{"id":37261,"date":"2018-08-08T11:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T08:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=37261"},"modified":"2022-03-02T22:49:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T20:49:48","slug":"milimilim-the-hebrew-corner-gen20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/milimilim-the-hebrew-corner-gen20\/","title":{"rendered":"MiliMiliM – The Hebrew Corner – Gen 20"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gen 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, \u201cYou are to die because of the woman that you have taken, for she is \u05d1\u05e2\u05d5\u05dc\u05ea \u05d1\u05e2\u05dc, <\/span>be\u2019ulat ba\u2019al<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> a married woman.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

You’d think that linguistic vestiges of pagan gods would have been eradicated in monotheistic Judaism, and in its tribal language Hebrew, long ago. But Ba\u2019al, the ancient Canaanite sky god (<\/span>see eg I Kings 18, for the duel at high noon between Elijah and the prophets of Ba\u2019al<\/span>), actually crops up in a number of surprising contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, given that the land of \u00a0Canaan\/Israel has no Nile or Tigris or Euphrates to depend on for water, Ba’al was a pretty significant god, a sort of Zeus-like head cheese of the Near Eastern pantheon. To this day in Israel, non-irrigated or rain-fed crops are called <\/span>chaklaut ba’al<\/span><\/em> \u2013 “baal agriculture.” So much for the eradication of paganism!<\/span><\/p>\n

The word <\/span>ba’al<\/span><\/em> sometimes was used in combination, as in the demonic Beelzebub, from <\/span>ba’al zevuv<\/span><\/em> (see 2 Kings 1), meaning literally “Lord of the Flies,” which inspired the William Golding novel of that name.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do gods do? They fight, conquer, take possession, and rule. And when the sky god is male (as most are), and the personification of earth is female (just think Mother Earth), it’s no coincidence that this image was taken for the title and role of the traditional husband, and more generally, an owner or master of anyone, or anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

The act of \u05d1\u05e2\u05d9\u05dc\u05d4 <\/span>be\u2019ilah<\/em> <\/span>means “to have carnal relations with,\u201d and it can have both positive connotations of love and devotion, or negative ones, of conquest. <\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, in the following, <\/span>be\u2019ilah<\/em> <\/span>means redemption: \u201cNevermore shall you be called \u2018Forsaken,\u2019 Nor shall your land be called \u2018Desolate\u2019; But you shall be called <\/span>cheftzi-bah<\/em> <\/span>\u2018I delight in her,\u2019 And your land <\/span>be’ulah<\/em> <\/span>\u2018Espoused.\u2019 For the LORD takes delight in you, And your land shall be espoused\u201d (Isaiah 62:4). This verse gives us the English given name Beulah.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, while \u201cespousal\u201d is nice (certainly better than \u201cforsaken\u201d and \u201cdesolate\u201d), the word <\/span>ba\u2019al<\/em> <\/span>is left both with its pagan connotations, and the idea of ownership. \u05d1\u05e2\u05dc \u05d4\u05d1\u05d9\u05ea, <\/span>ba\u2019al habayit<\/span><\/em>, is \u201cowner of the house,\u201d the lord of the manor, as it were. <\/span>In Yiddish, pronounced <\/span>balabus<\/span><\/em>, this acquires the additional connotation of middle-class, bourgeois gentry. The woman of the house is the <\/span>balabuste<\/span><\/em>, “<\/span>hausfrau<\/span><\/em>,” a strong, competent, often dominant, woman (only coincidentally sounding remarkably like “ball-buster”).<\/span><\/p>\n

Those looking for non-patriarchal terminology need go no further than the prophet Hosea. His version of redemption goes like this: \u201c\u2018And in that day,\u2019 declares the LORD: \u2018You will call [Me] Ishi <\/em>(i.e., \u201cmy man,\u201d) And no more will you call Me Ba\u2019ali <\/em>(my lord). For I will remove the names of the Ba\u2019alim from her mouth, And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name\u2019\u201d (Hosea 2: 18-19). This has been a great prooftext for reformers of contemporary Hebrew to use less sexist terminology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ba’al<\/em> <\/span>can also refer to possessing different qualities or attributes. For instance, a newly-religious Jew is known as a <\/span>ba’al teshuvah<\/span><\/em>,<\/em> a “master of repentance,” or “BT” for short. The founder of the 18th century movement of Hasidism was the Ba’al Shem Tov, “master of the Good Name,” probably meaning that he knew how to magically use God’s name in working miracles. But Mrs. Ba’al Shem Tov might have married him just to have “a husband with a good name.”<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":102544,"id":102544,"title":"-621df2a91d1ca--621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi baal.jpg","filename":"621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/milimilim-the-hebrew-corner-gen20\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":37261,"date":"2022-03-01 10:17:13","modified":"2022-03-01 10:17:29","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":960,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","large-width":960,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":960,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":960,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":960,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/08\/621df2a91d1ca-621df2a91d1ccgen20-milimi-baal.jpg-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"MiliMiliM - 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