{"id":84293,"date":"2020-11-30T16:11:47","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T14:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=84293"},"modified":"2020-11-30T16:11:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T14:11:47","slug":"a-mysterious-musical-notation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-mysterious-musical-notation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mysterious (Musical?) Notation"},"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":"84293","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"623","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"

Our psalm presents itself as a composition by David that was occasioned by his sojourn among the Philistines in Gath in an attempt to evade capture by Saul, as detailed in 1 Samuel 21. It opens with what Robert Alter labeled, \u201cOne of the most mysterious of the musical terms in Psalms\u201d (<\/span>The Hebrew Bible<\/span><\/i>, vol. 3, 141): <\/span>yonat \u2018elem r\u2019chokim<\/span><\/em>. As Alter then noted: \u201cThe literal sense of the three Hebrew words is haunting: \u2018the mute dove of distant places.\u2019\u201d (See Alter\u2019s post on this page).<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us see how the medievals handled it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi wrote: \u201c[David] spoke of himself as he was distant from the Land of Israel in the company of Achish [king of Gath] and Goliath\u2019s kin sought Achish\u2019s permission to kill him\u2026 he felt among them like a mute dove.\u201d Radak wrote, similarly:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Philistines sought to seize and kill him\u2026 until, out of fear, he made himself seem crazy. Therefore, he called himself a muted dove just as a dove wanders from its place, so\u00a0 was [David a stranger among them who] was unable to speak because he was pretending to be mindless, which is also said of doves, to wit: <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Ephraim has acted like a silly dove with no mind\u201d (Hosea 7:11).<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Ibn Ezra interpreted this phrase as either a musical or poetic notation (<\/span>no`am piyyut<\/span><\/em>) and this divergence is reflected in Malbim, who wrote: \u201cHe was like a muted dove in a faraway land, and others say it is a musical instrument (<\/span>k\u2019li shir<\/span><\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n

The opacity of the expression <\/span>yonat \u2018elem<\/span><\/em> likely appealed to the medieval Hebrew poets\u2014who frequently tended to opaqueness\u2014and was utilized by Moshe Ibn Ezra in a <\/span>selicha<\/span><\/em> (penitential poem). Yehudah Halevi used it to represent Israel in exile, concluding his poem with an expression of consolation: \u201cShe will return to her sanctuary, the capstone, and inherit [the land] from east to west.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":84303,"id":84303,"title":"ps56-music","filename":"ps56-music.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-mysterious-musical-notation\/ps56-music\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps56-music","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84293,"date":"2020-11-30 14:11:34","modified":"2020-11-30 14:11:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1285,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-768x514.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":514,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-1024x685.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":685,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1028,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1285,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-1200x803.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":803,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-628x420.jpg","home_baner-width":628,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"A Mysterious (Musical?) Notation","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Poetic image for the ages","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":84303,"id":84303,"title":"ps56-music","filename":"ps56-music.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-mysterious-musical-notation\/ps56-music\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps56-music","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84293,"date":"2020-11-30 14:11:34","modified":"2020-11-30 14:11:42","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1285,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-300x201.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":201,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-768x514.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":514,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-1024x685.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":685,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1028,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1285,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-1200x803.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":803,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps56-music-628x420.jpg","home_baner-width":628,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84304,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84293\/revisions\/84304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}