What if Job Lived in Williamsburg?
By Daniel Treiman
No, not that Williamsburg. And certainly not this Williamsburg. Rather, the Williamsburg that is adjacent to the former, but where, unlike either the former or the latter, people don’t wear knee-length breeches, except perhaps occasionally for reasons of irony or of the avant garde.
WARNING: Video features mildly offensive language and perhaps more offensive interpretive biblical imagery.
Hat tip: “From Schlub to Stud” author and former Forward hand Max Gross
June 26, 2009, 1:01pm
Finding Michael Jackson in Genesis
By Daniel Treiman
Even as we adjust to a world without Michael Jackson, we’re still left grappling with the question of how to understand the gifted and bizarre “King of Pop.” A few years back in the pages of the Forward, Ami Eden offered up some insights, drawing upon what might seem like an unlikely source: the Book of Genesis.
Eden wrote:
In many ways, both significant and superficial, Jackson resembles the biblical character of Joseph, interpreter of dreams, viceroy of Egypt and favorite son of the Israelite patriarch Jacob.
Like Jackson, who first achieved fame as the youngest and most talented member of The Jackson 5, Joseph was imbued with natural gifts that allowed him to tower over his older brothers. In both cases the golden child’s superiority was marked by the acquisition of a jacket. Jackson took to wearing his trademark red coat after the release of “Thriller,” the record-smashing 1982 solo album that propelled the performer into a stratosphere of superstardom beyond the reach of his siblings. Joseph’s father gave him a multi-colored tunic, underscoring his elevated status as Jacob’s favorite son and chosen successor.
And both fought famine in Africa. Jackson used his superstar power to line up dozens of celebrities to record the hit song “We Are the World,” a successful effort to raise millions of dollars to fight hunger. Joseph used his dream-reading power to warn Pharaoh of an impending famine, successfully fending off starvation in Egypt.
Despite their respective good works, both Jackson and Joseph were plagued by a rising insecurity over their personal appearance. For both men, physical change became a vehicle for assimilating into the wider culture.
The full article is well worth reading.
September 11, 2008, 1:52am
Translating the Bible Into… Hebrew
By Daniel Treiman
Writing in Ha’aretz, Michael Handelzalts reports:
In Israel - which was established 60 years ago as the national home of the Jewish people, which “gave the world the eternal Book of Books” (according to the Declaration of Independence), and whose official languages, alongside Arabic, include that same Hebrew in which the Book of Books is written - a move is afoot to publish the Bible in contemporary Hebrew. In other words, to translate the Bible into Hebrew. To rewrite it, in the same language, using different words.
This is a private commercial endeavor launched by a veteran teacher of the Bible, Avraham Ahuvia, and publisher Rafi Mozes of Reches Educational Projects. The entire text is vocalized, and each verse appears in the original form alongside the translated version.
The writer (who divulges an interesting familial connection to the topic of biblical translation) compares the effort to an earlier translation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” into contemporary English to make it more comprehensible to present-day audiences. He also notes that Israel’s education ministry has already banned the new translation.
UPDATE: Well, great minds think alike — and sometimes I think that way, too. (Honest, I didn’t see his headline before writing mine. The one question is: Who has the better placement of ellipses?)
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