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<TITLE>RE: [GCFL-discuss] Jeptha</TITLE>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Did anyone else have trouble reading this letter? I could not read it until I cut and pasted it back in as plain text. In case anyone else couldn't read it, here is Siarlys' letter in full.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">greenBubble </FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2006 9:26 AM</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Subject: [GCFL-discuss] Jeptha</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">New subject:</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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></SPAN></P>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">(Actually, I never asked the question, because I was not aware how it was translated. gB)</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I am informed that Jeptha (Yiftach ha-Gil'adi -- to put his name into its proper form) made the following rash vow: "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)</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">In order to err on the side of over-precision in translation, the rabbi gave the meaning as: "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."</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">I discovered that your conjecture was correct, and that the Greek verb used to translate the Hebrew he'ela (which really means "elevate") is 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></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">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></SPAN></P>
<P DIR=LTR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Siarlys</FONT></SPAN></P>
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