Parshat Va-yeshev: Dotted Letters Alef and Tav

בס''ד


Be-reshit/Genesis 37:12 reads:

וַיֵּלְכוּ, אֶחָיו, לִרְעוֹת אֶת-צֹאן אֲבִיהֶם, בִּשְׁכֶם

And once, his brothers went to pasture their father's flock in Shekhem.

Va-yeilekhu, echaiv, lire'ot et-tson avihem, bi-Shekhem

The word את et has two dots, one over each letter, teaching that Joseph's brothers did not go to pasture the flocks in Shekhem but to "pasture" themselves: to eat, drink, and indulge in all pleasures, the "Alef-to-Tav" suggesting they tried everything! From A to Z! (AR"N 30b)

Shekhem is a 4,000 year old city. It was the first Israeli capital and the largest, most central city to our ancestors at that time and place in history, not a pastoral place. The dots appearing over the word for the direct article indicate the boys didn't go to feed and water their sheep, they went to feed and water themselves. They didn't graze their flocks in the big city, they partied.

Shekhem (known as Neopolis later by our Greek invaders and now called Nablus in Arabic) also had another name: Tel Balatah.
The root בִּלָּה means to have a good time, to enjoy life; to spend time hanging out.

So what this verse is really telling us is that Joseph's brothers parked their father's flock outside Shekhem, went inside and had a good time! "Wasting away again in Margaritaville..."

The narrative tells us that Jacob is sending Joseph to check up on his older brothers and report back, and it is on this trip that Joseph's brothers turn on him and he ends up enslaved in Egypt. So what had Jacob heard, and what did Joseph catch them doing in Dotan (דָּת means justice/sentence) that they had to dispose of him?

In the end, Joseph's brothers were sick and tired of the favouritism their dad showed him, and snapped. The Torah refers to Joseph here as a נַעַר na'ar, or youth, and Rashi tells us that his childish behaviour was de rigeur.

Jacob was concerned his elder sons were not properly looking after his sheep (vital investment property he had worked hard for many years over), and Joseph's repeated spying on them finally ended in his catching them at doing something really bad (the dotted letters Alef and Tav), being sold to foreigners and taken away to Egypt.

Rashi tells us that Shekhem is a place of misfortune for the Jewish People: Joseph was sold into slavery there, Dinah was raped there, and the kingdom of the House of David was divided there. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE.


Shekhem history: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/geo/Shechem.html
Dothan Project: http://www.gcts.edu/dothan/



Copyright A. Barclay, all rights reserved.

וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ Dotted Kiss in Parashat Va-yishlach

בס''ד


Be-reyshit/Genesis 33:4, Parshat Va-yishlach has a scribal peculiarity in the word וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ va-yishaqeyhu, "and kissed him". It can be found here in the following Chumashim:
Plaut p.219, Cohen p.201, Hertz p.125, Sforno p.181, JPS p.52, Jerusalem p.38, Stone p.176

Here we have Ya'aqov and Esav reuniting after decades of separation, having spent their lives competing against each other and defining themselves as so different from the other. The last time they saw one another was when Ya'aqov bought Esav's Firstborn Birthright for a bowl of lentils, after which Ya'aqov usurped Esav's blessing from their father Yitz'chaq and then hightailed it back to Paddan-Aram, to his mother Riv'qah's family, about ten miles east of Damascus.

Ya'aqov was returning home from exile to Israel, and to mend his relationship with his only sibling. A sibling with whom he defined what he was not. What am I? I am not him. It took twenty years of being away from each other for the brothers to finally meet as who they were, instead of who they were not. An intense narrative which many of us share.

וַיָּרָץ עֵשָׂו לִקְרָאתוֹ וַיְחַבְּקֵהוּ, וַיִּפֹּל עַל-צַוָּארָו וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ; וַיִּבְכּוּ.

And Esav ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him; and they wept.

Va-yaratz Eysav liq'rato va-yechab'qeyhu, va-yipol al tzavarav va-yishaqeyhu; va-yiv'ku.

The word וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ va-yishaqeyhu has six dots, one over each letter. Why?
What does this mean?

We are taught by several sources (Avot deRebbe Natan, Rav Hayim David HaLevi, among others) that where dots appear in our Holy writings that it means we are meant to either erase the word from the text altogether, or to apply its opposite meaning.

For example, perhaps the pasuq, the verse, is meant to read only, "And Esav ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck; and they wept", with no mention of a kiss.

Or, maybe this brotherly kiss was really something else? It is explained by the Rabbis that Esav did not sincerely kiss his brother Ya'aqov, rather he would have preferred to (Ba’al Ha-Turim; Avot deRebbe Natan 30b) give him a נְשִׁיכָה neshikhah, a bite - these two words have a similar sound. This was not a true reconciliation on Esav's part.

The root of the word "kiss", נִשֵּׁק, can also mean just to meet up with someone, or to get together casually (נָשַׁק). However, it can also mean "weapon", נֶשֶׁק, which is a word you'll be familiar with if you've ever entered an Israeli shopping mall, because the security guards with the metal detectors you have to pass through will search your bag and ask you if you have a nesheq, gun. It can also mean "to sting", like a scorpion.

Sibling rivalry is tough! Be-reyshit/Genesis 25:22-23 teaches us that these two boys had been fighting in utero! And now they embrace after so many years, and it stung them...

Alternatively, according to R' Shim'on ben Eleazar, this was the only time Esav was genuinely expressing his affection for his brother, and all other times it had been insincere.

So what do we do with this word? What do you think?



Copyright © A. Barclay.
Cross-posted on Facebook

Dotted Letters Example #2b: Be-reyshit/Genesis 19:33, Parshat Va-yeira

בס''ד


Be-reyshit/Genesis 19:33, Parshat Va-yeira relates the time when Lot is drunkenly seduced by his own daughters, after they escape the destruction of Sodom. You can find the verse in the following Chumashim:
Plaut p.132, Cohen p.98, Hertz p.69, Sforno p.99, JPS p.28, Jerusalem p.19, Stone p.90

וַתַּשְׁקֶיןָ אֶת-אֲבִיהֶן יַיִן, בַּלַּיְלָה הוּא; וַתָּבֹא הַבְּכִירָה וַתִּשְׁכַּב אֶת-אָבִיהָ, וְלֹא-יָדַע בְּשִׁכְבָהּ וּבְקוּמָהּ.

And they had their father drink wine that night. And the elder daughter went in, and slept with her father; and he didn't know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

“...ve-lo yada be-shikhvahh u-ve'qumahh.”

The root of the word וּבְקוּמָהּ, u-ve'qumahh, is קם. This is translated here as "arose" or "got up". It can also mean to be established or built, to be realized (as in a plan) or to persevere. And this is just what happened. The previous two verses, 19:31-32, read:

וַתֹּאמֶר הַבְּכִירָה אֶל-הַצְּעִירָה, אָבִינוּ זָקֵן; וְאִישׁ אֵין בָּאָרֶץ לָבוֹא עָלֵינוּ, כְּדֶרֶךְ כָּל-הָאָרֶץ.

And the elder daughter said unto the younger daughter, "Our father is old and there isn't a man in the world to come into us in the way of all the world.

לְכָה נַשְׁקֶה אֶת-אָבִינוּ יַיִן, וְנִשְׁכְּבָה עִמּוֹ; וּנְחַיֶּה מֵאָבִינוּ, זָרַע.

So, let us have our father drink wine, and we'll sleep with him so we can preserve the seed of our father.'

Ew.
So why is u-ve'qumahh such an important word? Because not only did each girl rise up after having intercourse with her father, but each girl did indeed realize her plan to establish herself through re-building their family by preserving their father's seed. They would persevere.
קם...קם...קם...

And that is why the scribal oddity in 19:33 is a dot above the second letter Vav in וּבְקוּמָהּ.

The dot tells us of one of Lot's great failings.

Lot's name (לוֹט) means covered, wrapped, concealed, veiled...so you never really knew the true man. He spent his whole life being mentored and supported by holy tzaddiqim Avraham and Sarah, yet when given the choice, he chose a life in Sedom and gAmorah.

Lot is like No'ach, only “relatively righteous” compared with the people around him. He may have been the most righteous person in Sedom, but that sets such a low bar...

Talmud Bavli Nazir 23a and Be-reyshit Rabah 51:8 say that the dotted Vav tells us that Lot was unaware of his elder daughter's lying down but by the time she'd finished with him he was aware of her getting up, and acted as if he wasn't.

Lot was innocent of the first incest incident, but the next night he still knowingly allowed himself to be seduced a second time, by his younger daughter. He knew and he didn't stop it.

This second Vav in וּבְקוּמָהּ is dotted because Vav means “hook”, and it is the letter of connexion. So this being the second Vav in the word and his being guilty of the second inappropriate connexion, it gets a dot to make us aware of this dimension of the story.

Shame on you, Lot. You were responsible to look after your traumatised children, not breed with them. You deserve grandchildren named Ben-Ammi ("son of my people/family") and Mo'av ("from Dad").


Copyright© A. Barclay

Dotted Letters Example #1: Be-reyshit/Genesis 16:5, Parashat Lekh Lekha

בס''ד


Be-reyshit/Genesis 16:5, Parshat Lekh Lekha has a letter Yud which is naqud, dotted above, in the word "u-veynekha". This word can be found in the following Chumashim: Plaut p.111, Cohen p.76, Hertz p.56, Sforno p.77, JPS p.22, Jerusalem p.15, Stone p. 70...

וַתֹּאמֶר שָׂרַי אֶל-אַבְרָם, חֲמָסִי עָלֶיךָ--אָנֹכִי נָתַתִּי שִׁפְחָתִי בְּחֵיקֶךָ, וַתֵּרֶא כִּי הָרָתָה וָאֵקַל בְּעֵינֶיהָ; יִשְׁפֹּט יְהוָה, בֵּינִי וּבֵינֶיךָ.

And Sarai said to Av'ram: 'This outrage (Hamas) against me is your fault: I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was lowered in her eyes: may G@d judge between us.'

“Va-tomer Sarai el Av'ram chamasi alekha – anokhi natati shif'chati be-cheyqekha va-teyre ki ha-ratah va-eyqal be-eyne'ah; Y'shepot YHVH beyni u-veynekha.”

Sarah intends her words to remain a private conversation between her and her husband as words between them should be of no concern to others. (Avot deRebbe Natan 30b)

Names in Tanakh are really roles; the expression of that person's neshamah/soul.
Sarai/Sarah = female ruler/noblewoman; to struggle, to wrestle, to overcome.
Av'ram/Avraham = Big Daddy
Hagar = the stranger/outsider

Sarah used Hagar as a means to an end. According to the code of Hammurabi, the common law at that time and place, Hagar remained Sarah's property and any children Avraham had through Hagar would legally be considered Sarah's. So Sarah was within her rights to beat Hagar for belittling her, which Avraham supported in the narrative. However, any wife would expect her husband to defend their relationship against another woman intruding on their marriage, which is why Sarah blames her actions on Avraham. Had he protected Sarah's vulnerability from Hagar, she wouldn't have had to take matters into her own hands.

That Yud is dotted because of agency - it's a yad, hand! This is a power struggle. And not just a cat fight between rivals, but a revisitation of the balance of a long, lovingly established marriage which, like all marriages, has its challenges.

Parashat Nitzavim - the Mysterious Dotted Letters ...לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ, עַד...

בס''ד



Sefer Ba'al Ha-Turim notes that Devarim/Deuteronomy 29:28 has letters which are מְנֻקָּד menuqad (dotted), despite the general rule that a Torah scroll must be without vowel points, any punctuation marks, cantillation symbols, etc., a dot is inscribed above certian letters:

הַנִּסְתָּרֹת--לַיהוָה, אֱלֹהֵינוּ; וְהַנִּגְלֹת לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ, עַד-עוֹלָם--לַעֲשׂוֹת, אֶת-כָּל-דִּבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹּאת.
The secrets belong to the Ad@nai our G@d, but that which is revealed are for us and also for our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

The phrase "...lanu u-le-vaneynu ad..." (...for us and also for our children until [forever]...) exhibits a total of eleven dots, one over each letter of these three words with the exception of the last letter, Dalet (ד).

What does this teach us, and why is the last letter not dotted?
Some commentary in Midrash Numbers Rabbah 3, 13 states that these eleven letters are dotted because they are not the ones which should be dotted. One popular interpretation of why some particular letters are dotted in our Sifrei Torah says these dots mean effacement, ie. that the dots indicate there is either a scribal error which has been incorporated into the traditional text or that there is a disagreement about whether these letters or words belong in the text at all.

Avot de-Rabbi Natan 30b explans that these dots were written to call attention to extrapolations on the words, however, they may indicate that the words or letters were doubtful and were to be deleted, presumably when Eliyahu Ha-Navi comes to resolve all the scribal variations before the coming of the Moshiach..

Ezra the Scribe is quoted as saying that if Eliyahu asks, “why have you written these words?”, indicating that they are incorrect, Ezra will reply, shrugging, “well, at least I've placed dots over them”, but if Eliyahu says, “you have written them correctly” then Ezra will remove the dots!

So when Midrash Numbers Rabbah 3, 13 states that these letters are dotted instead of the actual ones which should be dotted, what letters or words were meant to be dotted in the first place? And why can't they be dotted themselves? Why do these words carry the dots instead?

Because the letters which should be dotted are לַיהוָה, אֱלֹהֵינוּ. And because the dots are meant to efface, cancel, or annul, you can not cross out the Name of G@D...

So ChaZaL teach this pasuq, verse, is telling us of our accepting responsibility for each others' public sins, and to agree to be punished for not preventing them or not supporting each other sufficiently to avoid committing those sins.

Rashi explains that the way these letters are dotted means this deal we made with The Holy One only came into effect after Am Yisra'el crossed over the nehar ha-yarden, the River Jordan, and made the vow at the mountains of Har Gerizim and Har Eival.

So why is this last letter not dotted?
The Ba'al Ha-Turim writes about why there is a lonely dot over the letter Ayin (ע) of the word עַד ad, but not the Dalet (ד). It is because from the time that Moshe Rabbeynu began to expound the Torah at Arvot Mo'av, the Plains of Mo'av, until we crossed the Yarden was a total of seventy - the numerology of Ayin is 70 - days. This also hints at the seventy years of galut (exile) we would experience in Babylon, the collective punishment that the whole Nation of Yisra'el had to suffer for the shortcomings of those who were unrepentantly guilty.

But wait a second. If the letters are effaced by the dots, then we're off the hook, right?
No, sorry. G@d wanted to emphasise how much we could help our fellow Jews, and how important that is. We must learn from the very human mistake made by Qayin, Cain, in Be-reshit/Genesis 4:9: we are our brother's (and sister's!) keeper. We're all Jews and we must take responsibility for each other. We must take up the slack when they can't continue, help them when they're falling away from G@d. Kol Yisra'el areyvim zeh ba-zeh, each one of Israel is responsible one for the other. Go Team Jew!

And by embodying this directive of kindness, we can raise our interactions with each other, according to the mitzvot of beyn adam la-chaveiro (between a person his/her friend), and hopefully provide a security network for our family which is all Israel.


Copyright © A. Barclay

Parshat Ba-midbar: Dotted Letters in the Desert

BS"D

"Three times was G-d exiled: in the Name, in the bursting open of the Name, and in the effacing of this bursting open."

- Edmond Jabès (Cairo, 1912 – Paris, 1991) Jewish writer and poet

In Sifri there are ten instances where a word or group of words appears where one or all of the letters are dotted in the text. In this week's Torah portion, Ba-Midbar, we find a curious series of dots over the name of Aharon, the High Priest. Ba-midbar/Numbers 3:39 reads:

כָּל-פְּקוּדֵי הַלְוִיִּם אֲשֶׁר פָּקַד מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן, עַל-פִּי יְהוָה--לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם: כָּל-זָכָר מִבֶּן-חֹדֶשׁ וָמַעְלָה, שְׁנַיִם וְעֶשְׂרִים אָלֶף.

All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moshe and Aharon counted at the utterance of the LORD, by their families, all males from a month old and upward, were twenty two thousand.

Ve-Aharon (ואהרן) has five dots, one over each letter. Talmud Bavli Masekhet Sof'rim states that "ten in the Torah are marked by dots", then lists them. The Netziv on Sifri teaches us that if every letter of a word is dotted (as in this case), then this word abandons its usual meaning. We are invited to look deeper into the text, to engage in discussion, thereby entering into relationship and taking ownership of Torah.

So what do we do here, with Aharon? The name of the כהן גדול Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, is not as it seems.

Rabbi Marc-Alain Ouaknin, in his masterpiece The Burnt Book: Reading the Torah, writes:

"Altogether the total count of Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered." The name Aaron is completey dotted. The Midrash explains that Aaron was not included in the counting of those numbered (he counted but was not himself counted). Because of the dotting, Aaron is excluded, effaced.

And why was Aharon not included in that census even though he was a Levite? Rashi writes that Aharon's name is dotted because although he was a Levi, he wasn't included in the Levite census. Why was he not counted?

Rashi goes on: "The tribe of Levi was counted separately from the other tribes of Israel, because it is fit for the legions of a King to be counted separately."
Therefore, Aharon wasn't counted with his own tribe of Levi - but Moshe *was*! Aharon, not only as Kohen Gadol, but also as a person, was so unique, so special that he couldn't be counted or even included in a general census. Aharon was beyond all definition.

And why is the letter Vav (ו) of ve-Aharon dotted? Why "and Aharon" and not just "Aharon"? Why FIVE dots and not four?

According to the Zohar, Aaron was an expert therapist who helped save many relationships. The five dots over "ve- Aharon", alludes to the five levels of חסד chesed (loving-kindness) which he held and shared. Aaron's special role is mentioned in Pirkei Avot: "Hillel said, 'Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace, pursuing peace, loving all of G@d's creations, and bringing them near to the Torah.'"

Aharon brought oneness to our kehilah with peacemaking and kiruv, outreach. His mission is also hinted at in his name: Alef, Hey, Reysh, stand for אהבה רבה, ahavah rabah, or "great love". His name's final letter, Nun Sofit (ן), shows his ability to "draw down" this great love from Shomayim into our kehilah below. Just as the body of the final Nun descends below the line, so Aaron could descend to those of us who had fallen, lift us up and bring us closer to the ahavah rabah of G@d.

The English word "dot" comes from the Greek word for the letter "iota", which in turn comes from the letter Yud. Yud's gematrial value is ten. Five dots multiplied by ten 5 x 10 = 50. The number fifty represents of Shavu'ot, the fiftieth day after Passover, after our long count of the Omer. So Aharon, as the embodiment of loving-kindness, represents the attitude we must adopt to receive Torah on the fiftieth day.

As we draw to a close of our counting of the Omer and prepare to approach our own personal Sinaitic revelations, may we be blessed with Aharon's capacity of deveykut, to truly open with love and kindness to cleave to G@d in the full and joyful way we are each meant to.


---
Sources:
Rashi
Zohar
Midrash Rabbah
Masekhet Sofrim
Nehama Leibowitz's Studies in Bamidbar
Sifrei on Bamidbar
Rabbi Marc-Alain Ouaknin's The Burnt Book: Reading the Torah
Pirkei Avot
Tanya

---
Cross-posted on Facebook
Copyright A. Barclay