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Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
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22 Nov, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Fascinating how powerful is the myth that the planetary week emerged independently & roughly contemporaneously with the Jewish week.

Earliest archaeological evidence for J week is 5th c BCE (Elephantine).when it v likely was well established

Earliest p week is late 1st c CE+
in Mediterranean communities with significant J presence.

Excerpt is from @jpinsk intro to interview with David Henkin (buy his great book!)

apple.news/AyCitF_-JSw2_B…
This paragraph from Lepore’s take on Henkin in @NewYorker is also shockingly at variance with the historical record, as+
summarized by the most up-to-date review by leading historians of the matter unfortunately not open access (email me…): but that’s hardly an excuse for a great historian or an @TheAtlantic journalist:

brill.com/view/book/edco…
P.S. I’m writing a book on the invention of the week. If you think you know research on origins of the week that I might not be aware of, I’m all ears

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More from @ewzucker

Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
20 Nov
רעיון על ה #הפרשה לכבוד מוצ״ש:

שאלה מפורסמת היא למה יעקב ״החריש״ כשהא שמע מה עשה שכם לבתו. ולא רק שהתנהג כאילו לא שמע כלום עד שהגיעו בניו אלא שנתן לבניו לנהל את משא והמתן עם חמור ושכם ואז נתן לשמעון ללוי לעשות מה שהם עשו.

מה גרם לו להיות כל כך פאסיבי?

אולי יש רמז+
בפסוק א׳ של הפרק.

מה זאת אומרת שדינה יצאה ״לראות בבנות בארץ?״ מה היא ראתה בכלל? ולמה התורה מציגה את המפגש הזה בינה לבין בנות בארץ בצורה כל כך עמומה? יתכן שהמפגש הזה מאוד חשוב- זו מעין כותרת לסיפור!
הצעה:

אל תקרא ״לראות״ אלא ״לרעות״

הרי בפעמים הקודמות שנתקלנו בבנות, הן היו שואבות או/ורועות!
Read 11 tweets
Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
3 Nov
I was yesterday years old when I realized...

that the key term "mimetic" is used in opposing ways by two highly influential & great sociological analyses of importance to me:

DiMaggio & Powell (1983) & Soloveitchik (1994)

& that it's productive to think about *why*

<THREAD>
To be sure, the papers each use "mimetic" to describe when people (Soloveitchik) or organizations (D&P) model their behavior on others, even though (in each case) the person or organization has good reasons not to slavishly model their behavior on others.
Also, both see mimesis as something that is "taken-for-granted" to the point that it is essentially done nonstrategically & even unthinkingly.
Read 15 tweets
Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
6 Aug
Question: What's with the odd omissions in Deuteronomy 16's presentation of the the 3 pilgrimage holidays?

** A "Dvar Torah" thread in honor of my father Alan Zuckerman z'l's 12th yahrzeit (30th of Av) for Parashat Re'eh (Deut 11:27-16:17) &***
The holidays are v familiar by this point in the Torah.

Q: What's new here?

A: Pilgrimage is important!

So for each holiday (incl an extra one for Paschal lamb), Moses says celebration must be "at the place God will choose to establish His name there" ImageImageImageImage
Moses even concludes with emphasizing this pilgrimage to this mysterious place (understood later to mean the Temple in Jerusalem) one more time.

OK we get the idea! Image
Read 20 tweets
Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
16 May
Someone needs to translate this April 30 piece from former PM Ehud Olmert into English.

He lays the current crisis at Bibi’s feet (he’s terrified of going to prison and needs to galvanize the (far) right, who in turn are just using him+

maariv.co.il/journalists/Ar…
to support their campaign of terrorizing and chasing Palestinians off their land)

And he predicts much of how the last two weeks would unfold:

“A wave of terror is what Bibi needs in order to give the appearance of an extreme emergency, which would necessitate firming a+
nationalist government with him at the helm encompassing all the right wing parties... He won’t light the match-that’s what the men of Lehava (Kahanists who Bibi helped get in the Knesset- EZS) will do. But he’ll give the matches to them. He wants a crisis. Jerusalem would be+
Read 4 tweets
Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
26 Feb
There’s actually a fascinatingly eerie, deep connection between CPAC’s #GoldenCalf & today’s holiday of #Purim.

<Short thread>
The Purim story is driven by an act of resistance: Mordecai’s refusal to bow to the authoritarian vizier Haman.

This simple defiance infuriates Haman, leading to the genocidal decree. ImageImage
But it’s unclear why Mordecai refused to bow to Haman as this would seemingly have been standard protocol given Haman’s status. Two complementary explanations are:
Read 11 tweets
Ezra Zuckerman Sivan Profile picture
28 Jan
OK, if you're Shabbat-observant (& perhaps even if you're not), here's a take on this week's Torah portion (the story of the first Shabbat) that's guaranteed to put a big smile on your face!

<THREAD n=25>
OK, here's a description of a biblical moment that's notoriously challenging to understand. When the people discovered the flaky, frost-like substance on the ground, they were bewildered.

They turned to one another and said:

"Mān hu"

What does this mean?
"Hu" is straightforward: "it is" or "is it"

The problem is "mān."

It doesn't mean anything. It eventually becomes the name for this mysterious food. But at this point in the story, it means nothing. It's not a word!
Read 26 tweets

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