The Development of Biblical Prayer - Jewish Bible Quarterly

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A Further Note on "The Torn Robe"
by
Lawrence M. Silverman in Dor L'Dor Spring 1980 Vol. Vlll No. 3
Rabbi Silverman suggests three
possible readings for I Samuel15:26-28,
based on the various interpretations of
the verse When Samuel turned about to
go owoy, he laid hold upon the shirt of
his robe, and tore it. He concludes that
the best reading is that Saul tore
Samuel's robe. May I suggest that the
better reading is that Samuel tore Saul's
robe.
Brought up as we have been with the
idea that man consists of body and soul,
we moderns often miss a very important
point. The concept, body and soul,
borrowed from the Greeks has become
so much a part of Judaism that most
translations of the Bible unfortunately
reflect such a bi-partite idea of the nature
of man.
The picture of man as body and soul, I
believe, postdates the concept of the
compilers of the Bible. To the Biblical
mind, the individual consisted not only of
his corporeal self, and of what we call
today his psyche. In addition, such
physical appurtenances as his clothing,
and such non·corporeal phenomena as
his shadow and his name, as well as his
image, were all part of the being.
The Bible looked upon the individual
as an "extended self'. The ancient Jew
believed that the self or identity of a
person was not limited to his physical
being. Everything associated with the self
and everything that could evoke his
presence in another person's mind (i.e. a
picture) was part of the self. The ancient
Jew also believed that any one of these
parts was regarded as and could be used
for the whole of the individual.
For example: unlike Shakespeare's
"what's in a name?" the ancient Jews
believed that the name was the thing,
equal to the person. Hence they did not
use the name of God, for that would
mean that one had the power that went
with the name.
In our High Holy Day prayer book the
ceremony is preserved in which the High
Priest pronounced the Name of God on
Yom Kippur: And when the priests and
the people that stood in the court heard
the glorious N arne pronounced out of the
mouth of the High Priest, in holiness and
purity, they knelt and prostrated
themselves, and made acknowledgement
to God, falling on their faces and saying
"Blessed be He (shem) the glory of whose
kingdom is eternal." Because the name is
part of the personality, and because when
we recite the name we have the power
that goes with the personality, they did
not pronounce it.
Since clothes were part of this
"extended self", they believed that
whatever was done to the clothes was
being done to the whole individual.
When Aaron was about to die, the
word came to Moses to take Aaron and
his son Eleazar up to Mt. Horeb. He was
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