Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Sometime several thousand years ago in the seventh century BCE, a worker wrote a message to his political leader preserved on a broken piece of pottery and reproduced in Volume 1: Ancient Israel, from Its Beginnings through 332 BCE, the new volume from The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization: “And your servant harvested and finished/measured and stored it in the granary as always before the Sabbath.”
A self-portrait of a conscientious worker. But then, something outrageous happened:
“When your servant had measured his harvest and stored it in the granary as always, then Hoshayahu son of Shobay came and took your servant’s garment. It was when I had measured/completed my harvest as always, that he took your servant’s garment!”
Recognizing that he, a mere field hand, might not be believed, he assured the governor, “And all of my brothers (fellows) will testify in my favor, those who harvest with me in the heat of the sun . . . . my brothers will confirm my testimony. I am innocent of guilt.”
Workers of the fields, unite. An injustice has been done. To read more go to “A Legal Complaint” on the Posen Digital Library.
Legal complaint on ostracon, Metsad Hashaviahu. Collection of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
We don’t know how this extra-biblical text of a complaint from Metsad Hashaviahu (between present-day Tel Aviv and Ashdod) was adjudicated, but we do know what Exodus 22:25–26 says:
“If you take your neighbor's garment in pledge, you must return it to him before the sun sets; it is his only clothing, the sole covering for his skin. In what else shall he sleep? Therefore, if he cries out to Me, I will pay heed, for I am compassionate.” i
This opportunity to read a text from ancient Israel from the biblical period but found outside the Bible together with biblical texts adds to our understanding of the societies of that time period. It lets us grasp the richness of the culture that produced the Bible and glimpse the everyday lives of Israelites. It brings that distant ancient world a bit closer to our own, augmenting it. It lets us see a prosaic example that corroborates how people were doing what the Torah law said—or violating it.
This is just one example from the just published Volume 1 of The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Ancient Israel, from Its Beginnings through 332 BCE, co-edited by Jeffrey H. Tigay and Adele Berlin. Eminent scholars like Jeff and Adele regularly read the biblical together with the extra-biblical but most of us lay readers don’t get the chance to read and see Israelite material from the biblical era that shaped the Bible . . . until now.
This powerfully illuminating volume provides a dialogue between these different types of texts that bridges the distance between the canonical and non-canonical, the sacred and quotidian. In this way, The Posen Library’s Volume 1: Ancient Israel dramatically broadens comprehension of the formative sources of Jewish culture and civilization.
Ancient Israel joins the modern volumes already on the Posen Digital Library so you will now be able to search across time. Registration on the PDL is fast and free. Anticipating Passover, I did a search to see what connections might occur across time. What a surprise to find two accounts about celebrating Passover in military service!
Back in 419/418 BCE, Hananiah, a Jewish member of the Persian administration, wrote a “Passover Letter” with rules about observing the holiday to the military garrison stationed at Elephantine, Egypt: “To my brothers Jedaniah and his colleagues the Jewish Troop.” Hananiah is a bit more strict regarding what these soldiers should drink than the Union soldier J. A. Joel. He describes a seder in the mountains of West Virginia during the American Civil War in 1862. Joel wrote: “Being apprised of the approaching Feast of Passover, twenty of my comrades and co-religionists belonging to the Regiment, united in a request to our commanding officer for relief from duty, in order that we might keep the holydays, which he readily acceded to.”(Read more at “A Union Soldier’s Passover, 1866”)
As we all continue to contend with not being together in person, let me urge you to check out seven lively and informative conversations that we recorded this fall thanks to our talented volume editors and many distinguished institutional partners. Enjoy these videos at your leisure, playable on our Past Events Page. A number of these conversations will remind us of times, far more challenging than 2020, that we have faced. If you’re active on social media, you can keep up to date with everything The Posen Library is doing by following our posts on Twitter and Facebook, and the new videos we add to our YouTube channel.
Wishing you a safe and healthy Passover,
Deborah Dash Moore
Editor in Chief, The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization
http://bit.ly/PosenVid
