Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Shoshana, please do not put words in my mouth. If you had bothered to check, 
you would see that in fact, when Ezra gathered the people to teach them the 
Torah "on the first of the seventh month", there is no mention of teru'ah, 
either by blowing the shofar or in any other way. I certainly do not think 
that the practice of mitzvot is open to personal interpretation - that's 
what we have the Oral Torah and Hazal for. But on this list we are supposed 
to be discussing the biblical text and its meaning - I brought the Samaritan 
interpretation just to show that the word "teru'ah" can be understood in 
different ways.

As far as Ezra, look at the way in which Ezra, in Nehemiah 8:15, INTERPRETS 
Leviticus 23:40, "On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic 
trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the 
brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days", as 
"Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, 
and other leafy trees to make booths", then adding "as it is written". 
Hazal understood the "four species" as four specific trees or bushes, which 
are to be "taken" - held up and waved, as we do today. But Ezra understands 
them as referring to the materials from which the Sukkot ("booths") are to 
be built.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shoshanna Walker" <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 1:43 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] the Feast of Trumpets


> Actually, Yigal, the two places where this mitzva is mentioned, are
> like hundreds of other mitzvot mentioned in the Torah, where the
> exact details of how to observe them, were not given in the written
> Torah, but in the Oral Torah, and then taught down, from generation
> to generation, by our leaders, in an unbroken chain of Mesorah.  Ezra
> was just one of the transmitters of Torah.  It's absurd to believe,
> that the 3 times that the positive commandment of terua are mentioned
> in the Torah, are meant for each individual to decide for himself
> what it means, like clapping hands - something that important to be
> mentioned three times, for sure was not meant for chance observance -
> despite what even some Jews would like to believe.
>
> Shoshanna
>
>
> > Actually, Shoshanna, a "teru'ah" is literally a shout, "leharia'", to 
> > shout
> > or exclaim. The two places in which the day is mentioned, Lev. 23:23-25 
> > and
> > Num. 29:1-6 do not mention either the shofar or any other type of trumpet.
> > Just when this was understood by Jews as referring to the blowing of the
> > shofar is not clear - it's not mentioned in the Tanakh anywhere. In fact,
> > the day itself is not mentioned until Ezra, who used it to gather the 
> > people
> > and teach them Torah - no shofar there either. The fact that one of the
> > sounds made by the shofar is called a "teru'ah" is a back-interpretation.
> >
> > By the way, the Samaritans to this day mark the day by clapping their 
> > hands,
> > which is how they have come to interpret "teru'ah". I'm not saying that 
> > this
> > is a more correct interpretation, just that there are more than one 
> > possible
> > interpretation.
> >
> > Yigal Levin
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Shoshanna Walker" <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
> > To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 4:05 AM
> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 45,Issue 32 the Feast of
> > Trumpets
> >
> >
> > > Not trumpets - shofar - ram's horn.
> > >
> > > It is not called the feast of trumpets, it is called Yom Teruah -
> > > Teruah being the name of one of the sounds that the sofar makes.
> > >
> > > Shoshanna
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Everyone
> > >
> > > Todday is Feast of Trumpets, Happy Feast of Trumpets
> > > Any one have any insight on this day?
> > > Eva Ritsema
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
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