World Vision has bowed to financial pressure. This reversal is bowing to the power of capital. It has nothing to do with repentance. I agree with Jim West's comment: "Spinelessness isn’t becoming to any beast but a worm." Joel Watts likewise takes a negative view of the reversal decision. The letter of repentance from World Vision is here and says it invokes the spirit of Matthew 18 - just how? Who is the greatest! I say to you, it is better to have been treated like a tax collector or like a homosexual.
How can you fail to read: Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven - haven't you figured this one out yet?
I first learned about this decision to allow homosexual employees at WV from Rachel Held Evans who rejoiced in their bravery only to be distressed at their capitulation a few days later.
So it couldn't be clearer - people of faith disagree about these things. People who read the same texts disagree. Which one is making the more difficult choice? Which is hearing the word of God rather than their own prejudice and dissimulation? Which group is more like Russia? What about that - you American Capitalists?
Read this too.
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Carnival is stuffed
One week to go for The March BS Carnival XCIX - that's Biblical Studies and a fleshly festival. It is already stuffed but do tell me here in a comment if you have a special request.
Spread this around the world - I would like more representation from corners distant from Turtle Island. No restriction on language or perspective - just somewhat related to TNK and NT and its history and reception, etc. Theme is music. Quite a bit on genealogies - includes history, science etc. I have very little but some from Continental Europe, South America, and India - more... China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, ?
ETC.
Spread this around the world - I would like more representation from corners distant from Turtle Island. No restriction on language or perspective - just somewhat related to TNK and NT and its history and reception, etc. Theme is music. Quite a bit on genealogies - includes history, science etc. I have very little but some from Continental Europe, South America, and India - more... China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, ?
ETC.
Thursday, 20 March 2014
My current thoughts on the performance of the Music of the Psalter
These notes are about the music implied by the te'amim in the Hebrew Bible as deciphered by Suzanne Haik-Vantoura. My primary focus at present is the Psalms, but the music I have decoded for other books of the Bible shows very similar issues in pulse, focus and musical line. See for example on Amos, and on the use of the ornament shalshelet. The only difference noted to date is that the longest recitations tend to be shorter in the Psalms.
In general, a psalm is written to be sung to a syllabic pulse after the manner of plainchant. That is, syllables gather themselves together equally in ones, twos, threes, fours, fives, and so on, each group creating a single long pulse to the musical line subdivided into syllables of equal duration with little if any additional word stress. Ornaments (written in 8th notes) will naturally extend a syllable's length. Recitation may be spelled out in quarter notes but neither quarter nor eighth note values are to be slavishly interpreted. It is possible, however, that some psalms were sung rhythmically. Where this may be the case for Hebrew, an equivalent English rhythm may be found.
[Note, all the music referred to is at this shared resource. If XML is beyond your software, let me know and I can generate or convert any file to a human readable form, pdf or png.]
Pulse
The dashed bar lines immediately precede the stressed syllable in Hebrew. The direction of the vocal line and its pulse is thus signaled by the barline which always happens on a change in the reciting note. [Note: where a reciting note changes without the presence of a barline, this is an indication that the music has been changed because of an error in the Westminster Leningrad Codex.] This is true whether one is reading poetry or prose. The English translation has been underlaid with this stress in mind. For example, in verse 24 of Psalm 18. And I am וָאֱהִ֣י complete תָמִ֣ים with him עִמּ֑וֹ. The stress is thus not on complete but on am. The word him, occurs on the resting note in the verse.
The subdominant A is signaled by the sign called atnah, or place of rest. In mode 4, the A is sharpened and acts against any suggestion of rest or repose. Note also that some verses have no rest point and may sometimes be chanted as a single phrase. Some verses have multiple phrases, but never more than one rest point. The rest point is marked with a caesura indicating the appropriateness of a pause – even in the middle of a sentence, as one would pause in plainsong to allow consideration of the words. Continuing with verse 24 above, there are 7 beats after the breathing mark at the rest point, all on the same reciting note. The variation in pitch is determined in this section through the ornaments, which always return to the reciting note. The musical line in this verse will lead to the stress on the second syllable of iniquity.
The Hebrew pulse and accents may suggest other possible performance ideas or word underlay to the choir director. Such performance ideas are encouraged. Since many of the psalms are ‘for the choir director’, choir directors may of course use their discretion in suggesting alternatives with respect to mode, rhythm or pitch or even the addition and interpretation of ornaments.
Awkward intervals
Yes, there are some awkward intervals but they can be learned and often are surprising annotations on the text. Psalm 4 provides a good example. The rising augmented fifth in verse 7 colours the extreme rudeness and provocation in the words. The music confirms the quotation marks noted in the English. The next rising perfect fifth contrasts faith with provocation.
Word painting
The music is not there for its own sake, but for the words. In every psalm, the music provides what one could call an intense punctuation, demanding from singer and hearer alike an intention that goes behond the habitual and becomes clothing indeed.
Psalm 32 provides a good example. Note the bucking horse and mule. Note also the words on the atnah or rest point in the verse. There is no atnah in verse 1. Words on the atnah in the following verses are: iniquity, bones worn out, changed, Yahweh, many waters, security, walk, curbed, Yahweh, righteous ones. There is a progression in this psalm from trouble to release including the reference to the judgment of many waters and the need for a secure guided walk for the poet / singer.
Translation
In the English libretto, the symbol / indicates that the note is not needed and has therefore a zero time value. (It is curious to me that though, of course, there are often more words in English than in Hebrew, there are equally often more syllables in Hebrew than there are in English!) If the English libretto has multiple syllables for a single note, then subdivide all the syllables and gather them equally into the current reciting note. Slurs apply to the English libretto to assist the singer. The underlay has been designed so as to imitate in English with the least compromise the line and stress of the Hebrew. So wherever possible, without distorting the English word order beyond recognition, ornaments are on an equivalent syllable and slurred as in the Hebrew and the change in reciting note reflects a similar word and stress as in the Hebrew. It is evident that sometimes the English gloss and pulse match the Hebrew word for word, but equally, sometimes there must be compromises made when trying to match words in the musical line. Singing in Hebrew remains an option. Reworking the English underlay is also possible. Note that there are particular difficulties with maintaining Hebrew letter order in translation of the acrostics where the poet is at play, if sometimes reluctantly.
I have been very careful through the use of a computer controlled system, to choose different glosses in English to correspond to different Hebrew words. So, for example, as there are 7 synonyms for fear in the Hebrew, so there are 7 different words in English for these words. Similarly, a word used once in the Psalms requires an English word that is used only once. At the same time, some words require different glosses in different situations. For example, the word, nefesh, traditionally translated soul, that part of the body between chin and shoulders, may be translated throat, or being, or even just as a personal pronoun. So sometimes a single word in Hebrew will be rendered in the host language by several differing English words or combinations of words. For more detail about the translation and word usage patterns, please refer to Seeing the Psalter.
The Name
In many translations, the Name, יהוה the four letters yod, heh, vav, heh, is rendered as the LORD. Such a rendering fails both grammatically and theologically: theologically because the Name is intimate, grammatically, because the Name must behave as a proper name, not as title or rank. Debate is extensive over how the Name was pronounced or when it stopped being said as a name. In my transcriptions, the mid 20th century rendering Yahweh has been used. This may be sung as two or three syllables as needed. There is a suggestion from the stresses in the music that it was three syllables with the stress on the third. There are no consonants in the name. Sing it as Ee-aa-oo-eh with the oo bordering on an O. It is a good singing exercise.
Invocations, selah and other words
The invocations or inscriptions are an integral part of the music, as are the interjections like selah or higgaion whose meaning is uncertain. These have remained in the music as given. Use the moments creatively.
Accompaniment
All sorts of instruments may be used. Composers and arrangers are encouraged to find the appropriate registers. In some psalms like Psalms 2 and 150, percussion seems invited. In the absence of timpani, hand-clapping or striking the pews with the palm may produce the desired effect. All the psalms work very well unaccompanied. It is also feasible to add vocal parts to the implied harmonies.
The music assigns suggested differing voices to verses or part of verses: to one or two cantors, and to up to 9 chorus combinations, Men, Women, Tutti and each divided or not between Cantoris and Decani. These assignments reflect the separation of voices in the text itself and occasionally also highlight rhetorical structures.
Modes
Determining the mode of a particular psalm is subjective at the moment. It may be that some note patterns are unacceptable in some modes. This is an uncertain decision, since instrument and voice can each be tuned to each of these modes. Equally, it may be that some psalms even if sung together were sung in two differing modes. If different tuning is required, then two instruments may be prepared. The Selah may give the player a chance to change instruments.
For liturgical use I have written some glorias - the style of music lends itself to such writing. I could imagine that drone, and even limited multi-part harmony could be added.
In general, a psalm is written to be sung to a syllabic pulse after the manner of plainchant. That is, syllables gather themselves together equally in ones, twos, threes, fours, fives, and so on, each group creating a single long pulse to the musical line subdivided into syllables of equal duration with little if any additional word stress. Ornaments (written in 8th notes) will naturally extend a syllable's length. Recitation may be spelled out in quarter notes but neither quarter nor eighth note values are to be slavishly interpreted. It is possible, however, that some psalms were sung rhythmically. Where this may be the case for Hebrew, an equivalent English rhythm may be found.
[Note, all the music referred to is at this shared resource. If XML is beyond your software, let me know and I can generate or convert any file to a human readable form, pdf or png.]
Pulse
The dashed bar lines immediately precede the stressed syllable in Hebrew. The direction of the vocal line and its pulse is thus signaled by the barline which always happens on a change in the reciting note. [Note: where a reciting note changes without the presence of a barline, this is an indication that the music has been changed because of an error in the Westminster Leningrad Codex.] This is true whether one is reading poetry or prose. The English translation has been underlaid with this stress in mind. For example, in verse 24 of Psalm 18. And I am וָאֱהִ֣י complete תָמִ֣ים with him עִמּ֑וֹ. The stress is thus not on complete but on am. The word him, occurs on the resting note in the verse.
The subdominant A is signaled by the sign called atnah, or place of rest. In mode 4, the A is sharpened and acts against any suggestion of rest or repose. Note also that some verses have no rest point and may sometimes be chanted as a single phrase. Some verses have multiple phrases, but never more than one rest point. The rest point is marked with a caesura indicating the appropriateness of a pause – even in the middle of a sentence, as one would pause in plainsong to allow consideration of the words. Continuing with verse 24 above, there are 7 beats after the breathing mark at the rest point, all on the same reciting note. The variation in pitch is determined in this section through the ornaments, which always return to the reciting note. The musical line in this verse will lead to the stress on the second syllable of iniquity.
The Hebrew pulse and accents may suggest other possible performance ideas or word underlay to the choir director. Such performance ideas are encouraged. Since many of the psalms are ‘for the choir director’, choir directors may of course use their discretion in suggesting alternatives with respect to mode, rhythm or pitch or even the addition and interpretation of ornaments.
Awkward intervals
Yes, there are some awkward intervals but they can be learned and often are surprising annotations on the text. Psalm 4 provides a good example. The rising augmented fifth in verse 7 colours the extreme rudeness and provocation in the words. The music confirms the quotation marks noted in the English. The next rising perfect fifth contrasts faith with provocation.
Word painting
The music is not there for its own sake, but for the words. In every psalm, the music provides what one could call an intense punctuation, demanding from singer and hearer alike an intention that goes behond the habitual and becomes clothing indeed.
Psalm 32 provides a good example. Note the bucking horse and mule. Note also the words on the atnah or rest point in the verse. There is no atnah in verse 1. Words on the atnah in the following verses are: iniquity, bones worn out, changed, Yahweh, many waters, security, walk, curbed, Yahweh, righteous ones. There is a progression in this psalm from trouble to release including the reference to the judgment of many waters and the need for a secure guided walk for the poet / singer.
Translation
In the English libretto, the symbol / indicates that the note is not needed and has therefore a zero time value. (It is curious to me that though, of course, there are often more words in English than in Hebrew, there are equally often more syllables in Hebrew than there are in English!) If the English libretto has multiple syllables for a single note, then subdivide all the syllables and gather them equally into the current reciting note. Slurs apply to the English libretto to assist the singer. The underlay has been designed so as to imitate in English with the least compromise the line and stress of the Hebrew. So wherever possible, without distorting the English word order beyond recognition, ornaments are on an equivalent syllable and slurred as in the Hebrew and the change in reciting note reflects a similar word and stress as in the Hebrew. It is evident that sometimes the English gloss and pulse match the Hebrew word for word, but equally, sometimes there must be compromises made when trying to match words in the musical line. Singing in Hebrew remains an option. Reworking the English underlay is also possible. Note that there are particular difficulties with maintaining Hebrew letter order in translation of the acrostics where the poet is at play, if sometimes reluctantly.
I have been very careful through the use of a computer controlled system, to choose different glosses in English to correspond to different Hebrew words. So, for example, as there are 7 synonyms for fear in the Hebrew, so there are 7 different words in English for these words. Similarly, a word used once in the Psalms requires an English word that is used only once. At the same time, some words require different glosses in different situations. For example, the word, nefesh, traditionally translated soul, that part of the body between chin and shoulders, may be translated throat, or being, or even just as a personal pronoun. So sometimes a single word in Hebrew will be rendered in the host language by several differing English words or combinations of words. For more detail about the translation and word usage patterns, please refer to Seeing the Psalter.
The Name
In many translations, the Name, יהוה the four letters yod, heh, vav, heh, is rendered as the LORD. Such a rendering fails both grammatically and theologically: theologically because the Name is intimate, grammatically, because the Name must behave as a proper name, not as title or rank. Debate is extensive over how the Name was pronounced or when it stopped being said as a name. In my transcriptions, the mid 20th century rendering Yahweh has been used. This may be sung as two or three syllables as needed. There is a suggestion from the stresses in the music that it was three syllables with the stress on the third. There are no consonants in the name. Sing it as Ee-aa-oo-eh with the oo bordering on an O. It is a good singing exercise.
Invocations, selah and other words
The invocations or inscriptions are an integral part of the music, as are the interjections like selah or higgaion whose meaning is uncertain. These have remained in the music as given. Use the moments creatively.
Accompaniment
All sorts of instruments may be used. Composers and arrangers are encouraged to find the appropriate registers. In some psalms like Psalms 2 and 150, percussion seems invited. In the absence of timpani, hand-clapping or striking the pews with the palm may produce the desired effect. All the psalms work very well unaccompanied. It is also feasible to add vocal parts to the implied harmonies.
The music assigns suggested differing voices to verses or part of verses: to one or two cantors, and to up to 9 chorus combinations, Men, Women, Tutti and each divided or not between Cantoris and Decani. These assignments reflect the separation of voices in the text itself and occasionally also highlight rhetorical structures.
Modes
Determining the mode of a particular psalm is subjective at the moment. It may be that some note patterns are unacceptable in some modes. This is an uncertain decision, since instrument and voice can each be tuned to each of these modes. Equally, it may be that some psalms even if sung together were sung in two differing modes. If different tuning is required, then two instruments may be prepared. The Selah may give the player a chance to change instruments.
For liturgical use I have written some glorias - the style of music lends itself to such writing. I could imagine that drone, and even limited multi-part harmony could be added.
Monday, 17 March 2014
Wrestling with God and Men, Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, by Rabbi Stephen Greenberg
A review of Wrestling with God and Men,
Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, by Rabbi Steven Greenberg.
I haven't posted much recently - working on the carnival - big carnival. But here is something I wrote over 8 years ago - c 2005. While there are many elaborations I could now add, I have not changed a word of what I wrote then except to fix the link (above) since the old one now points somewhere odd. I re-publish this today in response to what I think is a misunderstanding of the direction of the interpretation of Scripture here.
Reasoning the Commandments
I begin with reason but end with faith working through love. Again I find in Jewish writing a willingness to wrestle with the best questions and thereby to discover that the "understanding of a scriptural law is a spiritual path for grasping the mind of the Law Giver, for knowing and ultimately loving God." Steven Greenberg is an Orthodox Rabbi. He collaborated with Sandi DuBowski in the documentary Trembling before G-d.
As I read through this book - I find I must pause to collect my bookmarks and report on this excellent writing. The book meets high standards of publication and scholarship. I miss the index of ancient texts. But his words are clear. In the first half of the book, every page I stop and marvel at the historical acumen, the accuracy of inference, and the honesty of Steven's approach. He gives due to the tradition that stands against his acceptance of his own orientation.
Can one trust the making of the character of a man? How does one discern deceit? Here is an Israelite in whom there is no guile. What I observe is trust in action through the love of Torah. If I need to write my own book on sexuality in Scripture, it will need to respond to writing like Steven's. I cannot imagine a better model.
He begins with a review of the Birth of Gender and Desire (chapter 1) as part of his larger review of the Sacred Texts. He turns next to Evidence from 1000 BCE to the Legal Literature of the Middle Ages. He finishes with Rationales for the prohibitions of homosexuality (Reproduction - 20 pages, Social Disruption - 10 pages, Category Confusion - 7 pages, and Humiliation and Violence - 25 pages) and a section on Conversations (Admitting Difference, Welcoming Synagogues) to complete the book.
Not in Heaven
"Not in Heaven" is a short subsection in the Legal Literature. In this delightful story of the beginnings of Mishnah after the destruction of Jerusalem and the movement of the sages to Javneh, Steven illustrates the responsibility of humans to interpret Torah. God laughs that his children have defeated him and we laugh with God when we realize that the children are independent of the one who gave the Law. This story has so much in common with Paul and the writer of the Hebrews that we must rejoice indeed at the God who has put all things under our feet and whose Word (Torah, Logos) is not in heaven - i.e. not far from us.
Whether homosexual or not, Gentiles in Christ will be surprised by joy if they have ears to hear the depth of the hermeneutic uncovered by Steven's reading of the Mind of the Lawgiver. They will be as surprised as when they saw the sharpness of the covenant the same Lawgiver has cut with them as Gentiles - if indeed they have come by faith into the Presence they so quickly speak about.
Wrestling is a 'must read' for all, as good as the insight into Covenant in Hoffman; as good as the historical Irony of Nanos, as good as the Elizabethan saga of God's Secretaries, as carefully reasoned and footnoted as any scholarly work I have read - but most importantly, Steven writes as one who needs to prove no point. He writes with the gentleness and openness of a man who can live with unanswered questions with confidence in his Maker. He writes for those who have not known the meanings of the texts or who have failed to see their own rapaciousness - yet without a moral judgment. For God is the judge. I have stopped and laughed, sharing God's joy, every few pages.
Koshering a Reptile
Rabbi Yehudah said in the name of Rav: "We appoint to the Sanhedrin only someone who knows how to purify a reptile according to Torah." Rabbi Yohanan said: Anyone who does not know to prove a reptile pure and then to prove it impure a hundred times cannot open the defense of the accused. So Steven writes "Rabbis will need to be as fearless as were their forebears to imagine the opposite of their suppositions." This section invites us into a suspension of our immediate reactions so that we can hear the voices from the past but not ignore the minority in the present. Rabbi Steven opens up the flexibility of Torah to his readers.
Ham
Steven's review of the sages' interpretation of the cursing of Ham illustrates the violence implied in the phrase 'uncovering the nakedness of another.' If Ham sinned, why were his children cursed? What was the nature of his sin? This is not merely an issue of clothes but of forceful violation and preparation to usurp authority.
Leviathan
I found the opening chapter in Rationales less cheerful and more like work to read. It ends though with an inclusio, a nice reference back to the two great lights and the one that is lesser with Rashi's comment on the female Leviathan - that she was salted away for the righteous in the world to come, for were they two to reproduce, the world could not endure them. Steven's use of Genesis underpins the reasoning in the book. It is an effective use, avoiding completely the distracting confusion of natural history or poetry. Like Steven's mentor, Jacob Milgrom, in his commentary on Leviticus, he supports the view that filling the earth does not include overfilling.
In the Category Confusion chapter, I read with less effort again as he explains some teaching so similar to what we have heard recently from certain other sources: Rav Aha puts the following words into God's mouth "You shake your organs in a place not fit for you, so I will shake the world." And Rabbi Steven continues: While hyperbole was common among the rabbis, especially when there was little biblical material to support their moral sensibilities, Rav Aha's message is made overwhelmingly clear. Misplacing one's penis displaces the crust of the earth. The map of the body and the map of the globe are one when it comes to sex. Disorder begets disorder.
What then, I ask, begets order? In answer, as if on cue while reading, Steven points out the moral obligation for us to overcome our revulsions. Revulsion is not of moral significance. He uses as reference To Kill a Mockingbird to illustrate at least one revulsion that must be so overcome - interracial marriage. He completes the working out the movement from revulsion to discomfort to sadness to potential acceptance as resulting in "less abominable abominations". He follows this with a lovely section on good and bad mixtures touching on the holy (wool and linen in the priest's clothing), science (pollution but also consider the pig's heart valve and GM crops), ending with the recognition of inter-sexed people as sacred mediators in some cultures. Here, as usual, more questions are raised than answered, and the moral begs for redefinition again. "Struggling to map the world, the rabbis again debate whether double-sexed beings are a deformity deviating from nature or a natural wonder expanding nature's repertoire."
The final chapter on rationale, Humiliation and Violence, describes the dismal state of affairs with respect to power usage in sexual behaviour in both Israel and the surrounding nations. With brilliant insight, Steven finds a rereading of Leviticus in the context of violence and incompleteness in the text. His arguments revolve around additional letters that were waiting to be interpreted when women are freed from violence and subservience and men can be tender hearted to each other. This is really an astonishing rereading.
The essential argument is between violence and tenderness. The misogynist view of sex and the dominance of the penetrating male has prevented 3000 years of history from seeing what has been there in an additional normally untranslated word. Steven gives several examples of how these words have been used for legal arguments in the past. There is such a word in the text of that famous pair of spokes in the Leviticus ring (#'s18 and 20). In our day of equality with women, we need to reread the verse as meaning: you shall not humiliate a woman or a man by dominance in a sexual relationship. (See below.)
It is quite the opposite of the received 'obvious' meaning. So the lizard is purified but there are 100 ways to prove it impure.
The last two chapters are a very revealing dialogue between a man seeking true acceptance and an unnamed rabbi showing the extreme difficulty of Halakhic agreement but coming at least to a position of bearing with each others burdens. The argument is nearly 50 pages of closely reasoned give and take in many steps. Ways in which Jewish Law has managed usury laws and sexual relations during a woman's period are among the steps showing a possible way to begin to move past the impasse.
A book like this shows as Steven says in the additional material on the Trembling DVD: Judaism has the capacity to respond - he implies this will be with acceptance to those who had been invisible. We who are in other traditions, whether religious or secular, need to recognize our equal responsibility to debate, challenge, argue, and prove that we care since we too are invited into this human and divine experiment to transform the world. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
-----------------------
Leviticus 18:22 literal: and with a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman: it is a toevah.
Steven deals with his early personal response in the first part of the book - I am sure many have heard and wondered how to avoid the apparent 'plain' meaning.
Here's the rabbi's rereading.
1. given the traditional dominance of male over female he then translates the verse as
And a male
you shall not sexually penetrate
to humiliate
it is abhorrent
2. Then at the end he asks what to do with the 'et in the verse - a word normally not translated.
ve'et zakhar
lo tishkav
mishkeve ishah
toevah hi
Two other places where the 'et is interpreted by rabbinic tradition are
And (either a female or) a male
you shall not sexually penetrate
to humiliate
it is abhorrent
I haven't posted much recently - working on the carnival - big carnival. But here is something I wrote over 8 years ago - c 2005. While there are many elaborations I could now add, I have not changed a word of what I wrote then except to fix the link (above) since the old one now points somewhere odd. I re-publish this today in response to what I think is a misunderstanding of the direction of the interpretation of Scripture here.
Reasoning the Commandments
I begin with reason but end with faith working through love. Again I find in Jewish writing a willingness to wrestle with the best questions and thereby to discover that the "understanding of a scriptural law is a spiritual path for grasping the mind of the Law Giver, for knowing and ultimately loving God." Steven Greenberg is an Orthodox Rabbi. He collaborated with Sandi DuBowski in the documentary Trembling before G-d.
As I read through this book - I find I must pause to collect my bookmarks and report on this excellent writing. The book meets high standards of publication and scholarship. I miss the index of ancient texts. But his words are clear. In the first half of the book, every page I stop and marvel at the historical acumen, the accuracy of inference, and the honesty of Steven's approach. He gives due to the tradition that stands against his acceptance of his own orientation.
Can one trust the making of the character of a man? How does one discern deceit? Here is an Israelite in whom there is no guile. What I observe is trust in action through the love of Torah. If I need to write my own book on sexuality in Scripture, it will need to respond to writing like Steven's. I cannot imagine a better model.
He begins with a review of the Birth of Gender and Desire (chapter 1) as part of his larger review of the Sacred Texts. He turns next to Evidence from 1000 BCE to the Legal Literature of the Middle Ages. He finishes with Rationales for the prohibitions of homosexuality (Reproduction - 20 pages, Social Disruption - 10 pages, Category Confusion - 7 pages, and Humiliation and Violence - 25 pages) and a section on Conversations (Admitting Difference, Welcoming Synagogues) to complete the book.
Not in Heaven
"Not in Heaven" is a short subsection in the Legal Literature. In this delightful story of the beginnings of Mishnah after the destruction of Jerusalem and the movement of the sages to Javneh, Steven illustrates the responsibility of humans to interpret Torah. God laughs that his children have defeated him and we laugh with God when we realize that the children are independent of the one who gave the Law. This story has so much in common with Paul and the writer of the Hebrews that we must rejoice indeed at the God who has put all things under our feet and whose Word (Torah, Logos) is not in heaven - i.e. not far from us.
Whether homosexual or not, Gentiles in Christ will be surprised by joy if they have ears to hear the depth of the hermeneutic uncovered by Steven's reading of the Mind of the Lawgiver. They will be as surprised as when they saw the sharpness of the covenant the same Lawgiver has cut with them as Gentiles - if indeed they have come by faith into the Presence they so quickly speak about.
Wrestling is a 'must read' for all, as good as the insight into Covenant in Hoffman; as good as the historical Irony of Nanos, as good as the Elizabethan saga of God's Secretaries, as carefully reasoned and footnoted as any scholarly work I have read - but most importantly, Steven writes as one who needs to prove no point. He writes with the gentleness and openness of a man who can live with unanswered questions with confidence in his Maker. He writes for those who have not known the meanings of the texts or who have failed to see their own rapaciousness - yet without a moral judgment. For God is the judge. I have stopped and laughed, sharing God's joy, every few pages.
Koshering a Reptile
Rabbi Yehudah said in the name of Rav: "We appoint to the Sanhedrin only someone who knows how to purify a reptile according to Torah." Rabbi Yohanan said: Anyone who does not know to prove a reptile pure and then to prove it impure a hundred times cannot open the defense of the accused. So Steven writes "Rabbis will need to be as fearless as were their forebears to imagine the opposite of their suppositions." This section invites us into a suspension of our immediate reactions so that we can hear the voices from the past but not ignore the minority in the present. Rabbi Steven opens up the flexibility of Torah to his readers.
Ham
Steven's review of the sages' interpretation of the cursing of Ham illustrates the violence implied in the phrase 'uncovering the nakedness of another.' If Ham sinned, why were his children cursed? What was the nature of his sin? This is not merely an issue of clothes but of forceful violation and preparation to usurp authority.
Leviathan
I found the opening chapter in Rationales less cheerful and more like work to read. It ends though with an inclusio, a nice reference back to the two great lights and the one that is lesser with Rashi's comment on the female Leviathan - that she was salted away for the righteous in the world to come, for were they two to reproduce, the world could not endure them. Steven's use of Genesis underpins the reasoning in the book. It is an effective use, avoiding completely the distracting confusion of natural history or poetry. Like Steven's mentor, Jacob Milgrom, in his commentary on Leviticus, he supports the view that filling the earth does not include overfilling.
In the Category Confusion chapter, I read with less effort again as he explains some teaching so similar to what we have heard recently from certain other sources: Rav Aha puts the following words into God's mouth "You shake your organs in a place not fit for you, so I will shake the world." And Rabbi Steven continues: While hyperbole was common among the rabbis, especially when there was little biblical material to support their moral sensibilities, Rav Aha's message is made overwhelmingly clear. Misplacing one's penis displaces the crust of the earth. The map of the body and the map of the globe are one when it comes to sex. Disorder begets disorder.
What then, I ask, begets order? In answer, as if on cue while reading, Steven points out the moral obligation for us to overcome our revulsions. Revulsion is not of moral significance. He uses as reference To Kill a Mockingbird to illustrate at least one revulsion that must be so overcome - interracial marriage. He completes the working out the movement from revulsion to discomfort to sadness to potential acceptance as resulting in "less abominable abominations". He follows this with a lovely section on good and bad mixtures touching on the holy (wool and linen in the priest's clothing), science (pollution but also consider the pig's heart valve and GM crops), ending with the recognition of inter-sexed people as sacred mediators in some cultures. Here, as usual, more questions are raised than answered, and the moral begs for redefinition again. "Struggling to map the world, the rabbis again debate whether double-sexed beings are a deformity deviating from nature or a natural wonder expanding nature's repertoire."
The final chapter on rationale, Humiliation and Violence, describes the dismal state of affairs with respect to power usage in sexual behaviour in both Israel and the surrounding nations. With brilliant insight, Steven finds a rereading of Leviticus in the context of violence and incompleteness in the text. His arguments revolve around additional letters that were waiting to be interpreted when women are freed from violence and subservience and men can be tender hearted to each other. This is really an astonishing rereading.
The essential argument is between violence and tenderness. The misogynist view of sex and the dominance of the penetrating male has prevented 3000 years of history from seeing what has been there in an additional normally untranslated word. Steven gives several examples of how these words have been used for legal arguments in the past. There is such a word in the text of that famous pair of spokes in the Leviticus ring (#'s18 and 20). In our day of equality with women, we need to reread the verse as meaning: you shall not humiliate a woman or a man by dominance in a sexual relationship. (See below.)
It is quite the opposite of the received 'obvious' meaning. So the lizard is purified but there are 100 ways to prove it impure.
The last two chapters are a very revealing dialogue between a man seeking true acceptance and an unnamed rabbi showing the extreme difficulty of Halakhic agreement but coming at least to a position of bearing with each others burdens. The argument is nearly 50 pages of closely reasoned give and take in many steps. Ways in which Jewish Law has managed usury laws and sexual relations during a woman's period are among the steps showing a possible way to begin to move past the impasse.
A book like this shows as Steven says in the additional material on the Trembling DVD: Judaism has the capacity to respond - he implies this will be with acceptance to those who had been invisible. We who are in other traditions, whether religious or secular, need to recognize our equal responsibility to debate, challenge, argue, and prove that we care since we too are invited into this human and divine experiment to transform the world. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
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Leviticus 18:22 literal: and with a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman: it is a toevah.
Steven deals with his early personal response in the first part of the book - I am sure many have heard and wondered how to avoid the apparent 'plain' meaning.
Here's the rabbi's rereading.
1. given the traditional dominance of male over female he then translates the verse as
And a male
you shall not sexually penetrate
to humiliate
it is abhorrent
2. Then at the end he asks what to do with the 'et in the verse - a word normally not translated.
ve'et zakhar
lo tishkav
mishkeve ishah
toevah hi
Two other places where the 'et is interpreted by rabbinic tradition are
- in Deuteronomy 10:20 - you shall revere (et) the Lord your God (fill in the blank) (Nehemia Haimsoni says it should be the students of the sages)
- and the fifth of the 10 commandments (kaved et avikha v'et imekha) where the (et) is interpreted as including step mother/step father or (I add) adoptive mother/father
And (either a female or) a male
you shall not sexually penetrate
to humiliate
it is abhorrent
Thursday, 6 March 2014
Singing the Scriptures - Numbers 15:32-36 in Music
The lesson was Numbers 15 - curious, isn't it. There is a longish discussion of this passage here. How does one approach such a passage. I was not taken out and stoned, but I have died in the death of Messiah - so there's my 'out' from the 'keep'. Is that also a cop out?
Well - look at the music. The bar numbered 33, verse 36, of the stoning and death of this diligent fellow is a long bar - 23 syllables on the same reciting note. I think it is dismal, not heart-breaking as David's lament over Absalom, nor entreating as Moses recital of Deuteronomy 8:11, nor angry as Moses complaint in Numbers 11. Perhaps this bit of law does not belong in the Land. They were in the wilderness at that time.
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| View of the place of the Skull from the Garden Tomb |
(All the bits and pieces of the music noted are in various posts on this blog and together here.)
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Some guesses at the reason for ornamentation in the Hebrew Bible
Back to the shalshelet. I have only the Psalms to search at present, but I wondered what the shalshelet would reveal if anything about its use and sense. The word is said to mean a 'chain' and seems clearly related to the number three. Haik-Vantoura interprets it as a three note ornament starting a minor third below the reciting note and rising to the reciting note by semitone. Mitchell considers this unmusical and in his forthcoming volume on the Psalms of Ascent does not transcribe this ornament. Fortunately for him, it occurs only once in the Psalms of Ascent. I found these 30 uses in the Psalms:
Psalms 3, 7, 10, 12, 13 (twice), 20, 22, 29, 33, 34, 40, 44, 49, 50, 52, 65, 66, 67, 68, 72, 77, 89 (twice), 94, 131, 137, 143 (twice), 146.
Are other ornaments more or less frequent? The shalshelet is the rarest. Others range from three to 100 times its frequency in the data I have so far. The next rarest is the pazer, at 82 occurrences in the psalms. This SHV interprets as a rise to the second and a descent to the reciting note by step within the mode. Then there is the illuy, at 154. She interprets it as a rise to the fifth (much as its similar sublinear sign is the fifth note of the scale). This one tends to the unmusical in some situations - see below Psalm 3:3 which contains two examples both taken at the fourth below. I begin to wonder if the ancients wanted to be able to reach any note without changing the reciting note. This would be a legitimate desire for extending a long harangue till the next down beat.
So back to the shalshelet - does its use reveal anything about what it ornaments? The occurrence in Amos is not an a particularly striking word, yet the ornament definitely draws attention to that word - and he said. Perhaps the 8 sayings on the extended reciting note are also pointing to a uniqueness in Amos and his saying.
The occurrences in the Torah are these, Genesis 19:16, on Lot's lingering, Genesis 24:12, on Laban's saying when he reaches the well, Genesis 39:8; on Joseph's refusal to his master's wife, and Leviticus 8:23, when Moses slew the ram at the consecration of Aaron and his sons.
The only way is to look at them in the Psalms is one by one and decide if the aural pattern surrounds something of significance that is not surrounded by other ornaments. That is a tough question. Thirty examples required. Do they tell us anything about this rare ornament. And if they did, what authority do the ornaments carry? Some consider them late, but Mitchell here argues for a second to third century BCE manuscript tradition.
3:3 רַבִּים֮ אֹמְרִ֪ים לְנַ֫פְשִׁ֥י אֵ֤ין יְֽשׁוּעָ֓תָה לּ֬וֹ בֵֽאלֹהִ֬ים סֶֽלָה׃
7:6 יִֽרַדֹּ֥ף אוֹיֵ֨ב ׀ נַפְשִׁ֡י וְיַשֵּׂ֗ג וְיִרְמֹ֣ס לָאָ֣רֶץ חַיָּ֑י וּכְבוֹדִ֓י ׀ לֶעָפָ֖ר יַשְׁכֵּ֣ן סֶֽלָה׃
10:2 בְּגַאֲוַ֣ת רָ֭שָׁע יִדְלַ֣ק עָנִ֑י יִתָּפְשׂ֓וּ ׀ בִּמְזִמּ֖וֹת ז֣וּ חָשָֽׁבוּ׃
I am wondering if I could combine all the psalm verses that have these into one query? Trying... It's possible but picky and there is too much information to process in this form (in a blog post by the human eye that is). A pdf of the lot of them is here. Perhaps there will be clues for the ear. What do they say to us?
Psalms 3, 7, 10, 12, 13 (twice), 20, 22, 29, 33, 34, 40, 44, 49, 50, 52, 65, 66, 67, 68, 72, 77, 89 (twice), 94, 131, 137, 143 (twice), 146.
Are other ornaments more or less frequent? The shalshelet is the rarest. Others range from three to 100 times its frequency in the data I have so far. The next rarest is the pazer, at 82 occurrences in the psalms. This SHV interprets as a rise to the second and a descent to the reciting note by step within the mode. Then there is the illuy, at 154. She interprets it as a rise to the fifth (much as its similar sublinear sign is the fifth note of the scale). This one tends to the unmusical in some situations - see below Psalm 3:3 which contains two examples both taken at the fourth below. I begin to wonder if the ancients wanted to be able to reach any note without changing the reciting note. This would be a legitimate desire for extending a long harangue till the next down beat.
So back to the shalshelet - does its use reveal anything about what it ornaments? The occurrence in Amos is not an a particularly striking word, yet the ornament definitely draws attention to that word - and he said. Perhaps the 8 sayings on the extended reciting note are also pointing to a uniqueness in Amos and his saying.
The occurrences in the Torah are these, Genesis 19:16, on Lot's lingering, Genesis 24:12, on Laban's saying when he reaches the well, Genesis 39:8; on Joseph's refusal to his master's wife, and Leviticus 8:23, when Moses slew the ram at the consecration of Aaron and his sons.
The only way is to look at them in the Psalms is one by one and decide if the aural pattern surrounds something of significance that is not surrounded by other ornaments. That is a tough question. Thirty examples required. Do they tell us anything about this rare ornament. And if they did, what authority do the ornaments carry? Some consider them late, but Mitchell here argues for a second to third century BCE manuscript tradition.
7:6 יִֽרַדֹּ֥ף אוֹיֵ֨ב ׀ נַפְשִׁ֡י וְיַשֵּׂ֗ג וְיִרְמֹ֣ס לָאָ֣רֶץ חַיָּ֑י וּכְבוֹדִ֓י ׀ לֶעָפָ֖ר יַשְׁכֵּ֣ן סֶֽלָה׃
10:2 בְּגַאֲוַ֣ת רָ֭שָׁע יִדְלַ֣ק עָנִ֑י יִתָּפְשׂ֓וּ ׀ בִּמְזִמּ֖וֹת ז֣וּ חָשָֽׁבוּ׃
Monday, 3 March 2014
Singing the Scriptures - The Music of Amos
I now begin to have enough material to consider some aspects of the Scriptures from a musical point of view. Warning, I still have a small part of the whole, snippets of Genesis, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Samuel, and the minor prophets, and all - yes - all of the psalms. These are still in a sight-readers paradise and 95% in Hebrew only. I have not recorded them.
Amos 1:2 has a shalshelet, a poetry ornament in a prose book. There it is circled in red in the Aleppo codex, the zig-zaggy thing over the mem ֓מ. This is a surprise - and it requires me to change my program to account for this break in a fundamental assumption about the music: vis. that the Books of Truth, Psalms, Proverbs and the speeches of Job have a different (though overlapping) set of ornaments from the rest of the Tanach. I wonder how often this so-called rule is broken. I see there are four shalsheletim in Torah - and now I know there is at least one in the Prophets too! Live and learn.
From the music of Amos I also learn that the change in sublinear sign can be rare. When the prophet intones his three and four announcements, they are all intoned on one fundamental note with ornamentation. Mitchell in a forthcoming work on the Psalms of Ascent interprets a change of note as a stress marker, so I have put my dashed barlines at this point in the music. It works very well, so well that I no longer bother testing any other regular barline possibility. I count a phrase with 23 beats without a change in reciting note. (Amos 2:9). My music program can just handle it.
Here's an example of phrase structure within these first two chapters of Amos. This phrase is repeated 8 times with different objects in the first two chapters and each time (except for a minor variation for the children of Ammon) to the same music. It is music, pace the brilliant scholars who call them accents.
This is Amos 1:11a (to the rest point of the subdominant atenach) and its music.
And here's the confirmation that the children of Ammon in verse 13a get a lower note. See the silluq below the yod of benei.
So will I play any more with Amos - probably. There seems to be something to learn with every phrase I look at. I have left my PDF's and XML files at the shared location if anyone wants to help. (Don't you think you would find it fascinating! Let me know... ) And this kind of reading encourages slow and careful consideration. I think, for instance that the King James translation of these verses is over-determining the 'meaning' with the added words. Because the rest-point in the music demands a rest, the addition of words after turn away violates the rhythm and sense. The sense could easily be compassion and not vindictiveness.
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| A shalshelet in Amos. |
From the music of Amos I also learn that the change in sublinear sign can be rare. When the prophet intones his three and four announcements, they are all intoned on one fundamental note with ornamentation. Mitchell in a forthcoming work on the Psalms of Ascent interprets a change of note as a stress marker, so I have put my dashed barlines at this point in the music. It works very well, so well that I no longer bother testing any other regular barline possibility. I count a phrase with 23 beats without a change in reciting note. (Amos 2:9). My music program can just handle it.
Here's an example of phrase structure within these first two chapters of Amos. This phrase is repeated 8 times with different objects in the first two chapters and each time (except for a minor variation for the children of Ammon) to the same music. It is music, pace the brilliant scholars who call them accents.
This is Amos 1:11a (to the rest point of the subdominant atenach) and its music.
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| כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה עַל־שְׁלֹשָׁה֙ פִּשְׁעֵ֣י אֱד֔וֹם וְעַל־אַרְבָּעָ֖ה לֹ֣א אֲשִׁיבֶ֑נּוּ |
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| A return to the tonic for the children of Ammon |
So will I play any more with Amos - probably. There seems to be something to learn with every phrase I look at. I have left my PDF's and XML files at the shared location if anyone wants to help. (Don't you think you would find it fascinating! Let me know... ) And this kind of reading encourages slow and careful consideration. I think, for instance that the King James translation of these verses is over-determining the 'meaning' with the added words. Because the rest-point in the music demands a rest, the addition of words after turn away violates the rhythm and sense. The sense could easily be compassion and not vindictiveness.
Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; [KJV - read it for historical interest]One generation assumes punishment, another assumes consequences, another leaves the gap and prays. Certainly these places - all of them, are still in need of prayer today. I confess though I do not know how to pray for kleptocrats except that the consequences might be swift and the shame complete.
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