Copyright (c) 2010 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik Recent documents in Michael Carasik en-us Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:31:37 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/19 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/19 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:43:23 PDT I am suggesting in this article that what Hannah asked for in the original telling of this story was not זרע אנשים but זרע אלהים, a child that would be given her by God. The difficult phrase זרע אנשים is an artifact, placed in her mouth by a kind of Tiqqun Soferim, a reflexive correction of Hannah’s request by a scribe who (perhaps) misunderstood it and (certainly) found it uncomfortable. Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/18 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/18 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:12:02 PDT In his chapter on inner-biblical exegesis in The Garments of Torah, Michael Fishbane says that his purpose is "to suggest some of the ways by which the foundation document of Judaism, the Hebrew Bible, not only sponsored a monumental culture of textual exegesis, but was itself its own first product." I believe that this assertion is indeed correct. In this article, I sharpen it in two ways: first, by pointing out the locus of the Bible's invention of itself, Deuteronomy 4; second, by pointing to the act of exegesis—a Deuteronomic midrash on the phrase from Exodus 20 that describes the Israelites as "seeing" the thunder—that provided the creative spark that transformed theological energy into textual matter and (ultimately) gave us the Bible. Michael Carasik Deuteronomy http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/17 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/17 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:22:57 PDT The purpose of this paper is to highlight the process of literary shaping as it took place in the Bible, by a discussion of three biblical beginnings—a beginning at the beginning (Genesis 1), a beginning in the middle (1 Samuel 1), and a beginning at the end (2 Chronicles 36). Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/16 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/16 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:13:11 PDT In this article, I hope to show that a distinctively Deuteronomic voice can be heard in the Joseph story. This voice makes itself known both in Deuteronomic language and in a particular Deuteronomic attitude, one that has been neglected as a tool for discovering Deuteronomic influence in other books of the Bible—Deuteronomy’s psychological orientation. Focusing on these two elements of what the writer of Deuteronomy sounds like, I hope to demonstrate that, despite the origins of the Joseph story primarily in the J, E, and P sources, the writer who composed it was indeed influenced throughout by a Deuteronomic outlook. Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis Deuteronomy http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/15 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/15 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:54:46 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary Biblical exegesis wisdom literature http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/14 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/14 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:49:19 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary Targum http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/13 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/13 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:57:55 PDT Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis wisdom literature http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/12 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/12 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:52:51 PDT Can the God of the Hebrew Bible read minds? Contrary to popular belief, most biblical texts suggest that God cannot, but several narrative texts insist that God can. This observation prompts a second and broader question: To what extent are the theologies that appear to be operative in various biblical texts actually shaped by literary imperatives? Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/11 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/11 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:48:57 PDT Ch. 12 of Ecclesiastes depicts a scene that combines elements of the death of a person with others that describe the death of an entire world. Vladimir Nabokov's novel Invitation to a Beheading ends with a similar scene. Both Nabokov's writings and his biography suggest that he shared Qohelet's view of life "under the sun" as hevel, but his own experience as a creator led him to believe that there is a higher-order reality than our own. The literary technique described here was Nabokov's attempt to show how one might cross the boundary into that higher reality. With a particular focus on Nabokov's novel Pale Fire, I will argue that the parallel to Ecclesiastes suggests that the writer of Eccl. 12:9-14 was also the writer of that entire book, who chose to drop the persona of Qohelet at the end of his book and speak as himself, to burst through the boundaries of death (in 12:7) and offer a view of the world that the Qohelet persona could not perceive. Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis wisdom literature http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/10 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/10 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:36:56 PDT Biblical texts regularly emphasize following the straight path that is marked out by God’s teachings. Just as in English, ‘straightness’ is prized as ‘right’ and ‘crookedness’ scorned as perverse. This quality is praised both in action and in thought. By contrast, Qohelet’s search for wisdom is specifically expressed in language which gives turning, not straightness, the highest value. This study explores how Qohelet uses words and images of turning to express both what he has learned and how he has learned about the world, as well as how circularity is an element not merely of Qohelet’s thought, but of his style. Michael Carasik Biblical exegesis wisdom literature http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/9 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/9 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:32:04 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/8 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/8 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:28:01 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary Biblical exegesis http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/7 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/7 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:23:03 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/6 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/6 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:20:50 PDT Michael Carasik Jewish biblical commentary http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/5 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/5 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:16:04 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/4 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/4 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:14:32 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/3 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/3 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:12:42 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/2 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/2 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:09:33 PDT Michael Carasik http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/1 http://works.bepress.com/michael_carasik/1 Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:00:24 PDT Michael Carasik