Ralphies 2024

 I observe that "Ralph" began 20 years ago, in November 2004.  At the time, it seemed like a cutting-edge thing to do.  Then Twitter with its hot takes came along, and Reddit with its memes, and Donald Trump to corrupt everything, and Elon Musk to corrupt what Trump overlooked.  Now social media is a vast wasteland. Blogging seems like a quaint holdover from a simpler era.  I'm OK with that, because I get to do ...

Ralphies! Here we go ..

Movies: It's getting harder to distinguish movies from TV these days; it's all streaming content, and I don't go to theaters anymore.  Not against it or anything, but, hey, everything winds up on Netflix or whatever eventually.  I don't think I saw anything that came out this year, but I did catch up by watching Oppenheimer from 2023-pretty good, I guess? But the one that wowed me the most was 1917 (2019), innovative filmmaking and an exciting, moving story. It gets the Ralphie.

TV: Again, what is TV? Something you watch on a TV network? Or something called TV on a streaming service? I'll opt for the latter, since actual TV we use only for news, weather, and sports.  I enjoyed the series Dark Winds, although Zahn McClarnon is not at all my idea of Joe Leaphorn (probably not Tony Hillerman's, either). But the Ralphie goes to Arcane for the action and highly imaginative graphics and world-building, although it has more characters than War and Peace. 

Music: This, too, is affected by the streaming trend.  People used to get albums; now it's replaying your favorite track on a streaming service (take your pick).  But there were some good songs this year.  I got into listening to acoustic versions of rock hits; among them I give high marks to "1979" by Freedom Fry (Smashing Pumpkins cover) and "Wonderwall" by Ryan Adams (Oasis cover). But there was plenty of good new music too: "People Watching" by Sam Fender, "SPEYSIDE" by Bon Iver, "Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose" by Father John Misty; "kisses" by Slowdive; but the Ralphie goes to "Candy" by Mk.gee, because I'm a sucker for melodic guitar playing.

Books: This one is always tricky, because I read a lot, both for business and pleasure.  For fiction, I'm going to give the Ralphie to Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, and for non-fiction to All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told by Douglas Wolk.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some, so I might revisit this later.

As far as current events go, I can't think of a more distressing and worrisome year, and 2025 doesn't look like it's going to improve things.  So I guess the only answer is to keep calm and keep blogging. See your around, true believer. Nuff said. 

Hell and Donald Trump

 Donald Trump, with his usual delicacy, seems to have spent most of Christmas telling various parties to "go to hell." or, more picturesquely, "rot in hell." No, I'm not going to link to any of his posts. 

Perhaps Donald Trump has never pondered the possibility that he himself could one day find himself in hell.  If you flinch at the notion that anyone should go to hell, then ponder these prophetic words of C. S. Lewis:

Picture to yourself a man who has risen to wealth or power by a continued course of treachery and cruelty, by exploiting for purely selfish ends the noble motions of his victims, laughing the while at their simplicity; who, having thus attained success, uses it for the gratification of lust and hatred and finally parts with the last rag of honour among thieves by betraying his own accomplices and jeering at their last moments of bewildered disillusionment. Suppose, further, that he does all this, not (as we like to imagine) tormented by remorse or even misgiving, but eating like a schoolboy and sleeping like a healthy infant—a jolly, ruddy-cheeked man, without a care in the world, unshakably confident to the very end that he alone has found the answer to the riddle of life, that God and man are fools whom he has got the better of,that his way of life is utterly successful, satisfactory, unassailable. ...

    Supposing he will not be converted, what destiny in the eternal world can you regard as proper for him? Can you really desire that such a man, remaining what he is (and he must be able to do that if he has free will) should be confirmed forever in his present happiness—should continue, for all eternity, to be perfectly convinced that the laugh is on his side?

This imaginary person in The Problem of Pain reminds me of Donald Trump. Such a man, argues Lewis, challenges the assumption that no person should go to hell; challenges it by recruiting our sense of justice to argue with our (possibly over-developed?) sense of mercy. 

Well, it challenges me.  Trump, and to a lesser extent, his minions (like Elon Musk) challenge daily my sense of mercy.  What a disheartening time we live in.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The quotation is from The Problem of Pain (New York, 1947), pp. 108-109. 

A Previously Unnoticed Alternative Targum to Psalms 38:4

 

    In preparing a reader's edition of the Targum to Psalms, I came across an alternative targum (marked תרגום אחר) in the margin of Codex Solger (the Nuremberg codex) to Psalm 38:4 (38:3 in English versions).  The RSV translation of the Hebrew reads "There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin." 

    The main targum text of Codex Solger reads (in translation): "There is no healing in my body because of your anger, no health in my limbs because of my sin." Not a great departure from the Hebrew. But the marginal alternative targum reads as follows: 

 לית אסותא לבישרי מן קדם תקוף רוגזך על דלא קיימית פיקודך ולית שלם לאיתתי

דאיתקרית עצם כדכ<תיב> עצם מעצמי מן קדם חובי ארי אלהא מסער חובי גבר על

איתתיה כדכתיב למה יקח משכבך תחתיך

Translation: "There is no health to my flesh because of the strength of your anger, because I did not observe your commandments and there is no peace to my wife (who is called Bone as it is written, bone of my bones [Genesis 2:23]) because of my sin, for God visits the sins of a man on his wife, as it is written, lest he take your bed under you [Prov 22:27]." 

    As noted, I haven't seen a reference to this text, and David Stec makes no mention of it in his translation (The Targum of Psalms [Aramaic Bible 16], 2004).  Since Codex Solger was a principal source of the Rabbinic Bibles of 1517 and 1525, one might expect to find it there, there's no trace of it.  I also haven't seen this particular midrash anywhere (but there's a lot to search, so); it's not in Midrash Tehillim to the verse. None of the other alternative renderings in this Targum quote other Scripture, either, so this one is unique in that respect. (I also don't quite get the application of Prov. 22:27, which, by the way is slightly misquoted, the Masoretic text having מתחתיך not תחתיך). 

    Anyone out there have any comments? Anyone seen a similar take on the verse elsewhere?

Ralphies 2023

Wow, what a crazy year. Lots of ups and downs. But there is one thing solid in an unstable world: the Ralphies. 

Movies: Did I see any movies at all? I’ll give the Ralphie to the only one I remember watching (online): Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse. 

TV: On the other hand, there was a lot of fun TV.  Murder at the End of the World was good, especially for Emma Corrin’s performance. Bob’s Burgers became my main go-to late in the year (a wholesome show with fart jokes). The Chosen provided much fodder for Ralph, as you might have noticed.  But the Ralphie goes to The Americans, which absorbed me (and even moved me) deeply. Yes, I watched the whole thing in 2 months. 

Books: So many books, so little time. For fiction, the Ralphie goes to Fugitive Telemetry, a novel in the Murderbot series (which I love). For non-fiction … well, I haven’t finished reading it, but of course I have to give a Ralphie to this volume. *blush* 

Music: Listening has shifted from album-based to song-based, because of the ubiquity of streaming services, and I’ve succumbed.  Some of my favorites were Bang Bang, by Momma; Psychos, Jenny Lewis; Woman on Fire, BEL; Goner, girlhouse; and from the past, That Old Black Magic, Louis Prima and Keely Smith (and she was the best singer of her era, you can’t deny it); and Me & Magdelena, a gem by the Monkees (!). But the Ralphie goes to I’m In Love With You by The 1975 (dumb name for a band, great song). 

Sports: Nice to see the Longhorns return to being good, and the Bengals are hanging in there as I write. But the Nats were awful again, and will probably be awful again in 2024. No Ralphies! 

All right, my children, that’s it.  If the Republic still is standing next December --which is far from certain-- I’ll see you then. 

Little lamb, arise (Chosen 5)

 This post is mainly concerned with the episode in The Chosen (season 3, episode 5) dealing with the raising of Jairus's daughter (see Mark 5:37-41 and parallels). In general, the episode is well done, as are all the healing miracles in this series (I say nothing about the cringey ending, where Jesus and the disciples go swimming in the Sea of Galilee fully clothed). 

I was interested to see that the healing words spoken by Jesus in the episode were "Little lamb, arise!", representing talitha kum(i) ταλιθα κουμ, a Greek transliteration of Aramaic טליתא קומי. (Mark 5:41). But, although the word טליתא "girl" is originally derived from a word meaning "lamb" (or perhaps just "young of an animal"), in Aramaic, throughout its dialects טליתא means just "girl" (as טליא talya means "boy").  The scriptwriters evidently got hold of an idea that etymology equals meaning; and this particular idea is often used sentimentally in fundamentalist homilies (like this). 

There are a thimbleful of occurrences in very late Aramaic texts where טליתא or טליא means "lamb," where the writers are actually using a borrowed Hebrew word טלה taleh, which does mean "lamb." For instance, in the Babylonian Talmud, Bava Mesia 47a we find ומשכה לפרה, ולא משכיה לטלא, "he pulled the cow, but did not pull the lamb," both "cow" and "lamb" are Hebrew. 

So the proper rendering of the Aramaic sentence is just "Girl, arise!" By the way, the standard Aramaic word for "lamb" is אמר immer (fem. imra), while in Hebrew it is כֶּבֶשׂ keves (fem. kivsa). 

The Chosen (4)

 Currently I'm into season 2, but these comments are wrapping up season 1.

• Jesus likes to hug. A lot. Not complaining, I've just never thought of Jesus as a big hugger. But why not?
• Erick Avari's performance as Nicodemus was excellent, kudos to him. 
• I like the diversity of this cast, both as to gender and to ethnicity. But I'm not comfortable historically with Mary Magdelene being a de facto disciple.  Surely a single woman would not have traveled around with 13 single men? 
• The Romans, in the last episode of Season 1, don't like the attention Jesus is getting, so they put up a notice in "Aramaic, Latin, and Greek" that is to say "By order of Rome, and punishable by detention and imprisonment, religious gatherings outside the synagogue and Hebrew school are strictly prohibited. The teacher known as Jesus of Nazareth is wanted for questioning." Then a scene shows a Roman soldier posting the notice: 
  
  Not Aramaic (or Latin or Greek, natch) but Modern Hebrew and not very smooth at that (and in fact a couple of lines are obviously missing). I know that the prop is meant only for verisimilitude and not meant to be historically accurate, but still this is pretty inept. (And it started my mind down a rabbit hole: How would you say "religious gatherings" in ancient Hebrew or Aramaic? I don't think there was even a word "religious" in either tongue.) Couldn't they find a scholar  (ahem) who could produce a decent prop in the ancient languages?
• It's axiomatic that every portrayal of Jesus is a kind of mirror image of the age that produced it. In the '60's we had Godspell, with a hippie Jesus.  Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ reflects the conservative Catholic piety of its producer.  This Jesus is an evangelical Jesus.
• Which is not to say it's bad by any means. I do enjoy this show, and its kind heart.  I nitpick because it's my job. 

The Chosen (3)

 Continuing with reactions to The Chosen ...

The episode of the wedding at Cana in Galilee was overall well-done, I thought ... but sooo slooooow. This series has a problem with pacing. It was a nice touch having Thomas present as a wine wrangler. 

But my job is to nitpick! It was this episode I think that began at the pawnshop, which displayed a sign in typeset (!) Hebrew (!) טובין משועבדים, which means "pledged goods" in Modern Hebrew. In both modern and ancient Hebrew (and Aramaic) the notion of pawning is expressed by the root משכן, so I'm not sure where they got their expression. 

I also have a beef with the presentation of John the Baptist's imprisonment. The Pharisee Nicodemus visits him in a Roman prison, where he has been put because a Pharisee laid an information against him (because John called them a "brood of vipers," Matt. 3:7). But it's explicitly said in the gospels (e.g, Luke 3:19-20) that Herod Antipas, tetrach of Galilee, imprisoned John because John had criticized him for marrying Herodias, his brother's wife. Neither the Romans nor the Pharisees enter into it.  Since the biblical scenario has all kinds of dramatic possibilities, I'm not sure why the script ignores it (and so far the script doesn't mention Herod at all). 

Watch this space for more carping to come!