{"id":89411,"date":"2021-02-25T14:51:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T12:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89411"},"modified":"2021-02-25T14:51:34","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T12:51:34","slug":"the-way-and-the-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-way-and-the-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"The Way And The Teaching"},"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":"89411","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":54356,"related_cahpter":"686","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A psalm swarming with synonyms\r\n\r\n","content":"

119:1 \u201cHappy whose way is blameless, who walk in the LORD\u2019s teaching.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both these terms–the \u201cway\u201d as an image of the right ordering of life (and the psalm uses three synonyms for it) and \u201cteaching,\u201d <\/span>torah<\/span><\/em>–are characteristic of Wisdom literature. It is not entirely clear whether<\/span> torah<\/em> <\/span>refers to an actual book or simply to God\u2019s instruction to man, though there is some likelihood that the former sense may be used here. This stress on <\/span>torah<\/span><\/em> suggests that the psalm was composed after the promulgation of Deuteronomy in 621 B.C.E, and many scholars date this text to the post-exilic period. Given both the eight-fold acrostic and the didactic purpose, it is understandable that the psalm should swarm with synonyms–<\/span>torah, \u2018edut<\/em> <\/span>(\u201cprecept\u201d), <\/span>piqudim<\/span><\/em> (\u201cdecrees\u201d), <\/span>\u2018<\/span><\/i>imrah<\/span><\/em> (\u201cutterance\u201d), <\/span>davar<\/span><\/em> (\u201cword\u201d), <\/span>\u1e25oq<\/span><\/em> (\u201cstatute\u201d), <\/span>mishpat<\/span><\/em> (\u201claw\u201d).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this poetic context, the terms appear to overlap and not to express technical distinctions. One must concede that the poetic language is highly formulaic and rather routine, although occasionally a striking line appears (for example, verse 54, \u201cSongs were your statutes to me, \/ in the house of my sojourning,\u201d or the unusual simile for suffering of a leather water skin cured over a smoking fire in verse 83, \u201cI was like a skin-flask in smoke\u201d).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It also should be said that some of the acrostic composition is mechanical. The most egregious instance is the letter <\/span>waw<\/span><\/em>, which is also the Hebrew particle that means \u201cand\u201d. There are very few other Hebrew words that begin with this letter (in the biblical corpus, no more than three), so the poet simply begins each of the eight lines of the <\/span>waw<\/span><\/em> stanza with \u201cand.\u201d The lines are rhythmically compact, usually having three accented syllables in the first verset and two in the second.<\/span><\/p>\n

From: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible<\/em>, vol. 3: Writings, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc. By permission of the author.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54890,"id":54890,"title":"Alter-Cover","filename":"Alter-Cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/welcome-to-the-book-of-judges-unbridled-lust-implacable-hostility-mutual-mayhem\/alter-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alter-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54889,"date":"2019-05-05 07:18:18","modified":"2022-01-31 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