{"id":55824,"date":"2019-05-20T22:57:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T19:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=55824"},"modified":"2022-12-13T13:35:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T11:35:58","slug":"shibboleth-trouble-with-border-crossings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shibboleth-trouble-with-border-crossings\/","title":{"rendered":"Shibboleth: Trouble With Border-Crossings"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[361,444,792],"acf":{"old_id":"55824","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"223","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"From the West Bank to the West Wing","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our chapter includes a most idiosyncratic episode. During a domestic battle that left an untold number of Ephraimites dead, the survivors needed to cross the Jordan back to their own (western) bank. The Gileadites, in an attempt to hamper that crossing, came up with a ruse that enabled them to distinguish between the Ephraimites, their opponents, and legitimate border crossers. They required everyone to recite the word <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shibboleth<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which the Ephraimites, due to a particular speech defect, were unable to properly articulate. When they tried, it came out as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sibboleth<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; and, with their true identities revealed, they were executed (v.6).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A reasonable question to pose (to an otherwise unreasonable situation) is why was <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shibboleth<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> chosen from among all the words in Hebrew that are spelled with the letter <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shin<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">? The answer starts with the realization that it has two meanings in Hebrew. In addition to the prevalent meaning of a sheaf (of grain), it is used poetically to mean a stream (of water). Since the Ephraimite refugees were attempting to cross a river, the use of this word is not inappropriate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another reasonable question might be, did Ephraimites alone exhibit this defect and why? Logic would imply that it was exclusive to them because otherwise it would not have been an effective criterion. As to why it affected them, Radak already speculated on that, writing: \u201cPerhaps the climate (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">avir<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) of their territory caused it, just as people in France pronounce <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shin<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sav<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d (In speculating about tribal peculiarities in general, recall that in chapter 3 we encountered unusually left-handed Benjaminites.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shibboleth was put to similar use in another historical circumstance. According to John Cleveland\u2019s 1658 account of the Watt Tyler rebellion in England, \u201cThey had a shibboleth to discover them, he who pronounced <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cawse<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for Bread and Cheese had his head lopt off.\u201d More recently, season 2 episode 8 (2000) of <em>The West Wing<\/em>, in which Chinese claiming to be Christians had to validate their religious identities, was appropriately entitled \u201cShibboleth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":55825,"id":55825,"title":"jud12-shibboleth-stream-stalk","filename":"jud12-shibboleth-stream-stalk.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/jud12-shibboleth-stream-stalk.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/shibboleth-trouble-with-border-crossings\/jud12-shibboleth-stream-stalk\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jud12-shibboleth-stream-stalk","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":55824,"date":"2019-05-20 19:57:25","modified":"2020-12-19 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