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<DIV>New subject:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">Has anyone ever looked at Judges 11
(in any Greek, Latin, English, or other European translation) and wondered how
it could be acceptable in any way shape or form for a man to sacrifice his own
daughter as a burnt offering, or how a just and merciful G-d, not to mention one
who keeps his own word, could have allowed or accepted such a thing, several
centuries AFTER Abraham was told to withhold the knife from Isaac?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">greenBubble probably knows the
answer, but since we never asked, he didn't think to mention the subject. I am
informed, by another Orthodox Jewish man, that no such thing ever happened. And
no, the Bible does not lie, but the translators can get very
confused.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">I am informed that Jeptha (Yiftach
ha-Gil'adi -- to put his name into its proper form) made the following rash vow:
<FONT color=#00ffff></FONT><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">"Im nathon
titten eth bnei Ammon b'yadi, v'haya ha-yotze asher yetze mi-dalthei beythi
li-qrathi b'shuvi b'shalom mi-bnei Ammon, v'haya la-Shem v'ha'alithihu ola."
(Judges XI,30-31)<BR><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">In order to err on the side of over-precision
in translation, the rabbi gave the meaning as: <FONT color=#00ffff></FONT><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">"If giving you shall give the sons of Ammon
into my hand, it will be that the exitor who/which will exit from my house
toward me on my return in peace from the sons of Ammon, will be Ha-Shem's and I
shall elevate him/it an elevation."<BR><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#00ffff
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">The term ola (root ayin-lamed-hei) refers to
any object or person elevated to a status of enhanced sanctity, such that
something or someone possessing that status may not serve or be used for any
secular purpose. In the case of an animal raised to such a state, this means
that it may not be milked, sheared, bred, worked, eaten, or have its hide used
for anything; hence, it is burnt up on the altar (assuming it is free of
blemish), because nothing else can be done with it. If it has a blemish, it
simply lives out its life in pasture, in isolation from others of its
kind.<BR><BR>When Yiftach saw his only child, his daughter, coming out of his
door, he was upset, because the girl was unmarried, and now would never be
married, and so he would never have any grandchildren; his line would end. For
this reason, he tore his garment.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">Personally, I found the error in
translation understandable, since the common practice might well have been to
offer almost anything else so "elevated" as a burnt offering. Asking further I
received the following answer:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">
<DIV><FONT color=#00ffff>I discovered that your conjecture was correct, and that
the <EM><STRONG>Greek verb </STRONG></EM>used to translate the Hebrew he'ela
(which really means "elevate") <STRONG><EM>is </EM></STRONG>a specific reference
to making a burnt offering. Whoever is responsible for the received Greek
translation of Judges (it is of unknown provenance) plainly misunderstood the
text. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">I found this clarification
something of a relief, and also a useful cautionary tale on the errors that can
arise from simple misunderstandings in translation. Handel wrote a whole opera
for nothing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #400000">Siarlys<BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV></FONT>
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