{"id":84671,"date":"2020-12-07T14:17:12","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T12:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=84671"},"modified":"2020-12-07T14:17:12","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T12:17:12","slug":"multiplicities-of-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/multiplicities-of-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiplicities Of Meaning"},"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":"84671","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"629","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The text might be ambi-valent, but we are not\r\n\r\n","content":"

V.12 in our psalm serves as the prooftext for the argument that legitimizes the entire exegetical enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first challenge that interpretation must meet is its justification. Why assume that Tanakh needs to be interpreted? Why not assume, to the contrary, that it can be understood literally? A <\/span>baraita<\/span><\/i> (non-canonical Mishnah) quoted in the Talmud meets the challenge by stipulating that Tanakh is multivalent because God\u2019s speech is similarly open to multiple interpretations:<\/span><\/p>\n

Abbaye said: Scripture declares, \u201cGod speaks once [yet] I hear two things; strength is God\u2019s\u201d (Psalms 62:12). A single verse yields several meanings and a single meaning does not emerge from multiple verses. (Sanhedrin 34a)<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerald Blidstein,<\/span> professor emeritus of Jewish Philosophy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev<\/span>, explained this principle in a Hebrew essay entitled, \u201cOn the Torah\u2019s Multivalence.\u201d He connected our verse in Psalms to the talmudic idiom: \u201cThese and those are the living words of God\u201d (cf. Eruvin 13b), explaining that:<\/span><\/p>\n

The author of the <\/span>baraita<\/span><\/i> wished to emphasize that the sages of Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai are the heirs of the prophets. Even if they disagree, they should not be classified in terms of \u201ctrue\u201d or \u201cfalse\u201d prophets\u2026 Even if their positions appear to be \u201ctwo [mutually exclusive] things\u201d they nevertheless reflect a single\/unitary [divine] speech.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other challenge confronting interpretation is that of validity. Granting that Tanakh requires interpretation, what criteria can we use to distinguish between interpretations that are valid and those that are not? To this, the talmudic answer is tradition. This is reflected in the well-known story about Hillel and the prospective convert.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first day [Hillel] taught him <\/span>alef-bet-gimel-dalet<\/span><\/em>;<\/em> the next day he reversed them. [The convert] asked: But yesterday you taught me otherwise? He replied: Have you not put your trust in me [for the alphabet, i.e., the written Torah]? Trust me for the oral one as well. (Shabbat 31a)<\/span><\/p>\n

Even something as apparently objective as the sequence of the alphabet is dependent on an oral tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":84672,"id":84672,"title":"ps62-meaning","filename":"ps62-meaning.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/multiplicities-of-meaning\/ps62-meaning\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps62-meaning","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84671,"date":"2020-12-07 12:16:35","modified":"2022-09-13 14:47:29","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":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Multiplicities Of Meaning","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The text might be ambi-valent, but we are not","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":84672,"id":84672,"title":"ps62-meaning","filename":"ps62-meaning.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/multiplicities-of-meaning\/ps62-meaning\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps62-meaning","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84671,"date":"2020-12-07 12:16:35","modified":"2022-09-13 14:47:29","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":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps62-meaning-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"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\/84671"}],"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=84671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84673,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84671\/revisions\/84673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}