Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: a proposito di Toledot

http://rehovnahum.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-parasha-toledot.html
I have read recently an interesting story from the Middle East.
Apparently there is a big outrage going on in Palestinians’
headquarters. Mr Siham Barghouthi, Minister of Culture of the National
Palestinian Authority is furious. He had spotted a kefya.You know,
that black and white piece of clothes Arafat used to wear as part of
his uniform, and that can be seen around the necks of some students,
red and white.
Mr Barghouthi had discovered that an Israeli firm is marketing a new
kind of kefya, “with an intricate Star of David pattern in the center
piece, and words AM ISRAEL CHAI (Jewish People Live) in Hebrew, weaved
into its fabric”. You can have it in blue and white, or also in
military green. Mrs Maha Saqa, which is the director of the Heritage
Conservation Center of Bethlehem told that this is, nonetheless, “a
theft of heritage”.
Now, don’t ask me what Palestinian ministers do all the day, and what
a Palestinian Heritage Conservation Center is meant for. I do not
know. I can only say it seems they have a lot of time in their hands,
so that they can follow so closely the fashion business. While neither
of them seems to care about the kefyas being produced, actually, in
China; and that in the last five years two Palestinian weaving
factories went bankrupted. What can I say is that, being the nerdish
person I am, and following a suggestion of a Religious Zionist friend
of mine, I opened my beloved Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud
Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature by Marcus Jastrow.
That dictionary was published more than a century ago, long before the
kefyah became the symbol of anything. And there I read an interesting
entry about the sudra, which is a scarf wound around the head and
hanging down the neck or a turban. Apparently in Talmudic times it was
a sign of distinction for Jewish scholars. We have no proof it was
used during the Biblical times, but to claim that sort of turban as
authentically Arab, as opposed to a Jewish in-authenticity, is absurd.
This story reminds me the part of Parasha Toledot [Genesis
25:19-28:9]. There is a Jew in Eretz Israel. He’s doing reasonably
well, you know there are ups and downs, but this guy is intelligent
and a hard worker too. Unfortunately there are also the Philistines
around; they do not care about welfare. They do not take any pain in
improving, or in developing their own economy. No. The only things
they care is, as v. 26:15 says, סִתְּמוּם פְּלִשְׁתִּים, וַיְמַלְאוּם
עָפָר, to stop up Isaac’s wells, and to fill them with sand.
First the Philistines vandalize the Jewish business; so Isaac is
forced to move. Not content, they keep on the destruction, even after
Isaac had moved away. And why? Well, the text itself says it, v. 26:14
וַיְקַנְאוּ אֹתוֹ, פְּלִשְׁתִּים. , which is usually translated as
“the Philistines envied him”. But is someway a sweeten translation,
like often it happens when the text of the Bible is translated in one
of our European languages. The verb itself, לקנא, is not simply about
“envy”; it has a more intense meaning. A more appropriate translation
indeed is “jealousy”; and there is also a component of zeal, because
קנין are actually: religious fanatics.
But is not only the text to speak in this way. Abimelech himself,
Philistines’ king, speaks to Isaac and says: “Go away from us, because
you infuriated us too much”. [26:16] Apparently, there is something
about a Jew prospering, that makes upset the surrounding people. Or at
least certain kind of people, the ones who live under the rule of some
arrogant Abimelech, a sovereign that does not care about building
their own welfare and prosperity. They just want to get rid of the
Jews, and cancel every sign of Jewish presence: so they fill with
earth the wells that Isaac had dig.
I believe is still very vivid the memory of the mob destroying the
wells and the greenhouses in Gaza, after the last Jewish family had
left the place where they had lived, some of them from generations.
And similarities are even more striking: Isaac dug anew the wells that
his father Abraham dug; and that the Philistines had stopped up. Isaac
even gives to the well the same names. As a result the Philistines are
furious and look for the casus belli, the reason of war. According to
them (let’s say their narrative) every well that the herdsmen of Isaac
digs (let’s say: every Jewish well), is indeed in disputed land.
It is clear who had started it, because the Philistines clearly stated
their goal, which is to get rid of Isaac’s family, because the Jews
had upset them – period. Had some journalist been there, we might have
a report about a continuous war of attrition between two different
groups of herdsmen. Except that Isaac never retaliates, and simply
keeps on moving from place to place, looking for a tiny piece of land
not to be bothered by the Philistines. Abraham dug wells, the
Philistines stopped them up, out of fury, intolerance, rage. Then the
people of Isaac reopened the same wells (mind, the Philistines refuses
even to use them, they just destroy) and had made the desert bloom.
And then Isaac had to move.
Now, we might joke about the media reporter who strives to be neutral,
and actually spreads lies more poisonous than Philistines’ propaganda.
I understand there are plenty of such a reporters in this Country,
and, believe me, Italy is not an exception. But in the Torah, in our
text, in the portion we have read, we have no journalists. God Himself
is silent.
Only when Isaac is far away from the theatre of hostilities, in Beer
Sheva, 26: 23, only at this point, God appears to Isaac and reminds
him the promise made to Abraham. God has been silent throughout the
whole period of the conflicts, the tribal war. When the Philistines
destroyed all the wells, that could have benefitted all the
populations in the area, and replace them, actually, with nothing.
With afar, sand, dust. With the desert. And God was silent.
I would suggest that God is not impressed by any claim of
authenticity. God appears to Isaac, and reminds him the promise made
to Abraham and the merit that Abraham had gained. “I will bless you
and increase your offspring”[26:24]. But this happens only after Isaac
managed to solve the conflict by himself, choosing wisely not to
quarrel and not to fall into the traps of provocations and
retaliation. Commentators maintain that Isaac was discouraged and
frustrated, as a middle aged man not able to match the achievement of
his father. At this point God enforces his self-confidence. But God
does not help him to make peace with the neighbouring Philistines.
This is a totally human matter.
The Torah tells us that Abimelech lately searches Isaac, to stipulate
a peace treaty with him. His people are now impressed by Isaac’s
achievements and realize that fighting a war is a huge waste of time,
money and human lives. How did they come to this conclusion, the Torah
does not tell.
Abimelech in 26:28 ff.  speaks in the first plural person, like he did
the previous time. “We have seen” is just like the previous “you had
made us furious”. First person plural: “we”. But now, to propose and
sign this treaty, Abimelech appears together with Ahutza, his
councillor, and Ficol, the chief of the troops. They are the heads of
the civil and the military administration.
Abimelech, that is, the leader of the Philistines, had developed a
more pluralistic form of government, had learnt to listen to the
people’ needs and will. Now he wants to work for their well-being
instead of throwing them into the same, endless, war. Yes, Abimelech
repeats the same piece of propaganda “we have never molested you”; but
in the end he asks for a peace treaty, so that the welfare brought by
the wells dug by Abraham first, and Isaac then, can benefit his people
too.
One wonders what the BBC would have reported at that time.

 25:19-28:9]. There is a Jew in Eretz Israel. He’s doing reasonably
[..]
Manca solo il piccolo particolare che, come racconta quello stesso 
capitolo della Genesi, l'acqua era dei Filistei...
fe...@delenda.net
-- 
http://delendanet.blogspot.com

  l'acqua era dei Filistei...
e pensa ai cristiani, per i quali e' cosi' importante quella storia
della promessa fatta ad Abramo. Non si sentono complici di un
crimine?
(ancora i puntini, tsk tsk).

 giravo con un amico ad angherizzare
ANGHERIZZARE? A SOMAROOOOOOOOOOO!