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Uniting the Dual Torah Habakkuk s Oppressors Good Night and Good Luck Here are three items for today 1 I say more of Jacob Neusner 8217 s Uniting the dual Torah Sifra and the Problem of the Mishnah His footnote on page 79 was helpful in terms of illuminating to me what he 8217 s getting at He says that the Sifre third century C E tends to subdue the Mishnah to the written Torah allowing that to set the agenda The Jerusalem c 400 C E and Babylonian c 500 C E Talmuds by contrast allow the Mishnah to set the agenda I 8217 m not only clear as to what Neusner believes the Mishna is at least not yet That may mean that I shoul

pay more care to what I 8217 m reading He says that the 8220 Mishnah 8217 s authorship aims at a free standing topical program 8221 Maybe that clears things up a little The Mishnah concerns halakah that is based on rituals outlined in the written Torah 8212 except perhaps for prayers which are discussed elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible It doesn 8217 t justify each and every one of its laws with Scripture but it 8217 s aim is yet to indicate how Scripture is to be applied 2 I read Marvin Sweeney 8217 s article on the Word of Habakkuk in the Anchor Bible Dictionary Something that confuses many readers of the book is the individuality of the people Habakkuk complains about Is he mainly complaining about oppression within his own nation or that done by the Chaldeans against Israel As Sweeney notes The primary issue is to explain why Chaldea is exploited to correct oppression in 1 5 8211 11 but then becomes the oppressor in 1 12 8211 17 Johnson notes that 1 5 8211 11 does not portray Chaldea in a positive light He thus concludes that the establishment of Chaldea should not be viewed as a result to the oppression described in 1 2 8211 4 Moreover Sweeney states The third major problem presented by Habakkuk 1 8211 2 concerns the identity of the oppressor presupposed by the woe oracles of 2 5 8211 20 Because the crimes specified in these oracles are localized some scholars propose that the woes were originally directed against an internal Judean group such as the ruling class of Jerusalem Otto 1977 Jeremias 1970 before being reapplied against Chaldea by later editors cf Jer 22 13 8211 23 where Jeremiah condemns Jehoiakim for such crimes Others maintain that Chaldea was the intended subject of these oracles Janzen 1982 Peckham 1986 In this honour it is crucial to recognize Coggins 8217 observation 1982 that Habakkuk may represent a different prophetic tradition from that of Jeremiah Prophets are known for using local imagery to condemn international crimes e g Amos 1 3 11 13 Isa 10 14 Nah 3 5 8211 7 Furthermore statements in the woe oracles suggest an external situation such as the references to peoples and nations vv 6a 8a 10b 13b the earth humankind and the sea vv 8b 14 17b and the violence of Lebanon v 17a A supporting example is Nebuchadnezzar 8217 s report that he took Lebanon from an unnamed ruler and transported its wood back to Babylon to make a palace for the rule of eden and earth ANET 307 Such an act well suits the crimes mentioned in these oracles which speak of extortion and plundering nations vv 6b 8211 8 unjust gain used to protect one 8217 s house vv 9 8211 11 bloodshed to build a city vv 12 8211 14 and the plunder of a land vv 15 8211 17 For Sweeney things that seem to certain readers to describe internal oppression i e unjust gain to protect ones house bloodshed to make a city can use to Babylon 8217 s atrocities against Israel when Babylon tried to make a palace That even though the motifs in other prophets frequently relate to internal oppression In this case at least Sweeney moves in the direction of seeing consistency in the book rather than dividing it into sources and editorial layers 3 I only watched Good Night and Good Luck George Clooney 8217 s movie about Edward R Murrow 8217 s stand against Senator Joseph R McCarthy I want there were a movie that conveyed the complexities of the clock period rather than harping on a content of 8220 McCarthy was bad 8221 Indeed reputations were destroyed because there were enough of people in America at that time who 8217 d be wary of a person accused of Communist sympathy or loyalty But the movie isn 8217 t entirely correct when it states at the start that numerous people were afraid to challenge McCarthy for many in the liberal media did criticize him Even the movie accidentally makes that point for it presents McCarthy saying that he 8217 s had to be tough against all the enemy he 8217 s received and that was before Edward R Murrow even launched his criticisms One scene that baffled me was when the George Clooney character was asking his staff to divulge anything that the right wing could use against them membership in Communist organizations attendance at parties etc They wanted to be ready once McCarthy and his loyalists retaliated against Murrow 8217 s broadcast One of the people on the staff said that his wife used to assist Communist Party meetings I wondered why she did that Was she out to overthrow the U S Government Was she just curious Was she look for a date like Jim Carrey in the Majestic when he accompanied a Communist meeting Was this during the 1940 8217 s when America was on Stalin 8217 s side during World War II Remember Joy Gresham 8217 s note on Shadowlands the one with Anthony Hopkins as C S Lewis In the 1930 8217 s there were two groups the Fascists who wanted to ruin the world and the Communists who wanted to keep it Then there 8217 s the Barbara Streisand character on The Way We Were she was a Communist yet she had a picture of FDR hanging on her wall She wasn 8217 t out to overthrow the U S Government even though I 8217 m sure there 8217 s documentation that Communists had that agenda at certain points in time During the Red Scare some of the accusations of Communist loyalty were false or misleading Still our decoding of Soviet cables through the Venona project indicates that there were Soviet spies in the U S Government And yet were all American officials who cooperated with the Soviets die hard Communists Alger Hiss if he were a spy distrusted the Soviets at Yalta And at the library this past Saturday I saw a book about Harry Dexter White which said he simply desired peace I 8217 m not sure what his agenda was in cooperating with the Soviets according to the book Was it to see that the U S didn 8217 t have all the power I wish there were a picture that depicted McCarthy in his complexity as well meaning yet sometimes right and sometimes wrong Posted by James Pate at 3 04 PM Labels Bible History Movies Politics Rabbinics Religion