{"id":89531,"date":"2021-02-27T23:49:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T21:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89531"},"modified":"2021-02-27T23:49:31","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T21:49:31","slug":"divine-bounty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/divine-bounty\/","title":{"rendered":"Divine Bounty"},"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":"89531","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"686","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"

\u05e9\u05c2\u05b8\u05e9\u05c2 \u05d0\u05b8\u05e0\u05b9\u05db\u05b4\u05d9 \u05e2\u05b7\u05dc\u05be\u05d0\u05b4\u05de\u05b0\u05e8\u05b8\u05ea\u05b6\u05da\u05b8 \u05db\u05bc\u05b0\u05de\u05d5\u05b9\u05e6\u05b5\u05d0 \u05e9\u05c1\u05b8\u05dc\u05b8\u05dc \u05e8\u05b8\u05d1\u05c3<\/span><\/p>\n

I rejoice over Your promise as one who obtains great spoil<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Psalm 119 is saturated with descriptions of the love of the Torah. In one verse, the psalmist uses somewhat peculiar imagery: \u201cI rejoice over Your promise [literally, Your word] as one who obtains great spoil.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just as in English, the Hebrew word for spoil \u2013 <\/span>shalal<\/span><\/em>\u00ad<\/span><\/i> \u2013 has a negative connotation, referring to goods captured in time of war. Throughout the Bible, we find cases where the taking of spoils is prohibited, such as when Joshua conquered Jericho (Joshua 6) and when the Jews fought against their enemies on Purim (Esther 9). And the word <\/span>shalal<\/span><\/em>\u00a0itself seems very similar to the Hebrew word for \u201cinvalidation\u201d \u2013 <\/span>shelila<\/span><\/em>. So why would the psalmist choose this particular word to describe finding God\u2019s word? Why not use a more neutral word, like \u201ctreasure\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

To find an answer, we need to look at the origin of the word. According to scholars, the root originally meant \u201cto draw out.\u201d There is one occasion in the Bible where it maintains that meaning:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cbut you must also pull some [stalks] out of the heaps\u2026\u201d (Ruth 2:16)<\/span><\/p>\n

The words for \u201cpull\u201d in this verse is <\/span>shol tasholu<\/span><\/em>, from the same root as <\/span>shalal<\/span><\/em>. A related root is <\/span>nashal<\/span><\/em>, which also means \u201cto draw off.\u201d This latter root gives us the word <\/span>shilya<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cplacenta\u201d (drawn out of the womb.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The word <\/span>shelila<\/span><\/em>, mentioned above, also derives from this sense. In the verb form, it means \u201cto remove,\u201d which developed also into the meanings \u201cto refuse\u201d and \u201cto negate.\u201d When an army took the spoils, they \u201cremoved\u201d them from those they defeated. And today the verb <\/span>shalal<\/span><\/em>]<\/span><\/i> means to \u201cnegate\u201d an argument, and <\/span>shelili<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is an adjective meaning \u201cnegative.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A related word is the verb <\/span>hishtolel<\/span><\/em>. Today it means \u201cto misbehave, act unruly,\u201d but the original sense was \u201cto be lacking sanity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But not all senses of the root are negative. The word <\/span>shelal<\/span><\/em>\u00a0means \u201cabundance,\u201d and this positive sense is the intention of our verse. While originally it did mean spoils taken from a defeated victim, it later expanded to \u201cbounty\u201d in general. In English, the word bounty actually developed in the opposite direction \u2013 it first meant \u201cgoodness, virtue\u201d and only later meant \u201creward for killing or taking in an enemy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The positive sense of \u201cabundance\u201d is much more appropriate to describe the Torah than \u201cspoils,\u201d which are only possessed when one takes them from another. Unlike many ancient religions, which kept their religious codes secret, where only the priests could know them, the Torah is available to all. That is precisely the reason it has remained with us for all these millennia. We can all feel the same love for it that the psalmist expressed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"\u05e9","main_caption":"Divine Bounty","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"162. I rejoice over Your promise as one who obtains great spoil","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"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\/89531"}],"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=89531"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89532,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89531\/revisions\/89532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}