Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] yorenu (teach US)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: "b-hebrew-lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yorenu (teach US)
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:30:26 -0500

Gabe,
Your reading seems to be the standard one, in thinking that the point is just to illustrate the unrepentant and defiant nature of the Israelites (that's us!). And if that's all there is to it, you are right that there's no need to translate R.b.b.Hana's yorenu as "teach us" rather than "teach him" (as we agree to translate it in Isaiah). Nonetheless Soncino saw fit to translate "teach us" -- why?


HH: The reason would be a word play. The original comment is made about a farmer and his farming.
So the Israelites could take the forms of the words and make it a statement about themselves, daring
God to teach them. This really would amount to a declaration of unbelief in the threats of divine
judgment that Isaiah was making.





I find myself unsympathetic to the standard reading, because it seems to me that the Talmudic context is to some extent describing the virtue of "talking back" to tradition, rather than demanding meek obeisance. In the Sanhedrin context, the larger question concerns whether God or humans get to decide the fate of the Mishnah's three bad kings with regard to the world to come; and Rab has already described one of the Israelite "answers" to "the prophet" as a "victorious answer". Therefore I think "teach US" here emphasizes the positive side of the Israelite resistance.


HH: I have not studied the Sanhedrin passage closely in its larger context, so I cannot
evaluate your comment.

Your point that the Israelites might not like the manner of their "instruction" is reflected in the immediately preceding statement of R. Nahman, "Even with such fury let the Merciful rage against us, but that He redeem us."


HH: Well, that seems a pious and admirable comment, but I was imagining a much less admirable
one for the allusion to Isa 28:26. I could be completely wrong.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page