{"id":55121,"date":"2019-05-07T14:17:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T11:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55121"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:03:59","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T15:03:59","slug":"on-the-ups-and-downs-of-right-and-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/on-the-ups-and-downs-of-right-and-left\/","title":{"rendered":"On The Ups And Downs Of Right And Left"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Romance languages as well as in English, right-handedness is positive and left-handedness is negative. In French, right is droit (English: adroit), while left is gauche (clumsy). In Italian, right is destra (English: dexterous), while left is sinistra (sinister). In this chapter, we encounter Ehud ben Gera, a conspicuously left-handed<\/span> shofet<\/span><\/em>, who assassinated Eglon the King of Moab.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ehud is introduced as <\/span>ben ha-yemini<\/span><\/em> (v.15), which in Hebrew is either\u2014literally\u2014a \u201cson of the right [hand]\u201d (=under the sway of the right hand, on the analogy of a <\/span>bar mitzvah<\/span><\/em>=under the sway of mitzvah obligation) or another way of saying that he was of the tribe of Benjamin. He is further described as <\/span>ish<\/span> iter yad yemino<\/span><\/em> (same verse), which is traditionally understood to mean his right arm was withered or shrunken. This expression makes only one other appearance in the whole Tanakh, in Judges 20:16, where it is applied to 700 exceptional soldiers from the tribe of Benjamin. Finally, he girded his dagger about his waist on the right side (16) and drew it out with his left hand to stab Eglon (21).<\/span><\/p>\n

Our analysis is somewhat perplexing. We have someone who is called a <\/span>yemini<\/span><\/em> (righty?)* because he came from the tribe of Binyamin, but who used his left hand because his right hand was unserviceable. Indeed, his tribe\u2019s name, suggesting right-handedness, is belied by the fact that\u2014at one point\u2014it appears to have spawned a whole clan of accomplished left-handed warriors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, an alternative possibility is that Ehud, like the vast majority of people, was right-handed. However, in order to evade discovery of his dagger when he entered Eglon\u2019s chamber, he buckled it on his right-hand side where it would not be detected. But that meant he would have to draw it with his left hand, so he trained himself to be ambidextrous (<\/span>iter<\/span><\/em>?). This may have set a precedent for his fellow Benjaminites who then made ambidexterity a tribal virtue.<\/span><\/p>\n

*If the word <\/span>yemini<\/span><\/i> looks like Yemenite, it is because <\/span>yamin<\/span><\/i> is Arabic for south and Yemen is the southernmost country on the Arabian Peninsula. (See our comments to Joshua 18 on geographical orientation.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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