Notes from "Biblical Literacy"

Every so often I like to find a favorite Bible-related text and take notes of interesting things that stand out. I did this several times at my old "Changing Bibles" blog (for instance, some of these posts). Focusing on some other writing projects---and, honestly, being somewhat stuck in an energy-sapping "blue" period for a while---I haven't done this kind of meditative "leafing" for several months (although this past year I did do several informal studies of Jesus' parables and posted them on this "Journeys Home" site). So it was high time to take down a favorite book and browse its pages: Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's Biblical Literacy: The Most Important People, Events, and Ideas of the Hebrew Bible (William Morrow, 1997). This past weekend, several interesting things stood out.

The burning bush

The rabbis of the Talmud speculated on why God spoke form a thorn bush rather than another kind of tree. Rabbi Joshua ben Korchah said, “To teach you that no place on earth, not even a thorn bush, is devoid of God’s presence” (Exodus Rabbah 2.5). Although this passage in Exodus is the first explicit time that sacred space is encountered, the place is not (as some religions might teach) inherently sacred, but only because the holy God has spoken there (p. 104).

The Amalekites

This tribe causes the Israelites grief in the desert (Exodus 17:8-16), when they attack from the rear (where the weakest Israelites were). Enmity toward the Amalekites remains through the Bible. Although the Jews are forbidden to hate the Egyptians (Deut. 23:8), they are enjoined to never forget the Amalekites’ attack (Deut. 25:17-19).

The enmity continues in 1 Samuel 15:2-3, where Saul battles the Amalekites but spares the king, contrary to the commands of Deut. 25:17-19). This failure costs Saul the kingship. Apparently others survived, however, because David attacks them later (1 Sam. 27:8, and also 1 Sam. 30:1-2).

The story doesn’t end there! Haman, the arch-villain in the book of Esther, was an Agagite, a descendent of the king whom Saul had spared. So, according to Rabbi Telushkin, the Deuteronomy 25 section, condemning the Amalekites, is always read prior to Purim (pp. 113-115).

Phinehas

In Numbers 25, we have an awful story where Moabite leaders seek to alienate the Israelites from the Lord by sending beautiful Moabite and Midianite women into the Israelite camp, which works!  When an Israelite man, Zimri, and his Midianite woman Cozbi appear, Aaron’s grandson Pinchas (Phinehas) kills them both. This causes God’s anger against the people to subside.

Rabbi Telushkin quotes Jacob Milgrom’s work on Numbers: although Pinchas is praised in the biblical account, he is never held up as a model for behavior and, in fact, he had circumvented Moses who was seeking to dispense justice via the proper means. Only God’s decree in this specific situation makes him a hero---and thus Pinchas’ actions should never be upheld as a model or example (pp. 142-143).

Murder

Speaking of murder: Telushkin writes: “Executing murderers is so basic a cornerstone of biblical justice that it is the only law repeated in every one of the Torah’s five books” (p. 405). Why is this? One reason is that “the Bible regards innocent life as being of infinite value... one who murders an innocent person has committed an infinite evil. Therefore any lesser punishment than death would not fit the crime” (p. 407).

Also the Bible implies that the death penalty is a deterrent (Deut. 19:20).

Earlier, in Genesis, innocent blood cries to God (4:10). As blood is spiritually unclean, so shed blood “pollutes the land, and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who sheds it” (Numbers 35:33) (p. 407).

Jonah

Famously, Jonah called upon the Ninevites to repent, and to Jonah’s chagrin, they did. As Telushkin writes, “Jonah preaches about God and his moral message to the world, and his message influences people for good. That is one reason why on Tom Kippur, the Jewish people’s holiest day, thsi short book si read in its entirety during the afternoon Mincha service... The very mmodel that is offered Jews on Yom Kiuppur of how to repent is based on the behavior of the gentles of Ninevah” (p. 324).

Daniel and Esther

King Darius of Persia forbids people from paying homage to any man or god except for the king himself. Daniel, one of his officials, goes ahead and prays to the Lord, prompting Darius to punish Daniel in the famous way: sending him into the lion’s den. Yet this distresses Darius greatly, since he was fond of Daniel. So why could he not rescind his own law?

In Perisan law, a king cannot abrogate a law he has issued. Telushkin points out that this is the same predicament faced by King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther: the king has decreed the murder of all Jews in the kingdom, but now he has discovered that his queen Esther is a Jew. But he cannot abrogate his own law and instead issues another law that has the effect of saving the Jews (pp. 382-383).

Sacrifices

Over a hundred Torah laws deal with sacrifices of different kinds (p. 451). What did Jews do after the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE? "[M]any Jews despaired of every gaining forgiveness of their sins… Yet, after the Temple's destruction, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai revolutionized Jewish thinking with his pronouncement that acts of loving-kingndess now supersede sacrifices as the preferred way of attaining God's forgiveness. In addition, the Talmud alter taught that 'studying of Torah is a greater act than bringing daily sacrifices' (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 3b). Indeed, from Judaism's perspective, Christianity's emphasis on the atoning sacrifice and blood of Jesus is regarded as a throwback to human sacrifice" (pp. 452-453).