{"id":81798,"date":"2020-10-20T15:52:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T12:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=81798"},"modified":"2020-10-20T15:52:52","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T12:52:52","slug":"temple-visitation-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/temple-visitation-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple Visitation Rights"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"81798","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"594","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"And to do so frequently, intimately, contemplatively\r\n\r\n","content":"

Psalm 27 is one of the more familiar ones, as is it customary to recite it between the beginning of the month of Elul and the end of the Sukkot holiday. And one verse in particular is well known, because it is a popular song (<\/span>\u201c<\/span>Achat Shaalti<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/i>):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I ask of the LORD, only that do I seek: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, to frequent His temple.\u201d (Psalms 27:4)<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet even this recognizable verse has questions about what it really means. On the phrase \u201cto frequent,\u201d the JPS Tanakh adds the comment, \u201cmeaning of Hebrew uncertain.\u201d And in fact, there are many translations to the Hebrew <\/span>u\u2019levaker<\/span><\/em>: \u201cto worship,\u201d \u201cto meditate,\u201d \u201cto contemplate,\u201d \u201cto inquire,\u201d and \u201cto visit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why all the confusion?<\/span><\/p>\n

It goes back to an uncertainty about the root <\/span>bkr<\/span><\/em>. In Modern Hebrew, as a verb it could either mean \u201cto visit\u201d (as some translations suggest) or \u201cto criticize\u201d (obviously not the intent of the Psalmist). But in Biblical Hebrew it did not likely have either of those meanings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi offers two explanations. One, in the name of Dunash ben Labrat, is that it means here \u201cto visit every morning \u2013 <\/span>boker<\/span><\/em>.\u201d The other explanation, as suggested by Dunash\u2019s rival Menahem ben Saruq, is that the word means \u201cto examine, to scrutinize\u201d \u2013 as found in Leviticus 27:33.<\/span><\/p>\n

The understanding today is that this is the correct meaning of the phrase in this verse. This understanding is reinforced by the parallel in the previous phrase, \u201cto gaze.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It is easy to understand how the sense of <\/span>levaker<\/span><\/em>\u00a0moved from \u201cto examine\u201d (in the neutral sense) to the negative connotation of \u201cto criticize.\u201d But how did it come to mean \u201cto visit\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

Apparently, it came from the post-biblical, rabbinic phrase <\/span>bikur cholim<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 <\/span><\/i>which we know today as \u201cvisiting the sick.\u201d But the original meaning of the phrase meant “observation and concern for the needs of the sick”. Over time the meaning drifted into “visiting,\u201d and it maintains that meaning until today.<\/span><\/p>\n

The original sense of examination is still found in other words in Hebrew however \u2013 <\/span>bakara<\/span><\/em>\u00a0means \u201ccontrol\u201d and <\/span>bikoret<\/span><\/em> means inspection. And this was David\u2019s one wish \u2013 not simply to visit God\u2019s temple (even every morning), but to contemplate and meditate about the significance of being there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69927,"id":69927,"title":"jer13-prayer","filename":"jer13-prayer.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/jer13-prayer.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/yet-another-strange-instruction\/jer13-prayer\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer13-prayer","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69926,"date":"2020-02-10 15:58:31","modified":"2022-07-17 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