tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91121882180950875912024-03-06T11:01:45.860+02:00Bibliodraw: Drawing the Bible Exploring the Bible, a chapter a day, through drawing and writingBatnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.comBlogger402125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-56274068069634992502018-05-07T14:10:00.001+03:002018-05-07T14:15:51.410+03:00Joshua: Chapter 23<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To walk a path and not deviate. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And be on guard</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">[For full chapter, click <a href="https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0623.htm" target="_blank">here</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After "many days", Joshua "old, coming into days," calls the people together in a farewell speech that echoes, in many ways, Moses' final address to the people. As in the desert, the "elders" the "judges" and heads come together. Here, the Shema prayer command to "love God with all your heard and all your soul" is recreated for people that experienced not the Exodus, but the coming into the Land. Now the people will know "with all their hearts and all their souls" that God has fulfilled his promise. Everything is embodied in space. "I am going the way of all flesh," Joshua says, and proceeds to speak of following a path, from which Israel must not deviate. Th relationship to God can be "seen" (<i>r'e')--</i>one of the <i>leitwords </i>of the chapter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The other keyword is "to guard." Again and again, thhe duty is defined by the negative, what must not be done. "do not deviate" "do not enter" "do not worship and bow to them." The path outwards is the channel left between the warnings: "for to your own God you will stick". Hovering in the background is the threat of disembodiment, of becoming "lost from upon the earth" that has come to define everything]</span></div>
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<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-29317101078809367432018-03-13T18:19:00.002+02:002018-03-13T18:19:20.320+02:00Joshua 22: In WritingAnd when you say No<br />
I see my own face<br />
disappear, like the waters<br />
between us have washed me<br />
away, a wave rolling<br />
over my eye,<br />
my mouth and its call<br />
carried away on the current<br />
your turned back a wall<br />encircling, and all I can do is<br />
stare downward till<br />
I vanish, leaving<br />
only an echo<br />
you don't want to hear.Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-73340515109852286882018-03-12T18:52:00.000+02:002018-03-12T18:52:27.304+02:00Joshua: Chapter 22<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What runs between us</div>
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can you bridge this river</div>
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of time?</div>
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[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0622.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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This is a chapter that closes a circle--and an era--and inaugurates a new sense of history and nationhood.</div>
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After all the other tribes have "approached" to receive their allotment, Joshua at last "calls" the Eastern tribes: Reuben, Gad, and half of Mennasseh. These were the first of the tribes to swear obedience to Joshua, promising to be the shock troops that precede their brothers to battle. Now, at last, they are told that they can return home, tying together the beginning of the inheritance, inaugurated by Moses, with the rest of the inheritance, completed by Joshua. </div>
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Yet just as the circle closes, completing the story of the inheritance of the Land at the national center in Shilo, things fall apart. Upon returning to the banks of the Jordan--the <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/10/joshua-chapter-4.html" target="_blank">liminal river that so defined Joshua's rise to leadership</a>--the Eastern tribes build an altar. This seemingly innocent action is seen as a declaration of succession, an attempt to establish a rival national center. </div>
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In response, the nation acts as a single unit, sending a delegation of "one prince of a father's house, for all the tribes of Israel." They have learned well the lessons of history. Recalling the aftermath of the <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/10/joshua-chapter-7.html" target="_blank">sin of Ahan</a>, they declare that rebellion and succesion are not private issues. The nation is judged as a single unit. "You rebel today against God, and tomorrow he will be wrath on the whole congregation of Israel." Heading the delegation is <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/11/numbers-chapter-25.html" target="_blank">Pinhas, the man who speared (literally) the response to "the iniquity of Peor", and with his action stopped the plague that ripped through the nation as a whole. </a></div>
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The Eastern tribes respond that mutuality runs both ways. If their actions will bring down punishment on the rest of the nation, the rest of the nation's possible rejection of their children will cause them to "cease fearing the Lord." In a situation where God judge's the nation as a whole, the nation's rejection of a part will bar access to God.</div>
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The altar, rather than being a rejection of the central altar at Shilo becomes an assertion of its importance, a linkage of the periphery to the center,] </div>
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<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-46393704567970925992018-03-07T22:02:00.001+02:002018-03-07T22:02:28.457+02:00Joshua 21: In WritingWe wheel<br />
spokes leading in<br />
a funnel that drops<br />
down, down, down<br />
where roads unfurl endlessly<br />
winding between each house, each gate<br />
and a street lies beneath each street<br />
a city in a city<br />
a yoke in a shell<br />
waiting to splatter<br />
the binder holding color together<br />
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<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-14942412534474903122018-02-11T10:51:00.001+02:002018-02-11T10:51:34.770+02:00Joshua: Chapter 21<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Give from what you were given</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Priests and murderers scattered </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">cities within your cities</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">wanderers within</span></div>
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[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0621.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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After the setting aside of the cities of refuge comes the final allotment: the giving of the cities to the Levites. These two sets of cities are intimately and mysteriously related. Both must be "given" (the leitwort<i> </i><i>t'n, </i>repeated again and again in this chapter) as a gift from the tribes from within the inheritance that they were "given." Both are scattered throughout the entire country, buried within the tribes. Both are presented together: if in <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/12/numbers-chapter-35.html" target="_blank">Numbers</a>, the move from Levite cities to cities of slayers, here we move from the city of the slayer to the cities of the Levites. Finally, all the cities of refuge are actually Levite cities--a fact that is emphasized again and again by the refrain "city of refuge for the slayer.."</div>
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We need to know that these cities do not only offer refuge--they offer refuge specifically to "killers", who will be free to return home from their exile with the "death of the High Priest from the tribe of Levi.</div>
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Which returns us to the initial pronouncement that Levi would have no true inheritance: when Jacob, back in <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/03/genesis-chapter-49.html" target="_blank">Genesis</a>, curses Levi and Shimon's "swords," saying that they will be "scattered throughout Israel." Shechem, where Levi and Shimon used their swords here tellingly becomes a "city of refuge for the slayer." Levi's "Inheritance" is God, and so he remains unrooted, linked to the wandering <i>Mishkan. </i>But Levi is also a slayer, marked like the wandering Cain, offering refuge to other slayers that might still be redeemed. </div>
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The cities of the Levites, with the cities of refuge scattered within them, doorways ready to admit fugitives who beg entrance, represent the continued desert encampment within the settled land--the spaces for the unsettled wanderers who must be given temporary place.] </div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-41241426634748663252018-02-08T10:20:00.000+02:002018-02-08T10:20:00.345+02:00Joshua 20: In WritingTrace a line from here to there<br />
from where you started<br />
to the doorway where you stop<br />
beg entrance<br />
within the walls<br />
within the streets<br />
within the home.<br />
Grant me place.<br />
Swallow me down your long long tongue<br />
hold me safe in your gullet<br />
digest me in your juices<br />
till death on more death sets me free.Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-3089086564491461832018-02-02T09:08:00.001+02:002018-02-02T09:08:53.182+02:00Joshua: Chapter 20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpRSbI8orA9iAIMOmbWYbCazVulPUW07pzCclmoBOPS-iR3PuHrgrEJWqBQaqmQW5F2MOVEiiRJ5h7701PdDe3QJVa_2hOoSY-XcmP5-2Vq4n4OhAnX3Cigo0Cf_OHzjNu9QXgVHxIPw/s1600/IMG_20180202_081734%257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1061" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHpRSbI8orA9iAIMOmbWYbCazVulPUW07pzCclmoBOPS-iR3PuHrgrEJWqBQaqmQW5F2MOVEiiRJ5h7701PdDe3QJVa_2hOoSY-XcmP5-2Vq4n4OhAnX3Cigo0Cf_OHzjNu9QXgVHxIPw/s640/IMG_20180202_081734%257E2.jpg" width="424" /></a></div>
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Trace the line to the gateway, and back</div>
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into the city, into the door of your own home</div>
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give place to the exile</div>
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the man out of place</div>
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[For full chapter click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0620.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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The growing focus on cities climaxes here, with the command to re-appoint th<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/12/numbers-chapter-35.html" target="_blank">e Cities of Refuge dedicated by Moses</a>, adding now three additional cities on the western side of the Jordan. If the inheritance of the Land is "given" by God, these cities of refuge are "given" (20: 2) by the people, who "give" a place to the refugee involuntary murderer. These are human places within the expansive space of the Land--and they are specifically "cities" (the <i>leitword </i>of this chapter, defined by human boundaries, with a "gate" manned by elders and overseen by a court.</div>
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If the previous accounts of the cities of refuge (<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/12/numbers-chapter-35.html" target="_blank">Numbers 35,</a> focused on the question of the man-slaughterers relative guilt, this account focuses on the passage into and out of the city--continuing the Book of Joshua's focus on transitional spaces of entrance. The manslaughterer must approach the liminal gate, until he is "gathered into the city" and "given a place to sit (<i>y'sh'v). </i>His return (<i>sh'v)</i> from exile is also defined through the city, the wordplay of <i>sh'v / sh'v </i>highlighting the parallel: he is to return to "his own city, the city he left."</div>
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The setting aside of the cities is a watershed. Back in <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2015/09/deuteronomy-chapter-19.html" target="_blank">Deuteronomy</a>, <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2015/09/deuteronomy-chapter-19.html" target="_blank">Moses defined taking responsibility for cities of refuge as the moment when the land truly becomes "yours."</a> It is the sign of a completed conquest. In dedicating these cities, Joshua is indicating that "God has expanded the boundaries" of Israel's territory. </div>
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Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-38378882405593181202018-01-31T09:49:00.001+02:002018-01-31T09:52:47.232+02:00Joshua 19: In Writing<h2 style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Walk, measure, name.<br />What do I see when I see you<br />turn, twist, hit, rise, drop,<br />leave and then return?<br /><o:p> </o:p><i>Sarid, </i>I call you, remnant of a dream.<br /><i>Sheva, </i>satiation. Water welling. Where I swear, trust me,<br />what is born, what will be born, what God will bear<br /><i>Molada, </i>be my <i>moledet</i>, birthplace I fled, birthplace<br />that calls.<br />Be body, be belly, a place I can sleep,<br />the navel I came from, to which I am linked.<br />House of bread, house of sun,<br />springs of red and white,<br />water sharp as steel, sweet as fruit.<br /><i>Mishal, </i>what I ask for. <i>Amiad</i>.<br />Broad of shoulder, full of breath,<br />An ever receding sky, <i>afek, afek.<br /><o:p></o:p></i><i>Yavne’el, </i>God will build. <i>El’Tolad.<br /><o:p></o:p></i><i>Marala, Timnah, Idalah.</i><span class="text"><span style="background: white; line-height: 17.12px;"><i>Adama. </i>I say, </span><span style="background: white; line-height: 17.12px;">land, earth. <i>Adam.</i></span></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; line-height: 17.12px;">Over there, at the hight, <i>Ramah.</i></span></span></span></span></span></h2>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-81419127016583369962018-01-11T11:20:00.001+02:002018-01-11T11:20:47.125+02:00Joshua: Chapter 19<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Count the cities</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">and what sourounds</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">to weave an inheritance </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">your plot of land</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[For full chapter, click <a href="https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0619.htm" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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This chapter continues allotment, the "lot / destiny" (<i>goral) "</i>falling" in an order that moves from the children of Leah, to those of the maidservant, Bilhaa and Zilpa. </div>
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There is a fundmanetal difference between the inheritence of Simeon, and the allotments that came before. No trancing of a border that rises, falls, goes out and come in like a living thing. Instead, Simeon is swallowed "in the midst of the inheritence of Judah," and his inheritence consists of a list of cities "and the fields around these cities. This is the inheritence of the tribe of the Children of Simeon." Simeon's inheritence seems closer to that of Levi--"who does not inherit within the land", but is rather granted cities and fields--than to that of the tribes whose allotment preceded his. The early history of the family of Israel in Genesis which so impacted the inheritence of <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-14.html" target="_blank">Judah</a> and<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-17.html" target="_blank"> Joseph</a> continues to resonate in this return to the land, as Jacob's final curse of <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/03/genesis-chapter-49.html" target="_blank">Levi and Simeon</a> is expressed in their scattered inheritence.</div>
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This focus on cities continued to play out in the rest of the allotments , which all close with an enumeration of cities and villige which make up "the inheritence of the tribe." Cities, and the uber-cities-- fortresses--are at the center. T<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-18.html" target="_blank">he "writing" of the landscape by the surveyers who set up to walk and divide the land </a> has transformed it to a human space, with a focus on its acculteration, the shaping to human needs. </div>
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The focus on cities and kings, that has accompanied this book since its opening, here seeps into the until-now nomadic Children of Israel. In thedenumoix, the Children of Israel grant Joshua his inheritence: a single city of his very own]. </div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-87148729841519729342017-12-25T21:49:00.000+02:002017-12-25T21:49:06.927+02:00Joshua 18: In WritingFeel the earth:<br />
crumble of soil between your toes<br />
jab of rock against your heel<br />
grit rubbing against your skin.<br />
<br />
Watch the trail that stretches away behind you<br />
Shadowy hillocks,<br />
five toed valleys<br />
marking you passgae<br />
from here to there<br />
from where you came to where you go<br />
gaze beyond the horizon<br />
<br />
Looking out<br />
the land is filmed<br />
over with the letters of your name.<br />
textured with your skin's veins. Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-20241473205554298632017-12-24T08:54:00.000+02:002017-12-24T08:54:12.220+02:00Joshua: Chapter 18<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMD1QpUt9Zz5xuTOxp5J50v2GTuMzO4k7MUqZjxsgWrMQL5efr-L7obm0CAhZy3nY0u6m2k3s8LnDlxgxz7-doB1fDJrK2N0xggnurvMEs6LJeYfVDy1O4xHgD9Xjvs5G84_rgToLReo/s1600/IMG_20171222_131915%257E2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1005" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFMD1QpUt9Zz5xuTOxp5J50v2GTuMzO4k7MUqZjxsgWrMQL5efr-L7obm0CAhZy3nY0u6m2k3s8LnDlxgxz7-doB1fDJrK2N0xggnurvMEs6LJeYfVDy1O4xHgD9Xjvs5G84_rgToLReo/s640/IMG_20171222_131915%257E2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Held in place on both sides</div>
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write yourslef into the land</div>
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with your feet</div>
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[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0618.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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"How long will you be slack in going to possess the land that God, the Lord of your fathers, has given you?" Joshua demands, when the nation finally "assembles" to recreate a national center. Ostensobly, this is a criticsm that reflects back on Joshua himslef--why has he been slack in completing the allotment that he began?</div>
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He continues, "Appoint for yourself three men for each tribe, and I will send them, and they shall rise, and walk through the land, and write it according to their lot, and come to me." Inheritence, it seems, is not passive. Like Abraham, the father to whom the land was promised, the tribes must "rise and walk" (<i>hithalkh--</i>a reflexive form of the verb, iimplying a self-reinforced walking, becoming walkers). And--as in <a href="http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/theory/DeCerteau-Practice-Excerpts.pdf" target="_blank">Michel de Certeau "Walking in the City"</a>--this walking becomes a kind of language, the appointed men "writing" the land. The inherited land is not nuetral territory, but a textual landscape.</div>
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Judah's inheritence begins with Caleb's personal connection to Hebron, an<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-15.html" target="_blank">d the gifting of his daughter to the one who could conquer Kiryat Sefer </a>(lit. "The City of the Book"); Joseph's inheritence holds within it all the painful history of <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-17.html" target="_blank">favoritism and usurpation</a>, as well as <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-16.html" target="_blank">Jacob's choice of Ephraim</a>. Now the other tribes must find their own viceral connection to the personal tract of land that "God, the Lord of your fathers, has given to you." Only then can the land be their own lot.]</div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-17886025294938025812017-12-24T08:53:00.006+02:002017-12-24T08:53:57.979+02:00Joshua 17: In Writing<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
shadow with no name<o:p></o:p></div>
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hidden from the sun<o:p></o:p></div>
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crevice between mountains<o:p></o:p></div>
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silence between names<o:p></o:p></div>
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embedded within.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The memory after the storm<o:p></o:p></div>
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when debris is sifted<o:p></o:p></div>
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snapped branches, fallen beams<o:p></o:p></div>
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the dead, the blood</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Where do the forgotten go?<o:p></o:p></div>
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When will you learn <o:p></o:p></div>
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to speak my name<o:p></o:p></div>
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to step out, stand in place<o:p></o:p></div>
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to say: I am born<o:p></o:p></div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-25620744897689588352017-12-15T11:12:00.002+02:002017-12-15T11:12:59.977+02:00Joshua: Chapter 17<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiSdKqL8AHbOP9c_4pGUqoQac9VGxuoggML4tj3RVOTypnzsN2y868cRVfn7E-aNRo4HuvfvRciz6LEx9Y8a2bfWvbKrXF3QYCKB-64Pp8bss20u9Re-eqM_qggMHxuWdpDrJXdXgbLc/s1600/IMG_20171215_102327.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="997" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXiSdKqL8AHbOP9c_4pGUqoQac9VGxuoggML4tj3RVOTypnzsN2y868cRVfn7E-aNRo4HuvfvRciz6LEx9Y8a2bfWvbKrXF3QYCKB-64Pp8bss20u9Re-eqM_qggMHxuWdpDrJXdXgbLc/s640/IMG_20171215_102327.jpg" width="398" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; font-size: 13px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two or one</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One or two</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who gets counted</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why does not</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who is seen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who disappear? </span></div>
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[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0617.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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This chapter continues the allotment of the tribe of "Joseph" begun in the previous one, this time detailing the inheritence of the children of Menasseh, "the first-born of Joseph". The themes of the previous chapter continue to resonate, becoming more explicit and extreme. The<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-16.html" target="_blank"> strange doublness of Joseph--both a single tribe given a single inhertence, and a double tribe receiving a dual inheritence</a>, here comes out into the open. The inheritence of Josph is framed by this question of singlness and duality: the previous chapter begins by defining "the lot for the children of Joseph" before breaking off to define the detailed inheritence of Ephraim; this chapter follows the details of the inheritece of Mennasseh with the "sons of Joseph" coming to complain "Why have you given me one lot and one plot for an inheritence?" The schitsophrenic split between individuality and group identity is reflected in the syntax: even as the tribe of Josph demands a dual inheritence, they speak of themselves in the singlular--"Why did you give <i>me". </i>The utter intertwining of these two tribes is emphasized in the details of Menasseh's inheritence, which is punvtuated by cities that belong to Ephraim. We cannot detail his allotment, without detailing his brother's as well.</div>
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On the other hand, the dulaity of Josph's inheritence is here further exsaserbated by the fact that Menasshe is split in two, effectivly inheriting two different sections--one on the west side and one on the east side of the Jordan. The eastern section goes to "Menasseh's first-born", drawing attention to that strange insistence in teh opening verse: "Menasseh, the first-born of Joseph." Indeed, biblically, the first-born is meant to inherit an extra portion. Jacob, in his love to Joseph, gave that double portion to him. We return to early history of the tribes in Genesis, which has been resonating in teh background since "tribe of Judah" first "approached Joshua-of-Joseph. When Joseph brought his two children to be blessed by Jacob, J<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/03/genesis-chapter-48.html" target="_blank">acob gave preference to Ephraim over Menasseh</a>, and Joseph protests, insisting on Menasseh's promigeniture. Both elements continue to resonate here, in the allotment of these tribes. Ephraim is indeed given presedence to Mennaseh, but then the text return to insist that Menasseh is the first born. This contested promigeniture is central to the tribe's identity: this is the only place where the "first born" of a tribe gets a serperate inheritence, neighboring Reuben, another displaced eldest.</div>
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Yet in addition to the continued <i>agon </i>with Ephraim, Menasseh's inheritence introduces a completly new element: the question of female inheritence. For the first time, when counting the "children" of Menasseh, the chapter goes out of its way to explicate that they are "male." This is because for the first time, females are also inheriting. The daughters of Tzolphad rise from th ebackground, and break the default story of exclusivly male inheritence. </div>
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In doing so, they also allow for the recollection of the one child of Jacob who receives no mention in this story of inheritence: <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/03/genesis-chapter-34.html" target="_blank">Dina, daughter of Jacob, who was raped in Shechem and then disappeared from the story of the family. </a> Menasseh's inheritence begins in "Shechem" (17: 7) and one of his sons is named for that city (and for Dina's rapist), "Shechem" (17 :2). In the acknowlegment of daughters, her story begins to rise as well], </div>
<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-21765667630168629362017-12-10T22:55:00.000+02:002017-12-10T22:56:12.283+02:00Joshua 16: In WritingWhere am I<br />
in the ties that bind us<br />
can there be a line<br />
between me and you<br />
a place where one hand<br />
moves without the other<br />
breathe, and you breathe inside me<br />
I am scattered within you<br />
spliced in your nucleus<br />
colonies bubbling round the invasion<br />
and within me<br />
empty spaces<br />
where others bubble and growBatnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-86998352314675728792017-12-10T22:23:00.002+02:002017-12-10T22:24:02.537+02:00Joshua: Chapter 16<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Are we one or two</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Emeshed in each other</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">We have no seperate space</span></span></div>
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[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0616.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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This chapter continues the allotment of the Land to the tribes. From the inheritence of Judah, we move on to detail the inheritence of Joseph. The loaded word "approach" (<i>g'sh)</i>, which introduced the interaction between <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-14.html" target="_blank">he tribe of Judah and Joshua-of-Joseph in chapter 14</a> sets into place the allusion to the <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/03/genesis-chapter-44.html" target="_blank">historic reapproachment of the brothers</a> back in Genesis, which continues to resonate.Alotting the Land is returning to the issues of competition and jealousy that drove apart the brothers in Genesis. Joseph and Judah dominate that story, and it is they that lead the inheritence, in the dual figures of Joshua and Caleb, each of who leads the Land to "rest from war."</div>
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"This is the lot of the children of Joseph" opens the chapter, seemingly presenting a single inheritence. Yet Joseph was given the gift of a dual inheritence, and this tension of two-in-one drives the chapter. The chapter begins by presenting a single boundary, "going up from Jericho" (a fitting inheritence for J<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2014/03/be-there-i-am-nothing-and-everything.html" target="_blank">oseph, the only one of Jacob's sons to never "takes" what is not his</a>). Yet then it splits, "This is the border of the children of Ephraim." While this might seem to create a clear demarcation within the single block of "Joseph," Ephraim retains "the cities and their villages set aside for the children of Ephraim in the midst of the inheritence of the children of Menasse." The two brothers remain intertwined, swallowed one within the other. This lack of seperation is echoed in the fact that Ephraim does not completly conquer their territory, but rather ingest the Canannites <span style="font-family: inherit;">inhabitants, who "<span style="background-color: white;">dwelt in the midst of Ephraim, unto this day, and became servants to do taskwork".</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">If the <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-14.html" target="_blank">tribe of Menasse is split, its two sides becoming the sinews holding the two sides of the Jordan together</a>, the tribe of Ephraim also lacks a unified contiguity. There is something in Joseph, beloved, desired, that evades the strict boundaries of self-and-other.]</span></span></div>
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Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-7939800261659848872017-12-10T08:42:00.001+02:002017-12-10T08:45:29.453+02:00Joshua 15: In WritingDry as bone<br />
crumbled dust<br />
give me a pool<br />
dripping from above<br />
welling from below.<br />
<br />
The earth turns, leaves, passes<br />
over, circles back<br />
holding even the dead<br />
embrace, vise, a chokhold--<br />
duck and fall<br />
she will rise to catch you.<br />
<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-71407242070224657842017-12-09T19:33:00.000+02:002017-12-09T19:33:06.565+02:00Joshua: Chapter 15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">To everyone their place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">What you are given</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">What you give</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Where you lie.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0615.htm" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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This chapter begins the actual allotment of the Land, which was introduced in the previous chapter. The tribe of Judah, who "<a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/12/joshua-chapter-14.html" target="_blank">approached" with Caleb</a>, are given their inheritence first, and Caleb's inheritance of Hebron is placed within the broader context of the borders of his tribe. Yet the broadening of the context does not come with a loss of detail--on the contrary, the story is expanded here. Instead of a quick "resting from war", we are told the names of the Children of Anak whom Caleb defeated, as well as of the conquest of Debir / Kiryat Sefer, with the fairytale element of the promise of Caleb's daughter's hand in marriage to the man who could win the battle.</div>
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This same city of Debir punctuates the chapter at three seperate points: the border rises to Debir from "Emek Ahor"--the "valley of ugliness" that is the site of <a href="http://bibliodraw.blogspot.co.il/2017/10/joshua-chapter-7.html" target="_blank">Ahan's execution and burial</a> ; Debir is the site of Otniel's victory, earning him the right to Ahsa's hand; and it is mentioned in the litany of the cities of Judah asan alternative name for Beet Saana. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The repetition of Debir points to how the inheritence of the tribe creates a space for the interaction of its members. Even Ahan, disgraced and rejected, is kept within the borders of his tribe, his burial place defining its boundary. Human interelationships become defined by place. Otniel marries Ahsa through Debir; Ahsa approaches her father with a complex mix of complaint and demand that is expressed in terms of place: "you have given me dry lands, give me water." Whether this evocative exchange is meant literally or as a comment on her marriage, the act of "giving" between parent and child becomes a function of place. And while the names change, these places remain the same, providing a prims for a slice of history.]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-58601952118204520972017-12-06T16:42:00.002+02:002017-12-06T16:42:30.312+02:00Joshua 14: In WritingSometimes you flinch from your reflection<br />
somtimes, your reflection turns away.<br />
Run, run, after the retreating back<br />
getting smaller and smaller.<br />
He's faster, more graceful<br />
refuses to grow old<br />
and you are left, panting, tired<br />
as he moves on.<br />
<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-65301206502996117672017-12-04T21:47:00.003+02:002017-12-04T21:47:50.906+02:00Joshua: Chapter 14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9cfvb0bw8XSvcIJfWZpxZwxdxN1FU7hPJW3ceezuhyihBTKSFmmeGGZ7cZFl2ns8zxdtFtnyuc2ZqOWHvusNqbZSznZ_e7O6psSnlgMfvQ8Br6Bfxa-LzwltsJ0LwaqIIrWk1bOKns8/s1600/Yehoshua+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1011" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW9cfvb0bw8XSvcIJfWZpxZwxdxN1FU7hPJW3ceezuhyihBTKSFmmeGGZ7cZFl2ns8zxdtFtnyuc2ZqOWHvusNqbZSznZ_e7O6psSnlgMfvQ8Br6Bfxa-LzwltsJ0LwaqIIrWk1bOKns8/s640/Yehoshua+14.jpg" width="404" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Halves that connect</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #212121; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Who we were then</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #212121; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Who we are now </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #212121; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Follow your heart</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0614.htm" target="_blank">here</a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This chapter continues directly from the last, with narry a break in the Masoratic text. Whearas the last chapter decribed the allotment of the two and a half tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan, this chapter introduces the allotment of the remaining tribes by Joshua on the western bank. Again and again, the two half tribes of Menasseh are emphasized--two parts of a whole that weave together the two sides of the Jordan, a glue holding the nation together.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The new allotment begins with the tribe of Judah, as the next section of the introduceds a new doubling. Joshua's old comrade, Caleb, "comes close" (<i>g'sh'n)</i>--a root with deep resonances, alluding to the historic reapproachment between Joseph and Judah in Egypt--to ask for the inheritence he was promised. The scions of Judah and Joseph meet again, the first interaction we have see since both spoke in favor of the Land all those years ago in "Kadesh Barnea".</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"You know the thing that God spoke to Moses...concerning me and concerning thee in Kadesh Barnea," Caleb says, creating a sense of the deep intimacy between these two men. Yet immidiatly after asserting the bond, we also begin to see a split: when Caleb speaks of the experience scouting out the land, his "bretheren" are the other spies, not Joshua. Joshua does not appear in Caleb's story at all. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Caleb's story rather revolves around the relationship to the "heart." Caleb. (literally "<i>ka-lev", </i>"like a heart" or, midrashically, "all heart") "brings back what is in his heart", while the other spies cause the "heart" of Israel to melt. Joshua's defense seems to have been driven by something else.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The whole-hearted devotion with which Caleb is "full after God" seems to give him an everlasting youth. In contrast to Joshua, who is "old and coming into days," unable to continue the battles, Caleb is "as strog this day as I was on the day that Moses sent me, as my stregth was then, so is it now, for war, to go in and come out."</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Underscoring the disparity between Caleb's vigor and Joshua's withering, the chapter closes by repeating the refrain from chapter 12: "and the land rested from war"--the war this time led by Judah's Caleb, rather than Joshua.]</div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-16571581336454093192017-12-02T21:15:00.001+02:002017-12-02T21:15:20.795+02:00Joshua 13: In Writing<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
And you are getting older<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
walking into your days<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
and you see the empty hours <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
staring like a hallow eye<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
In a shadow landscape of </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
the places
you didn’t walk</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
the names you didn’t call<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
the spaces between words<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
the moment between touch.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
All the hours of waiting<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
expanding like a giant balloon</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
to float over the endless expanse</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
of even encroaching nothingness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-47768888767682368722017-12-01T15:51:00.000+02:002017-12-01T15:51:25.671+02:00Yehoshua: Chapter 13<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQoTZsTA93v5NkiKe-odUpHkwXLaAbPe_May7Zv-xD34w5UYIb8dBpM6_5eLOb1FoT70CCMNAFXYOvBH3N4SeU0gy1zRPpNYXfMAAYz7l99urQ3e0E7WK7Xb1mDMY2piHssWuawHLHwAk/s1600/Yehoshua+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1487" data-original-width="944" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQoTZsTA93v5NkiKe-odUpHkwXLaAbPe_May7Zv-xD34w5UYIb8dBpM6_5eLOb1FoT70CCMNAFXYOvBH3N4SeU0gy1zRPpNYXfMAAYz7l99urQ3e0E7WK7Xb1mDMY2piHssWuawHLHwAk/s640/Yehoshua+13.jpg" width="406" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">What is left undone</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">The negative spaces before the quiet </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">What lies between the name</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #212121;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #212121; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0613.htm" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #212121; font-size: 13.5pt;">From the
uplifting soaring of poetry, we land back into the nitty gritty of prose. And
discover that the triumphant listing tells only a small part of the story. The
land has not "rested from war" (11: 23). What is left is an uneasy
truce, and an incomplete possession. In this chapter, we are presented with an
alternative map to the victorious presentation of Joshua's victories: the
anti-matter map of what has not been possessed; the negative to define the
positive. Almost every name mentioned in the course of the description of the
battles of 11-12, are here mentioned again, demarcating lines between conquered
and unconquered territory. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #212121; font-size: 13.5pt;">As Joshua
grows "Old, coming into days" what he sees are the things undone, a
landscape of incompleteness. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">All that is left is to assert
the virtual possession declared in the last two chapters, and alott the land as
though it is already possessed. The assigning rather than possession will be
Joshua's final achievement.] <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-65295055917759682692017-11-25T23:43:00.002+02:002017-11-25T23:43:37.180+02:00Joshua 12: In Writing<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There was day, and then there was
night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Opened my eyes to the baby’s
cries, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Picked her up, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Made coffee, one, and drank it,
one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tried to put her down. When she
screamed, picked her up again, one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Washed the dishes, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Swept the floor, one,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sat down to work, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wrote one page, one,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wrote one poem, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Picked up the baby, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Took her for a walk, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Noticed the sun, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Saw the light glint through the
rain, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Warmed up a sweet potato, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Made rice, once<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fed the baby, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Washed her face and hands, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rubbed down the hi-chair, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Read her a book, one,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sang Mr. Sun, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sang Rise and Shine, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Turned on the boiler, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Filled up the tub, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rubbed her tummy with soap, one, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Blew four bubbles, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wrapped her in a towel, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Put on a diaper, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Dressed her in a stretchy, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Read the Going to Bed book, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Prepare a bottle with two scoops
of Materna, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Covered her with a blanket, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Made coffee, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Got up to calm the baby, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Found the pacifier, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Helped her lie back down, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rubbed her back, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Put milk in the coffee, one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gave her a pacifier, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Drank a cold sip, one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Alogether 40 acts. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">How do you
account for a day?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-34083008883065247252017-11-19T23:22:00.001+02:002017-11-21T22:47:44.618+02:00Joshua: Chapter 12<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAfINKnZWLCeaGUPG5-CXZakDso0Rg0-T_0PUKsWzhg5qnuAkHj7vMAfemyiMj68g8jZXOdtfIlRYp6Ql-t9kJ8VlB-LRtLmrQMbeXG-Xd9Lrr5T9vER9QPtR4ifQjxKIYuSh4wi9oz6g/s1600/Yehoshua+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1488" data-original-width="970" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAfINKnZWLCeaGUPG5-CXZakDso0Rg0-T_0PUKsWzhg5qnuAkHj7vMAfemyiMj68g8jZXOdtfIlRYp6Ql-t9kJ8VlB-LRtLmrQMbeXG-Xd9Lrr5T9vER9QPtR4ifQjxKIYuSh4wi9oz6g/s640/Yehoshua+12.jpg" width="416" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">In the end</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">look back</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">and tie it together</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">with song</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0612.htm" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
In the last chapter, we begin with sepcific battles that wind into years of warfare; there is a sense of unfolding chaos, the time that passes until the "country rests from war."</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
This chapter, by contrast, offers a retrospective view, looking back at those blurred years of war in order to place them in context and give them form.. The nameless cities are now enumerated by name, in a repetative, rythmic litany that places all in order. </div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
Only now, looking back, can the seperate conquests of Joshua and Moses be seen as one, as succesive steps in a single process: "these are the kings whom the Childre of Israel smote, and posessed their land beyond the Jordon, toward the rising sun..." "these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the Children of Israel smote beyond the Jordan westward...for a possesion according to their devisions." Now, the focus on kingship tht characterizes the Book of Joshua reaches backward to redefine Moses' victories in Deuteronomy.</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
True, Joshua is more directly associated with warfare, while Moses remains the "servant of God"; true, Moses gave the land as "inheritence", while the westward lands remains to be divided. But for the first time, teacher and student are completly interlinked, working together to acheive the posessions of the two sides of the Jordan.]</div>
<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<br />Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-63263065281986432022017-11-19T20:46:00.001+02:002017-11-19T20:46:42.125+02:00Joshua 11: In WritingLike ripples, spreading over the water<br />
widening, softening, smudging<br />
there will come a time<br />
when names can't be remembered<br />
when faces blur<br />
when one battle runs into another<br />
one day, one hill, one plane, one river<br />
all slide into an amorphous<br />
pool of many daysBatnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112188218095087591.post-82912028816344843392017-11-19T00:32:00.002+02:002017-11-21T22:48:33.087+02:00Joshua: Chapter 11<div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Aftermath and the ripples</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">[For full chapter, click <a href="http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0611.htm" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"And it was, when Yavin, the king of Hatzor, heard..." This chapter continues directly from the last. As news of Joshua's victories spread, so does the war, as more kings join in to the original five. Once again, God assures Joshua of victory (Joshua is no longer the terrified new leader he was, and no longer needs to be told not to be "dismayed.") Once again, Joshua "surprises" the enemy encampment, and decimates the army that is arrayed against him. There is a greater emphases on the destruction that follows the victory, this time with a focus on the inhabitatnts. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Only one city is burned, like Jericho and Ai, but all the living are deprived of their "breath / soul" (</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">neshama).</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On the one hand, this is repeatedly justified as fulfilling the commandment given by God to Moses; on the other hand, the chapter ends by emphasizing that none of the inhabitants agreed to make peace, other than the Gibonites. In an echo of Egypt and Pharoah, God "hardens their heart, to make battle against Israel, that they might be utterly destroyed." Would Joshua have made peace if they had not come in battle? The question is left hanging.</span></div>
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What stands out is the mood from specificity to generality. What begins as a specific battle againts four kings mentioned by name, becomes a generalized description of a years-long battle that spreads from the north down to the south--and indeed, at the end we find out that the war has lasted "many years."</div>
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The initial battles described in the book have the intensity of archetypes: Jericho and miracles; Ai as the move to strategy; the five kings as the first synethesis of human and divine action. Now we deal with the rippling after effcts of these intial shocks. The battles run one into the other, over a period of many years, until the land "rests from war."] </div>
Batnadivhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10619503708651144248noreply@blogger.com0