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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 12: 5: Are "Souls" Slaves?

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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 12: 5: Are "Souls" Slaves?
  • Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:13:50 +0200

Actually, Shoshanna, Saadiah Gaon, Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Radak all interpret it as meaning slaves, either before or after metioning that they could also be people who they had "converted".

Yigal Levin

----- Original Message ----- From: "Shoshanna Walker" <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 1:03 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 12: 5: Are "Souls" Slaves?


It is the consensus (unanimous as far as I know) among Chazal, that
these refer to the people who he "converted" to the knowledge of G-d.
It is beyond belief that this could be construed as slaves.

Shoshanna


Genesis 12: 5 tells us that certain people came with Abraham and Lot from
Harran to Canaan, who almost certainly were not members of the
immediate family
of Abraham or Lot: "the souls that they had gotten in Haran". Are these
people "slaves", who had been "bought" by Abraham and Lot in Harran? Or,
rather, are these people distant relatives of Abraham's father,
whose families were
the social equals of Abraham's father's family, and who were on a long
caravan trip out to Mesopotamia with Abraham's father's family as
security guards?
Here is the JPS1917 translation of Genesis 12: 5:
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