Hell, no one else was sayin’ it so the atheist of the crew figured he’d jump in. Apparently this week’s parsha is ‘devarim’. You may remember the book of Deuteronomy such biblical texts as Kings II, 23:25 and Chronicles II, 34. The book was ‘found’ during the reign of Josiah as renovations to the temple were going on.

Have a great shabbat and a nice weekend.

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grandmuffti

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  • Damn. Oh well, that’s what happens when you let an atheist do the shabbat greeting.

  • Uh yeah. It’s Parshat Ekev, which amongst other things, teaches us “it is the trait of piety and the ways of wisdom for a person to be compassionate.” In light of that I will restrain myself from making fun of you for your really bad error Baal Korey boy. And a gutten Shabbes to you too!

  • From here on in, I’m gonna call Muffti “Baal Koreh Boy.” Or maybe just BKB, for short. Shabbat shalom to all…

  • shabbat shalom (time differences, sun hasn’t set here yet… don’t worry)

    + atheist? what’s up with that? non-observant, or non-believer? the former i can understand (somewhat), but do you actively deny the Divine?

  • Muffti thinks that on balance, the existence of the Divine seems pretty dubious to him. And Muffti is always baffled that one could uunderstand non-observance without non-believing. If you believe in God, what the hell is wrong with you not observing what he says?

  • baffled by Muffti’s abusive use of negatives in comment #7. but I think Rambam would embrace him as a budding student.

  • i am observant. but faith comes before practise. i forgive the non-obversant.

  • Muffti,

    I find it amusing how non-Jews and other apparently slightly ignorant Jews come up with all these cockamainy (is that how its spelled?) theories of Deutoronomy being found. Why don’t they ask the ‘people of the book’ the ones who had it for all these years?!

    What do you think it means by they ‘found’ the book? Where did they find it- Right in the temple! Not much different than a reformed Jew who was brought up not to fear G-d who would one day stumble into his synagogue and stumble upon what neither his fathers nor rabbis keep. He finds the torah buried somewhere and out of use.

    Thats how it was in those days the kings were rebellious and worshipped other gods and ignored all the warnings and the curses.

    Do you really think Josiah was so stupid as to listen to some book if it was completely brand new and not heard of before?!

    The word ‘found’ is often used to mean the reseeing of something out of mind and out of sight. Here is one example:
    http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et3306.htm
    “1 On that night could not the king sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written, that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh…”
    -clearly the king new about his book and what mordecai did-but it was out of mind until it was ‘found.’

  • Two notes from the semantics Nazi:

    1. cockamamie
    2. Reform Jew (not reformed Jew, unless the Jew in question was imprisoned for a crime and now has turned over a new leaf)

    I’m going back to my corner now.

  • Oy, Schmo, you are SO defensive! Muffti meant nothing bad or offensive or even irreligious. The point of the square-quotes around ‘found’ were to indicate the mysterious nature of the story that occurs in the relevant passages. Muffti knows better than to tangle on torah issues with the likes of people who actually know what they are talking about. He knows he is far more than slightly ignorant. So chill the fuck out and stop reading everything you dislike into what people say.

  • Actually, while we’re on the topic…muffti would like to get clear on two things (to help repair his ignorance):

    First, there is a disanalogy with the story of Esther. The people around Josiah barely recognize the book, which is odd given that it was a part of the Torah. Then again, it seems theyhadn’t kept passover for a long time so who knows exactly what kinda shape they were in.

    Second, why do they make such a big deal about finding hte book?

  • “unless the Jew in question was imprisoned for a crime and now has turned over a new leaf”

    lol!

    muffti, just give it up.

  • David,

    The unobservant aren’t yours to forgive. But faith without practice seems to Muffti to be patently irrational.

    What is Muffti supposed to give up?

  • my vote is with heschel (and perhaps muffti) that faith follows action much more than the other way around.

  • Love it.
    Even though it was Parshat Ekev, it is still the Book of Devarim, right?
    Schmo, if you only knew how much of that rant you had up there was misfounded… not saying that Devarim ain’t Devarim, but that bit about the kings and warnings and curses etc?

  • Muffti,
    From the words its sort of hard to tell how much they recognized it. Its also possible that some of them were not so interested in recognizing it being for so long in a rebellious state but Josiah the King was overseeing it so there was no choice. That could be similar to the servants of Ahashwerosh who many think weren’t so crazy about giving Mordecai credit but after all couldn’t not read the book that the king asked them to. In both cases Josiah and Purim the servants are reading the book vs talking on their own about it (isn’t that what implies to you their unfamiliarity?).

    Another possibility is that the High priest and the scribe were interested in the book and they figured that instead of talking on their own to ‘let the book do the talking’ to have more impact.

    Truth is that its hard to tell if they were surprised – maybe its just the narration style to say it matter of fact: ‘I have found…’

    Me,
    Usually when there is a reference to the book of Devarim the whole 5th book of Moses in meant. As you noted the main curses are later in the 5th book in Ekev and Ki Tavoh, now what they found in the temple by king Josiah I’m pretty sure contained warnings and the curses as is implied by
    http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et09b22.htm
    “13 ‘Go ye, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.’ 14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe–now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter–and they spoke with her. 15 And she said unto them: ‘Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto me: 16 Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read;”

    Also the word ‘Devarim’ is not mentioned -that is mentioned by commentators who beleive that it was Devarim because of the warnings and curses that frightened King Josiah.