Biblical Hebrew Blog by ClassicalHebrew.com

The Festival of Passover
There exists a very strong and powerful Jewish tradition remembered and enacted every year, called the Festival of Passover. This Festival is bittersweet because by remembering it one recalls that as a nation they were enslaved, but also as a nation they were freed through the miracle of God!

The miracle of God is in fact the tenth plague sent against the Egyptians because Pharaoh would not release them from slavery (Exodus 12-13). This plague takes the form of God’s Destroyer, also referred to as the Angel of Death. At the prescribed time this judgment of the Lord swept through and destroyed all the first-born of man and animal in Egypt. Those who were spared were those who followed the orders of God to sacrifice a year-old sheep or goat and paint its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their homes.

These images have become powerful symbols for the Jewish nation today, which while not painting the blood on their doorposts do remember the event by coming together and eating a specially prepared meal. This meal commemorates God’s saving act.

You may ask yourself why is this miracle more important than other miracles- for example the splitting of the Reed Sea? The passing over of the angel of death taught the Hebrew slaves an important lesson that they had not yet learned- that their God was mighty to save, and was not restricted by geographical boundaries. In the heartland of Egypt with Pharaoh on his throne and a legion of powerful deities at his command- there was yet one more powerful than all, Yahweh.

So this April 19^th-26^th it is important to remember that Yahweh led his people out of captivity, but in addition, remember that he is all-powerful and can reach out to save, wherever his people dwell in slavery.

The Book of Psalms

The Psalms, traditionally attributed to King David, are a unique collection of 150 (or in the Septuagint, 151) different short poems, which vary in their genres and purposes. These include songs of praise and thanksgiving, laments, prayers, liturgies, reflections of wisdom concerning different aspects of life, and songs concerning the kingship of Israel and other national matters. There is evidence that some Psalms were used as prayers in the Jerusalem Temple, accompanied by musical instruments, and the varied works have been useful throughout the centuries as prayers expressing an abundance of situations which may come upon believers. The call “Praise the Lord! Give thanks to YHWH for he is good, for his mercy endures forever!” (Psalms 106:1) has probably been in constant use for over two millennia, and the entire Book of Psalms is central in the religious practices of the Bible-based religions: Judaism and Christianity.

In correspondence with the Pentateuch, the Psalms are divided into five books (Psalms 1-41; 42-72; 73-89; 90-106; 107-150), thus equating the five books of Moses and their importance to the five books of David. The end of each book is marked by a praise of “Amen” or “Hallelujah.”

While reading the Psalms, we can learn much about the religious beliefs and poetic conventions that were current when they were written. In terms of beliefs, they present a happy man as one who delights on the study of Scripture and the Lord’s teachings, they glorify the God of Israel and the world He created, and mention the belief in a chosen Messiah. As for the characteristics of poetry, they teach us about the way a poetic line is built, the customary rhythm, and parallelism: an ancient convention which was popular throughout the Ancient Near East, as for example in Psalm 33:10: “YHWH dismisses the counsel of the nations // frustrates the thoughts of the peoples.”

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The Wisdom literature of the Bible was not necessarily officially defined as such in biblical times, but can be described as those books which include different kinds of advice which is based on wisdom and experience. The books included in this category are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job, and from the Apocrypha – the Proverbs of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon.

While the meaning of the word “wisdom” is rather clear in modern times, in biblical times it is slightly more complex. Initially, this word denoted any kind of expert: God says of Bezalel, who designed the instruments of the desert Tabernacle, that “I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom and intelligence…”. However, eventually, the word came to denote an expert in rhetorical arts, and from there received its meaning as one who is an expert in giving advice.

Contrary to popular thought, biblical wisdom is not necessarily religious in character. It often has more to do with good practical and moral advice, which is usually presented in the form of a proverb. The most significant compilation of such proverbs is found, naturally, in the Book of Proverbs, which is comprised of nine collections of proverbs. In these are included different kinds of advice, scolding, general sayings defining different aspects of life, encouragement of the fear of God, and in the last chapter – the description of the Woman of Valor.

Another important book belonging to the Wisdom Literature is the Book of Ecclesiastes, in which Qoheleth, traditionally identified as Solomon, describes his life-time search after Wisdom in a manner reminiscent of the Greek philosophers. After presenting the various questions he tried to solve and discovering the limits of human thought, Qoheleth pessimistically concludes that all human efforts to understand the world are futile and people must simply enjoy what they have in life and fear God.

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