarchal shul. In “Side Commentary,” Ginczanka takes issue with Genesis: “I was not made / from dust / nor unto dust / shall I return.” The “shall” was not my first choice, but rather emerged from a desire to underscore the biblical resonance of these lines, hard won through consulting various English translations of Genesis. Ginczanka does not stop at the creation story of Genesis but does away with its entire metaphysics. At the heart of the poem lies a rejection of the “meta,” be it a biblical metaphysics or any number of metanarratives (of creation, of divinity, of exodus and return). Because she reunites the heavens and the earth, restoring to them unity and materiality in her own person, I chose to render the second Polish niebo [sky, heaven, the heavens] as “the heavens” to capture the defiant tone of the line: “I am the heavens.” In so doing, I follow Ginczanka in evoking the ancient conception of the heavens as a solid, glassy dome (chosen over the initial “vault”), as in the Hebrew word raqija. Here, metaphysical mysteries are set aside in favor of an epistemology of empirically-grounded self-discovery: “I know of no other beyond, beyond myself.” A bundle of buds “Senses” arrests the reader from the start with its opening image, with its commitment to the world: “With eyes like safety pins / I safely pinned myself onto the...

The contribution of consonants and vowels to auditory word recognition is shaped by language-specific properties: Evidence from Hebrew.

This study explored the role of consonants and vowels in auditory word perception in Hebrew, using an auditory-auditory priming procedure. A common finding is the greater importance for consonants than vowels in spoken word processing, henceforth the C-bias. What underlies the C-bias is a controversial issue between the "acquired functional hypothesis" and the "initial-bias hypothesis." The former predicts a different pattern of asymmetry among languages, while the latter claims that the C-bias exists in all languages. Hebrew is interesting because it allows the exploration of whether language-specific morphological properties can modulate consonant/vowel asymmetry. This opportunity stems from its unique complex Semitic morphological structure that was found to have a central role in lexical access. To evaluate the consonant/vowel asymmetry in Hebrew in relation to previously studied languages, recognition of morphologically complex Hebrew words was compared with recognition of foreign Hebrew words that do not have the typical Hebrew morphological complex structure, hereafter simple words. The results showed a significantly stronger C-bias for morphologically complex words than for simple words. We suggest that this within-variation supports the acquired functional hypothesis, so that even within one language different patterns of consonant/vowel asymmetry are revealed depending on the internal morphological structure of the word. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Zwei neuerschlossene Dokumente zur Frühgeschichte der Juden in Eslohe

Abstract In the chronicle of the Catholic parish of Eslohe in Westphalia there are two Hebrew manuscripts that have not yet been edited or researched. Both provide a glimpse on religious life in a small Ashkenazi Jewish community at the end of the 18th century. One manuscript, dated March 9, 1800, contains the answer written by a certain Simon ben Eljakum on behalf of Joseph Friedländer from Padberg to a request from Jacob Zander from Eslohe regarding the creation of a mikveh, i. e. a ritual immersion bath. The second Hebrew manuscript, dated September 2, 1796, contains the text of a Hebrew eulogy that begins with a song that is sung in Jewish homes on Friday evening after dinner and begins with the Hebrew words zamah nafschi l'elohim (= my soul thirsts for God). Both manuscripts are examined and commented on here for the first time. In the appendix follows a complete transcription of both Hebrew (and partly also Yiddish) texts as well as a translation into German.

The concept of monotheism in the Book of Proverbs and an African (Yoruba) perspective

The uniqueness of the Book of Proverbs among other wisdom books is incontestable because it uses הוהי as the name of God. Its regular use of the name means that the Book is concerned about God’s monotheism. The mention of that proper name (הוהי) 94 times and the generic name םיהלא only twice (this generic name still refers to הוהי), emphasises the concept of monotheism. Monotheism in ancient Israel is not the denial of the existence of other gods, but the exclusive worship of Yahweh as the only one true God. The origin and the meaning of Yahweh although debatable, the majority of scholars believe that it is Exodus 3:13–15. The definition of proverbs although debatable, they can be defined as a traditional saying that gives advice and instruction. It is ‘a relic of ageless tradition’ that contains a pithy structure. Generally, scholars believe that Yoruba religious tradition also holds the fact that Yahweh is monotheistic by the name given to him (Olodumare). Unfortunately, the Yoruba translation of the Hebrew word יהוה is Oluwa instead of Olodumare.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This makes the Yoruba readers of the Book of Proverbs miss this monotheistic context. Can the retranslation of the Book of Proverbs make the monotheism of God in Yoruba be clearer? This article, therefore, emphasises the need for a retranslation of the present translation of the Book of Proverbs in Yoruba. This article will be an eye opener for some readers who are not sure of the concept of monotheism in the Book of Proverbs and in Yoruba religious tradition.

Cross-language interactions during novel word learning: The contribution of form similarity and participant characteristics

AbstractThe study examined whether false-cognates, overlapping in form but not meaning across languages, are easier to learn due to form overlap, or more difficult to learn due to meaning competition, compared to unambiguous control and cognate words. Fifty-four native Hebrew speakers learned 14 cognates, 14 false-cognates, and 28 control Arabic words in one session. Cognates were learned better than control items. There was no overall difference in learning false-cognates relative to controls, but individuals with higher phonological short-term memory, or with lower L1 verbal fluency, did exhibit a false-cognate learning-advantage. For these individuals, form overlap was more influential than meaning competition. Lexical decisions to Hebrew words following Arabic learning were slower for false-cognates than controls, indicative of backward influences. The findings reveal the influence of prior knowledge on learning and processing, and highlight the importance of jointly considering item-based and learner-based characteristics during the initial stages of vocabulary learning.

Leviathan, Rebuffing the Notion of Being Identified as a Natural Animal?

Leviathan and other sea-monsters in the Hebrew Bible have caused great dissonance amongst biblical scholars. No consensus exists amongst them on how to translate the Hebrew words referring to these mythical monsters. Therefore, a tendency developed amongst exegetes to transfigure these mythical beasts into ordinary animals, to translate them in a vague and general way, or to interpret them as mere symbols. This article investigates ways in which the assumed existence of Leviathan is identified and denied. To gain a better understanding of the nature and function of Leviathan, similar creatures in the ancient Near East are highlighted with a focus on sea-monsters and dragons associated with the primeval sea. These findings propose not only a more distinct epitome of Leviathan, but also of other monsters associated with the primeval waters (Rahab, tanninim, behemoth, and dag gadol), as depicted in the Old Testament. These beasts, interpreted against the magico-mythical cosmology of the ancient Near East and the Old Testament, should be seen as mythical creatures assumed to be real by the ancient audience of the biblical text. In striving for fidelity and loyalty to both the text and the current reader, translations should reflect the foreignness of Leviathan and other monsters or dragons to the contemporary reader.

Semantic Shift of Hebrew Words Borrowed into Palestinian Arabic in Hebron City

This research paper is an attempt to explore some of the changes in the Palestinian Arabic lexical items due to the contact between Arabic and Hebrew. Both Arabic and Hebrew belong to the Semitic language family (Blau & Blau, 1981). The nature of the contact and its effect on both languages has gained the interest of the scholars in the field of sociolinguistics and language contact. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the Hebrew lexical elements borrowed to the Palestinian Arabic, and identify these words with respect to the replacement of the original Arabic words by borrowed Hebrew words. The data have been collected from the native speakers of Arabic, and the data are classified and analyzed to find out whether the lexical borrowed elements affect the semantic properties of the original Palestinian Arabic words in the Hebron area. The discussion concludes that the high impact of Hebrew lexical elements is using the nouns more than other elements.

The Prophets

The Prophets Isaac Kalimi, Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, and Richard A. Taylor Isaac Kalimi Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Thomas Hieke Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz Richard A. Taylor Dallas Theological Seminary 876. [LXX Isaiah in Codex Sinaiticus] Ken M. Penner, Isaiah (Septuagint Commentary Series; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2020). Pp. 722. $239. ISBN 978-90-04-42677-1. This book consists of an introduction to and transcription and translation of, as well as a commentary on, the Greek translation of Isaiah in the Codex Sinaiticus. It comments on the Greek used in the translation and how it is stretched beyond its normal usage in the translation. It addresses such features of Codex Sinaiticus, including its history, scribes, divisions, and orthography. In line with the aims of the Brill Septuagint Commentary Series, it mainly discusses not how the translation was produced, but how it was read. The book ends with a comprehensive bibliography and series of indexes: authors, Greek words, Hebrew words, biblical sources (HB/OT + NT), and primary texts. [Adapted from published abstract—I.K.] [End Page 307] Google Scholar 877. [The City in Isaiah 24–27] Erich Bosshard-Nepustil, Die Stadt in Jesaja 24–27 (AThANT 111; Zurich: TVZ, 2021). Pp. 178. €47. ISBN 978-3-290-18364-6. Isaiah 24–27, the so-called "Isaiah Apocalypse" (IA), poses many long-discussed and inconclusively answered questions. Among these questions is that concerning the identity/significance of the unnamed "city," mentions of which recur throughout the four chapters where it appears as a "high-profile" and oppressive entity, which, however, is destined to end up an abandoned hilltop and which is further associated with the region of Moab in Isa 24:10. In seeking an answer to the above question, B.-N. focuses on two converging lines of evidence: (1) the intra- and intertextual connections between Isaiah 24–27 and, inter alia, Isaiah 13–23 (where the coming overthrow of a series of major, named cities as well as that of Moab [see chaps. 15–16] is announced) and the materials in Genesis 1–19 concerning the Flood and the destruction of the wicked city of Sodom, which itself eventuates in the birth of "Moab," Lot's son in Gen 19:37, and (2) the geo-political situation in the southern Levant in the period extending from the end of the 4th through the 3rd cent. b.c.—the likely time of composition of the IA. In proposing this dating for the IA, B.-N. notes that the period in question was characterized by the establishment of numerous cities as centers of Hellenistic culture and military strongholds which were perceived by many Judeans of the time as alien and a threat to their way of life and the emergence of the Nabataeans as the dominant power in what had been the territories of Moab and Edom as another such threat. Synthesizing the indications supplied by these two bodies of evidence, B.-N. suggests that the "city" in Isaiah 24–27 is both a culmination of all the reprobate cities featured in Isaiah 13–23 and a cipher for the emerging Hellenistic cities of the author's time, while "Moab" represents a recurrence of reprobate "Sodom" of old that is now embodied in the Nabataeans who are in the process of making themselves masters of the southern Transjordan. The hope articulated by the author of the IA is that, in the context of a world-wide divine judgment, both the "city" and "Moab" will be deprived of their current power, thus opening the way for the restoration of the land of Israel to its full Davidic extent and whose inhabitants will include Judeans, Samaritans, and Diaspora returnees with Jerusalem as their common religious center.—C.T.B. Google Scholar 878. [The Immaginary of Daniel 2–6] Luigi Santopaolo, Sogno, Segno e Storia. Genesis e Fenomenologia dell'immaginario in Dn 2–6 (AnBib 223; Rome: G&BP, 2019). Pp. 172. Paper €24. ISBN 978-88-7653-711-0. S.'s study seeks to synthesize the iconographical canons of the visions featured in Daniel 2–6, thereby showing...

Discovering Lexical Similarity Using Articulatory Feature-Based Phonetic Edit Distance

Lexical Similarity (LS) between two languages uncovers many interesting linguistic insights such as genetic relationship, mutual intelligibility, and the usage of one's vocabulary into other. There are various methods through which LS is evaluated. In the same regard, this paper presents a method of Phonetic Edit Distance (PED) that uses a soft comparison of letters using the articulatory features associated with them. The system converts the words into the corresponding International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), followed by the conversion of IPA into its set of articulatory features. Later, the lists of the set of articulatory features are compared using the proposed method. As an example, PED gives edit distance of German word vater and Persian word pidar as 0.82; and similarly, Hebrew word shalom and Arabic word salaam as 0.93, whereas for a juxtapose comparison, their IPA based edit distances are 4 and 2 respectively. Experiments are performed with six languages (Arabic, Hindi, Marathi, Persian, Sanskrit, and Urdu). In this regard, we extracted part of speech wise word-lists from the Universal Dependency corpora and evaluated the LS for every pair of language. Thus, with the proposed approach, we find the genetic affinity, similarity, and borrowing/loan-words despite having script differences and sound variation phenomena among these languages.