The Hebrew-Wisdom Dictionary

11. “Erva”- Sex: it's all about fluids.

A common biblical phrase about sex, is normally translated as “to uncover the nakedness.” This Hebrew idiom expresses, however, more than a removal of modest attire. It means, rather, to "dis-cover the sex,” as in the famous biblical sense of “knowing.” The second word, erva, is simply “sex”— a noun for genitalia, not "nakedness." It is the translators that were overly puritan, I believe, and not the Hebrew writers.

The most important verses, regarding erva, are Leviticus 20:17-19, for they show the multiple meaning of "discovering" another person’s sex:

“If there is a man who takes his sister… so that he sees her sex and she sees his sex, it is a disgrace... He has discovered his sister’s sex; he bears his guilt. If there is a man who lies with a menstruous woman and discovers her sex, he has tapped her source, and she has discovered the source of her blood; thus both of them shall be cut off from among their people. You shall also not discover the sex of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for such a one has tapped his relation; they will bear their guilt.”

The meaning of "discovering" is retained in English. It means (a) to see, albeit on a mutual basis, but also (b) to lie with, and (c) to tap [into]. The "taping" or element of discovery is most interesting. Immodest uncovering of nakedness is the same, obviously, whether a woman is menstruous or not; but, for whatever reason, the discovery is different in nature when the act draws upon the woman’s "blood source." The translation of the verb (he'era) is based, amongst others, on a verse about Rachel: "And she hastened, and tapped (va'taar) her pitcher into the trough" (Genesis 24:20). If the noun erva relates directly to this similar-sounding verb for "taping/drawing liquid" I cannot say for sure, though the case of the aunt makes it clear that the taping faculty of erva is not restricted to menstruation. Interestingly, another very close term, erya, IS menstruous: "When you were naked and erya—squirming in your blood you were" (Ezekiel 16:22); "In the shame of erya, she who dwells in Zaanan does not come forth" (Micah 1:11). In any case, erva seems to have more to do with drawing bodily fluids than with nakedness, and the above passage demonstrated how well "sex" works as a proper translation.

From here on it is simple: “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the sex of his father” (Genesis 9:22); “you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your sex will not be discovered on it” (Exodus 20:22); “When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he found a sexual account in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement” (Deuteronomy 24:1); “young and old, naked and barefoot with exposed backsides —aye! the sex of Egypt” (Isaiah 20:4); “Your sex was discovered in your whoredoms with your lovers” (Ezekiel 16:36). A more difficult verse concerns keeping an army camp holy: "The LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp... and He must not see in you a sexual account, or He will turn away from you” (Deuteronomy 23:9-15). The passage starts with reference to nocturnal emissions, and continues with the obligation to have an outhouse. At first glance, the context seems to connect the "account of erva" with uncovered feces. It may, however, have more to do with exposed backsides, and it very likely hints at what not to do at night, in an army-camp tent. This, then, is how I think one should read the chunk of prohibitions in Leviticus 18:6-19:

“None of you shall approach any body-relation of his to discover sex; I am the LORD. You shall not discover the sex of your father, that is, the sex of your mother... You shall not discover the sex of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s sex. You shall not discover the sex of a woman and of her daughter, nor shall you take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, to discover her sex; they are relatives. It is lewdness. You shall not marry a woman in addition to her sister as a rival while she is alive, to discover her sex. Also you shall not approach a woman to discover her sex during her menstrual impurity.”

In a single biblical story, however, erva is used as a metaphor — when Joseph challenges his hungry brothers who came down to Egypt from Canaan:

“Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them, and said to them, ‘You are spies; you have come to look at the erva of our land.” Then they said to him, ‘No, my lord… your servants are not spies.’ Yet he said to them, ‘No, but you have come to look at the erva of our land!’” (Genesis 42:9-12).

This is the only non-sexual use of erva in the bible, denoting secrets. I wonder, however, if Joseph cannot be referring specifically to the source of the Nile — so similar to the idea of a woman's source of menstrual flow! Furthermore, in a primitive fertility-rites culture is it quite conceivable to talk of "the sex of the land." In any case, one cannot question the fact that the dark secrets of the Nile's fertile flow would be the most important strategic assets in an empire that is built, and completely dependent, upon it.

Ethan

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P.S. A future post will explain why, in the Hebrew Bible, the term davar always means a "statement," or an "account." Those familiar with my essay on the soul will appreciate that, in the Hebrew Bible, sex relates exclusively to man's water-element, itself connected to the cosmic blood-reservoir.The verb "to tap" is a perfect translation of הערה. It is generally associated with the water sources of the cosmos, such as the Nile, or the water underworld to which the life-blood (nefesh) drains to at death. Relevant dictionary definitions of the verb "to tap" include: 1). to draw liquid from a vessel. 2).to draw off liquid by removing a tap or by piercing a container. 3). to penetrate, for the purpose of drawing something off. As to גלה, I thank my sister in law, Schulamith, for replacing "un-cover" with the brilliant "dis-cover." Regarding the sexual element of the Nile my friend Benzi drew my attention to the fact that the Nile, like all biblical water sources, is said to have lips.

10. “Basar” (Part Four, final) – “From my BODY, I shall vision God”

We reach the crux of understanding basar as the Hebrew word for the “body.” The following bullets augment what we already established. You will not believe that these verses are commonly translated with the word “flesh” (the New American Standard Bible is a notable exception):/

1.       Basar is an inclusive term for the “body,” which relates to man’s entire soft-tissue husk (including the eyes, internal organs, etc). This was demonstrated in the first post. Thus, instead of “flesh,” one washes the BODY —"He shall bathe his body with water” (Leviticus 16:24)—just like one clothes it: “Linen breeches shall he wear over his body” (Leviticus 6:3); “He… wore sackcloth over his body (1-Kings 21:27). More examples:

• “And the ill-looking and lean-bodied cows did eat up the seven well-looking and stout cows” (Genesis 41:2-4. Many verses talk of fat bodies, rather than fat "flesh")
• “And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and stretched himself upon the child; and the body of the child waxed warm” (2-Kings 4:34)
• “Is my strength the strength of stones, Or is my body of iron?” (Job 6:12, bronze was the iron of the day...).

2.       Fittingly, basar is used as one side of a Mind & Body Dichotomy, as well as Soul & Body Dichotomies: “You brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in mind and uncircumcised in body” (Ezekiel 44:7); “Therefore my mind is glad, and my glory rejoices, my body also dwells in safety” (Psalms 16:9); “My nefesh thirsts for You, my body yearns for You” (Psalms 63:2, cf. Isaiah 10:18); “Their horses are body and not spirit” (Isaiah 31:3).

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3.       Things like hair, skin, bodily secretions, and even bloodstream and breath, are talked of as being “of” the basar—they belong to the BODY: Therefore it is the BODY, not the "flesh," that is shaved—"Let them use a razor over their whole body and wash their clothes” (Numbers 8:7)—or mutilated: “You shall not make any scrape-for-the-dead in your body, nor inscribe any tattoo upon you” (Leviticus 19:28); “My covenant (brit) be in your body” (Genesis 17:14).

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4.       Bodily ORGANS are all basar. As we saw, in case of angels that includes wings, which are part of the angel’s fleshless body. Another example: Just like in Ezekiel 23:20, about endowed donkeys, note how the following verse names the penis as the bodily-organ that must be circumcised, and not the skin that needs removal: “And you shall circumcise the body of your foreskin” (Genesis 17:11). Similarly, “Make for them linen breeches to cover the body of the sex; they shall reach from the loins even to the thighs” (Exodus 28:42).

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5.       Basar is one part of a consistent biblical conceptualization of the physique, with two primary elements: A skeletal bone-frame (etzem), clothed with the entity of a soft-tissue husk (basar). A whole post was dedicated to this point.

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6.       Everything organic and/or genetic about us relates strictly to basar. It is the living BODY that makes one an organism. This is why two parents become one body. “Basar eyes,” for instance, means “organic eyes” (as opposed to inorganic “stone” ones). Defining the organism, basar can also stand for the entity of a human being: “For who is any-body who has heard the voice of the living God…” (Deuteronomy 5:22).

Case Study: When God says: “I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy every-basar with a breath of life” (Genesis 6:17) the verse means “every breathing organism.” Other organisms didn't mind the water... In this story, basar truly delineates a type of body (or organism): “And of every animal, of every basar, two of all shall you bring into the ark, to keep them alive” (6:19). Translations insert “every sort”—but “sort” is not in the text. Indeed, “every basar” is a way of saying every existing body-form, or in other words—every species; the Green-Wing-Macaw have one body that defines them, giraffes have another. Since genders are versions of each such body (the Mr. and Mrs. versions of the giraffe bodytype) , the verse qualifies “they shall be male and female.” Or to summarize: “Those that entered, male and female of every species, entered as God commanded” (7:16).

7.       Indeed, Some 30 times in the Hebrew Bible, the compound term kol-basr is used to mean “every-body,” or, simply, everybody: “The glory of the LORD will be revealed, and everybody will see it together” (Isaiah 40:5).

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8.       Biological relatives are called basar-relatives, because it is the BODY that germinates progeny: “None of you shall approach any body-relative of his, to discover the sex” (Leviticus 18:6. How dare the NASB translate basar, here, as “blood”…); “Divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house… And do not evade one of your own body” (Isaiah 58:7); “Bring out with you every living thing of every-species (basar) that is with you, birds and animals… that they may breed abundantly” (Genesis 8:17).

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9.       When basar is food, the antiquated idea is eating body-parts, like for us “eating ribs.” Thus: "Be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life-force, and you shall not eat the life-force with the body” (Deuteronomy 12:23).

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10.  Like us, the ancients also craved youthful bodies: “His body returned like the body of a small youth” (2-Kings 5:14); “His body of youth shall be restored; he shall return to the days of his bloom;” (Job 33:25): “He put his hand into his bosom again… and it returned like his body” (Exodus 4:7; in all of these cases the body was first inflicted with blemishing disease).

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Why do I care so much? Why is it worth rewriting so many translations? Because reading basar as “flesh” turns organs into stuff, and the biological organism into meat. It thus degrades the deep insight of biblical wisdom regarding the nature of man, at the same time that it skews the meaning of numerous verses. In addition, "flesh" has a derogatory feel which "body" does not. For the Hebrew Bible, the physical self is as much a tool for blessing as it is of sin. Like the title from Job 19:26 implies—even our highest appreciation of the divine is made possible by the bodily apparatus of our cognition; prophecy itself uses the grey cells of our physical brain.

May you rejoice in your body,

Ethan

9. “Basar” (Part Three) – Yum, this body tastes amazing!

Scholars love to claim that the Hebrew Bible had no clear notion of “the body.” This claim, however, fails to see how in English too the word “body” might pickup different meanings. Sometimes “body” means the entire physique, but other times we use the word to exclude the head and limbs. Likewise we can find a “body” in the street and still tell the police that there was “nobody” there at the time… Nonetheless, despite a body of evidence, we are quite sure that WE have a perfectly clear notion about what a body is. There is no reason in the world to allow for less in the Ancient Israelite mind. Moreover, these same researchers have failed to identify the fundamental biblical concept of the physique as a combination of the skeletal bone-frame and the soft tissue body, etzem and basar. This notion—which we learned in the previous post—is perfectly consistent across the entire canon.

The trickiest cases, for my reading of basar, concern verses where it is food. We have no notion of eating the “bodies” of animals, only their “meat” (or “flesh”). The many verses about basar as foodstuff have, therefore, skewed our reading of the term and prevented us from reading it as “body,” across the board. In truth, however, our modern notion about hamburgers not being bodystuff is arbitrary. Read, for instance, STEP FOUR from a New York Times article (July 1986) about how to cook squid:

“Rinse the body and tentacles well. You can now cook the body and tentacles as they are or, if preferred, slice the body into rings for deep-frying or sautéing.”

Well, if you can cook the body of a squid then you can cook the body of a cow... It is only convention that makes the idea seem weird. In fact, even in some verses that concern basar as foodstuff, translating the word as “body,” rather that the accepted “flesh,” makes perfect sense. Just remember how the ancients cooked and ate their meat, without the benefit of processed packaging. The following verse should easily illustrate the point:

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Allow me to reiterate. In many verses using “meat” for basar would be more than acceptable (try it, for instance, in the pig verse above). Rarely, it’s even unavoidable. What I care about are the non foodstuff verses—which we will return to, with vigor, next week. In order to redeem them, however, from the clutches of “flesh” we must see how, for the ancients, “meat” was a superfluous notion: eating flesh was no different than eating bodies, or body parts, or bodystuff… they would hardly understand the modern distinction. Indeed, ask yourself the following: Are we ourselves perfectly at ease calling a serving of broiled cow-brain, or goose liver, or bone marrow, or tong, or ox testicles, or frog legs, “flesh”? With these, doesn’t it feel much more like eating body-parts? Even regarding muscle-tissue, we speak of “eating ribs” (a body part) and not rib-meat. Well, in antiquity “shoulder roast” felt quite the same.

It helps to understand also that the biblical word for eating is of a mauling plus devouring nature: A sword can “eat” a body, as does leprosy—just like fire “eats” wood. It is in the same sense that eating devours the body of an animal. The following basar verse refers to the Israelites devouring quail, but the picture is the same:

 

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So here are a few more verses, within the context of feeding, which, in addition to “flesh,” can also be read quite beautifully with “body” standing for basar:

·         “Within three more days Pharaoh… will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your body off you” (Genesis 40:19)

·         “[the Passover lamb] is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to take any of the body outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone in it” (Exodus 12:46)

·         “you shall not eat any prey body in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs” (Exodus 22:30)

·         “And their body shall be yours, as the wave-breast and as the right thigh…” (Numbers 18:18)

·         “And on the tables was the body of the offering” (Ezekiel 40:43)

So next time you pickup hamburgers from the supermarket—think dead bodystuff... J If nothing else, you might feel an esthetic dissonance in slapping on it a slice of cheese, made from a mother’s fountain of life.

Bon-appétit,

Ethan

8. “Basar” (Part Two) – The whole soft-tissue husk, upon a skeletal bone-frame

Look at the cover of the most popular book about the human body, on the left:

Like so many anatomy posters, in classrooms and doctor’s offices, it has two main illustrations: The bone skeleton, on one side, and the soft-tissue body that encases it, on the other. Combined, they represent the entire physique.This dual-configuration is precisely what the ancient Israelites saw. In the Hebrew Bible, the physical aspect of man is always comprised of these two complimentary parts: skeleton and body, etzem and basar:

“You have (right) dressed me with skin and body, and (left) netted me with bones and sinews” (Job 10:11)

While the etzem gives us structure and standing, the basar included all of the functioning ORGANS, viscera as well as muscle (see above right). While the etzem endures after death, the basar rots away. While the etzem defines our growth, from the short stature of a baby to the full height of a grown woman (and then the recline and shrinkage of old age), the basar suggests our physical health and fattiness…

For this reason, biblical speakers convey the idea of biological relations by combining the two parts of the biological entity. We saw a first example with the declaration of Adam about Eve. Other examples include: “Surely you are my skeleton and my body” (Genesis 29:14); "You are my brethren, my skeleton and my body” (2-Samuel 19:13); “I am your skeleton and your body” (Judges 9:2. Cf. 2-Samuel 5:1 and 19:14, 1-Chronicles 11:1, Job 2:5). Indeed, there are no such things as “blood relatives” in the Hebrew Bible, because your blood-flow (much like breath) is considered to be totally personal; an independent, animating life-force. Instead, the bible talks of “basar relatives” (Genesis 37:27; Leviticus 18:6, Leviticus 25:49, Isaiah 58:7). For the Hebrew Bible, everything that is biological about us, everything genetic or organic, is a facet of our basar, our BODY. Additional examples of the twofold physique include: “There is no soundness in my body because of Your indignation; There is no peace in my skeleton because of my sin” (Psalms 38:4); “My knees faltered of fasting, And my body wasted of fat” (Psalms 109:24); and more.

To complete the biblical picture of the physique, however, it must be said that the outer layer of skin is often considered separate: “And the body, and the skin, were burnt with fire” (Leviticus 9:11); “My body, and my skin, He wore out; He broke my bones” (Lamentations 3:4); “Eat the body of my people, Strip off their skin from them, Break their bones…” (Micah 3:3); and most famously in Ezekiel’s Dry Bones:

“Prophesy over these bones, and say unto them: O ye dry bones... I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. And I will put sinews on you, and will grow a body on you, and cover you with skin…. And I beheld, and, lo, there were sinews upon them [reconnecting the skeleton], and body grew on, and skin covered them above…” (Ezekiel 37:4-8)

This 3-step process, by the way, was used also in the regeneration of Lilu, the Fifth Element... The complete biblical physique is summarized, then, in the following composite illustration. Next week we shall examine an array of fascinating basar verses (it’s about the body!) and then focus more on the true idea of etzem as the growing skeletal boneframe (why can't I just say "bone", ha?).

Ethan

   

6. “Basar” (Part One) – “And they shall become ONE BODY”

I used Rodin’s "Thinker" to illustrate how a person looks while "talking in his lev." In his comment, my dear friend Dr. Adi Eyal implored us to: “Look also at the body - taut, strong, as much involved as the head. Indeed, inseparable…” This affirmative idea of the body goes against seeing the “flesh” as carnal. To appreciate how deeply the Hebrew Bible shares this positive sentiment (as it does the ideal of physical sex) we must first discover its concept of “body” itself, namely basar.

If you keep kosher you know that today basar only means “meat”—something you eat rather than work-out at the gym. Likewise, the accepted biblical translation of basar is “flesh” (as in “the sins of...”) which means little more than live meat. This translation, however, misses the primary idea of the Hebrew word. Rather than "flesh," the biblical basar stands for the entire soft-tissue husk of the body, as it stands or functions, dead or alive.

There is one verse where even the most conservative translations are forced to translate basar as “body” rather than “flesh”. The verse is Ezekiel 10:12, describing the seraphs of Heaven’s chariots:

“Their whole basar—their backs, their hands and their wings—and the wheels were full of eyes all around.”

Well, since angels can’t have flesh then basar can’t mean “flesh,” can it? It is their BODY that has a back, hands, wings and eyes. Not to be headstrong, however, I will grant that at the other extreme there may be verses where “meat” is an apt translation. For instance Exodus 16:3, where the Israelites reminisce about Egypt, “When we sat by the pots of basar…” So, now, having seen that both meanings are not only possible, but definite, we need only to determine where the other 267 verses fall. While Strong, for instance, renders two as “body” and the rest as “flesh,” the correct ratio, I believe, is quite the opposite.

To start the analysis, and in line with the above verse about angels, let us first see how the human basar also includes, by definition, much more of our physique than the term “flesh” suggests - for basar has everything that the human BODY has:

·         The BODY has hair: “The hair of my basar bristled up” (Job 4:15)

·         The BODY has skin: “The priest shall look at the mark, on the skin of the basar” (Leviticus 13:3)

·         The BODY has organs: “But the skin of the bull, and all its basar—including its head and including its legs and its entrails, and its refuse...” (Leviticus 4:11)

·         The BODY has openings: “When any man has a secretion from his basar…” (Leviticus 15:2)

·         The BODY has genitals: "She lusted after her lovers, whose basar was like that of donkeys, and whose ejaculation was like that of horses" (Ezekiel 23:20, cf 16:26)

·         The BODY has eyes: “Do you have eyes of basar...?” (Job 4:15)

·         The BODY has a circulatory system: “basar, together with its life, its blood, you shall not eat” (Genesis 9:4)

·         The BODY has a respiratory system: “I do bring the flood… to destroy all basar, wherein is the breath of life” (Genesis 6:17)

The case for basar as “body” is just beginning. In honor of my nephew who just got engaged, however, I will already reference the first appearance of basar in the bible: the creation of Eve and the edict to join in matrimony (Genesis 2:21-24). In reading the story correctly, not only is it essential to understand basar, but also tzela (צלע). Suffice to say that in the bible this common word ALWAYS means “side” or "flank," like a side of a square, or a flank (=side) of the tabernacle, the ark, or the altar. The biblical term is also used for the flank of a mountain, and for protecting one’s flank in war. Likewise the literal meaning of tzolea, limping, is “lopsided.” On the other hand, the term is never used for a bone in the chest, making the Genesis translation as “rib” utterly bogus. So here is the literal translation of the most important passage in human relations, describing the moment when men and women got their familiar gender-characterized bodies:

“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his flanks, and closed a body in its place. And the flank, which the LORD God had taken from the man, built He into a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said: 'This is now a skeleton of my skeleton, and a body of my body; she shall be called Woman. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and join unto his wife, and they shall become one body.”

What does it mean to "become one body"? To be a single organism? I will leave you with three illustrations of the idea—one biological (joining in the one-body of a child), one physical (the joining of bodies into one), one spiritual (illustrated by Chagall), and all equally true.

Mazal tov Idan and Ronit,

Ethan

P.S. More on the duo of “skeleton and body” next week. Rabbinic sources claim that the First Man was a dual-entity who was then split either between front and back (“The First Man had two faces…”; Eruvin 18) or midsection, at the “tail” genital area. Do not confuse my use of "flank" to mean the specific section between the ribs and hip, but rather "the side of anything, as of a building" (Dictionary.com), as in: “On its two flanks on its two sides” (Exodus 37:27).

5. “Lev” (Part Four, final) – When the mind loves

It’s time to wrap up the “lev” entry.

The ground we already covered should put your mind at rest (or, in biblical Hebrew, put you in a good mind) regarding three points:

• (a) the non-figurative "lev" never meant the anatomical heart;
• (b) the figurative use of lev is, first and foremost, as the seat of rational thought, awareness, intent and reflection; and
• (c) by correcting the mistranslation of lev (replacing the excitable “heart” with the perceptive “mind”) the bible’s fundamental teaching about the soul, prophecy and transformation emerges dazzlingly from the text.

Rather than a sentimental faith, of emotional passion and meek "hearts," we are confronted, then, with the original doctrine of mind enlightenment—directed towards self knowledge and the clear perception of the divine. What I wish to stress this week is how dangerous it is to leave the translation of lev as “heart” even in those verses where the mental activity described is emotional. Indeed, I want to show how vital it is to:

“Love the LORD your God with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5).

It is not a coincidence that the Bible spells-out this love in judicious terms: “You shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His ordinances, and His commandments, always” (Deuteronomy 11:1). Indeed, the idea of loving God references the same term as the joining of man and wife into a single organic unite: “To love the LORD your God, to follow all His ways, and to join unto Him” (Deuteronomy 11:22, 30:20, Joshua 22:5). Love, therefore, is not a fleeting emotion but an actualized connection. Between man and God, this “mind to mind” joining is a mind-boggling idea.

There is no such thing as translating a figurative concept, or figures of speech, in a literal way. Just imagine translating “I feel blue” into a language where the color has no associations of melancholy. Thus, there is zero “literal” merit to translating lev as “heart”, anywhere, anytime. Indeed, figuratively, many lev verses would best be translated as “head”! -- Drinking makes you “light-headed”, obtuseness is being “thick-headed”, thoughts go running “in your head,” artists have a “good head” for designing, an avenger is “hot headed,” and when you indulge in debauchery you “lose your head.” In the Hebrew Bible, all of these idioms use lev (see below); now wrap your lev around that!

Because there is no alternative seat of "rationality" anywhere in the Bible, no "thinking head” nor “brain,” mistranslating lev as “heart” strips its characters of their innate rationality. The main character so misread is the so-called “God of the Old Testament,” deemed innately temperamental, “being capable of anger, joy, and other emotions…” (Shaye J. D. Cohen, 1987). Through 800 mistranslations, the entire bible is skewed.

Inevitably, many translations are forced—in few verses—to translate lev as mind. By translating other verses as "heart," however, these corrections only worsens the situation. Indeed, they reinforce the misconception of a Mind vs. Heart dichotomy, within our self, that had no place in biblical thought. The exceptions lend an even sharper irrational connotation to those verses left as “heart.” We ourselves know that there are no actual mental faculties in the anatomical heart. Love, mercy, loyalty and courage are all, truly, in the mind. Before the emergence of the Christian idea of Christ, as a deity of pure emotional “love,” this is, undoubtedly, how the Israelite writers saw reality as well. We must not project our own neurosis, then, on the ancient Hebrew Canon.

I admit that translating all of the lev verses using the term "mind" (as we MUST) will lead to some odd formulations. We are socialized to expect emotions to be heartfelt rather than mindful. “Remove anger from your mind” (Ecclesiastes 11:10), "I will harden the mind of Pharaoh" (Exodus 7:3), and “The fear of your mind which you shall fear” (Deuteronomy 28:67), may sound awkward. But this stylistic price is negligible. While the danger of imposing the emotional “heart” on the text is enormous, there is no parallel risk in translating lev as the “mind”—for we often use the Cartesian idea of the all encompassing mental “mind” which is not cold-minded or rational per-se.

Apologetics aside, let us remember that such emotional lev verses are scarce. In 90% of the verses “mind” simply makes more sense. We end our account of lev, then, with a tour-de-force of a few dozen more verses—to see how beautifully they read with correct, mindful idioms. Though I am no expert in poetic English, still I hope that your mind may enjoy my humble effort:

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be [constantly] on your mind: Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you're at home or away, when you lie down or get up”; (Deuteronomy 6:6-7); The children are brazen-faced and tough-minded” (Ezekiel 2:4); “My mind is spinning, my strength left me” (לב סחרחר Psalms 38:11); “And the mind of the king of Aram was in turmoil over this thing” (לב סוער Two-Kings 6:11); “Say to the frantic-minded: 'Be strong, fear not'” (נמהרי לב Isaiah 35:4); “The LORD will smite you with madness and with blindness and with mind-bafflement” (תמהון לבב Deuteronomy 28:28); “When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his servants changed their minds toward the people, and they said, "What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"” (ויהפך לב Exodus 14:5); “Rehoboam was young and weak-minded, and could not be strong before them.” (רך לבב Two-Chronicles 13:7); “What man is there that is fearful and weak-minded? let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's mind melt as his mind” (Deuteronomy 20:8); “There shall be no rest for the sole of your foot; but the LORD shall give you there a troubled mind, forlorn eyes, and……” (לב רגז Deuteronomy 28:65); “My mind was searing in me—when I think a fire burns” (Psalms 39:3); “Lest the avenger of blood pursue the manslayer, while his mind is searing, and overtake him” (Deuteronomy 19:6); “Make me of a single-mind to fear Your name” (Psalms 86:11); “I have walked before You truly and with an unqualified mind, and have done what is good in Your eyes" (Isaiah 38:3); “Man sees to the eyes, but the LORD sees to the mind” (1-Samuel 16:7); “Harlotry, liquor, and wine swipe the mind” (יקח לב –take away mindfulness—Hosea 4:11); “For You, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made a revelation to Your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house'; therefore Your servant was put in mind of praying this prayer unto You” (2-Samuel 7:27); “David's mind assailed him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt” (1-Samuel 24:6); “It was on the mind of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD” (1-Kings 8:17); “You alone know the minds of all the sons of men” (1-Kings 8:39); “He sent me to mend those whose minds crippled, to proclaim liberty to the captives” (נשברי לב as in "you won't break me"--having nothing to do with "a broken heart"... Isaiah 61:1); "And the LORD gripped the mind of Pharaoh" (Exodus 9:12); “[Even] the mind of the rash will discern knowledge, And [even] the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly” (Isaiah 32:4); “I stated a reply, as was on my mind” (Joshua 14:7); “Out of the innocence of your mind you have done this” (Genesis 20:6); “Know in your mind that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son” (Deuteronomy 8:5); “I am asleep, but my mind is awake” (Song of Songs 5:2); “He who trusts his own mind is a fool, But he who follows wisdom will escape” (Proverbs 28:26).

With love, from deep in my core, and with thanks to Keith Haring, below, for describing my feelings so well...

Ethan

4. "Lev" (Part Three) - The PURE MIND of revelation

Like many, I finished reading the final Harry Potter in which Rowling was ambitiously philosophical. I was rather impressed with the following little exchange between Dumbledore and Snape:

• "Lord Voldemort’s soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry’s..." 
• "Souls? We were talking of minds!" 
• "In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other."

This idea of a Mind-Soul identity follows a long intellectual heritage, reaching back in time to Kant, Augustine, Aristotle, and all the way to the early Gnostics. My essay on the soul deals with this fundamentally Israelite idea; with our biblical wisdom dictionary, however, we can easily trace it to an earlier millennium, in words attributed to King David:

“May your mind live forever” (Psalms 22:27)

This verse exemplifies how crucial it is to get the Hebrew lev right. Indeed, to get a right lev. By correctly translating the term as “mind” (NOT the mistaken "heart") we open ourselves to fundamental biblical teachings about something within us that has the potential to exist forever. Its eternal standing is directly correlated with its ability to be ready, set, direct, and pure, leading it to transform, and to reach the total clarity of revelation. So here are few more things that the biblical lev knows how to do:

1. TO REFLECT: “Like the face of water to a face, so is the mind of man to man” (Proverbs 27:19). This exquisite verse may concern a “meeting of minds” between people, but more likely the function of the Mind as the inner screen upon which man’s perceptions play.                                                                                                                                              .
2. TO BE SET: “If you return to the LORD fully minded… set your minds to the LORD and serve Him alone” (1-Samuel 7:3); “And he did evil, because he did not set his mind to seek the LORD” (2-Chronicles 12:14); “Ezra had set his mind to study the law of the LORD” (Ezra 7:10); “every one that set his mind to find-out God, the LORD” (2-Chronicles 30:19). The Hebrew root n-ḵ-n is used for a mind set on an intention, a house set on pillars, an argument set in words, and for being ready and set to go: “My mind is set, O God, my mind is set; I will sing and chant” (Psalms 57:8)
3. TO BE TRANSFORMED: The ability to connect to the divine results from mind-transformation. This was the case of Saul: “When he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another mind… and the spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied”; “And there went with him a band of men, whose minds God had touched” (1-Samuel 10:9-10, 26). This transformation is what Ezekiel calls having “a new mind” (18:31; 36:26), and what the psalmist prays for: “Examine me, O LORD, and try me; purify my conscience and my mind” (Psalms 26:2).

The purpose of life is to transform your mind, through meritorious and mindful living. According to the Hebrew Bible the preliminary Mind, which one is born with, is innately ignoble: “And the LORD said in His mind: 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the nature of man's mind is bad from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). At the other extreme is the prophetic Mind of clear, unhindered perception. According to the Talmud, this is why the Hebrew word for Mind appears in the double form, levav — a coexistence of the ignoble mind and the pure. While in its original state the mind is controlled by the senses, their illusions and temptations (e.g. Mara), wisdom can transform it to the exalted state of bliss:

“Create in me a PURE MIND, O God; and renew a set spirit within me” (Psalms 51:12); “A prophet is a mind of wisdom” (Psalms 90:12).

Thus it may be said of learned and earned enlightenment: “The statutes of the LORD are direct, delighting the mind: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalms 19:8. "direct" can also be "right"); and finally:

“Light is sown for the righteous, And for those of a DIRECT MIND – bliss” (Psalms 97:11)

I pray this delight may touch your soul.

Ethan.

***

P.S. (a) Rereading the post I realize that the most important verses are all from Psalms. (b) “If one speaks or acts with Pure Mind, happiness follows one, even as one's shadow that never leaves”; Dhammapada 1:2. (c) The artwork, titled “Prophet,” is by John Gregory Burke; I liked it - despite the cross - for the "core" + Light aspects it associates with revelation, and for the mind reflected in the face.

ונביא לבב חכמה 

3. "Lev" (Part Two) - Mind your idioms!

In all of the following examples, the mistranslation of Lev as the figurative “heart” is replaced with Mind—the core of our mental reality. I saved the juicier, and more inspiring verses for next week (primarily concerning the connection between the biblical mind and revelation), in order to first cover some basic “idiomatic” ground. So here are the first ten things that the biblical Lev knows how to do:

1.       TO KNOW: “And I will give them a mind to know Me” (Jeremiah 24:7); “And I set my mind to know wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 1:17); “Give Your servant a perceptive mind to judge Your people” (1-Kings 3:9); “fools die mindless” (Proverbs 10:21).

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2.       TO REMEMBER: "I will put My law within them, and on their mind I will inscribe it” (Jeremiah 31:33); “inscribe them on the tablet of your mind” (Proverbs 3:3, 7:3); “The former things shall not be remembered, nor come to mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

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3.       TO THINK. If you look at Rodin's Thinker below you can practically see the conversation that is going on inside of his head. In the Bible, as in dictionary definitions, to “speak in one’s mind” is, indeed, what it means to think (a verb that does not otherwise exist in Ancient Hebrew!). The idiom describes what linguists call inner speech: “As for Hannah, she was speaking in her mind, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard” (1-Samuel 1:13); “And before I had done speaking in my mind, behold, Rebbecca came…” (Genesis 24:45); “And I will punish the men… Who say in their minds 'The LORD will neither help nor harm'” (Zephaniah 1:12). Ecclesiastes uses the same idiom for debating, internally, with philosophical ideas. Thus:

“Let the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of my mind, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD” (Psalms 19:14)

4.       TO PLAN: This is what the artisans of the tabernacle had the wisdom and a great mind for. Likewise: “Many designs are in a man's mind, But the counsel of the LORD will prevail” (Proverbs 19:21); “The counsel of the LORD stands forever; what His mind designed for all generations” (Psalms 33:11).

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5.       TO BEAR IN MIND: “And he that bore not in mind the word of the LORD…” (Exodus 9:21); “Bear in mind all the words which I testify among you this day” (Deuteronomy 32:46). Similarly, “we will not be on their minds” (1-Samuel 18:23).

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6.       TO BE OF ONE MIND: “All these… came with a made-up mind to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel; and all the rest also of Israel were of one mind to make David king” (1-Chronicles 12:39).

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7.       TO BE OF TWO MINDS / TO BE CONNED: “They speak falsehood every one with his neighbor; with flattering lip, and with two minds, do they speak” (Psalms 12:3); “And Jacob tricked the mind of Laban...” (Genesis 31:20).

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8.      TO BE CONTENT: The biblical idiom “to one’s mind’s content” refers, typically to satisfying hunger and thirst (it is the mind that is disturbed when hungry). After Boaz ate and drank, for example, it is NOT that “his heart was merry,” he was simply satisfied—“his mind was content” thus leading him to take a nap (Ruth 3:7) [When hungry or thirsty you can't think straight, and you become unreasonable and irascible; on a full stomach you can relax]. Rarely, an overly-contented state of the mind can involve intoxication.

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9.      TO BE DENSE: There are three biblical images for man’s ignoble state of mind, whereby the mind is "fat," "uncircumcised," and "stone-like." All three depict a mind that is obtuse, and blocked from true perception: “Their eyes are coated, that they cannot see, and their minds, that they cannot learn” (Isaiah 44:18); “Their minds became dense like fat; but I delighted in your instruction” (Psalms 119:70);“Make the mind of this people thick, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they, seeing with their eyes, and hearing with their ears, and discerning with their mind, return, and be healed'” (Isaiah 6:10); "Sheer yourselves to the LORD And remove the circumscription of your minds" (Jeremiah 4:4); “Sheer the circumscription of your mind” (Deuteronomy 10:16). "The LORD your God will sheer your mind and the mind of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with  mind-ful-ness and with all your life-force, so that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

10.   TO BECOME AS STONE: “When the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, his mind died (=blanked out) within him, and he became as a stone” ( 1-Samuel 25:37). Thus God promises the redeemed:

“I will remove the [dead] mind-of-stone from your body and give you a [living] mind-of-flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26)

A story about a “mind of stone” will carry us to next week:

Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm themselves. While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?" One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind." "Your head must feel very heavy," observed Hogen, "if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."

Ethan

2. "Lev" (Part One) - The core of a unified self

William Yeats wrote in a poem: "God guard me from those thoughts men think / In the mind alone." These lines reflect a myth of Western Modernism that is so strong, and so devastating, that it turned a third of humanity into semi-neurotics... Ask yourself:

• Do you believe that your “heart” and your “mind” are opposing forces?
• Do you believe that emotions contradict rationality? That thinking is "cold-minded" while feelings are "hot-blooded"? 

This idea is squarely rejected by the Hebrew Bible. The "Heart vs. Mind" dichotomy has no place in Israelite thought; it is simply not the way we are built. Instead, it is all something called "lev." But what does that mean?

Here is a surprise: Though the Ancient Hebrew word lev is normally translated as “heart” (like its modern use), not once - in over 850 biblical appearances - does it mean the physical blood-pump muscle. While other body parts are dissected, for instance, in sacrificial animals ("Take the fat of the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the right thigh..." Exodus 29:22), an anatomical organ called "heart" is nowhere to be found. Likewise, contrary to what we would expect from the anatomical heart, lev is never associated with blood! At most it is used to depict the chest (where the high priest's breastplate was placed, Absalom was stabbed, and Jehoram got shot through. See entry in Encyclopaedia Biblica, The Bialic Institute). Hosea, too, talks about the whole ribcage as a "heart-cage," or - read much more aptly - the "breastcage" (13:8). That is as close as it gets.

On the other hand, a physical lev is something that not only people have, but also the heavens, the seas, trees and fire. Like the human chest, they are assumed to have a "core"; a center, and in that sense alone, a "heart" -- like an artichoke heart (or the heart of a matter). This meaning is not "borrowed" from the blood-pump; it is, apparently, the only non-figurative meaning that the Ancient Hebrew word ever had.

We are left, then, with well over 800 cases where lev is figurative: the "seat" of mental capacities. But which kind? Emotions? Sure. Lev feels sadness (Genesis 6:6), dread (Genesis 42:28), joy (Exodus 4:14), hate (Leviticus 19:17), agitation (Deuteronomy 28:65), courage (2-Samuel 17:10), and more. These are, however, a small minority. As any lexicon would state, for the most part lev is the seat of rational "intellect," and other cognitive smarts such as memory and creativity. The lev thinks! Indeed, in dozens of verses it is explicitly the seat of Wisdom, as the case of Solomon exemplifies:

"I have given you a wise and understanding lev... And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and breadth-of-lev like the sand on the seashore. Thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt." (1-kings 3:12, 4:29-30)

Two other good examples are from Deuteronomy:

"But the LORD has not given you a lev to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day" (29:3)

And full chapters in Exodus, where the designers of the tabernacle are all described similarly:

"And you shall speak unto all that are wise-of-lev, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom..." (28:3)

Clearly, lev is the discerning mind: "a mind to know"; a "brilliant mind" to conceive; a "breadth of mind" to grasp the universe (nothing to do with a "heart expanding" in emotional delight...). Figuratively, then, as well as physically, lev means "core" - the mental center of our being. It is the inner screen upon which our cognition plays. In modern language that can only be translated as the capitalized Mind, the Cartesian opposite of the body (not to be mistaken with the colloquial opposite of the "heart"). This idea of Mind is defined as “The collective aspects of intellect and consciousness which are manifest in some combination of thought, perception, emotion, will and imagination” (Wikipedia). A rabbinic midrash (Qohelet Raba 1:16) lists over 50 things - from seeing through loving to inscribing - that this biblical Mind is reported to do.

Detrimental is an understatement for translating lev as the figurative "heart," a concept that has an innate emotional connotation, almost anti-rational; the effective opposite of "mind." In Shakespeare's day, when people still learned things "by heart," it might not have been a problem (“I send it through the rivers of your blood, Even to the court, the heart, to the seat o' the brain”; Coriolanus, Act 1.); today, however, hundreds of such heartfelt, sentimental mistranslations skew the message, and the tenor, of the entire Israelite canon.

Contrary to romanticized notions, we are not facing a flaky idea of heart-wisdom ("to see the world feelingly"). Rather, the above-mentioned feelings are lent a clear cognitive foundation: It is only the Mind that judges a situation worthy of fear, or a person deserving of hate. Fear can come from a stock in the red, as well as from a roaring lion. Joy, too, can arise from solving an equation in physics, just as easily as from recognizing the face of a long lost child.

I have no objection to borrowing lev for the anatomical pump, as long as we remember that at our figurative inner core, our so-called heart and mind are one. In this sense the Hebrew lev is identical to the Pali word citta, and to the Japanese kokoro (= heart, mind, center; calligraphy below). Thus the first verse of the Dhammapada (quotations from the Buddha) reads:

"All things are preceded by the lev, led by the lev, created by the lev."

Next week I hope to follow-up on this understanding, and apply it to fascinating biblical verses. Until then, as Descartes would say, "My Mind and my Body sing unto the living God" (Psalms 84:2).

Ethan 

1. "Shabbat" - A day for letting go

God rested on the Sabbath.

Does this make sense to you? Was the creator tired, after six days of "work"? Did he decide to take a break and lounge on a cosmic hammock? Here is the relevant verse, in the JPS (Jewish Publication Society) translation:

"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day." (Exodus 20:10)

In truth, the Hebrew word for "rested," as used in this verse, rarely means a siesta or "refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor" (Dictionary.com). It is legitimate to translate it as "rested," but strictly in the sense of "resting a cup on the table." In other words, to lay or to place something down, or to relieve it from someone's hold.

So how are we to read the verse?  Simple: the verb is transitive, rather than intransitive. The LORD rested an object, not Himself. What is it that he rested, or laid? Obviously, the recently created heaven and earth: "And He rested them on the seventh day" (see Breshit Raba and Ibn Ezra on verse).

But even this connotation can be misleading, because the so-called rested object isn't necessarily still. Adam, for instance, was "rested" in the Garden of Eden, to work it and to protect it (Genesis 2:15), and the swarms of locust "rested" in the boundaries of Egypt, to devour its crops (Exodus 10:14). Inactivity is the last thing you can blame these pests for. For this reason, a much better literal translation conveys the idea that after six days of molding, fidgeting with, and in every way shaping creation like clay in the artist's hands, the world was ready to run. Therefore God let go of his work, just like you might let go of a cup when you place it down, or like Adam was released in the earthen paradise:

"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and He let go on the seventh day."

This understanding leads us to the second relevant verse, which is translated in an even more incongruous manner. Indeed, most English translations offer the LORD a glass of ice-cold Coke....

"In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed." (Exodus 31:17, NASB 1995)

The idea of God needing "refreshment" is silly, not to say blasphemous. Here, the verb in question means to have the faculty of "nefesh." This term means life, or more accurately the universal life-force, conveying the specific idea of animation (e.g. all "animals" have it). In our verse, it yet again means that after God finished molding the world and getting all of the pieces right, he let go, turned on the great, cosmic energy switch, and gave it a life of its own:

"In six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased, and [it] enlivened."

OK. We got God's story. But what is ours? The Bible says that the Sabbath is to become our own weekly day of "rest," following God's primordial "resting." But if God didn't take a refreshing siesta, what happens to our own lazy afternoon-naps? They are hardly the point. Just like the Sabbath is the day to release your workers, even your animals, from the shackles of your control - letting go of your hold on them! - so too it is the day to let go of the "work" we do to shape, to mold, and to control the world that we live in.

The primary prohibition on igniting a fire, therefore, is not because it takes any effort, but because fire is the tool that humanity, and humanity alone, has in order to master the universe (God's creation also rolled-out from the igniting of "Let there be Light!").

One day a week we are asked to let go.

Let go of attachments.

Let go of power.

Let go of the buzz.

Let go of trying to fix it.

Let it be.

***

I observe the Jewish Sabbath. Trust me, it is not always easy. On weekends alone, grinding through long summer days without Internet, music, TV or phone calls can be something of a torture. At those times, the last thing I feel is refreshment. Shabbat is always, however, a weekly meditation-retreat that forces me to let go not only of the endless creative acts that i use to control and to shape my private world, but also of the weekday crutches that so help me avoid myself. You may call it freedom.

Welcome to my blog.

Ethan