midrash session 6
May. 12th, 2009 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellio
As before, I'll try to preserve punctuation (to make it a little easier to see where I am) even if that makes the phrasing a little awkward.
(1) As soon as the satan saw that they would not accept [infer: input] from him, he went and caused a great river to be before them. [Verb is nifal "make" or "do"; is there a better rendering than "caused to be"?] (2) Immediately Avraham went down into [lit within] the waters up to his knee [lit arrived until his knee]: they came after him. (They who? Yitzchak and the servants?) (3) They went down after him. (4) As soon as he arrived halfway [across] the river the waters reached his neck.
(I'm not sure why it uses "keivan", "as soon as", instead of "when". Perhaps to imply a sense of things happening quickly?)
(5) At that time Avraham lifted his eyes to the heavens, he said before him: Master of the world! (6) You were close to me and you revealed to me and you spoke to me: "I am alone and you are alone, upon your hand my name will be known in my world, Yitzchak your son will be casued to go up (grammar uncertain...) before me as a burnt offering (") -- and I didn't delay and I beheld [unknown - 'osek] in your command, and now "the waters come up to the throat" (quote is from Psalms 69:2) -- if I or Yitzchak my son (drown?), who will establish (from) your saying (?), and upon whom will your name be (caused to be) unique?"
(In other words: I'm doing what you ordered, but now this satan is going to drown one of us and who will do this thing for you then?)
(7) The holy one blessed be he said to him: on your life, upon your hand my name will be (caused to be) unique in the world. (8) Immediately the holy one blessed be he rebuked the river and it was dry, and they stood on dry land.
(Aside: So the midrash is giving Avraham a Moshe moment of sorts?)
New paragraph: (9) What did the satan do? (10) He said to Avraham: such I heard behind the curtain (idiom for "secretly"): the lamb is the offering and Yitzchak is not the offering. (11) He said to him: such is the punishment for a liar, that even when he speaks truth he is not listened to.
(Yes, it says lamb (or kid), not ram. No actual lamb makes an appearance in this story, at least in the torah itself.)
Approximately. As always, corrections, clarifications, and general enlightenment are welcome.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 03:08 am (UTC)I think you're right about kaivan being a sense of immediacy here.
In (6), 'osek': and behold, I am doing/busying myself with your command. Also, the quote from Psalms is technically coming "up to his soul," which can very well mean throat :-).
I find it interesting that not only did the water have to come up to his neck, but he has to pray as well; the one who leaped into the Red Sea caused it to split from his faith alone.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 03:42 am (UTC)osek: argh! I am forever being done in by homophones in words I first learned phonetically, like "la-asok b'divrei torah" every single morning. Sigh. Some part of my brain was convinced tonight that that was a sin, not a samech. I think I got it when we studied, though. Odd.
I find it interesting that not only did the water have to come up to his neck, but he has to pray as well; the one who leaped into the Red Sea caused it to split from his faith alone.
According to one midrash, anyway. Now I wonder if there are other takes on Nachshon...
It makes sense, though. Avraham was the first, so (1) the relationship with God is still being worked out and (2) aren't the patriarchs said to have established the three daily prayers? If Avraham had such a pivotal role in the institution of prayer in the first place, isn't it logical that the midrash would show him using it? In contrast, the folks at the sea were being guarded by a pillar of fire after a miraculous rescue from Mitzrayim; maybe demonstrating faith was sufficient and they didn't have to verbalize it there.