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Bd-'emeq ha-baka (Psalms 84:7) interpreted as 'Vale of tears' in early Jewish exegesis and beyond*
C. Aslanov
Aix-Marseille Universite-LPL, 5, avenue Pasteur, 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France 1,_|J St. Petersburg State University,
f-H 7-9, Universitetskaya nab., St. Petersburg, 199034, Russian Federation
For citation: Aslanov C. Ba-emeq ha-baka (Psalms 84:7) interpreted as 'Vale of tears' in early Jewish exegesis and beyond. Issues of Theology, 2020, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 94-105. http://doi.org/10.21638/spbu28.2020.106
h-Q The present study tracks the genealogy of the figurative-paronymie interpretation
ÇJ that considers N33 baka (Psalms 84:7) a reference to tears and weeping from the
Septuagint to several rabbinic Jewish sources where the term emeq ha-baka has been identified either as a reference to the Gehenna (Targum and Talmud), as a r^ metaphoric denomination of the mundane Vale of tears in the liturgical poem
j | nai'N pay Itt'W Sosan 'emeq ayumah or as a figurative denomination of the Exile in
O Isaiah of Trani's commentary to Psalms 84:7, as well as by two Renaissance Jewish
authors, Joseph Ha-Kohen Ha-Rofe and Rabbi Shelomo Alqabes. Following David PQ Qimhi's interpretation of the verse, the author suggests rereading the hemistich in
Psalms 84:7 in a more litteral way through the identification of N33 baka with the mulberry tree. Qimhi's isolated interpretation is all the more tempting in that the Latin term bacca/baca "berry" itself could be viewed as the borrowing of the Phoenician or Punic word baka, parallel to Hebrew N33 baka.
Keywords: Septuagint, Targum, Talmud, classical piyyut, Isaiah of Trani, Joseph Ha-Kohen Ha-Rofe, Shelomo Alqabes, Punic loanwords in Latin.
Introduction
The first hemistich of Psalms 84:7 ЮЗП рйУЗ ПЛУ 'obre Ьэ-emeq ha-baka "Who passing through the valley of Baca..." (KJV) contains the mysterious term юз baka that was understood as a mere toponym and therefore left untranslated in the King James Version (see quote above). Perhaps because this term is so obscure, it was paronymically connected with the Hebrew root П-Лзз bky/-h "to cry". From this psychological understanding of юз baka, an allegorical exegesis of the whole phrase юзп рйУЗ Ьэ-emeq ha-baka emerged. Instead of referring to
* The research was funded by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 17-18-01295) at St. Petersburg State University.
© Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет, 2020 © Общецерковная аспирантура и докторантура
им. святых равноапостольных Кирилла и Мефодия, 2020
94 http://doi.org/10.21638/spbu28.2020.106
a concrete valley planted with a tree named юз baka (as in II Samuel 5:23-24 where the form is used twice in the plural сргаз bska'lm), юзп pay 'emeq ha-ba-ka was perceived as meaning "the valley of weeping". The first attested occurrence of such an interpretation is found in the Septuagint where юзп pay? bs-emeq ha-baka was rendered by eL; r^v коЛаба той кЛаибц^ос; "to the valley of weeping". Likewise, the above-mentioned occurrence of the plural form □,кзз bs-ka'lm in II Samuel 5:23-24 is translated by the same word K\au0^v "weeping" (also in the singular though the original □,!03 bska'lm appears in the plural). This figurative reading of the hemistich that probably relies on wordplay1, has been reproduced by the various Latin translations of the Psalms: in convalle plorationis in the Vetus Latina; in convalle lacrimarum in Jerome's translation juxta LXX; and in valle fletus in his translation juxta Hebraeos.
Parallel to this exegetical twist that goes back to Hellenistic Judaism and its Christian continuation, the interpretation of the first hemistich of Psalms 84:7 as referring to "the valley of tears" is well attested in rabbinic Judaism. The present study will try to track the genealogy of the figurative-paronymic interpretation that views юз baka as a reference to tears and weeping in several rabbinic Jewish sources: i) the classical Palestinian piyyut exemplified by a piece traditionally ascribed to Ele'azar Ha-Kalir (c. 570-c. 640); ii) two sixteenth-century Jewish sources, the historical treatise юзп pay 'Emeq ha-baka by Joseph Ha-Kohen Ha-Rofe (1496-c. 1575) and Rabbi Shelomo Alqabes's (1505-1584) renowned hymn Lekha Dodi that celebrates the entrance of Shabbath; iii) a more recent secularized recycling of the term юзп pay 'emeq ha-baka in order to refer to the murderous tank battle waged on the Golan Heights in October 1973.
Lastly, this article will suggest rereading the hemistich in Psalms 84:7 in a ^^ more litteral way through the identification of юз baka as a specific tree species ^ч whose name does not have anything to do with the root n-/'33 bky/-h "to cry".
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Rabbinic echoing of the paronomasia ф
between MN bk' and МП bkh щ
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The paronymic way of interpreting K33 baka as connected with the root n-/'33 bky/-h "to cry" was not limited to the Septuagint and the Christian exegesis founded in the text of the Alexandrine Bible. Indeed, an interesting parallel may be traced between the early Christian crystallization of the motive of the Vale of tears on the one hand, and similar motives in the core of Rabbinic literature on the other hand. Before the more recent extrapolation of the concept Q^ of the Vale of tears as a metaphor for earthly life, it seems that Late Antiquity Jewish and Christian commentaries both stressed another signification of the Vale of tears, that of penitence in the afterworld. Thus in an explanation to Psalm qq
__tom 2
1 On wordplay in the Hebrew original Book of Psalms and its rendering in the Septu- 2020
agint, see: Backfish E. H. P. Hebrew Wordplay and Septuagint Translation Technique in the Fourth Book of the Psalter. London: T&T Clark, 2019. №1
№1 83(84) spuriously attributed to John Chrysostom2, the phrase eiq x^v KoiXaSa xou K\au0^wvoq is glossed as ev T® %®piffl x^q ^sxavoiaq "in the place of peni-2020 tence". Such a mention would be too laconic to be understood as a mention of penitence in the afterworld if it were not for an explicit connection between the phrase N330 p»i?3 ba-emeq ha-baka of Psalm 84:7 and the Gehenna in a word-byword commentary of the verse in the Talmud of Babylon ('Eruvin 19a):
itonn' an1? p'asa» inn wnpn irai "js pais» ms m :'n:ns'
wxh mawi pin ns arrVs lynx»® :'mia nosr iro-o as' n'n1»fsas msm rrnai pn» .'nyre1? ito .mm'! mm iupn ns'i ro^n hd1 ns1 ,rm no1 ,D"7isimT
„
"ovre': ellu bane adam sa-'ovrln al rasono sel haq-qados baruk hu; "emeq': sa-ma'amlqlm lahem gehinnom; 'ha-baka: ss-bokln u-morldln dsmaot ks-ma'yan sel sltln; 'gam bsrakot ya'teh moreh': ss-masdlqln alehem et ha-dln vs-omrlm ls-fanav: 'Ribono sel olam, yafeh danta, yafeh ziklta, yafeh hiyyavta vs-yafe tiqqanta gehinnom la-rssa 'lm, gan eden las-sadlqlm'.
J2
'Passing' ('ovre): those are the people who trespass (ovrln) the will of the Holy one, blessed be He; 'valley' ('emeq): because they make the Gehenna deeper ^^ (maamlqln) for themselves; ha-baka: because they cry (bokln) and shed tears like
the flowing of the altar pits; 'the rain also filleth blessings': because they accept the justice on themselves and they say him: 'Lord of the universe, you properly judged, you properly acquitted; you properly condemned; and you properly prepared the >«✓ Gehenna for the wicked and the Paradise for the justs'.
PQ
The identification of N330 p»i?3 ba-emeq ha-baka with the Gehenna, a place of crying and repentance, goes back to Palestinian Jewish traditions. Indeed it is reverberated in an old Targum, the Targum Tehillim ("Targum of Psalms") that is of clearly Palestinian Jewish origin, as shown by the specific blend of Aramaic in which it was written:
r3'??7? nto? I?T3 tin1? rcrra to Nri"?3 103 mm Sy n^T wytn
.H'rr-™ isSw?
resi'ayya ds-'avrln 'al 'umqe gehinnam bakyan bikysita hek ma'ayaina yssavUneh; Is-hodbirkanya'atof li-ds-taylvln Is-Ulpan oraiteh.
"The wicked who cross over the valleys of Gehenna, weeping — he will make their weeping like a fountain; but those who return to the teaching of his Torah, he will cover them with blessings".
This interpretation is further reverberated in later commentaries: Rashi (1040-1105) and David Qimhi (1160-1235) ad locum. However, as we will see
2 Joannis Chrysostomi opera omnia quae exstant / ed. Bernard de Montfaucon. Paris:
Gaume, 1836. Vol. V, part II. P. 935. — Psalm 83 (84) does not figure among the 58 psalms figuring in his Commentary of the Psalms. See: Hill R. C. Saint John Chrysostom Commentary on the Psalms. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1998.
at the end of the article, the latter who eclectically compiled various exegetical traditions, also recognizes merely a botanic term in the noun baka of 'emeq ha-baka.
It seems that the identification of KD3H pays bo-emeq ha-baka with the Gehenna has been conditioned by the etymology of the Hebrew term DirTS, ge-hinnom "Gehenna" etymologically or paretymologically related to Din K'j gey ben hinnom "the valley of the son of Hinnom"3. Since pay emeq and K'j gey are synonymous, the phrase KD3n pay:? bo-emeq ha-baka could have been perceived as referring to the infernal valley of Dirp} gehinnom, probably connected to K'j Din gey ben hinnom, the place where the sacrifices to Moloch were perpetrated (II Kings 23:10) and where Jeremiah prophetized the eschatological massacre of the wicked (Jeremiah 7:32).
3 See: Kutscher Y. Millim u-toldoteihen. Jerusalem: Kiryat Sefer, 1961. P. 66.
4 On the influence of Greek rhetoric on the Hebrew piyyut in Byzantine Palestine, see:
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The paronomosia between N33 bk' and ЛЭ3 bkh in an early medieval liturgical poem: from the afterworld to this world
A significant semantic shift occurred when юзп рауз bs-emeq ha-baka was reinterpreted not only as the afterlife infernal valley, the Gehenna or the place of punishment of the wicked after their death, but as the mundane Vale of tears. The change from the afterlife to the world here below is illustrated in the liturgical poem па^к рау цгпФ Sosan 'emeq ayumah, traditionally recited during the additional prayer (Musaf) of the Day of Atonment in the Ashkenazi tradition, that is, during a solemnity that stresses the nothingness of the human being in comparison to God's almightiness. This piyyut, that Abraham Ibn 'Ezra erroneously attributed to Ele'azar Ha-Kalir, was most likely composed after Kalir's death (c. 640), but before 900 (terminus ad quem) in a Byzantine Jewish context (Palestine or Southern Italy) where the Septuagint rendering of юзп рауз Ьэ-emeq ha-baka as eiq r^v KotA.d6a той KÁ.au0^wvoc; was certainly known in spite of the rabbinic reluctance toward the text of the Septuagint, identified with the Christian appropriation of the Jewish Torah.
Some formal anomalies in the incipit of this poem confirm that its Hebrew phrasing was shaped by latent poetic devices directly inspired by the Greek rhetoric legacy4. First of all, it displays a strange lack of agreement between цгщ рау sosan 'emeq "lily of the valleys" and па^к ayumah "awful" or rather паяк йyyэmah "threatened". This anomaly has already drawn the attention of Abraham Ibn 'Ezra (c. 1089-1167) in his commentary to Ecclesiastes 5:1. According to Ibn 'Ezra, the use of the feminine is wrong with цглФ sosan5. However, this morphosyntactic irregularity is perfectly legitimate from the vantage point of
О PQ
Aslanov C. Romanos the Melodist and Palestinian Piyyut: Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic Perspectives // Bonfil R., Irshai O., Stroumsa G. G., Talgam R. (eds) Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011. P. 613-628, especially p. 617-622. 2020
5 Gómez Aranda M. Grammatical Remarks in The Commentary of Abraham Ibn Ezra on Qohelet // Sefarad. 1996. Vol. 56, fasc. 1. P. 61-82, especially p. 76. №1
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№ ] Greek rhetoric where this agreement according to the meaning and in spite of the gender is called ката auveatv "according to the understanding".
Moreover, the incipit sosan emeq ayumah (uyyamah) does not just reverberate the translation of юзп pays ba-emeq ha-baka as ei; r^v коЛаба той кХаиВц^о;. It also conflates together two Biblical phrases integrated in the text of the poem by dint of the poetical device known as sibus "cento": Q'payn ri3Eh№ sosannat ha-amaqim "the lily of the valleys" (Song of Songs 2:1), which the alle-^^ gorical exegesis of the Song of Songs identifies with the Assembly of Israel, and юзп pay 'emeq ha-baka understood as "vale of tears". Beyond the phrase sosan w 'emeq ayumah (uyyamah) it is possible to recognize a formula such as pay цгпФ юзп sosan 'emeq ha-baka "the lily of the vale of tears", which is implicit in sosan 'emeq ayumah (uyyamah) "the threatened lily of the valley" or maybe "the lily of the threatened valley" or possibly "the lily of the awful valley" if the reading navx ayumah "awful" is to be preferred to ЛОТК uyyamah "threatened".
Moreover, the transformation of the phrase Q,payn sosannat ha-
'amaqim of Song of Songs 2:1 implicitly alluded to in the formula pay Iti^ sosan 'emeq, obeys a specific device of the arsenal of Greek rhetoric, namely the apo-^^ cope or to use the same term as Aristoteles in his Poetics (1457b), the aphaeresis (the exact term used by Aristoteles is a^^pn^evov "shortened"). By means of this recognized device of Greek rhetoric, пзкп^ sosannah is truncated to ittii^ sosan and the determined plural Q,payn ha-'amaqim becomes the singular pay 'emeq without the article. This could be an explanation for the lack of gender agreement between nW sosan and пагк /паяк ayumah/uyysmah: not only an agreement ката auveatv, but the use of a masculine ittii^ that is actually a shortened feminine. In addition to this manipulation of the signifier that replaced the long form sosannah by the shortened one ittii^ sosan, there might also be a repercussion of the semantic shift that led sosannah to become a synonym of Til vered "rose", which is attested since Mishnaic Hebrew6.
The fact that the piyyut пагк pay nW Sosan 'emeq ayumah clearly relies on Greek rhetorical devices corroborates the assumption that it was composed in a Hellenized atmosphere where the influence of the Septuagint rendering of юзп pays fo-'emeq ha-baka as ei; r^v коЛаба той кХаиВц^о; is likely to have reactivated the paronomasia between юз bk' and ПЗЗ bkh.
Later reverberations of the paronomasia between N33 bk' and П33 bkh in medieval and Renaissance Hebrew literature
The transition from the Talmudic-Midrashic eschatological interpretation to the Classical Hebrew piyyut of Byzantine Palestine was characterized by a shift from the identification of юзп pay? bs-emeq ha-baka as a reference to the Gehenna to its reinterpretation as the mundane Vale of tears. A further step
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6 On this semantic evolution, see: Aslanov C. L'apocryphe réintégré: une réminiscence de Siracide 50, 1-21 dans l'hymnologie juive // Mimouni S. (ed.) Apocryphité. Histoire d'un concept transversal aux religions du Livre: En hommage à Pierre Geoltrain. Turnhout: Brepols, 2002. P. 31-43, especially p. 35-41.
in those changes of signification was made when the metaphysical meaning of mundane Vale of tears was restricted to a specifically national-politic dimension, that of mVl galut "Exile". The first attestation of this recentering from the general meaning of mundane Vale of tears to that of Exile appears in Isaiah of Trani's (c. 1165-c. 1240) commentary ad locum:
pay? naw ,r~fan ion para Q'-Qiy anw — rann para '-aw
.rnnoa
'ovre ba-emeq ha-bakà — Yisràël, sa-hem ovrîm ba-emeq ha-baka, va-zehù ha-galut, sa-dOmah Is-'ëmeq masugeret.
"'Who passing through the valley of Baca...' — The Israelites, because they pass in the Valley of Baca, which is the Exile, that is similar to a closed valley".
With the substantial laconism that characterizes his exegetical method and without entering into eschatological-metaphysical considerations, Isaiah of Tra-ni simply identifies the mysterious "Valley of Baca" with the Exile. Incidentally, it is interesting to see that in the medieval blend of Hebrew used by this Jewish Italian commentator, the word pay 'emeq is perceived as feminine, probably under the influence of the Italo-Romance word valle: rmoa pay 'emeq masugeret "closed valley" instead of the expected -noa pay 'emeq mesugar. In light of this lack of gender agreement motivated by Isaiah of Trani's Italo-Romance surroundings, one could apply the same explanation in order to provide an account for the lack of gender agreement in the incipit of the afore-mentioned piyyut navK pay Sosan 'emeq ayumah. In addition to or instead of the interpretation that recognizes the lack of gender agreement between 'emeq and ayumah, one also could ascribe this violation of the Hebrew grammatical rules to the Proto-Italo-Romance surroundings, which makes sense if this liturgical poem had been composed shortly before 900 in Byzantine Italy. |—|
Moreover, it is worth noting that the term rmoa pay emeq masugeret "closed valley" seems to translate the toponym Vallis clausa (Provençal Vau-clusa), literally "closed valley", which is the name given to the highest part of the gorge of the river Sorgue in Provence, near Avignon.
It was precisely Avignon that gave birth to the above-mentioned Renaissance Jewish scholar Joseph Ha-Kohen whose historiographical treatise bears a title and a subtitle that clearly subscribe to the exegetical tradition initiated by Isaiah of Trani: r'3 ?y ray -wk riKirrn rmpn -so :KD3n pay 'Emeq ha-baka:
sefer haq-qOrot va-ha-talaOt aser avrù 'al Bet Yisrael "The Vale of tears: The book of the history and the tribulations that passed over the House of Israel"7.
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7 For a critical edition of this books, see: Joseph Ha-Kohen. Sefer 'Emeq Ha-Bakha (The Vale of Tears) with the chronicle of the anonymous Corrector / ed. by K. Almbladh. Uppsala: Acta том 2
Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1981. — On Joseph Ha-Kohen's messianic inspiration, see: Yerushal- 2020
mi Y. H. Messianic Impulses in Joseph Ha-Kohen // Cooperman B. D. (ed.) Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983. P. 460-487. №1
tom 2 2020
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A similar interpretation of the phrase K33n pay? bs-emeq ha-baka as a reference to Exile is found in the above-mentioned sabbatical hymn Lekha Dodi composed by a contemporary of Yosef Ha-Kohen, the above-mentioned Shelo-mo Alqabes. In the 3rd verse of the 3rd strophe of the poem (v. 13) pay:? rQE> 31 K??n rab lak sebetbs-emeq ha-baka, two verses were merged together according to the poetical device of the double cento. Indeed, the phrase K??n pay;? bs-emeq ha-baka was combined with another verse of the Bible ntn ~ir?3 ri3E> ddVot rab lak sebet ba-har haz-zeh "Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount" (Deutero-O nomy 1:6; KJV).
Both Yosef Ha-Kohen and Shelomo Alqabes were born a few years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain the former 4 years later and the latter 13 years later. For those Spanish Jews who had been brutally thrown out of their country, the equivalence stated by Isaiah of Trani between K??n pay? bd-'emeq ha-baka and riTa galut "Exile" was doubly meaningful inasmuch as it symbolized not only the long Exile of the whole Jewish nation far away from Zion after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, but also more specifically, the very recent banishment of Spanish Jewry out of Sefarad that seems to have unleashed escha-^^ tological hopes in the hearts of the expelled Iberian Jews8.
P^
Contemporary developments: between the figurative ^ and the literal meaning
PP Closer to modern day, the phrase KD?n pay? bs-'emeq ha-baka has undergo-
ne two opposite developments: on the one hand, the figurative meaning of "Vale of tears" was recycled in order to concretely refer to the tank battle held on at the eastern slopes of the Golan Heights between the 6th and 9th of October 1973; on the other hand, the literal meaning of KD? baka was reassessed by modern Bible scholars, which allowed for the redemption of the phrase and the verse in which it appears from the negative connotations that were associated therewith from the time of the Septuagint translation at least.
It seems that the use of the term K??n pay? bs-'emeq ha-baka as a reference to the tank battle appeared for the first time in Ronen Schorr's press chronicle published two months after the event (December 1973) in the IDF magazine Bamahane9.
Parallel to this recycling of an old metaphor transmitted by generations of Biblical interpreters, our time has witnessed an interesting come back of a non-metaphorical reading of the term KD? baka in the meaning of a species of tree. As a matter of fact, such an identification has been already suggested by David Qimhi both for Psalms 84:7 and for II Samuel 5:23-24. The Narbonese commentator suggested to identify KD? baka/WiQl bska'lm with the term D'rw tutlm "berries" that Qimhi probably intended in the meaning of "mulberry trees". This
8 Scholem G. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York: Schocken Books, 1961. P. 244250.
9 Benaya Y. Kohah sel millah // Bamahane. 2013. September 12. URL: http://www.gvura. org/a345093-%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%97%D7%94- (accessed: 25.01.2020).
reading is all the more tempting inasmuch as the word Q'rw tùtîm, not attested before the Mishnah (e. g. Maasrot 1, 2), is not genuinely Semitic. It is likelier to be an Iranian loanword in Aramaic and Hebrew rather than an Aramaic loanword in Persian. Indeed, the syllabic structure of Aramaic Mr^r tuta with the repetition of the same consonant in the 1st and 3rd positions makes it unlikely to be of Semitic origin.
It seems, therefore, that the concept of "berry" is apparently lacking in Biblical Hebrew unless we accept Qimhi's equivalence between the Biblical word KD3 baka/CPiO? baka'îm on the one hand, and the Mishnaic term Q'rw tùtîm on the other hand. When Qimhi proposed such an interpretation of the rare word KD3 baka/WiGl baka'îm, he was probably influenced by his own linguistic background. Indeed, Old Provençal and Catalan baia, Spanish baya and their Latin etymon baca/bacca may have induced the Languedocian Jew of Andalu-sian origin Qimhi to recognize in KD3 bâkâ/WiOl baka'îm a plant name. Curiously enough, what could be considered a haphazard paronymy motivated by a superficial likeness between the Hebrew and the Latin signifier may rely on a serious foundation inasmuch as in Latin itself, the word baca/bacca could be a Punic loanword. The connection reverberated by Varro (vinum in Hispania bacca "wine in Hispania <is> bacca") could corroborate this Semitic etymology of Latin baca/bacca since the Latin lexicographer did not specifically mention which of the languages in use in ancient Hispania is represented by bacca, a metonymic way to refer to the product of the grape considered a sort of berry10. Given the strong Phoenician, later Carthaginian, presence in a significant part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Semitic origin of baca/bacca is very likely. What makes it even likelier is the variation between baca and bacca at the level of Latin, as ^^ well as the fact that Varro gave the form bacca as the name of the wine in Hispania. This form with its geminated <cc> is a quite precise approximation for the ^^ dages before the begedkefat lenition started to be felt in some of the Northwest Semitic languages, that is, first and foremost in Aramaic, then in Aramaic-influenced Hebrew, and only to a lesser extent in Late Phoenician and Late Punic (c. third century BC). Admittedly, the Latin loanword sufes/suffes < Punic sufet/sufet "judge; magistrate", parallel to Hebrew QQt^ sofet, seems to reflect a Late Punic form that underwent the spirantization of [p] to [f]. However, it is possible that the loanword KD3 baka pertains to an older contingent of Semitic loanwords in Latin, words that had been borrowed from Phoenician and not necessarily from its Late Punic development. Lastly, it should be noted that in Latin itself, the ^^ sequence -VC--permutes with the sequence -VCC as in lîtera "letter" alternating with lïttera11. The alternation baca/bacca could be interpreted in the same way with the only difference that if it is a Semitic loanword, the form bacca is probably older than baca. In the case of lîtera/lïttera, however, the former precedes qq
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10 Varro Marcus Terentius. De lingua Latina: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Com- tom 2 mentary / ed. by W. D. C. de Melo. Oxford: Oxford University Press. VII 87. 2020
11 Leumann M., Hofmann J. B., Szantyr A. Lateinische Grammatik (1. Band: Lateinische
Laut- und Formenlehre). 5th ed. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1926-1928. § 184c. №1
№ 1 the latter, as shown by the archaic form leitera whose diphthong was eventually monophthongized in [-!-].
2oMo Whatever it might be, David Qimhi's reading of K33 baka/WiQl bska'im, as
referring to the mulberry tree, remains in clear contradiction with the allegorical/moralizing interpretation of the first hemistich of Psalms 84:7. Incidentally, in his commentary of the Prophets and Hagiographs, the Narbonese rabbi also suggests an allegorical reading of K33n pays '13$; obre bs-'emeq ha-baka whereby he connects the word KD3 baka with the word 'mj nibke yam "springs of the sea" in Job 38:16. Since the sea is a metaphor for the Torah, he interprets pay:? K33n bs -emeq ha-baka as
o
nosnn 'ran para
b3 -'èmeq m3bô 'e ha-hokmah "in the valley of the wells of wisdom"
h-Q However, this alternative interpretation, though still adopting the allegori-
O cal mode, is not connected at all with the lachrymose understanding of K33 baka as deriving from the root/'33- n bky/-h "to cry". Whatever it may be, the identification of K33 baka as "mulberry tree" appears after the allegory of the "springs of wisdom", as if it came to correct it and to provide the last word. In his concern to put the text he commented in an historical perspective without renouncing the allegoric dimension altogether, Qimhi anticipates Joseph Kaspi's ultra-rationalist PQ commentaries of the Bible12.
Conclusion
The text of the Bible is no less the final result of the long elaboration process that preceded the historical moment when it was written down than the starting point of the exegetical chain that elaborates on the meaning of the words and phrases in an atomistic way, taking isolated elements of the text as pretexts for the promotion of ideological representations reflecting the agenda of the various religions and of the competing trends within them.
This fundamental difference between an archaeological reading of the textual data and an approach more interested in the Nachleben of the text throughout its translations or interpretations, goes back to another basic dilemma of literary studies: what matters more between the genesis of the text, that is, its prehistory, its sources of influence, the creative act that brought it to existence as an oral or written text, or the study of its reception and reappropriations? Beyond this dilemma, it is easy to perceive the concurrence between a philological approach and an ideological one. The former considers the text a literary source able to reflect the cotext and the context within which it emerged, whereas the latter implicitly takes it for granted that the text was revealed or at
12 On Joseph ibn Kaspi's historical perspectivism, see: Aslanov C. Le provençal des Juifs et l'hébreu en Provence: le dictionnaire Sarsot Ha-Kesef de Joseph Caspi. Leuven; Paris: Peeters Editions, 2001. P. 118.
least, divinely inspired. For this second approach, which is actually the earliest one in terms of relative chronology, the reception of the text is more important because it unravels all the treasures of meaning concealed in the revealed text.
Turning back to Psalms 84:7, the main danger implied by the second approach is that it contributed to congealing inveterate habits of reading a certain verse instead of scouring the text from the scorias of transmission that often blurred the inner logic that preceded its creation. The alliteration between N33 baka and the root bky/-h "to cry" is a good example of the way the rhetoric of interpretation (paronomasia and allegorizing) obliterated the genuine meaning of some very concrete places both in Judaism and Christianity.
David Qimhi's return to the literal meaning of the hemistich allows to connect it in a more satisfactory way to the overall context of Psalm 84 that is characterized by the joyous atmosphere pervading the evocation of the Temple starting from verse 2: ^rn;??» niTH'-n» mah-yyadldot miskanoteka "How amiable are thy tabernacles!" (KJV). Admittedly, it has been suggested that in the microcontext of Book III of Psalms (Psalms 84-89), Psalm 84 might express a hopeless longing to the destroyed Temple in a postexilic situation rather than the rejoicing provoked by the frequentation of God's dwelling place13. In this hypothesis, the first hemistich of Psalms 84:7 could indeed involve a pessimistic note. However, such a reading has been likely conditioned by the lachrymose interpretation of the word N33 baka as connected to the root bky/-h "to cry". Therefore, Robert E. Wallace's reading of Psalms 84 could constitute a further example of the impact exerted by an allegoric-paronomastic interpretation that fails to understand the literal meaning of the mysterious term N33 baka. ^^
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References ^^
Aslanov C. (2001) Le provençal des Juifs et l'hébreu en Provence: le dictionnaire Sarsot Ha-Kesef de
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Joseph Caspi. Leuven; Paris, Peeters editions. Aslanov C. (2002) "L'apocryphe réintégré: une réminiscence de Siracide 50, 1-21 dans l'hymnol-ogie juive", in Mimouni S. (ed.), Apocryphité. Histoire d'un concept transversal aux religions du Livre: En hommage à Pierre Geoltrain. Turnhout, Brepols, pp. 31-43. t
Aslanov C. (2011) "Romanos the Melodist and Palestinian Piyyut: Sociolinguistic and Pragmatic Perspectives", in Bonfil R., Irshai O., Stroumsa G. G., Talgam R. (eds), Jews in Byzantium: Dialectics of Minority and Majority Cultures. Leiden; Boston, Brill, pp. 613-628. Ç^
Backfish E. H. P. (2019) Hebrew Wordplay and Septuagint Translation Technique in the Fourth
Book of the Psalter. London, T&T Clark. Benaya Y. "Kohah sel millah", in Bamahane, September 12, 2013. URL: http://www.gvura.org/
a345093-%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%97%D7%94- (accessed: 25.01.2020). Gomez Aranda M. (1996) "Grammatical Remarks in The Commentary of Abraham Ibn Ezra on
Qohelet", in Sefarad, vol. 56, fasc. 1, pp. 61-82. Hill R. C. (1998) Saint John Chrysostom Commentary on the Psalms. Brookline, MA, Holy Cross QQ
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13 Wallace R. E. The Narrative Effect of Psalms 84-89 // The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures. 2011. Vol. 11, art. 10, especially 7-8. URL: http://jhsonline.org/Articles/article_157.pdf (accessed: 29.01.2020). №1
№] Joannis Chrysostomi opera omnia quae exstant, ed. Bernard de Montfaucon. Paris, Gaume, 1836,
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Joseph Ha-Kohen. (1981) Sefer'Emeq Ha-Bakha (The Vale of Tears) with the chronicle of the anon-
2020 ymous Corrector, ed. Karin Almbladh, Uppsala, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Kutscher Y. (1961) Millim u-toldoteihen. Jerusalem, Kiryat Sefer.
SLeumann M., Hofmann J. B., Szantyr A. (1926-1928) Lateinische Grammatik (1. Band: Lateinische Laut- und Formenlehre). 5th ed. Munich, C. H. Beck.
^^ Scholem G. (1961) Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. New York, Schocken Books.
^^ Varro Marcus Terentius. (2019) De lingua Latina: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commen-
Otary, ed. Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Wallace R. E. (2011) "The Narrative Effect of Psalms 84-89", in The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, vol. 11, art. 10, especially 7-8. URL: http://jhsonline.org/Articles/article_157.pdf (accessed: 29.01.2020).
Yerushalmi Y. H. (1983) "Messianic Impulses in Joseph Ha-Kohen", in Cooperman B. D. (ed.), Jewish Thought in the Sixteenth Century Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
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^^ Author's information:
Q^ Cyril Aslanov — PhD, HDR, Professor; [email protected]
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Received: 13.01.2020 Accepted: 03.02.2020
Бэ-'emeq ha-baka (Пс 84:7) как «юдоль плачевная» в ранней и поздней еврейской экзегезе*
С. Асланов
Университет Экс-Марсель,
Франция, 13100, Экс-ан-Прованс, авеню Пастер, 5 Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет,
Российская Федерация, 199034, Санкт-Петербург, Университетская наб., 7-9
Для цитирования: Aslanov C. Бэ-emeq ha-baka (Psalms 84:7) interpreted as 'Vale of tears' in early Jewish exegesis and beyond // Вопросы теологии. 2020. Т. 2, № 1. С. 94-105. http://doi.org/10.21638/spbu28.2020.106
Настоящая статья исследует генеалогию аллегорического-парономастиче-ского толкования, согласно которому слово N33 baka (Пс 84 [83]:7) связано с юдолью плачевной, начиная с Септуагинты вплоть до раввинистических источников. В них термин emeq ha-baka воспрининимается либо как название геенны (Таргум и Талмуд), либо как метафора земного существа в литургической поэме лата pay ЦОТ^ Sösan 'emeq ayümah, либо как намек на Изгнание — например, у Исаии из Трани и у двух раввинов XVI в. Йосе-фа ха-Коен ха-Рофе и Шломо Алькабеца. Следуя предложенному Давидом Кимхи толкованию стиха Пс 84:7, автор предлагает понимать первое полустишие этого стиха более буквально, переводя слово N33 baka как «тутовое дерево». Это изолированное средневековое толкование любопытно тем, что латинское слово bacca/baca «ягода» само может считаться заим-
* Исследование выполнено в Санкт-Петербургском государственном университете при поддержке гранта Российского научного фонда (проект № 17-18-01295).
ствованием финикийского или пунического слова baka, соответствующего древнееврейскому ЮЗ baka.
Ключевые слова: Септуагинта, Таргум, Талмуд, классический piyyut, Исаия из Трани, Йосеф ха-Коен ха-Рофе, Шломо Алькабец, пунические заимствования в латыни.
Статья поступила в редакцию 13 января 2020 г. Статья рекомендована к печати 3 февраля 2020 г.
Информация об авторе:
Асланов Сирил — PhD, HDR, проф.; [email protected]
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