Dear Friends,
Coming and going... Sometimes they are very different experiences, and sometimes they may be the same. And sometimes we don’t know if we are coming or going!
Being perplexed in relation to where we are and where we are with others is quite normal. Our very verbs reflect that reality.
Take the opening verse in this week’s Torah portion. God speaks to Moses and instructs him, “Bo el Par’oh." Literally, “Come to Pharaoh." However, many, if not most, commentaries translate the verb as “Go to Pharaoh.”
What does that little verb, “Bo,” truly mean? Is it “Come,” or is it “Go?” In our Reform Movement Torah commentary, the author, the late Rabbi Gunther Plaut, suggested it was better understood as “enter,” reflecting that Moses and Pharaoh would enter final negotiations to let the Israelites depart Egypt.
The ambiguity and uncertainty in words in most, if not all, languages, and especially in translations, offer either unnerving conundrums or exciting conversation. Just recently, a group of about a dozen TBJ adults completed a three-session series reviewing the newest Torah translation, this one written by a group of Reform Rabbis and academicians. In our newest translation, the translators and editors are seeking to preserve the ambiguity inherent in the Hebrew and not polish it over or render explanations, so that the English reader may be treated to the richness of the discussion of varied, possible meanings. In that discussion, the text comes alive.
Last Monday, I was privileged to attend the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., birthday celebration at one of our African-American churches in Newburgh. There was much reading and teaching of biblical texts (and, comfortably for me, the primary texts were from the Hebrew Bible, not the New Testament). However, I found it uncomfortable that some truly enigmatic verses were treated as absolute, as they were read from the King James Version, which scholars know is fraught with intentional and unintentional mis-renderings of the Hebrew text.
Whether digging into complex ancient manuscripts, compelling modern poetry, or deciphering the latest text message shorthand from my children, the richness is in the digging and the discovery. Such is the beauty of communication, especially written communication, which allows for reading and rereading.
If we don’t dig in and give it thought, we may not know if we are coming or going!
With Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Coming and going... Sometimes they are very different experiences, and sometimes they may be the same. And sometimes we don’t know if we are coming or going!
Being perplexed in relation to where we are and where we are with others is quite normal. Our very verbs reflect that reality.
Take the opening verse in this week’s Torah portion. God speaks to Moses and instructs him, “Bo el Par’oh." Literally, “Come to Pharaoh." However, many, if not most, commentaries translate the verb as “Go to Pharaoh.”
What does that little verb, “Bo,” truly mean? Is it “Come,” or is it “Go?” In our Reform Movement Torah commentary, the author, the late Rabbi Gunther Plaut, suggested it was better understood as “enter,” reflecting that Moses and Pharaoh would enter final negotiations to let the Israelites depart Egypt.
The ambiguity and uncertainty in words in most, if not all, languages, and especially in translations, offer either unnerving conundrums or exciting conversation. Just recently, a group of about a dozen TBJ adults completed a three-session series reviewing the newest Torah translation, this one written by a group of Reform Rabbis and academicians. In our newest translation, the translators and editors are seeking to preserve the ambiguity inherent in the Hebrew and not polish it over or render explanations, so that the English reader may be treated to the richness of the discussion of varied, possible meanings. In that discussion, the text comes alive.
Last Monday, I was privileged to attend the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., birthday celebration at one of our African-American churches in Newburgh. There was much reading and teaching of biblical texts (and, comfortably for me, the primary texts were from the Hebrew Bible, not the New Testament). However, I found it uncomfortable that some truly enigmatic verses were treated as absolute, as they were read from the King James Version, which scholars know is fraught with intentional and unintentional mis-renderings of the Hebrew text.
Whether digging into complex ancient manuscripts, compelling modern poetry, or deciphering the latest text message shorthand from my children, the richness is in the digging and the discovery. Such is the beauty of communication, especially written communication, which allows for reading and rereading.
If we don’t dig in and give it thought, we may not know if we are coming or going!
With Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
