Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <klowery AT whi.wts.edu>]

Friends,

A couple of days ago Yitzhak Sapir posted a message about Rolf Furuli.

The moderators would like to respond:

* Remarks regarding a list member's motives, agendas and religious
affiliations are violations of list rules

* The list has been in full moderation mode since the initial postings,
in order to prevent respondents from additional violations of our rules

* The moderators, as is their policy, have been dealing with the
matter offline

We exhort you all to return to the discussion of Biblical Hebrew and its
literature -- including Rolf's theories, if that is your pleasure.

I cite here our "rules of engagement" for discussions on b-hebrew:

In general, discussion of someone's motives, theological faith
commitments and scholarly credentials is not relevant or useful for the
purposes of b-hebrew. Such discussions should be conducted in other venues.

B-Hebrew seeks to foster valuable, interesting exchange among people
whose views, backgrounds, and cultures vary widely. We encourage
participants to be at least as willing to listen as they are to speak.
In our experience, certain rules have been valuable for promoting the
kind of exchange we desire.

Although the B-Hebrew forum is willing to entertain a wide range of
discussion topics related to Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible, the staff will
not tolerate personal attack or disrespect. We are careful to administer
this list responsibly. Please honor the following guidelines in all your
contributions:

    * Debate that forces particular faith or doctrinal perspectives onto
a reading of the text is not appropriate subject matter for this forum.

    * Proselytizing ("seeking to convert someone to a certain religious
faith") is also not appropriate. Naturally, each of us will share our
own understanding from our own perspective, but this should not be done
with the goal of changing other participants.

    * Knowledge of Hebrew is assumed, but belittling someone for their
lack of skill or ridiculing someone for making a mistake--even a basic
one--is unacceptable.

    * All list members should be allowed the dignity of being different.

    * Discuss passionately, but keep control of your own emotions.
Support your counterpoints with evidence, and remember to focus on
people's ideas and not the people themselves.

    * Consider the possibility of responding directly to a person,
rather than to the entire list, if the content might not be of interest
to everyone.

    * Each of your posts should be signed by name, so members know from
whom they are hearing and to whom they might respond

A helpful hint: Write your response, save it and sleep on it. After the
emotion of the moment has passed, think about whether your posting will
be helpful and appropriate.

Blessings,

Kirk
B-Hebrew co-chair
-- 
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD, Director
The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research
  (formerly, The Westminster Hebrew Institute)
Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
--
"Good boy, Dex!"
  -- Joseph "Sky Captain" Sullivan