Friday, January 28, 2022

Mishpatim: Who the Chell is Chur??

I fell down a rabbit hole again. Not literally, of course, but I found an interesting mention in the text of our parashah, and (to mix my metaphors here...) I pulled on a tiny thread and an entire sweater unraveled! And I must tell you, it's probably one of my favorite things to do as an exegete. (Side note: I'm not sure when one can 'officially' start calling her/himself an expounder of the Biblical text (i.e. an exegete), but as I approach my 650th blog post on the Torah text, I think I qualify. :-)) I love to find a word, phrase, expression, or strange reference in the Bible, and just see what happens if I look it up in all its various forms and locations. This week, we're hot on the trail of an obscure character in the Torah; a man named Chur (or Hur). 

Weeks ago, his name came up in a most surprising place. As the Israelites set off on their journey into the desert, their trials and tribulations began almost instantly. One of their first battles was against the Amalekites (in Exodus, chapter 17), during which four people are mentioned by name. Joshua is the general who leads the troops into battle. Moses ascends a mountain, and whenever his arms are raised, the Israelites start winning... but when his arms fall back down, the Amalekites start to prevail. In order to help the Children of Israel keep winning, his one arm is held up by his brother, Aaron, and the other one is held up by... Chur (v. 12). Who's *this* dude?? It's like one of those children's puzzles - "one of these things is not like the others..." Three incredibly famous characters, both here and throughout the Bible... and then Chur. After this supportive role (literally), he mainly disappears into obscurity again.

And that's really the last we "Hur-d" (heard) of him until this week's Torah portion. Again, with no introduction or explanation, he shows up in a leadership role once again. As Moses and Joshua ascend Mount Sinai to receive God's Laws, Moses says to the 70 elders accompanying them, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And here are Aaron and Chur with you; let anyone who has a legal concern approach them.” (Ex. 24:14) Chur? A top leader on the same level as Aaron, and above Moses’ entourage of 70?? Who is this guy anyway?? Well, the medieval commentator, Rashi, wonders the same thing, and posits a most fascinating solution. Rashi finds a remote reference in the First Book of Chronicles (2:19), that mentions in passing that Chur is the son of Caleb (one of only two people - along with Joshua - to see both the start and end of the 40-year Exodus). Rashi also adds that Chur’s mother was… wait for it… Moses’ and Aaron’s sister, Miriam! Ooooh, so it's really just the ol’ boss’s nephew syndrome. Maybe *that's* how he rose the ranks...

Joking aside, this would definitely explain why he travels in such privileged circles. He’s part of the family! I love when the rabbis find obscure, remote links like this, and use them to tie narratives together. I actually found two additional, intriguing (but minor) references, but I'm running out of space in this blog post. Instead, I'll be mentioning them in services this weekend, though feel free to write a comment here or e-mail me if you'd like to learn more. My point in sharing all of this with you is to demonstrate both the depth of the Biblical text - with all these peripheral characters and seemingly far-flung connections - and also to show you the brilliance of the rabbinic exegetical process. They sometimes scour Scripture and midrashic texts to find possible links and solutions, and the result is a rich tapestry of interwoven stories that link together across stories, distance, and millennia. It starts with something that appears insignificant, e.g. the name of a character mentioned in passing. But you start to pull on that thread, or dig deeper into that hole, and suddenly the rabbit's entire sweater has come undone! Ok, I mixed my metaphors again, but hopefully you get the picture. Or should I say "pict-Hur"?


CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. Valerie Hinojosa on Flickr
2. Dave Morris on Flickr
3. Steve Jurvetson on Flickr
4. staceyjoy on Flickr


Friday, January 21, 2022

Yitro: Layers of Meaning Hidden Under *The* Place

Greetings, everyone! I've been on a bit of a break from the blog, but wanted to get back into it. As I hit the 650 (!!) blog post mark, I'm thinking about possible ways to mix things up, change my focus, or in some other way restructure the blog. Please feel free to reach out with any thoughts/comments/suggestions. Thanks!


Over the years, I've several times found myself reflecting on "famous" quotes from the Torah. These are verses (or parts of verses) that, for any number of reasons, caught someone's attention and made their way into other texts. Sometimes they can be found in the prayer book, other times a zemer (a special Shabbat song), or some part of the Jewish lifecycle. As a result, these verses may stand out in the text, almost like a well-known movie quote that you all of a sudden get to hear in its original context. I stumbled upon one such verse in this week's Torah reading. In this particular instance, the meaning in the parashah and how it has become used in Jewish life are quite different, which makes it an excellent candidate for a blog post! :-)

First, let's look at the context: The Israelites are in the desert, having passed through the Sea of Reeds and are about the receive the Ten Commandments. (That momentous occasion *does* occur in our Torah portion as well, but I decided to focus on something else this time around...) Our text begins with Moses receiving a visitor. His father-in-law, Yitro, comes from the land of Midian, bringing with him Moses' wife and two sons. While there, Yitro sees Moses presiding over every legal dispute and question that any Israelite may bring up. And he strongly encourages him to instead appoint various levels of judges, to essentially create a hierarchy of lower courts, appellate courts, a supreme court... and MOSES. The last thing Yitro says to Moses is that this new-and-improved system will be easier for everyone, and adds, "[if you do this,] you will be able to endure, and all these people too will return to their homes in peace." (Ex. 18:23)

Initially, I just passed over this verse and kept reading. But I glanced at the Hebrew, and noticed something familiar. The phrase about people returning home in peace reminded me of something else, so I looked it up. Sure enough, our ancient rabbis "borrowed" this sentence for a surprisingly different purpose. When I officiate at funerals, and we have finished lowering the casket into the grave, it is customary to say "Al Mekomo Yavo v'Shalom," which is exactly the same statement in our text. I find this fascinating, because the expression is being repurposed in a clever way. At some point in Jewish history, our ancestors began using the word "Makom," which literally means Place/Spot/Location, as a euphemism for God. When someone dies, we console them by saying: "Ha-MAKOM Yinachem Etchem..." - "May God comfort you..." Again, we use the word "place" as another Name for the Divine; perhaps imagining that God is the *ultimate* place; the home to Which (or Whom) we all return after death.

It just intrigues me that this text about judicial proceedings - and about people returning back to their tents after receiving a verdict from Moses or one of the other newly-appointed judges - was seen as a good candidate for a burial rite at the graveside. It is not, by the way, unusual for the rabbis to extract new meanings from Biblical texts. This is a good example of them mining the Tanach for recyclable material! Context was often less significant, and if a quote could be used in an entirely new way - as long as you weren't jumbling the words around and actually manipulating the meaning of the text. If the phrase reads correctly, then by all means interpret it to connote something *completely* different. To me, this is one of the truly beautiful features of our ancient texts. It creates layers upon layers of meaning; constantly shifting as time passes. What the text comes to mean for one generation may be entirely different from the previous generation, the one before that, and countless others before that. It makes our ancient texts come alive, and invites us to scour the text for our own meaningful passages, regardless of what it used to mean to our forbearers. I think it is a subtle, but fantastic aspect of our heritage... and you can quote me on that! 


CC images in this blog post, courtesy of:
1. https://psycatgames.com/magazine/quotes/short-quotes/
2. ArtsyBeeKids on Pixabay
3. Page from my rabbi's manual about including this verse