{"id":49639,"date":"2019-02-18T08:57:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T06:57:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=49639"},"modified":"2022-09-11T15:21:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T12:21:17","slug":"shortchanging-a-revelation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shortchanging-a-revelation\/","title":{"rendered":"Shortchanging A Revelation?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[652,721],"acf":{"old_id":"49639","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"158","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Just how many verses are there in the Decalogue?","content":"

In our chapter, we find the obverse side of the revelatory coin we first observed in Exodus 20. The conditions and circumstances of <\/span>matan torah<\/span><\/em> are repeated, as is the Decalogue – literally, ten utterances – itself. (<\/span>See our previous comments <\/span><\/a>to Exodus 24.) The common features include a reference to ten utterances and their inscription on two stone tablets. Here, we would like to make an observation on versification: the division of the text into individual verses. <\/span><\/p>\n

In most rabbinic Bibles, the number of verses in each week\u2019s portion is listed at its end, as are the number of verses in each book of the Pentateuch, and, finally, at the end of Deuteronomy 34, the total number of verses in the entire Torah.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to these traditions, the portion of Va\u2019etchanan, which incorporates our chapter, consists of 118 verses<\/span>. The problem is that if we tally the number of verses from Deut. 3:23, where it begins, through Deut. 7:11, where it concludes, the total that emerges is 122.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did we lose four verses?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer is contained in the versification of the Decalogue. Careful scrutiny of the printed text shows that, on the one hand, some of the ten utterances are divided into more than one verse while, on the other hand, others are crammed into a single verse. \u201cI am the Lord your God\u201d and \u201cYou shall have no other deities\u201d are combined, the Sabbath is divided into 4 verses, and all five \u201cThou shalt nots\u201d are combined into one.<\/span><\/p>\n

The explanation derives from the difference between the way the text is read privately and publicly; one uses a versification called \u201clower\u201d while the other utilizes \u201cupper\u201d versification, yielding the disparate results both here and in Exodus 20.<\/span><\/p>\n

A concise description of these two types of versification can be found <\/span>in an essay on Torah reading for Shavuot <\/span><\/a>by Dr. Joseph Ofer of Bar-Ilan University.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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