{"id":64178,"date":"2019-10-08T09:02:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T06:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64178"},"modified":"2023-05-04T09:16:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T06:16:40","slug":"the-house-of-freedom-or-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-house-of-freedom-or-detention\/","title":{"rendered":"The House Of Freedom Or Detention?"},"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":[383,361,755],"acf":{"old_id":"64178","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"324","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The status of the leper king","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">King Azariah (aka Uzziah) ascended the throne at the age of 16 and is credited with a reign of 52 years, even though at some point he was stricken with leprosy. (Since that must have severely limited his ability to function as king, and some of those 52 years were explicitly shared by his successors, the task of determining the duration of the First Temple gets complicated, as we will note when we get to its destruction.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At this point, I would like to tackle a singular lexicographical issue. Verse 5 stipulates that upon becoming a leper, the king took up residence in a <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">beit ha-hophsheet<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Hebrew verbal root <em>h-p-sh<\/em> connotes the idea of release or freedom, but what is a \u201cHouse of Freedom\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One line of investigation takes it as a euphemism. In other words, it was actually a House of Detention to which he was confined, consistent with the Torah\u2019s provision for a leper: &#8220;Being unclean, he shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp&#8221; (Lev. 13:46).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another line of inquiry utilizes information drawn from the language of the Canaanite port city of Ugarit, extensive portions of whose Semitic language were deciphered by scholars after its discovery in 1928. In Ugaritic (as the language is known), <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">beit ha-hophsheet<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a synonym for <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">she\u2019ol<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the netherworld or the grave, the only place where a leper might find \u201cfreedom\u201d from his affliction. Support for this interpretation is also drawn from two biblical verses: Job 3:19: \u201cSmall and great alike are there [in the grave] and the slave is free (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hophshi<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) of his master,\u201d and Psalms 88:6: \u201cabandoned (<\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hophshi<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) among the dead, like bodies lying in the grave.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both interpretations take it to be the designation for a leprosarium, which is also consistent with the rabbinic declaration: \u201cFour [in life] are regarded as though they were dead\u201d (BT Nedarim 64b): the destitute, the blind, the childless, and the leper.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: The King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy, by Rembrandt, 1635 \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64179,"id":64179,"title":"2kings15-uzziah 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