Awesome: The Hasmonean uprising was a turning point in Jewish history: for the first time since the Babylonian exile the Jews fought a regional power and won. That victory led to the re-establishment of a politically independent Jewish commonwealth under a Jewish monarch for the first time since the destruction of the First Temple. And yet, the Talmud doesn’t even mention it! While the philosophy of quietism so evident in the Mishah and Talmud has often been attributed to fear of the non-Jewish authorities, this attitude in fact appears to be part of a conscious pedagogical program which started with the Tanakh itself. Bible scholar Jacob Wright maintains that the Tanakh was written with the aim of providing a blueprint for a stateless nation. One might add: The attitude toward heroic death in 1 Maccabees is the same as what we observe for Mesopotamia and Greece. It’s just what we would expect for any society, ancient or modern. A soldier’s knowledge that his name would be remembered with honor is crucial as he prepares to sacrifice his life for others. In a very concrete way, such commemoration guarantees him an afterlife, similar to the afterlife that one’s progeny (“namesake”) provides. Yet when we come to the Hebrew Bible, we find that it is completely devoid of any move to glorify this type of name-making. This remarkable absence speaks volumes about the ethos and concerns of the biblical authors. haaretz/jewish-world/the-jewish-thinker/.premium-1.632215
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 16:52:45 +0000
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