Showing posts with label We have met the enemy.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label We have met the enemy.... Show all posts

Jul 28, 2010

The Cushite Woman - August 2

Summer Tanach Studies
Monday, August 2, 2010, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Eitz Chayim Community Room
Topic "The Cushite Woman"
Zipporah, the Cushite Woman, Miriam and Moses
Review Zipporah (previous blog)
Num 11:35-12:9 and Related Texts
Bring wine and food as desired.
Bring your own Tanach if possible

Notes from Zipporah and Bridegroom of Blood

It may be useful to look over the notes prior to the class on Cushite woman.   In the discussion, some suggested that since God had decreed circumcision with Abraham, Moses was not in compliance and therefore Zipporah needed to circumcise  Moses.  In this view, it was not Gershom who was circumcised.   My notes  contain an alternate view.

Keturah and Midian
Ø      Gen 25:1-2  After death of Sarah, and Rebekkah moves into Isaac’s tent – Moses takes Keturah for wife– one son is Midian.  (nomadic desert tribes) –
Ø      Gen 25:6 sons of Abraham’s concubine (pilagesh) are sent eastward.  (Perhaps Keturah’s sons.).  I Chron 1:32 states “Sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine (pilagesh).   Pilagesh is between wife and slave, technically independent, sustained by man, yet free to leave.  (TWC p 125)

Jul 2, 2010

Summer Tanach Studies July 19


Summer Tanach Studies 
Monday, July 19, 2010, 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm 
Eitz Chayim Library
NOTE NEW TIME AND PLACE
Topic is  
The Midianites: Priests?  Monotheists? 
Zipporah, the Cushite Woman, Miriam and Moses
Ex 4:24-26 "The Bridegroom of Blood"
Num 11:35-12:9 "The Cushite Woman" 
And Related Texts 
Please do not bring food as this is the beginning of the fast of Tisha B'av. 
If anyone would like to stay after class and read Eicha (Lamentations) together, we can do so
 


Jun 24, 2010

The formation of the Israelites

To those who were in the Canaanite class, thanks for sending me back to check on my comments about the Iron Age being responsible for cisterns and creating terraces. 

Although a huge number of cisterns were required, along with clearing the wilderness and creating the terraces in the settlement in the hills of Palestine in the time of Joshua (about 1200 BCE), the evidence that iron tools made this possible is thin.   What is certain that there was a huge amount of physical labor involved in the settlement, in creating the irrigation systems and the vineyards etc.  Carol Meyers says "The role of the Israelites as inventors of technology is a moot point.  What stands out is the presumably unprecedented and widespread use of cisterns in the pioneer period [time of Joshua circa 1200 BCE].... The number of implements made of iron in proportion to bronze does not rise significantly in the Iron I period.  Whether iron or bronze tools, the physical effort involved was sustantial."  Discovering Eve, pg 55.   See also the PBS Nova series "The Secrets of the Bible." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/

Jun 22, 2010

Texts for Canaanites – from Curse to Conquest

Topic Text Notes


















Appearance in Text









Gen 9:20-27 Curse of Canaan by Noah - Ham saw father's nakedness = ervah ערה




implies shameful exposure - BdB 788






rainbow right before this in text






Adam & Eve nakedness = arumim - Gen 2:25, 3:7,10 - not ashamed ערמ

Who "they" are
exposed - bare






Gen 10:15-10 List of Canaan's descendents - Jebusites, Amorites, Gergishites, etc



Ex 3:8,17, 34 List of tribes, Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites

What is wrong with them?








Lev 18:3,6,7 Do not be like Canaanites - do not uncover ervah - implies act of rape ערה


Lev 18:24-30 do not defile yourselves like them - Canaanites as sexual degenerates.


Lev 20:22-26 do not follow their practices - you shall possess the land




Jun 20, 2010

Summer Tanach Series "We Have Met the Enemy and S/he is Us"

                                                http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm

MONDAY, June 21 – Canaanites – from Curse to Conquest

MONDAY, June 21 – Canaanites – from Curse to Conquest
TUESDAY, July 6 – topic tbd
MONDAY, July 19 – topic tbd
MONDAY, August 2 – topic tbd
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm in the Eitz Chayim Community Room
136 Magazine Street, Cambridge
Feel free to bring brown bag dinner and/or wine

Through a close and intertextual reading of selected Biblical texts, we will explore the intersection of gender and politics in the ancient Israelite love/hate relationship with the outsider/other.

Each session will be completely stand-alone. Come to any or all.

Neither prior text study nor knowledge of Hebrew is required. Penina will supply the text choices. Bringing your own tanach (Bible) will be very helpful.

Topics may include
• Moabite women (and Ruth and David) – the permeable boundary between insider and outsider
• The Cushite woman (and Miriam and Moses)
• The Adam and Eve - is Creation in the image of God androgynous? Is YHVH gendered?