Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Crazy busy

Major project after major project at office, Pesach prep at home.  Will post when I have a minute to breathe.  Pesach kasher v'sameach.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Double-Parsha Vayakhel-P'kudei, 5775/2015

Link to some previous P'kudei posts of mine.  And to Vayakhel alone.


Parshat P'kudei:


כא  אֵלֶּה פְקוּדֵי הַמִּשְׁכָּן מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת, אֲשֶׁר פֻּקַּד עַל-פִּי מֹשֶׁה:  עֲבֹדַת, הַלְוִיִּם, בְּיַד אִיתָמָר, בֶּן-אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן.21 These are the accounts of the tabernacle, even the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were rendered according to the commandment of Moses, through the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.--


Is this the Torah's first use of the term HaLeviyim, the Levites, as opposed to B'nei or Shevet Levi, the Children or Tribe of Levi?  This would seem to indicate that the Leviim had a distinct function of serving in the place of worship even before they were officially given that role--which, to me, seems to indicate that the reason given for the Leviim having that role was a justification after the fact.

Thursday, March 12, 2015 update
The grammar is the tip-off.  Do we call the descendants of Reuven Reuvenim, or the descendants of Benjamin Binyaminim?  (In Megillat [the Book of] Esther, Mordechai, a Benjaminite,  is described as "Ish Y'mini.")  I may be wrong, but it seems to me that only the descendants of Levi get a pluralized name, Leviim.

There's also the fact that the word Kohen (priest) is not of Jewish origin:  In the Tanach/Bible itself, pagan priests are also described as Kohanim--see B'reishit/Genesis, chapter 14:

יח  וּמַלְכִּי-צֶדֶק מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם, הוֹצִיא לֶחֶם וָיָיִן; וְהוּא כֹהֵן, לְאֵל עֶלְיוֹן. 18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was priest [kohen] of God the Most High. 

So are pre-Levitical Israelite priests.

I  began to wonder whether the term Leviim might also be pagan in origin.

Curious, I did an Internet search, "does the name levi have pre-biblical origins," and this is what I got:

"Etymology of the name Levi
There is some controversy about the etymology of the name Levi. BDB Theological Dictionary suggests that the name Levi was derived from the word Levite, in stead of vice versa, and that the word Levite has to do with a Minaean word for priest."

So, naturally, I did another Internet search for "Minaean word for priest," and this is what I found, courtesy of Wikipedia:

"according to some Jewish scholars, Levite was originally just a job title, deriving from the Minaean word lawi'u meaning priest, rather than having been the name of a tribe.[4"

Makes sense to me.


See also DovBear's Did only Levites leave Egypt?

Pinchas and the priesthood

From Parshat Tetzaveh:

כא  בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד מִחוּץ לַפָּרֹכֶת אֲשֶׁר עַל-הָעֵדֻת, יַעֲרֹךְ אֹתוֹ אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו מֵעֶרֶב עַד-בֹּקֶר--לִפְנֵי יְהוָה:  חֻקַּת עוֹלָם לְדֹרֹתָם, מֵאֵת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.  {ס} 21 In the tent of meeting, without the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall set it in order, to burn from evening to morning before the LORD; it shall be a statute for ever throughout their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel. {S}


מג  וְהָיוּ עַל-אַהֲרֹן וְעַל-בָּנָיו בְּבֹאָם אֶל-אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, אוֹ בְגִשְׁתָּם אֶל-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְשָׁרֵת בַּקֹּדֶשׁ, וְלֹא-יִשְׂאוּ עָוֹן, וָמֵתוּ:  חֻקַּת עוֹלָם לוֹ, וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו.  {ס}
43 And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they go in unto the tent of meeting, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die; it shall be a statute for ever unto him and unto his seed after him. {S}



יט  וְרָחֲצוּ אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו, מִמֶּנּוּ, אֶת-יְדֵיהֶם, וְאֶת-רַגְלֵיהֶם. 19 And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat;
כ  בְּבֹאָם אֶל-אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, יִרְחֲצוּ-מַיִם--וְלֹא יָמֻתוּ; אוֹ בְגִשְׁתָּם אֶל-הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְשָׁרֵת, לְהַקְטִיר אִשֶּׁה לַיהוָה. 20 when they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to cause an offering made by fire to smoke unto the LORD;
כא  וְרָחֲצוּ יְדֵיהֶם וְרַגְלֵיהֶם, וְלֹא יָמֻתוּ; וְהָיְתָה לָהֶם חָק-עוֹלָם לוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ, לְדֹרֹתָם.  {פ} 21 so they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not; and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.' {P}




יא  פִּינְחָס בֶּן-אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן-אַהֲרֹן הַכֹּהֵן, הֵשִׁיב אֶת-חֲמָתִי מֵעַל בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּקַנְאוֹ אֶת-קִנְאָתִי, בְּתוֹכָם; וְלֹא-כִלִּיתִי אֶת-בְּנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, בְּקִנְאָתִי.11 'Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned My wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was very jealous for My sake among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in My jealousy.
יב  לָכֵן, אֱמֹר:  הִנְנִי נֹתֵן לוֹ אֶת-בְּרִיתִי, שָׁלוֹם.12 Wherefore say: Behold, I give unto him My covenant of peace;
יג  וְהָיְתָה לּוֹ וּלְזַרְעוֹ אַחֲרָיו, בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם--תַּחַת, אֲשֶׁר קִנֵּא לֵאלֹהָיו, וַיְכַפֵּר, עַל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.13 and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'

It appears to me that the descendants of Aharon/Aaron were already promised the priesthood, so what's the big deal about Pinchas?

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

My palace for a plain peanut :(

Ingredients in local-supermarket-brand dry-roasted unsalted peanuts:  Dry-roasted unsalted peanuts.

Ingredients in well-known-brand dry-roasted peanuts :

Ingredients: PEANUTS, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: SEA SALT, SPICES (CONTAINS CELERY), DRIED ONION, DRIED GARLIC, PAPRIKA, NATURAL FLAVOR, SUGAR, GELATIN, TORULA YEAST, CORNSTARCH, DRIED CORN SYRUP, MALTODEXTRIN. CONTAINS: PEANUT. MANUFACTURED ON EQUIPMENT THAT PROCESSES SUNFLOWER SEED, TREE NUTS.

It's too bad that the store brand isn't always available, because I have no interest whatsoever in paying for ingredients that I don't even want.  Sugar, yeast, dried corn syrup, maltodextrin?  On peanuts??

Monday, March 09, 2015

Shoes! :) (Yes, Shira's being silly)

Yesterday was the first time in about a month and a half that I've left our apartment building in shoes instead of boots.  The temperature rose to an astounding 48 degrees Fahrenheit, and is expected to reach 50-something on Wednesday.  It's a miracle!  :)

That said, I'm a cockeyed pessimist, and am convinced that we'll have snow during Pesach/Passover.  I hope sled dogs like matzah.  Mush!  :)

Location, location . . .
The area in which our office is now located gets much more traffic than our old neighborhood, and I don't mean just vehicular traffic--after clocking out on my first day there, I was startled by the number of pedestrians zipping past me.  I felt like a pin in a bowling alley.  :)  I've since become an expert at merging into oncoming traffic.

Location

Reducing my gas consumption, so to speak
Looks like the Punster is going to be eating most of the romaine around here, after all--raw veggies and I don't seem to be entirely compatible.  I'll be eating steamed carrots as my second vegetable, instead, and pouring olive and/or coconut oil and sunflower seeds on one veggie or the other, or on my "starch."  That should keep both my skin and my cranky metabolism happy.

In better news . . .

This old dog learns a new trick
My Nook having long since bitten the dust, I finally decided to try ordering an e-book and seeing whether I could read it on my smartphone.  Success!  My next experiment will be to try to figure out how to "borrow" library books on my phone.  Wish me luck.

*DIY = do it yourself

Monday, March 02, 2015

Kidneystone Kops*

Sorry, I couldn't resist the dreadful pun.

There'll be no more mixed salad greens with even the smallest amounts of spinach or chard for me, ever--the convenience isn't worth the pain.  We'll just have to go back to doing our own tearing up and washing of kidney-safe salad greens.

*Keystone Kops
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