Robert Alter

All these verses, if you've ever read them and you're like, what is going on with these crisping pins and round tires like the moon and the nose rings and the jewels? I remember reading this going, what is going on? Well, there's a lot of different interpretations of Isaiah 3.

Robert Alter sees this as a description of the disparity between the rich and the poor.

And we give you his take in the show notes.

Victor Ludlow, who's an LDS commentator, he sees these passages as a description of the immodesty of the daughters of Zion contrasted with the slavery they're soon going to face.

At the end of creation, it says, Shabbat Vayina Fash, God re-ensouls God's self, God re-Nefesh's God's self.

And Robert Alter translates this as a great living translator, translates this as God took a deep breath as that commentary.

So yes, neshama, nefesh, and rurach, which rurach is an interesting one because like neshama, it means both breath and spirit, and it has uniquely a third meaning, which is wind.

So breath, wind, spirit is all captured in this term.

To comfort those who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes.

One translator, I think Robert Alter, writes, a crown of garland rather than a head covered in ash, the oil of gladness instead of mourning.

So prophetically, the arrival of the one upon whom was the Spirit of the Lord, and that is Jesus, through a Christian lens.

This is how we interpret that text, that Jesus is the anointed one, and through his arrival, an anointing lies upon him to bring comfort to people who mourn, to crown their head with garland rather than covered in the ash of mourning.

Betza 16a The specific command which dominates Yom Teruah is the command to blow the trumpet, or shofar, as seen in Leviticus 23, 23, and 24.

Robert Alter The term used for trumpet blasts, New International Version, or loud blasts, New Jewish Publication Society version, is teruah, meaning shout or blast of war, alarm or joy, applied in various contexts, including battle cry of king, blast for march, and shout of joy with religious impulse.

Brown Driver Briggs.

While various emotions are involved in blowing or even blasting out to the Lord, the idea conveyed is that one is not only to blow the shofar for recognizing His holiness and awesomeness, but also that others can be drawn to Him.

It's just a thought, something to think about.

I wanna read to you from Robert Alter's translation.

If you're not familiar with Robert Alter, I've interviewed him on the podcast.

I don't remember, forgive me.

I don't remember what episode that was, but we talked about his three volume translation of the Hebrew Bible.

The basic problem has to do here with the way the-- There's something really obvious about the world, that in general, you and I can't see or don't see or don't want to see or even refuse to see, and that this is what prevents us from being wise, such that the first step toward redemption is to open our eyes and willingly see what it is that we have not wanted to see.

As the Book of Proverbs says, we end up living as fools or dupes, or as Robert Alter puts it, dolts is his translation [laughs].

Because of this ignorance, then we do end up doing foolish and destructive things.

We end up pursuing happiness in impossible ways that fail to match up with how the world really is and with what God really wants for us.

We will only be as wise as we are willing to be corrected.

We will only acquire as much wisdom as we are willing to bear what seems to outsiders to be what is fearful, the fear of the Lord.

I'm especially gonna use for this section some of, uh, Robert Alter's translations, which I think are some of the cleanest, clearest, most contemporary translations.

Here's Proverbs 1:1-7: "The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.