Put A Curse On My Enemy

Note on the footnotes: The superscript symbol for the English text and Hebrew text footnotes are in numerical form. The same number in either text reference the same footnote. Notes provide explanations for biblical allusions, translation comparisons, and content meaning.

Footnotes

1. ”the house of Jacob” is a phrase often used to describe the Jewish people along with “The children of Israel.” The interchangeability of this phrase comes from the two names that Jacob bore in his lifetime. Jacob was renamed “Israel” after he’d wrestled with an Angel for night, (Genesis 32:29). Thus, those of the “house of Jacob” and “the children of Israel” are both ways of referring to the Jewish people. However, the two phrases each endow different characteristics: while “the children of Israel” implies the peace and joy of being Jewish by highlighting the familial relationship between G-d and Jews, “The house of Jacob” referring to more trying aspects of being Jewish — Jacob’s life before he wrestled the Angel was rife with angered conflict and desperate struggle, as his emergence into the world grabbing his twin’s heel forecasted (Tauber). “Bereishit – Genesis – Chapter 32,” The Complete Jewish Bible (with Rashi Commentary). Genesis 32:29 Rpt. in, “LEINING MASTER – INDIVIDUAL PARSHA DOWNLOADS – SEPHARDIC” Wieder, Rabbi Jeremy. The Judaica Press, Print. “Double Identity” Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson; adapted by Yanki Tauber. Chabad.org https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/246640/jewish/Double-Identity.htm Rpt. in Week in Review. https://www.meaningfullife.com/double-identity/

2. “The darkness You will turn to light” likely references Genesis: “And G-d said there was light, and then there was light, ג) וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י א֑וֹר וַֽיְהִי־אֽוֹר׃) (Genesis 1:3). “Bereishit – Genesis – Chapter 1,” The Complete Jewish Bible (with Rashi Commentary), Genesis 1:3. Rpt. in, “LEINING MASTER – INDIVIDUAL PARSHA DOWNLOADS – SEPHARDIC” Wieder, Rabbi Jeremy. The Judaica Press, Print.

3.  In Judaism, The very name of G-d is conceptualized as a point of holiness. Similar to the note about Jacob, names bear special significance in Jewish biblical philosophy. An example from Jewish Virtual Library, “Moses asks God what His ‘name’ is. Moses is not asking ‘what should I call you;’ rather, he is asking ‘who are you; what are you like; what have you done.’ That is clear from God’s response. God replies that He is eternal, that He is the God of our ancestors, that He has seen our affliction and will redeem us from bondage”. “Jewish Concepts: The name of God,” Jewish Virtual Library: A Project of Ace. “Jewish Concepts: The Name of God” https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-name-of-god.

4.  Allusion to Job 30:26 “For I hoped for good and evil came, and I looked forward to light and pitch darkness came.” “Iyov – Job – Chapter 30” The Complete Jewish Bible (with Rashi Commentary), Job 30:26. Rpt. in “LEINING MASTER – INDIVIDUAL PARSHA DOWNLOADS – SEPHARDIC” Wieder, Rabbi Jeremy. The Judaica Press, Print.

חׄזֶה .5 “Chozeh” means seer, (Sefaria) from the participle: חֲזָא to see, to behold. Specifically, “a dream or vision”, “Seer” was a kind of prophet, specifically one who receives visions (Bible Lexicons). In contrast, the Hebrew term for Prophet describes one who delivers oral messages. “so much so that the very word “navi” [prophet] derives from his constant speaking, tracing itself to “niv sefataim” [the expression of the lips]”(Silverstein). I Chronicles 29:29. Sefaria, https://www.sefaria.org/I_Chronicles.29.29?lang=bi. “Strong’s #2370 – חֲזָא” Bible Lexicons, Old Testament Hebrew Lexical Dictionary, https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/eng/hebrew/2370.html. Silverstein, Shraga. “Derashot HaRan 3:6” Sefaria, https://www.sefaria.org/Derashot_HaRan.3.6?lang=bi. See the context note for more commentary on this strophe.

6. The word for “are heard” (נוֹשִׁים) is used in Jeremiah 33:10 (Sefaria). Here G-d says to Jeremiah that the sound of celebration will again be heard in the ruined city of Jerusalem. In this Parsha, the houses and palaces of the Jewish people were destroyed to make mounds in preparation for battle against Chaldeons. The Jews lost the battle, and G-d ordained that the Chaldeons would conquer the Jewish nation, but they refused to listen. G-d then talks to Jeremiah in prison and explains to him that one day the Jews would return to Israel in prosperity and the Davidic dynasty and Kohanim will be reestablished (OUTorah). G-d says that his covenant with the Jewish people and his promise to reestablish old orders have no more chance of being broken than the “covenant” to turn the night into day, and the day into night (33). This biblical metaphor may have inspired Meir’s motif of darkness (night) turning to light (day). “Jeremiah 33:10.” Sefaria, https://www.sefaria.org/Jeremiah.33.10?lang=bi. Leibtag, Menachem. “Jeremiah – Chapter 33.” OUTorah, https://outorah.org/p/3769/.

7. See context note for more commentary.

8. See context note for more commentary.

9. “הַמַחֲנוֹת”, HaMachanot, means “the camps”, which is the plural form of “מַחֲנֵ֥ה”, machana, meaning “camp” (Klein). Appears in Genesis 32:3 (Sefaria) (also in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, numbers). The laws and rituals that maintain purity of military camps in Deuteronomy implies that Jewish people are meant to make all temporary dwelling places holy. The phrase, v’haya mahaneycha “and your camp(s) shall be holy, combines a singular verb (v’haya, holy) and plural noun (mahaneycha, camps). The plurality of the camps are meant to be taken as one when unified under a singular ordainment of purity, which is evident in the article’s comparison between tabernacle purity rituals and military camp purity rituals: both follow the same laws. According to Rabbi Shimshon (Samson) Raphael Hirsch, “What is said here primarily for military camps is, of course, meant to apply to any “camp”— to any sphere in which we may temporarily or permanently settle. All are to bear the stamp of a pure moral way of living” (Hirsch). “Genesis 32:3” Sefaria, Genesis 32:3. Klein, Ernest. “מַחֲנָאִי adj. NH.” Klein Dictionary, Carta Jerusalem, 1987, Klein Dictionary מַחֲנֶה.

10. See context note for more commentary.  

11. In, “For he despairs of his dwelling place,” dwelling place simply translates to residence. The translation could have chosen residence, home, abode, etc. Why was “dwelling place” specifically chosen? The translator may have been trying to convey elements of Jewish mysticism Meir of Norwich was undoubtedly familiar with, given how informed his entire poem is in rabbinical Torah study. Rabbi Shnuer Zalman, leader of the Chabad movement explains that “A dwelling place for G-d” has its basis in the idea of the Kabbalistic worlds of creation, with the physical world of humanity being the lowest world. Although G-d permeates all worlds, the expression of G-d is hidden in darkness in the lowest world, and needs the Jewish people to be active in accomplishing mitzvot to reveal G-d’s holiness, which Rabbi Shnuer Zalman describes, as do many other scholars, as G-d’s “light”. He writes, “here, in this world, the conceptualization of G-dliness is understood in a way of hiddenness and great darkness. G-d desires that we light up the darkness specifically. How do we do this? Through mitzvoth and Torah.” Zalman, Shnuer. In “Source #3.” “A Dwelling Place For G-d, A Model for Man, Sefaria, by Herschel Hartz. 29 January 2014.  https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/1830.3?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en. See the context note for extended commentary on this strophe.

12. It’s possible that the idea of dreams needing interpretation refers to the saying in Number 12:6 where G-d proclaims prophetic visions to come through dreams. “His dreams” seems like an even more pointed reference to the story of Joseph. Roth, Elana. “The Story of Joseph.” My Jewish Learning, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-story-of-joseph/.

13. See the context note for more commentary.

14. See the context note for more commentary.

15. There are four exiles “arba galuyot” (the four exiles). The first was Babylon (423 BCE – 372 BCE), when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, besieged the kingdom of Judah and destroyed the first temple, and exiled the Jews to Babylon. The second exile was by the King of Persia, who conquered Babylon in 372 BCE. This exile lasted from 372 BCE to 348 BCE, when the rule was passed over to Cyrus the great, who admitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem to build the second temple. The third exile involved the Greek rule of ancient Israel (371 BCE – 140 BCE), this exile saw a major assimilation of Jews in Greek culture and the forcible translation of the Torah into Greek. The rebellion of the Maccabees also occurred, and is now commemorated as the holiday of Hanukkah/Chanukah. The fourth exile started with the Roman Empire, and was arguably the most brutal of its predecessors, and is said to have lasted until today. The Roman Empire who’d ruled over Israel at the time enacted a suppression of Jewish protests in 69 CE that ended in a widespread destruction of Jewish homes and the destruction of the second temple of Jerusalem. Note that “arba galuyot” does not include the Assyrian exile (733 BCE-722 BCE) since although the ten tribes of Israel (see the note on the “ten lost tribes”) were dispersed during the exile, Jerusalem still remained under Jewish sovereignty until the Babylonian exile. Schochet, Dovie. “Discover the Four Exiles of the Jewish People: The history of galut.” Chabad.org, https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3671017/jewish/Discover-the-Four-Exiles-of-the-Jewish-People.htm#footnote1a3671017.