Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bsr15 AT cantsl.it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Greetings,

Watching the discussion of degree progress I was reminded of
the following:-

Jacob Neusner in Judaism after the Death of ``The Death of God''
p6,7 writing about an incident in Sweden in which an anti-semite
wished to retract and repudiate his anti-semitic statement says:-

... I discovered a profound disrespect even for the learning of
the tradition which qualifies the sage, or rabbi, to state and
authoritative opinion. Distinguishing power from authority, Judaism
has always according authority to those who master the Torah and
denied it to those who exercise mere power. But when, at that time,
the Chief Rabbi of Sweden favored a positive response to the statement,
the leaders of the Swedish Committee against Anti-Semitism replied,
``Well, he speaks for himself as a private person, his opinion is
his opinion and has no more weight than anyone else's,'' I was
genuinely amazed. The Committee leaders and activists thereby
dismissed the Rabbi's qualifications of Torah learning as null. So
far as they are concerned his mastery of the Torah made no difference;
it was information not transforming truth.
[snip]
... the Committee against Anti-Semitism was not merely ignorant,
but tone-deaf. They could not grasp the power of the faith;
they could not even understand its language.''


This is really not much different to those who do not accord the
Hebrew scholar, who has studied to the standards set by academia, the
right to have his opinion heard above those who have not so studied.
While the internet may be the great equaliser, that is also its most
serious weakness. You don't know if you're dealing with a Hebrew
scholar like O'Connor or some self-taught self-appointed ``expert''.
True, in time it becomes clear, but it takes a lot of time which
reputable publishers of books and journals already do on my behalf.

Where would you recommend people learn Hebrew? I'm sure most of us would
recommend a recognised program at a degree-granting institution if the
student had the time and money to attend.


Bill Rea, IT Services, University of Canterbury \_
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