Notes

1 The Book of Origins More expansive versions of the parts of this chapter were previously presented at the following academic conferences: “The Pre-patriarchal Narrative in the Book of Genesis: Humanity without Chosenness,” Northeastern Political Science Association (2007); “The Narrative in the Book of Genesis: The Obscure Origins of a World Historical Ethnos,” Northeastern Political Science Association (2006); “The Narrative in the Book of Genesis: Politics without Law,” New York State Political Science Association (2006); “The Joseph Narrative in the Book of Genesis: A Gem of Several Facets,” Illinois Political Science Association (2004). 1. The Five Books of : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: A New Translation with Introductions, Commentary, and Notes by Everett Fox (New York: Schocken Books, 1995); Robert Alter (ed.), The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary (New York: W.W. Norton, 2004); Public Affairs Television, Talking about Genesis: A Resource Guide (New York: Doubleday, 1996); Burton L. Visotzky, The Genesis of Ethics: How the Tormented of Genesis Leads Us to Moral Development (New York: Crown, 1996); Alan M. Dershowitz, The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the and Modern Law (New York: Warner Books, 2000); Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003); Thomas L. Pangle, Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003); George Anastaplo, The : Respectful Readings (New York: Lexington Books, 2008). 2. Except as otherwise indicated, biblical translations are from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text (JPS) (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1988). (“Tanakh” is an acronym for the major divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures: [the five books of Moses], Nevi’im [the Prophets], Kh’suvim [the Writings].) Except where common usage requires otherwise, my transliterations follow the Ashkenazic rather than the Sephardic pronunciation. 3. Nosson Scherman (ed.), The (Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah, 1996 [the or “Stone” Edition—so named because published under the patronage of Mr. Irving I. Stone]), pp. 109, 180–81. Rashi = 236 NOTES

Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040–1105), a leading Torah commentator; Nachmanides = Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (1194–1270), commen- tator and leader of Spanish Jewry (Scherman, p. 1301). (“Chumash” from hamisha [five] = the Torah). With a few exceptions, I follow the common convention of using the capitalized word LORD to refer to the tetragrammaton YHWH, the exact pronunciation of which is no longer known. 4. The division of the Hebrew Scriptures into numbered chapters and verses is the work of early Christian editors, but has been accepted by Jewish translators and is followed here. 5. See, for example, Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (New York: Harper & Row, 1989). Pangle suggests that the two different accounts are a deliberate attempt by the Redactor to warn the reader that contradiction is unavoidable and, therefore, that to grasp the meaning of the biblical text requires illumination by divine grace (p. 18). 6. For a more elaborate and philosophic discussion of this pattern, see Leo Strauss, “On the Interpretation of Genesis” and “Jerusalem and Athens,” in Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity: Essays and Lectures in Modern Jewish Thought, edited by Kenneth Hart Green (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), pp. 362–67, 382–84. 7. J.H. Hertz (ed.), The Pentateuch and Haftorahs (London: Soncino Press, 1981), p. 2. 8. Jules Harlow (ed.), Sim Shalom: A Prayerbook for Shabbat, Festivals, and Weekdays (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of America, 1985), p. 326. Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed, II.13–24. Moses Maimonides = Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (1135–1204), Aristotelian philosopher and one of the foremost medieval Torah scholars (Scherman, p. 1301). 9. The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDBG) (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1979), p. 912; Fox, p. 11 n 1. Cf. the famous adage at Ps. 111:10, “Reishis hokhmah yiras Adonai— The beginning of wisdom is fear of the LORD,” from which Kass’ book takes its title. 10. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated Out of the Original Tongues; with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, Conformable to the Edition of 1611, Commonly Known as the Authorized or (Cleveland: World, n.d.), p. 5; Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, Carefully Translated after the Best Jewish Authorities by Leeser (New York: Hebrew, 1909), p. 1; Hertz, p. 2; Fox, p. 13; Scherman, p. 3; JPS, p. 3. 11. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (IDB) (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990), 2:57–58. 12. Of course, as Hobbes notes, there is scarcely an object or experience that cannot be, and at some time has not been, deified (Leviathan, NOTES 237

chap. 12). Kass observes that the creation of Man is also not specifically said to be good (p. 31) and explains the omitted praise of the heavens as an implicit rebuff of pagan cosmologies that revere the sky and the awe-inspiring, powerful, and seemingly immortal objects within it (pp. 40–45). We can combine the two omissions. The heavens and man are the likeliest beings to be mistaken for or to lay claim to divinity. 13. This explanation is both less ethnocentric and less taxing on our general credulity than Resh Lakish’s. On the other hand, it still packs much theological content into a single Hebrew letter, which may in the end be no more than a scribal attempt to break the monotony of a four-times-repeated verbal pattern, or to produce a psychic tension in the reader’s soul that prepares us “musically” for the approaching end of the story. 14. That is, flawless. Kass suggests the contrary at this point (p. 37). But perhaps the assumption of a perfect God overburdens the text. What if “good” simply means (however intellectually unsatisfying it may be) pleasing to God? Perhaps the very quality that makes man “in the image of God,” and that accounts for the fact of Creation at all, is the capacity for self-dissatisfaction. Kass later glances in this direction, when he calls attention to the statement at Genesis 6:6 that God “repents” His creation of man and the other animals (p. 162). 15. The is a standardized version of the Hebrew Scriptures including a system of punctuation, vowel points, and cantillation marks that was developed in Palestine and Babylonia between the fifth and ninth centuries CE. IDB, v. 3, pp. 295–99. 16. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (New York: HarperPerennial, 1988), p. 17. 17. = a selection of legal and narrative rabbinic teachings from ca. 70–ca. 500 CE (Scherman, p. 1300; Johnson, pp. 150–51). 18. Nahum Sarna, Understanding Genesis: The World of the Bible in the Light of History (New York: Schocken Books, 1970), p. 12. For an account of various rabbinical, Christian theological, and literary attempts to deal with the character of Creation, see Pangle, chap. 2 (“Creation and the Meaning of Divine Omnipotence”), pp. 29–47. 19. Vilna Gaon = Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (1720–1797) (Scherman, p. 1303). 20. The word adam itself is the generic term for human being, and, like the Greek anthropos, is not gender specific (BDBG, p. 9; cf. Gen. 5:1). 21. Kass, noting that this poem is spoken about but not directly to the woman, treats it as an expression of self-centered exuberance (pp. 102 ff.). But the point may be overstated. Eve is present when he speaks these words (Gen. 2:22); love poetry may surely employ indirect communication; and overheard statements are occasionally important in these narratives (cf. Gen. 18:9–15; 27; 42:18–26). The official 238 NOTES

explanation for fashioning Eve is that “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen. 2:18), which I take to mean that Man would not be happy as a solitary being. Does this observation qualify the statement in the cosmological account that Man is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27)? Does it imply that this solitary Deity, who, unlike pagan gods, has no divine consort, is not happy? See Jules Gleicher, “Moses Rhetor,” Interpretation 31, no. 2 (Spring 2004), pp. 133–34. 22. For what I believe is the standard Christian answer, see Augustine, City of God, XIV. 21–23. 23. Professor Larry Arnhart observed, in a lecture he gave at Rockford College, the poetic justice of the childbirth part of Eve’s fate. What makes human childbirth especially painful is the relatively larger size of the human infant’s head, which is (metaphorically) needed to contain this additional knowledge that our animal cousins lack. 24. Gribetz et al. (eds.), The Timetables of Jewish History: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in Jewish History (TJH) (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), pp. 24, 28, 32. 25. The New Strong’s Concise Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1985), p. 542. 26. For some thoughts on Cain as a great innovator, see Anastaplo, pp. 36–37. 27. But cf. Kass, pp. 103–104 n 7. 28. If Jabal’s identification as “the ancestor of those who dwell in tents” is comprehensive, then he is an ancestor of (Gen. 9:20), and the generations of Cain and of Seth would need to have intermixed prior to the Flood. For an interesting discussion of such intermixtures, see Kass, pp. 156–158. 29. The logical link is that just as kings exercise arbitrary sexual dominion over their subjects’ , so commoners will behave toward the living beings that they rule. This possibility is congruent with the nondestruction of marine life in the sequel catastrophe. Before the LORD God forms Eve from Adam’s rib, He forms and brings to him “all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky . . . to see what he would call them.” But from among them “no fitting helper” to man was found. Apparently, marine nature is so different as not even to be considered a “fitting companion” pervertedly (Gen. 2:18–22; but cf. 1:26–28). On royal conduct being reflected in that of subjects, see Esther 1:10–22; Aristotle Politics 1252b1–9; Jules Gleicher, “Mordecai the Exilarch: Some Thoughts on the ,” Interpretation 28, no. 3 (Spring 2001), p. 191. 30. Like the last mentioned innovators of the line of Cain, Noah also has a named Lamech (Gen. 5:28–29). 31. The word teivah has only two referents in Hebrew Scripture: Noah’s ark and the basket in which the infant Moses is hidden and floated on the Nile to save him from Pharaoh’s decree that all newborn Hebrew NOTES 239

males be killed (Exod. 1:22–2:4; BDBG, p. 1061). (The “ark” that will later house the tablets on which the Ten Commandments are inscribed is a different word, aron. In modern Hebrew, aron also means coffin—an ironic similarity, as I suggest, to Noah’s vessel.) 32. See, for example, Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative by Herbert Mason (New York: Mentor, 1972), pp. 76–79; the Hindu story of Manu, told in the Agni Puranas; and the Greek myth of Deucalion. Sir James G. Frazer, Folk-Lore in the : Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law (New York: Macmillan, 1927), pp. 48–131, references about 150 Great Flood accounts by peoples of Babylonia, Israel, Greece, India, Eastern Asia, Indonesia, Australia, the South Sea Islands, the Americas, and East Africa. 33. For additional reflections on the significance of Noah’s observation of human mortality, see Kass, pp. 154–55. 34. I admittedly hedge here on my previous reading of the phrase “.” The reference in the Book of Numbers can be discounted as the hysterical response of the Mosaic scouts to the Canaanites’ impressive fortifications and war readiness, rather than as a genuine giant sighting. (The renders nefilim as gigantes [BDBG, p. 658].) But their use of this term is an index of its being a standard idiom at the time of the ill fated spy mission or of the composition of the text. A Miltonian reading would derive Nephilim from nafal, to fall, that is, fallen angels. As noted above, Jewish tradition rejects this concept. But Hebrew script is all consonants. Alternative pointilla- tion yields the rare word nefel—untimely birth, abortion, perhaps by extension a monster or freak of nature? At any rate, beings, perhaps of irregular birth, who do not quite fit into ordinary society but who can perform legendary deeds. Later human examples of this type might be Jephthah or Samson (Judges 11–16). 35. I am informed by Professor Paul Gottfried that the identification of this curse with black descendants of was the view, not only of nineteenth-century Southerners, but also of ancient Babylonian , medieval Christians, and others who came across or learned about sub–Saharan Africa and took a dim view of its inhabitants. Professor Eric Pullin has called my attention to Talmudic discussions of the curse of Ham in Midrashim Bereishit Rabbah and Sanh, 108b, and to a description of late medieval–early modern Spanish use of the myth in Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 55, 64–72. 36. Alternatively, the parallel may lie in Ham’s initial boasting to his brothers about their father’s humiliation, which anticipates Joseph’s report of his dream about the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down before him, in which Jacob, correctly, sees a symbol of his own abasement (Gen. 37:9–10). If so, Noah’s curse of Canaan, one Hamite nation, finds a counterpart in the plagues visited upon 240 NOTES

Egypt, another Hamite nation and Joseph’s people by adoption (Gen. 41:39–52). 37. Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer = a midrash by the school of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus (ca. 100) (Scherman, p. 1301). 38. This idea was called to my attention by my fellow parishioner Dr. Stephen Geller. 39. This should not obscure the equally evident fact that all human beings speak some language or other. As Martin Heidegger observes, when we overhear people conversing in a foreign tongue, we instantly recognize their activity as engaging in human speech. Martin Heidegger, What Is Called Thinking? (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1972), p. 130. 40. Kass also suggests that the height of the tower may be a (not irrational) precaution against another Great Flood (p. 221), which would betoken either ignorance of or disbelief in God’s promise against such a repetition, signified in the rainbow (Gen. 9:8–17). 41. A possible precedent is Enoch (of the line of Seth), who, at the tender age of 365, “walked with God; then he was no more, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). The cryptic phrase could be a euphemism for premature death or denote live ascension into heaven (Scherman, p. 25). I incline toward the former meaning, because there is no suggestion, at this point, of an afterlife. 42. JPS compresses these two terms into one, “native land,” thereby obscuring a fruitful ambiguity that emerges in chapter 24. I have taken the liberty of subscripting the name of the city , even within direct quotations, in order to distinguish it from the name of Terah’s third son, Haran, thus replicating the Hebrew text’s difference in spelling. 43. For an interesting parallel, see Plato Republic 327b, 328b, 330b. 44. Rabbinical commentary, perhaps to absolve Abraham from the sin of impiety, has demonized Terah as a manufacturer and seller of idols (Scherman, pp. 51, 52). 45. In the Christian tradition, St. Paul makes much the same point, but with the very different and emphatic purpose of repudiating the Mosaic Law (Gal. 3; Heb. 11:8–10). 46. See also Jules Gleicher, “Moses Politikos,” Interpretation 26, no. 2 (Winter 1999), pp. 149–51, 164. 47. I believe that the source of this expression is the Sherlock Holmes story entitled “Silver Blaze.” William S. Baring-Gould (ed.), The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1967), v. II, p. 277. 48. While it would be respectable for the king of Sodom to want the return of his own people, there is no reason to assume that his proposition does not also extend to other captives. NOTES 241

49. Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, No. MON-C-330–92 (Ch. Div. Nov. 3, 1995), at 39–40; resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America and Monmouth Council v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000). 50. Abraham runs out to greet them and bows to the ground, even though, if this encounter occurs soon after his circumcision, these welcoming gestures are physically painful, and he serves them a full meal of curds, milk, and veal (Gen. 17:23–18:2; 18:6–8). also shows respect, insists that they stay overnight in his house—no doubt because he is aware of how the Sodomites would treat them were they to sleep in the town square—and feeds them, but there may be a hint of parsimony in the detail that his meal includes unleavened bread (Gen. 19:1–3). His dedication to the principle of hospitality takes an extreme and bizarre twist in the sequel (Gen. 19:6–8). 51. 287 U.S. 45 (1932). 52. I here translate directly. 53. Vay’aneha can also mean to humble a woman by illegal cohabitation (BDBG, p. 776). 54. But cf. Deut. 24:16: “Parents shall not be put to death for children, nor children be put to death for parents: a person shall be put to death only for his own crime.” 55. Because we know that God next tells Abraham what he plans to do, we might overlook how convoluted this reasoning is. The Torah scroll lacks punctuation marks. Where to begin sentences, what punc- tuation to supply, and how to translate prepositions and conjunctions are matters of editorial judgment. With due respect to the Masoretes, Isaac Leeser, and successive generations of the Jewish Publication Society, I would suggest treating verse 18 and half of verse 19 as a parenthesis, moving the end of verse 19 forward, and adding a few unstated phrases for clarity’s sake. This produces the following divine soliloquy: Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do . . . in order that the LORD may bring about for Abraham [i.e., in order not to jeopardize] what He has promised him? Abraham will surely become [must become? –hoyo yih’yeh] a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him. [But by virtue of what?] Because I have singled him out [I have known him—y’da’ti] that he may instruct his children and posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right [to do righteousness and judgment—la’asos tz’dakah umish’pat]. [Therefore, I must reveal My righteousness and judgment to him.] So too, He must risk that Abraham’s faith will be shaken by His judgment’s severity. 56. For most of the passages in this section, I translate directly. 242 NOTES

57. Jack Miles, God: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 59. 58. The Yom Kippur liturgy emphasizes the supposed voluntary nature of Isaac’s submission. See Philip Birnbaum (trans.), High Holyday Prayer Book (New York: Hebrew, 1951), pp. 628, 920, 926, 984, 996. 59. Hebron will later gain national significance as the city from which King David ruled before he captured Jerusalem (1 Kings 2:11). In recent time, its cession by the Israeli government to the Palestinian Authority was an especially sore point among those Orthodox Jews who take their political cues from the Hebrew Scriptures. 60. Aharon Yisroel Kahan, The Taryag Mitzvos (Brooklyn, NY: Keser Torah, 1988). “Taryag” is an artificial word consisting of the Hebrew letters TRYG, the numerical values of which add up to 613. Mitzvos (or mitzvot) is the plural of mitzvah—command. 61. This is not to deny the existence of controlling conventions on various matters: the exclusive claim that husbands have to their wives; the formalities that confer public recognition on a purchase of land; the irrevocability of deathbed blessings; the local custom that a younger not marry before her elder ; the rule of levirate marriage. But as we see, these unwritten laws tend to produce awkward or perverse results. 62. So the King James translation and the Jewish Bible of Isaac Leeser that closely follows it. Some rabbinical sources justify ’s action by interpreting the word m’tzaheik, which can also mean “playing,” to imply sexual misconduct (cf. Gen. 26:8; Exod. 32:6). 63. ’s absconding with her father’s gods has been justified in Midrash as an attempt to rescue from idolatry (Hertz, p. 114). More likely, she and Laban both regarded the terafim as efficacious good luck charms, which, in her opinion, Laban and his sons had forfeited through his trickery, and Jacob and his family had earned through his years of hard labor and devotion to her. The stealing motif recurs much later, when Joseph, by then viceroy of Egypt, cruelly trifles with his brothers by having his silver goblet planted in his brother ’s bag as false evidence of theft. The parallels to the Rachel episode are several. Like Laban’s terafim, this cup suppos- edly has magical qualities, associated with divination (Gen. 44:5, 15). The bag in which it is hidden is carried by a pack animal, reminiscent of Rachel hiding the idols in the camel cushion (Gen. 31:34). Joseph is described as “well built and handsome” (Hertz: “of beautiful form, and fair to look upon”—y’feih-so’ar vi’feih mar’eh), the same phrase as was used a generation earlier to describe Rachel (Gen. 39:6; 29:17). And when he reencounters Benjamin, identified textually as “his ’s son,” he substitutes himself rhetorically for Rachel by addressing him as “my son” (Gen. 43:29). 64. W. Gunther Plaut (ed.), The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981), p. 218. The NOTES 243

name Jabbok (Ybk) is visually similar to Jacob (Ykb). Does the text thereby allude to Jacob’s physical and spiritual “rearrangement”? 65. The text is ambiguous, and perhaps garbled, on who actually sells him to whom (Gen. 37:27–28, 36). 66. Another verbal expression that casts an ambiguous shadow is Jacob’s exclamation when he sees Joseph, after the twenty-two-year interval: “Now I can die, having seen for myself that you are still alive” (Gen. 46:30). Hertz provides what may be the standard Talmudic gloss, that seeing Joseph again joyfully completes Jacob’s life (p. 174). In light of his short self-descriptive speech to Pharaoh, which sounds anything but joyful, perhaps we should hear his words to Joseph as a poignant reflection on a life spent in a state of delusion and decep- tion, and therewith as a reproach: “I died once, believing that you were dead; now I die again, knowing that you lived and prospered while I dwelt in ignorance and sorrow.” 67. I owe this observation to Professor Carmichael. 68. The translations in the discussion of this passage are from Hertz. 69. Other characters in Genesis who name or invoke the LORD are Eve (4:1), men in general (4:26), Noah (8:20; 9:26), Abraham (12:7–8; 13:18; 14:22; 15:2, 8; 21:33; 22:14; 24:3, 7), Sarai (16:2, 5), Hagar (maybe) (16:13), various angels (16:11; 19:13; 22:16), the LORD (18:19; 28:13), Lot (19:14), Abraham’s chief servant (24:12, 26–27, 35, 40 [citing Abraham], 42, 44, 48, 52, 56), Laban (24:31, 50 [with Bethuel]; 29:27; 31:49), Isaac (25:21; 26:25; 27:7, 27), Rebekah (25:22), Abimelech and his retinue (26:28–29), (29:32–33, 35), and Rachel (30:24). 70. Wildavsky, “What Is Permissible So That This People May Survive? Joseph the Administrator,” PS: Political Science & Politics 22, no. 4 (December 1989), p. 781. 71. I am grateful to Mr. Jack Wild for raising this question, as well as the later one concerning Er’s unstated offense. The role of Providence (or of chance) in Joseph’s career (and in human affairs more generally) is signaled near the beginning of his story, when, having missed his brothers at Shechem, whither Jacob had sent him, he is redirected by someone identified only as “a man” to Dothan, where his sale into slavery occurs (Gen. 37:12–17). The cryptic reference invites com- parison to the nameless “man” with whom Jacob wrestles before his reencounter with (Gen. 32:25–30). The brothers’ relocation and this seemingly adventitious meeting incidentally spare Shechem from becoming the site of a second atrocity perpetrated by sons of Jacob (cf. Gen. 34). 72. So too, we might expect, would be laughter, but Joseph is never said to laugh. Indeed, the only characters in the Torah who do are Abraham and Sarah, when God announces that Sarah, who is ninety years old, will bear a son, and then again when that promise is fulfilled (Gen. 17:17; 18:10–15; 21:6). The word yitzhak, “he will 244 NOTES

laugh,” is also Isaac’s Hebrew name. A variation on it, m’tzaheik, indicates either mockery or sexual foreplay (Gen. 21:9; 26:8). See also the episode in Exodus, where l’tzaheik, translated by Hertz as “to make merry” and in the King James version as “to play,” probably refers to idolatrous, orgiastic dancing (Exod. 32:6; cf. 32:19). 73. Elie Wiesel, “Joseph, or The Education of a Tzaddik,” in Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.), pp. 136–69. 74. One bright student of politics who draws the appropriate lesson from Joseph’s example—“Don’t push absolute power to its limit!”—is Mordecai, who, as prime minister to King Ahasuerus, stocks the Persian royal treasury through the more moderate expedient of raising taxes (Esther 10:1, 3). See Gleicher, “Mordecai the Exilarch,” pp. 196–98. I owe the observation that Mordecai’s tax increase is good news to Professor Carmichael. 75. Alschich = a commentary on the Tanakh by Rabbi Moshe Alschich (1508–1593?) (Scherman, p. 1297). 76. For further remarks on Joseph’s charm, good looks, flexibility, and other qualities that allowed him to win over people in authority and to make the most of opportunities, see Anastaplo, p. 63. 77. That this author feels obliged not just to mention this detail but to explain it in this way clearly suggests, for whatever it is worth, that he writes for a non-Jewish audience. 78. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica in 30 Volumes (Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1974), Macropaedia, v. 6, p. 736. 79. Alfred J. Kolatch, The Jewish Book of Why (Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David, 1995), v. I, pp. 49–50, 57. 80. Harold Bloom, The Book of J, Translated from the Hebrew by David Rosenberg, Interpreted by Harold Bloom (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp. 9–55, 220–23. 81. This thought provoking critique was made at the 2004 meeting of the Illinois Political Science Association, under the title “Lies, Cries, and Laughter.”

2 Mosaic Episodes This and the following chapter should be read in conjunction with the author’s previously published pieces on Moses: “The Mosaic Spy Mission: Some Lessons on Political Leadership from an Ancient and Venerable Source,” Illinois Political Science Association Newsletter 2, no. 1 (June 1994); “Three on Politics and Law,” Oklahoma City University Law Review 23, no. 3 (Fall 1998), Part III: “The Lex Talionis in the Mosaic Law”; “Moses Politikos,” Interpretation 26, no. 2 (Winter 1999); “Moses Dikastes,” Interpretation 30, no. 2 (Winter 2003); “Moses Rhetor,” Interpretation 31, no. 2 (Spring 2004). NOTES 245

1. See Jules Gleicher, “On Plutarch’s Life of Caesar,” Interpretation 29, no. 3 (Spring 2002). In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, relying on the best information Renaissance astronomy and mathematics could provide, promulgated a correction of the Julian calendar, which had fallen, during the intervening sixteen centuries, ten days out of sync with the solar cycle. Some non-Catholic countries resisted this change, but eventually everyone came around. In 1988, the scientists who administer the Coordinated Universal Time atomic clock, in Greenwich, England, added a “leap second” to compensate for a discrepancy caused by the earth’s “wobble” on its rotational axis. We can now measure time in nanoseconds, and apparently need to do so for the very precise electronic signals used in space satellite communication. 2. Cf. Sigmund Freud, Moses and (New York: Random House, 1939). 3. The “ Stele,” which celebrates this ruler’s military triumphs, declares: “Israel is laid waste, his seed is not.” This is appar- ently the earliest reference to the Israelite People in an extra-biblical source, and the only one of Egyptian vintage. Nahum M. Sarna, Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel (New York: Schocken Books, 1988), pp. 11–12. 4. Winston Churchill, “Moses: The Leader of a People,” in Thoughts and Adventures (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991 [orig. 1932]), p. 209. 5. George Orwell, A Collection of Essays (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1954), p. 159. 6. Gen. 4:1, 26; 8:20; 9:26; 12:7–8; 13:18; 14:22; 15:7; 16:2, 5, 11; 19:13–14; 21:33; 22:14, 16; 24:3, 7, 12, 26–27, 31, 35, 40, 42, 44, 48, 50–52, 56; 25:21–22; 26:25, 28–29; 27:7, 20, 27; 28:13, 16, 21; 29:32–33, 35; 30:24, 27, 30; 31:49; 32: 10; 49:18. 7. S a r na , Exploring Exodus, pp. 70–73. Khamsin is Arabic for fifty—like the Hebrew hamishim—signifying the fifty-day duration of some of these hazy seasons. 8. Suf means “reeds” or “rushes.” Therefore, yam-suf should presumably be translated as Sea of Reeds. But apparently early Greek translators took the word as a reference to Suph, a town on the western coast of the Red Sea. Thus, yam-suf became the Sea of Suph, that is, the Red Sea. 9. Nahum N. Glatzer (ed.), Passover (New York: Schocken Books, 1989), p. 45. 10. A Passover Haggadah: As Commented Upon by Elie Wiesel and Illustrated by Mark Podwal (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), pp. 51, 55. 11. A contrary view maintains that Jewish thought does not presuppose any moral rules to be discoverable by “unaided human reason,” that the Rabbis regard all commandments, and by extension all moral 246 NOTES

conclusions, to be the result of revelation. Consequently, the examples cited in the text would display not innate moral sensibility but tactical maneuvering by the relevant characters. 12. Gleicher, “Moses Politikos,” pp. 162–64. 13. Lincoln drew a similar connection between luxury and slavery in his “Springfield Speech” of June 26, 1857: “The assertion [in the Declaration of Independence] that ‘all men are created equal’ was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain; and it was placed in the Declaration, not for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be, thank God, it is now proving itself, a stum- bling block to those who in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful paths of despotism. They knew the prone- ness of prosperity to breed tyrants, and they meant when such should re-appear in this fair land and commence their vocation they should find left for them at least one hard nut to crack.” The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1953), v. II, p. 406 (emphasis supplied). 14. Gleicher, “Moses Politikos,” pp. 166–69. 15. Malbim = Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel (1809–1879), a leading Eastern European Torah scholar and biblical commentator (Scherman, p. 1299). 16. I owe this interpretation to Professor Carmichael. See also, regarding this fable and the later one from the Book of Judges (infra, chap. 4, III), David Daube, “A ncestors in the M ist,” in Studies in Comparative Legal History: Collected Works of David Daube (Berkeley, CA: Robbins Collection), v. 3: Biblical Law and Literature (2003), pp. 741–47. 17. Theologico-Political Treatise, chap. XVII, in The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, trans. R.H.M. Elwes (New York: Dover, 1951), pp. 220–26. 18. See Gleicher, “Moses Rhetor,” pp. 139–41. 19. Gleicher, “Moses Politikos,” pp. 175–77. 20. Cf. Machiavelli, The Prince, chap. 16.

3 Observations on the Mosaic Law 1. This statement has been variously ascribed to the cultural Zionist essayist Ahad Ha’am (Asher Ginsberg, 1856–1927), Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972), and the anonymous rabbinical tradition contained in the passive voice construction “It has been said. . . .” 2. This thesis, which I hope I do not misstate, was proposed to the seminar on “Law and Religion in Biblical Antiquity” that I attended in the summer of 1994. 3. See also Jules Gleicher, “Three Biblical Studies on Politics and Law,” Oklahoma City University Law Review 23, no. 3 (Fall 1998), pp. 894–96. NOTES 247

4. Leon R. Kass, The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 207. 5. Walter Kaufmann (ed.), The Portable Nietzsche (New York: Penguin Books, 1976), p. 171. 6. I have been told that Maimonides and Nachmanides suggest that honoring parents is the most difficult mitzvah. 7. I am indebted for the inspiration and much of the substance of this analysis to Professor Carmichael, who elaborates it in greater detail in his book Law, Legend, and in the Bible: –20 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997). 8. Cf. Kass, The Hungry Soul, chap. 6—“Sanctified Eating: A Memorial of Creation.” 9. Philip Birnbaum (ed.), Prayer Book for Three Festivals: Pesah, Shavuoth, Sukkoth (New York: Hebrew, 1971), pp. 87–88. 10. The Jerusalem Post reported several years ago that an Israeli beit din (rabbinical court) issued death sentences against three men who had abandoned their wives but refused to grant them divorces or were extorting bribes as a condition for granting them. The court did so, of course, secure in the understanding that their order was legally unenforceable. 11. This interpretation was offered to me by Rabbi Elihu Milder. 12. 508 U.S. 520 (1993). 13. Alfred J. Kolatch, The Second Jewish Book of Why (Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David, 1996), v. II, p. 224. 14. See Gleicher, “Moses Dikastes,” pp. 147–49, 152–55. 15. Rabbi William Fertig called this ambiguity to my attention.

4 The Prophetic History 1. See Gleicher, “Moses Rhetor,” pp. 123–26, 139–41. 2. I encountered this datum from a radiotape by Dennis Prager. 3. See Jules Gleicher, “Mordecai the Exilarch: Some Thoughts on the Book of Esther,” Interpretation 28, no. 3 (Spring 2001). 4. See Gleicher, “Three Biblical Studies . . . ,” pp. 871–83. 5. See Gleicher, “Three Biblical Studies . . . ,” pp. 883–90. 6. JPS helpfully identifies “doves’ dung” as “[a]pparently a popular term for ‘carob pods’ ” (p. 575). 7. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. C.B. Macpherson (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), pp. 268–69. So too Locke: “Every one, as he is bound to preserve himself, and not to quit his station willfully; so by the like reason, when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb or goods of another.” John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, ed. Richard Cox (Arlington Heights, IL: Crofts Classics, 248 NOTES

Harlan Davidson, 1982), § 6, pp. 4–5 (emphasis partly supplied and partly removed). 8. Leviathan, p. 198. 9. Thus too, the sovereign may abrogate such private agreements: “And even in Commonwealths, if I be forced to redeem my selfe from a Theefe by promising him mony, I am bound to pay it, till the Civill Law discharge me.” Leviathan, p. 198 (emphasis supplied). 10. “On-Line Trail to an Off-Line Killing,” by Amy Harmon, New York Times, April 30, 1998, pp. A1, A30. For the sequel to this story, see New York Times, May 2, 1998; August 5, 1998; August 10, 1998. 11. Jehu’s coup d’état derails any possibility of the reunification of the two kingdoms implicit in Ahab’s dynastic marriage alliances. Was this on the whole a fortunate development? While a reunified Israel might have been better able to resist a middling power like Syria, it would likely have fared no better against major empires like Assyria and Babylonia than the two separate kingdoms did in the actual event. Their division may thus have been the practical condition for the survival of one part when the other was conquered, and thereby for Jewish survival at all. Might the same be said today? Whatever the importance of the modern State of Israel for world Jewry, is the continued existence of some Jews in Diaspora necessary insurance against whatever ill fortune may lurk in the Middle East? What the theological consequences of this thought might be for the prayers Jews routinely recite concerning their in-gathering from the four corners of the earth, under Messianic auspices, I leave to others who are authorized to speak of such things.

5 Five Prophetic Practitioners 1. Lord [Godfrey R.B.] Charnwood, Abraham Lincoln, 3rd ed. (New York: Henry Holt, 1917), pp. 14, 76. 2. “Letter to Horace Greeley,” August 22, 1862, in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953), v. V, p. 388 (emphasis in the original). 3. I here translate directly. 4. The statement was made in a lecture Wiesel gave at Rockford College in 1987. 5. Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1896 [orig. 1794]), p. 147. On the matter of the Book of Jonah’s authorship, Paine arguably fails to appreciate the Hebrew Scripture’s (and the Jewish tradition’s) immense capacity for self-criticism. NOTES 249

6. I believe that this gentle sophistry was the gist of a short speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Queen Victoria, in Laurence Housman’s play Victoria Regina, to which Victoria replies insightfully, “Yes, I don’t believe it either.” 7. See, for example, Birnbaum, High Holyday Prayer Book, pp. 511–15. Bibliography

Editions of The Bible Alter, Robert, ed. 2004. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W. W. Norton. The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: A New Translation with Introductions, Commentary, and Notes by Everett Fox. 1995. New York: Schocken Books. Hertz, J.H., ed. 1981. The Pentateuch and Haftorahs. London: Soncino Press. The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, Translated out of the Original Tongues; with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, Conformable to the Edition of 1611, Commonly Known as the Authorized or King James Version. n.d. Cleveland: World. Plaut, W. Gunther, ed. 1981. The Torah: A Modern Commentary. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Scherman, Nosson, ed. 1996. The Chumash. Stone Edition. Brooklyn, NY: Mesorah. Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text [JPS]. 1988. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society. Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, Carefully Translated after the Best Jewish Authorities by Isaac Leeser. 1909. New York: Hebrew.

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Kierkegaard, Søren. Fear and Trembling. Livy. History of Rome. Locke, John. Second Treatise of Government. Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Maimonides, Moses. The Guide of the Perplexed. Mill, John Stuart. Considerations on Representative Government. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Plato. Apology of Socrates. _____. Euthyphro. _____. Laws. _____. Republic. Plutarch. Life of Caesar. _____. Life of Cicero. Shakespeare, William. Henry V. Spinoza, Benedict de. Theologico-Political Treatise. Talmudic tractates Bereishit Rabbah and Sanhedrin.

Secondary Sources Anastaplo, George. 2008. The Bible: Respectful Readings. New York: Lexington Books. Baring-Gould, William S., ed. 1967. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Clarkson N. Potter. Basler, Roy P., ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 1953. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Birnbaum, Philip, trans. 1951. High Holyday Prayer Book. New York: Hebrew. _____. 1971. Prayer Book for Three Festivals: Pesah, Shavuoth, Sukkoth. New York: Hebrew. Bloom, Harold. 1990. The Book of J, Translated from the Hebrew by David Rosenberg, Interpreted by Harold Bloom. New York: Grove Weidenfeld. Boy Scouts of America and Monmouth Council v. Dale, 530 U.S. 640 (2000). Carmichael, Calum. 1997. Law, Legend, and Incest in the Bible: Leviticus 18–20. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Charnwood, Lord Godfrey R. B. 1917. Abraham Lincoln. New York: Henry Holt. Churchill, Winston. 1991 [1932]. “Moses: the Leader of a People.” Thoughts and Adventures. New York: W. W. Norton. Dale v. Boy Scouts of America, No. MON-C-330–92 (Ch. Div. November 3, 1995). Daube, David. 2003. “Ancestors in the Mist.” Studies in Comparative Legal History: Collected Works of David Daube, vol. 3. Berkeley, CA: Robbins Collection. BIBLIOGRAPHY 253

Davis, David B. 2006. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York: Oxford University Press. Dershowitz, Alan M. 2000. The Genesis of Justice: Ten Stories of Biblical Injustice that Led to the Ten Commandments and Modern Law. New York: Warner Books. Frazer, Sir James G. 1927. Folk-Lore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law. New York: Macmillan. Freud, Sigmund. 1939. Moses and Monotheism. New York: Random House. Friedman, Richard Elliott. 1989. Who Wrote the Bible? New York: Harper & Row. Glatzer, Nahum N., ed. 1989. Passover Haggadah. New York: Schocken Books. Gleicher, Jules. 1994. “The Mosaic Spy Mission: Some Lessons on Political Leadership from an Ancient and Venerable Source.” Illinois Political Science Association Newsletter 2, no. 1 (June): 1, 4. _____. 1998. “Three Biblical Studies on Politics and Law.” Oklahoma City University Law Review 23, no. 3 (Fall): 869–99. _____. 1999. “Moses Politikos.” Interpretation 26, no. 2 (Winter): 149–81. _____. 2001. “Mordecai the Exilarch: Some Thoughts on the Book of Esther.” Interpretation 28, no. 3 (Spring): 187–200. _____. 2002. “On Plutarch’s Life of Caesar.” Interpretation 29, no. 3 (Spring): 265–79. _____. 2003. “Moses Dikastes.” Interpretation 30, no. 2 (Winter): 119–56. _____. 2004. “Moses Rhetor.” Interpretation 31, no. 2 (Spring): 119–63. Gribetz, Judah, with Greenstein, Edward L., and Stein, Regina S., eds. 1993. The Timetables of Jewish History: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in Jewish History. New York: Simon & Schuster. Harlow, Jules, ed. 1985. Siddur Sim Shalom: A Prayerbook for Shabbat, Festivals, and Weekdays. New York: Rabbinical Assembly, United Synagogue of America. Harmon, Amy. “On-Line Trail to an Off-Line Killing.” New York Times, April 30, 1998. Heidegger, Martin. 1972. What Is Called Thinking? New York: Harper Torchbooks. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. 1990. Nashville: Abingdon Press. Johnson, Paul. 1988. A History of the Jews. New York: HarperPerennial. Kahan, Aharon Yisroel. 1988. The Taryag Mitzvos. Brooklyn, NY: Keser Torah. Kass, Leon R. 1999. The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. _____. 2003. The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Kolatch, Alfred J. 1995. The Jewish Book of Why. Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David. 254 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kolatch, Alfred J. 1996. The Second Jewish Book of Why. Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David. Miles, Jack. 1995. God: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon. 1979. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica in 30 Volumes. 1974. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica. The New Strong’s Concise Concordance of the Bible. 1985. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson. The New York Times, May 2, 1998; August 5, 1998; August 10, 1998. Orwell, George. 1954. “Shooting an Elephant.” A Collection of Essays. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. A Passover Haggadah: As Commented Upon by Elie Wiesel and Illustrated by Mark Podwal. 1993. New York: Simon & Schuster. Paine, Thomas. 1896 [1794]. The Age of Reason: Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Pangle, Thomas L. 2003. Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932). Public Affairs Television. 1996. Talking About Genesis: A Resource Guide. New York: Doubleday. Sarna, Nahum. 1970. Understanding Genesis: The World of the Bible in the Light of History. New York: Schocken Books. _____. 1988. Exploring Exodus: The Heritage of Biblical Israel. New York: Schocken Books. Strauss, Leo. 1997. Jewish Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity: Essays and Lectures in Modern Jewish Thought, ed. Kenneth Hart Green. Albany: State University of New York Press. The Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. The City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993). Visotzky, Burton L. 1996. The Genesis of Ethics. New York: Crown. Wiesel, Elie. 1976. “Joseph, or The Education of a Tzaddik.” Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends. New York: Simon & Schuster. Wildavsky, Aaron. 1989. “What Is Permissible So That This People May Survive? Joseph the Administrator.” PS: Political Science & Politics 22, no. 4 (December): 779–88. Index

Aaron, 90–2, 94–8, 107, 111, Asher, 115, 118, 185 113–18, 121–4, 138, 152, 161–2, Asherah, 204, 205, 210, 212 171, 184, 205 Assyria, 60, 62, 74, 215, 219, 220, Abel, 2, 3, 16, 17, 73, 109, 135, 165 221, 230 Abiathar, 200, 201, 209, 225 Athaliah, 104, 209–11 Abimelech (of Gerar), 30, 38, 110 Abimelech (of Shechem), 186–7 Baal (Baalim), 161, 185, 204, 205, Abiram, 121–3 210, 212 Abishag, 199 Babel, Tower of, 2, 17, 22–5 Abraham (Abram), 2, 24–51, 54–6, Babylon, 6, 15, 22, 23, 32, 50, 70, 58, 61, 62, 66, 68, 69, 72, 76, 101, 134, 206, 209, 213, 218, 79, 85, 93, 104, 110, 135, 147–9, 220–5, 228 163, 190, 221 Balaam, 125–7, 185 , 23, 200 Balak, 125–7 Adam, 3, 7, 11–14, 16–18, 20, 25, Barak, 183–4 76, 79, 173 Bathsheba, 200–1 Adonijah, 200–1, 209, 225 Benaiah, 200, 201 Agag, 194, 196, 197 Benjamin, 53, 57, 66, 68, 77, 78, Ahab, 127, 144, 204, 205, 209 115, 118, 129, 167, 183, 184, Ahaz, 213, 215 193, 219, 223 Ahaziah (of Israel), 209 Bethel, 28, 56, 61, 112 Ahaziah (of Judah), 104, 209, 210 Bethuel, 27, 45 akeidah (), , 52, 56, 77, 115, 147, 148 38–43, 149 Bloom, Harold, 75 Alschich, 70 Boaz, 116, 182 Alter, Robert, 6, 7, 70 Amalek, 100, 180, 183, 184, 194–7 Caesar, Julius, 84 Ammon, 24, 36, 147, 178, 187–8 Cain, 2, 3, 12, 16–18, 109, , 36, 200 135, 165 , 84, 86, 148 Caleb, 124 Anastaplo, George, 139, 238, 244 Canaan, 2, 18, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, antedeluvian generations (moral 32, 43, 44, 49, 51, 52, 54–8, decline), 16–19 62, 67, 69, 72–4, 80, 99, Arameans, 32, 44, 53, 60, 69, 70, 100, 102, 103, 118, 124, 208, 209, 211, 220 125, 127, 132, 136, 146, Aristotle, 2, 22, 139, 158, 165, 147, 149, 160, 161, 173, 198, 199 181–3, 196 256 INDEX

Carmichael, Calum, 80, 138, 243, Eve, 3, 11, 12, 14, 16–18, 25, 76 244, 246, 247 , 221, 225–8 Caro, Joseph, 165 Carter, Jimmy, 145 Flood story, 19–22 Christianity, 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 25, 50, Freud, Sigmund, 202 144, 150, 160, 161, 163, 164, Friedman, Richard Elliott, 20, 221 177, 182, 191, 196, 204, 213, 216, 225, 226, 227, 229, Gabriel, 191, 214 238, 240 Gad, 59, 115, 118, 128, 132, Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 93 185, 187 Creation story, 3–9 Gideon, 183, 185, 186, 189, 193 Cyrus, 228 Goliath, 197, 198 Gomorrah, see Sodom Dan, 59, 60, 112, 115, 118, 128, 185 Gottfried, Paul, 227, 239 Dathan, 121–3 Greeley, Horace, 224, 225 David, 15, 24, 36, 62, 70, 74, 75, 86, 104, 112, 114, 116, 127, 182, Hagar, 30, 33, 48, 66, 76, 148 193, 194, 197–201, Ham, 22–4, 52, 147 208–11 Haman, 196, 197 Dead Sea, 13, 36 Hamor, 55, 69, 149 Deborah, 183, 184, 189, 193 Hannah, 191 Dinah, 36, 55, 104, 149 Haran, 25, 26, 148 Haran (city), 2, 26, 27, 29, 44, 51 Edom, 49, 50, 103, 124, 184 Hazael, 211, 220 Egypt, 1, 2, 5, 23, 29–33, 35, 50, Hebron, 43, 242 51, 56–8, 60, 63–73, 75–8, Heidegger, Martin, 240 83–101, 103–6, 109–12, 114, Hertz, J. H., 8, 11, 40, 71, 79, 84, 119, 122, 129, 135, 137, 138, 88, 94, 116, 117, 118, 120, 140, 140, 141, 146, 149, 152–4, 157, 153, 157, 166, 167, 168, 171, 158, 162, 172, 180, 172, 176, 177, 181, 199, 214, 183, 184, 194–7, 201–3, 216, 224 214, 220, 221 , 213, 215 Eldad, 120 Hilkiah, 203 Eleazar, 130, 132, 162, 171 Hobbes, Thomas, 141, 145, 207, Eliezer of Damascus, 29, 30, 44 236, 247 Elijah, 106, 127, 161, 204, Hosea, 217 205, 220 Hur, 184 Enoch (line of Cain), 17 Enoch (line of Seth), 21 Isaac, 22, 27, 29, 31, 33–5, 38–55, Ephraim, 58, 59, 62, 69, 74, 85, 86, 58, 60–2, 66, 68, 69, 72, 76, 79, 114–16, 118, 128, 184 83, 85, 93, 103, 147, 148, 190, Ephron, 42, 43 191, 228, 229 Er, 74, 80, 148, 149 Isaiah, 15, 70, 133, 212, Esau, 47–52, 54, 55, 59–62, 66, 213–18, 221 69, 75, 79, 103, 180 , 27, 29, 33, 34, 37, 48, 55, Esther, 70, 196, 197 66, 76, 229 INDEX 257

Israel (Northern Kingdom), 15, 60, 118, 128, 129, 149, 62, 74, 112, 114, 129, 204, 206, 154, 162 208, 209, 212, 215, Josephus, 202 219, 221, 230, 231 Joshua, 62, 86, 116, 120, 121, 124, Israel (person), see Jacob 129, 130, 132, 152, 181–4, Issachar, 115, 118, 184 195, 221 Joshua (high priest), 228, 229 Jabal, 18 , 203, 219, 221 Jabesh-gilead, 178 Jotham (King of Judah), 213 Jabin, 183 Jotham (son of Gideon), 186 Jacob (Israel), 1, 2, 12, 23, 24, Jubal, 18 34–6, 47–62, 64–9, 72–5, Judah, 17, 52, 58, 59, 66, 68, 77–81, 83–7, 93, 99, 104, 74–81, 85–7, 104, 115, 110, 115, 127, 128, 135, 147–9, 116, 118, 128, 129, 148, 152, 190 149, 185, 200 Jael, 183, 184 Judah (Southern Kingdom), 15, Japheth, 22, 23 74, 86, 104, 112, 114, 182, 203, Jehoiada, 210, 211 209, 211, 213, 215, Jehoiakim, 221 219–25, 230 Jehoram (Joram) (of Israel), 206, 207 Kahan, A. Y., 152, 161 Jehoram (Joram) (of Judah), 209 Kass, Leon, 141, 237, 240 Jehu, 209, 210 Keturah, 46 Jephthah, 183, 187–9, 193 Kierkegaard, Søren, 38 , 70, 182, 212, 215, kings of Israel and Judah (table), 212 218–25 Korah, 15, 121–5, 172, 173 Jericho, 129, 181 Jeroboam I, 60, 62, 112, 138, Laban, 12, 27, 44, 46, 51–3, 61, 209, 230 62, 79, 104 Jeroboam II, 230, 231 Lamech (line of Cain), 18 Jerusalem, 40, 50, 112, 152, 200, Lamech (line of Seth), 238 206, 210, 211, 215, 217, 222, Leah, 51, 52, 55, 57, 72, 81, 87, 225, 228 115, 148 Jesus, 15, 72, 133, 145, 146, 177, , 23, 59, 77, 84, 85, 112, 182, 191, 223, 226, 227 114, 116–18, 122, 128, 147, 148, Jethro, 88, 90, 104, 105, 162 162, 163, 165–7, Jezebel, 127, 144, 204, 205, 169, 172 209, 210 Lincoln, Abraham, 223, 246 Joash (Jehoash), 203, 209–11, 230 Livy, 176 Job, 14, 15, 229 Locke, John, 158, 188, 247 , 84, 86, 87, 148 Lot, 24, 26–30, 32, 36, 37, 52, Jonah, 127, 212, 215, 220, 76, 147 229–33 Jonathan, 176, 197–9 Machpelah, 1, 43, 55, 72, 110 Joseph, 1, 2, 23, 42, 43, 51, 55–60, Maimonides, Moses, 4, 101, 125, 62–79, 83–7, 90, 100, 114, 115, 135, 165, 169, 226, 247 258 INDEX

Malbim, 125 Paddan-aram, 51–4, 58, 67–9, 100 Manasseh, 58, 68, 115, 118, 128, Paine, Thomas, 230, 248 132, 184, 187, 212 Pangle, Thomas, 236 Manoah and wife, 189–91 Paul, St., 9, 240 Mary, Virgin, 191 Persia, 15, 196, 228, 229, 244 Medad, 120 Pharaoh, 1, 29, 30, 33, 57, 58, 60, Melchizedek, 32, 163 63–8, 70–3, 83, 87, 88, 90–3, Mephibosheth, 199, 210 94–9, 101–3, 110, 129, 151, Merneptah, 88, 245 158, 183, 201, 203, 210, 214, Messiah, 73, 164, 165, 204, 217 238, 243 Midian, 88, 125, 128, 132, 162, Philistia (Philistines), 35, 59, 60, 185, 193 100, 103, 149, 178, 183, Midrash, 8, 42, 242 189–91, 194, 197, 198 , 25–7, 42, 45, 148 Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, 23 Miles, Jack, 41, 221 Plato, 5, 15, 18, 20 , 95, 102, 121, 172, 183 Plaut, Gunther, 161 Moab, 24, 36, 103, 116, 125, 127, Potiphar and wife, 65, 68, 70, 128, 147, 187, 188 71, 149 Mohammed, 168 Poti-phera, 70, 85, 162 Molech, 18, 39, 149 Powell v. Alabama, see Scottsboro Mordecai, 196, 244 trial (Powell v. Alabama) Moriah, Mt., 38–40 Prager, Dennis, 141 Moses, 4, 9, 19, 27, 34, 35, 43, 56, priesthood (kohanim), 32, 39, 66, 60, 73, 79, 83–184, 190, 195–7, 68, 70, 84, 85, 100, 106, 202, 203, 205, 206, 210, 214, 107, 113, 116, 117, 122, 215, 226 130, 131, 160–5, 171, 172, 189, 193, 194, 200, 201, Naamah, 18 203, 209, 211, 212, 219, Naboth, 144 225, 228–30 Nachmanides, 1, 247 Puah, 87 Nahor, 25–7, 42, 45, 148 Naomi, 103, 199 Rachel, 51–3, 55–7, 64, 81, 87, Naphtali, 115, 118, 128, 184 104, 115, 148, 242 Nathan, 200–1 Rad, Gerhard von, 75 nazir (Nazirite), 170, 190–1 Rahab, 181–2 Nebuchadnezzar, 222 Rashi, 1, 12, 23, 39, 93, 117, Nietzsche, Friedrich, 138, 142, 144 179, 235 Nineveh, 127, 180, 220, 230–3 Rebekah, 25–7, 44–6, 48, 49, 51, Noah, 2, 3, 16, 19–24, 25, 52, 74, 55, 58, 68, 69, 72, 76, 79, 86, 87, 147, 218 103, 104, 148 , 76, 112, 182, 209 Odysseus, 33–4 Resh Lakish, 6 Oedipus, 86 , 23, 52, 56, 59, 69, 76, offerings, see sacrifices 77, 115, 118, 121, 122, Og, 125, 128 128, 132, 147, 148, Onan, 17, 74 185, 187 INDEX 259

Rome, 17, 22, 50, 73, 84, 93, 166, slavery, 2, 10, 11, 22, 23, 29, 176, 177, 187, 219, 223, 227 31–3, 43, 57, 58, 63, 65, Ruth, 103, 199 67, 68, 71, 73–8, 83, 86, 90, 93, 97, 100, 102, 112, Sabbath (Shabbat), 4, 9, 10, 15, 107, 118, 119, 122, 131, 139, 110–11, 113, 132, 135, 137–9, 149, 151–8, 165–7, 141, 142, 150, 155, 163, 165, 193, 195, 223–5, 246 166, 169, 197 Socrates, 5, 15 sacrifices, 16, 18, 19, 24, 27, 29, Sodom, 15, 17, 32–3, 35–9, 43, 34, 35, 38–42, 48, 54, 84, 147, 149, 163 91, 92, 99, 110, 112, 113, 115– Soleveitchik, Chaim, 39 18, 136, 141, 147, , 70, 76, 112, 182, 193, 150, 153, 154, 158, 160–2, 164, 200–2, 207–9, 225 165, 168, 170, 173, Sorenson, Leonard, 78 188–90, 194, 201, 205, Spinoza, Benedict de, 130 215, 232 Syria, 44, 126, 215, 220, see also Samson, 59, 170, 189–91, 193 Arameans , 70, 94, 149, 170, 191–8, Szold, Benjamin, 179 201, 208, 210 Sarah (Sarai), 1, 25–7, 29, 30, 32–5, (David’s daughter), 36, 200 37, 38, 41–2, 45, 46, 48, 66, 72, Tamar (Judah’s daughter-in-law), 76, 79, 110, 135, 148, 52, 74–7, 80–1, 86–7, 191, 242, 243 104, 148 Sarna, Nahum, 9, 24, 63, 157 Yonasan, 8, 41 Satan, 14–16, 42, 228, 229 Temple, 40, 42, 102, 152, Saul, 70, 104, 149, 167, 176, 178, 164, 165, 202, 203, 182, 191–4, 196–8, 210–13, 218, 219, 222, 208, 210 225, 228 Scottsboro trial (Powell v. Terah, 25–7, 44 Alabama), 35–6 Toqueville, Alexis de, 174 Seth, 3, 18, 20 Torah, 47, 51, 55, 56, 69, 74, 78, Sforno, Ovadiah, 12 94, 99, 101, 111, 117, 131, 132, Shechem (city), 1, 29, 55–7, 69, 77, 143, 145–7, 151, 152, 155, 157, 85, 110, 128, 186, 243 159, 160, 165, Shechem (son of Hamor), 36, 55, 169, 170, 173, 179, 180, 104, 149 183, 187, 191, 192, 217, Shelah, 75, 76, 80, 148 218, 224 Shem, 20–3, 25 Torquatus, Titus Manlius, 176 Shiphrah, 87 Tubal-Cain, 18 Sihon, 125, 128, 187, 188 Simeon, 57, 59, 68, 77, 85, 115, Ur, 26, 27, 44 118, 128, 129, 185 Uriah, 200 Sinai, Mt., 2, 56, 105–10, 114, Uzziah, 213, 215 116, 119, 124, 135, 162, 205, 213–15 Vilna Gaon, 10, 11 Sisera, 183, 184 Visotzky, Burton, 46, 49 260 INDEX

Washington, George, 198 Zebulun, 115, 118, 184 Wiesel, Elie, 73, 101, 230 Zechariah, 14, 15, 228–9 Wildavsky, Aaron, 64, 67, 76 Zedekiah, 221, 222, 224 Zelophehad, 167 YHWH (), 60, 90, 93, 96, 136, 141 Zeresh, 197 Zilpah, 52, 115 Zadok, 201, 225 Zimri, 186 Zarathushtra, 15 Zipporah, 104