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83-520: After the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, Neve Tzedek became one of the centers for the settlement of new immigrants. Having survived years of neglect in the 1970s, Neve Tzedek was slated for demolition, but as a result of public opposition, it was decided to restore the historic quarter, and since the 1990s it has become increasingly bohemian and fashionable. The area, which eventually became part of Tel Aviv and no longer has municipal self-government,

166-674: A Nobel Prize laureate in literature , describes Neve Tzedek at the beginning of the 20th century in his autobiographical novel, Only Yesterday , translated from Tmol Shilshom (Hebrew: תמול-שלשום‎). Another book set in Neve Tzedek is Between the Sands and the Blue Sky (Hebrew: בין חולות וכחול שמיים‎), the autobiography of the artist, Nahum Gutman . 32°3′41″N 34°45′56″E  /  32.06139°N 34.76556°E  / 32.06139; 34.76556 Yahweh Yahweh

249-529: A Yeshiva there. During his time in Neve Tzedek he became close friends with many of the writers, especially Agnon. As Tel Aviv began to develop, many affluent residents moved northward. The buildings fell into disrepair due to neglect and the corrosive effects of the coastal climate. By the 1960s, the neighborhood suffered from serious urban decay . However, plans to demolish the neighbourhood to make way for high rise apartments fell through as many buildings were declared heritage sites worthy of preservation. By

332-570: A Messiah of David (i.e. a descendant). From these ideas, Second Temple Judaism would later emerge, whence Christianity , Rabbinic Judaism , and Islam . Although the specific process by which the Israelites adopted monotheism is unknown, the transition was a gradual one and was not totally accomplished during the First Temple period. It is unclear when the worship of Yahweh alone began. The earliest known portrayals of Yahweh as

415-575: A fire broke out in his home, destroying his manuscripts and rare book collection. This traumatic event crops up occasionally in his stories. Later that year, Agnon returned to Palestine and settled with his family in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot . In 1929, his library was destroyed again during anti-Jewish riots . When his novel Hachnasat Kalla ("The Bridal Canopy") appeared in 1931 to great critical acclaim, Agnon's place in Hebrew literature

498-522: A group of Sephardi Jewish families seeking to move outside of over-crowded Jaffa . Notably, the family of Aharon Chelouche moved to the area in 1883 with some 50 families following suit in the next few years. The neighbourhood was officially established in 1887. Additional neighborhoods grew up around Neve Tzedek, among them Neve Shalom (1890), Yefe Nof (1897) and Batei Feingold (1904). The new quarter featured low-rise buildings along narrow streets. These homes frequently incorporated design elements from

581-777: A shared connection. Doeg the Edomite , for example, is depicted as having no problem in worshiping Yahweh and is shown to be at home in Jewish sanctuaries. Unlike the chief god of the Ammonites ( Milcom ) and the Moabites ( Chemosh ), the Tanakh refrains from explicitly naming the Edomite Qōs. Some scholars have explained this notable omission by assuming that the level of similarity between Yahweh and Qōs would have made rejection of

664-476: A similarity Plutarch used to argue that Jews worshipped a hypostasized form of Bacchus–Dionysus. In his Quaestiones Convivales , Plutarch further notes that the Jews hail their god with cries of " Euoi " and " Sabi ", phrases associated with the worship of Dionysus. According to Sean M. McDonough , Greek speakers may have confused Aramaic words such as Sabbath , Alleluia , or even possibly some variant of

747-450: A variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses , such as El , Asherah , and Baal . In later centuries, El and Yahweh became conflated, and El-linked epithets, such as ʾĒl Šadday ( אֵל שַׁדַּי ‎), came to be applied to Yahweh alone. Some scholars believe that El and Yahweh were always conflated. Characteristics of other deities, such as Asherah and Baal, were also selectively "absorbed" in conceptions of Yahweh. Over time,

830-735: Is based on traditional Jewish sources, such as the Torah and the Prophets , Midrashic literature, the Mishnah , and other Rabbinic literature . Some examples include: Bar-Ilan University has made a computerized concordance of his works in order to study his language. Agnon was twice awarded the Bialik Prize for literature (1934 and 1950 ). He was also twice awarded the Israel Prize , for literature (1954 and 1958 ). In 1966, he

913-580: Is called Sderot Shai Agnon, and a synagogue in Talpiot, a few blocks from his home, is named after him. Agnon is also memorialized in Buchach (now in Ukraine). The Historical Museum in Buchach has an exhibit about him and a bust of the author is mounted on a pedestal in a plaza across the street from the house where he lived. The house itself is preserved and marked as the home where Agnon lived from birth till

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996-556: Is in the Egyptian demonym tꜣ šꜣsw Yhwꜣ , " YHWA (in) the Land of the Shasu " ( Egyptian : 𓇌𓉔𓍯𓄿 Yhwꜣ ) in an inscription from the time of Amenhotep III (1390–1352 BCE), the Shasu being nomads from Midian and Edom in northern Arabia. Although it is still uncertain whether a relationship exists between the toponym yhwꜣ and theonym YHWH , the dominant view is that Yahweh

1079-560: Is known by the acronym Shai Agnon ( ש"י עגנון ‎). In English, his works are published under the name S. Y. Agnon . Agnon was born in Polish Galicia , then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , and later immigrated to Mandatory Palestine , and died in Jerusalem . His works deal with the conflict between the traditional Jewish life and language and the modern world . They also attempt to recapture

1162-634: Is mentioned as the ruler of Jerusalem and probably also of Judah. In 587/6 BCE Jerusalem fell to the Neo-Babylonians , Solomon's Temple was destroyed, and the leadership of the community were deported. The next 50 years, the Babylonian exile , were of pivotal importance to the history of Israelite religion. As the traditional sacrifices to Yahweh (see below) could not be performed outside Israel, other practices including sabbath observance and circumcision gained new significance. In

1245-522: Is now one of the city's attractions, attracting tourists with its turn-of-the-century atmosphere, historical buildings, artisan workshops, shops and cafes. Literally, Neve Tzedek means Abode of Justice, but it is also one of the names for God ( Jeremiah 50:7 ). The verse was taken from the Tanakh , from the Book of Jeremiah , where the Almighty is called "abode of justice". Neve Tzedek was established by

1328-408: The 9th century BCE , there are indications of rejection of Baal worship associated with the prophets Elijah and Elisha . The Yahweh-religion thus began to separate itself from its Canaanite heritage; this process continued over the period from 800 to 500 BCE with legal and prophetic condemnations of the asherim , sun worship and worship on the high places , along with practices pertaining to

1411-536: The Austro-Hungarian Empire ), now Buchach , Ukraine . Officially, his date of birth in the Hebrew calendar was 18 Av 5648 (July 26), but he always said his birthday was on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av , the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av. His father, Shalom Mordechai Halevy, was ordained as a rabbi , but worked in the fur trade , and had many connections among the Hasidim . His mother's side had ties to

1494-568: The Greek Magical Papyri , under the names Iao , Adonai , Sabaoth , and Eloai . In these texts, he is often mentioned alongside traditional Graeco-Roman deities and Egyptian deities . The archangels Michael , Gabriel , Raphael , and Ouriel and Jewish cultural heroes such as Abraham , Jacob , and Moses are also invoked frequently. The frequent occurrence of Yahweh's name was likely due to Greek and Roman folk magicians seeking to make their spells more powerful through

1577-898: The Mitnagdim . He did not attend school and was schooled by his parents. In addition to studying Jewish texts, Agnon studied writings of the Haskalah , and was also tutored in German. At the age of eight, he began to write in Hebrew and Yiddish , At the age of 15, he published his first poem – a Yiddish poem about the Kabbalist Joseph della Reina . He continued to write poems and stories in Hebrew and Yiddish, which were published in Galicia. In 1908, he moved to Jaffa in Ottoman Palestine . The first story he published there

1660-564: The Negev and Beersheba , both in the territory of Judah. Shiloh , Bethel , Gilgal , Mizpah , Ramah and Dan were also major sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of vows , private rituals, and the adjudication of legal disputes. Yahweh-worship was thought to be aniconic , meaning that the god was not depicted by a statue or other image. This is not to say that he was not represented in some symbolic form, and early Israelite worship probably focused on standing stones , but according to

1743-647: The creator-god of all the earth is first elaborated by the Second Isaiah , a 6th-century BCE exilic work whose case for the theological doctrine rests on Yahweh's power over other gods, and his incomparability and singleness relative to the gods of the Babylonian religion. Benjamin D. Sommer argues that the distinction between polytheism and monotheism has been greatly exaggerated. The centre of Yahweh's worship lay in three great annual festivals coinciding with major events in rural life: Passover with

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1826-638: The Biblical texts the temple in Jerusalem featured Yahweh's throne in the form of two cherubim , their inner wings forming the seat and a box (the Ark of the Covenant ) as a footstool, while the throne itself was empty. There is no universally accepted explanation for such aniconism , and a number of scholars have argued that Yahweh was in fact represented prior to the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah late in

1909-676: The Israelites, and there is no consensus on its etymology, with ehyeh ašer ehyeh (" I Am that I Am "), the explanation presented in Exodus 3:14, appearing to be a late theological gloss invented at a time when the original meaning had been forgotten, although some scholars dispute this. Lewis connects the name to the Amorite element yahwi- ( ia-wi ), found in personal names in Mari texts, meaning "brings to life/causes to exist" (e.g. yahwi-dagan = " Dagon causes to exist"), commonly denoted as

1992-426: The Jerusalem temple was always meant to be the central or even sole temple of Yahweh, but this was not the case. The earliest known Israelite place of worship is a 12th-century BCE open-air altar in the hills of Samaria featuring a bronze bull reminiscent of Canaanite Bull-El (El in the form of a bull) and the archaeological remains of further temples have been found at Dan on Israel's northern border, at Arad in

2075-477: The Jugendstil/ Art Nouveau and later Bauhaus art movements and some had contemporary luxuries such as private bathrooms. At the beginning of the 1900s, the neighborhood attracted upcoming artists and writers, among them future Nobel prize laureate Shmuel Yosef (Shai) Agnon and the Jewish artist Nachum Gutman . Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook was the first rabbi of Neve Tzedek and opened

2158-474: The Midianites/Kenites) inside Israel and through their association with the earliest political leaders of Israel. Christian Frevel argues that inscriptions allegedly suggesting Yahweh's southern origins (e.g. "YHWH of Teman") may simply denote his presence there at later times, and that Teman can refer to any southern territory, including Judah. Alternatively, some scholars argue that YHWH worship

2241-564: The Schocken family. In Germany, he continued to write short stories and collaborated with Martin Buber on an anthology of Hasidic stories. Many of his early books appeared in Buber's Jüdischer Verlag (Berlin). The mostly assimilated, secular German Jews, Buber and Franz Rosenzweig among them, considered Agnon to be a legitimate relic, being a religious man, familiar with Jewish scripture. Gershom Scholem called him "the Jews' Jew". In 1924,

2324-637: The Second Temple period, speaking the name of Yahweh in public became regarded as taboo . When reading from the scriptures, Jews began to substitute the divine name with the word adonai (אֲדֹנָי‬), meaning " my Lord ". The High Priest of Israel was permitted to speak the name once in the Temple during the Day of Atonement , but at no other time and in no other place. During the Hellenistic period ,

2407-579: The absence of Yahweh from Canaan, his links with Edom and Midian in the biblical stories, and the Kenite or Midianite ties of Moses , but its major weaknesses are that the majority of Israelites were firmly rooted in Palestine , while the historical role of Moses is problematic. It follows that if the Kenite hypothesis is to be maintained, then it must be assumed that the Israelites encountered Yahweh (and

2490-514: The age of (approximately) 19; the street that runs in front of the house is named "Agnon Street" (in Ukrainian). Agnotherapy is a method developed in Israel to help elderly people express their feelings. After Agnon's death, the former mayor of Jerusalem Mordechai Ish-Shalom initiated the opening of his home to the public. In the early 1980s, the kitchen and family dining room were turned into

2573-597: The biblical narrative of an Israel vacillating between periods of "following other gods" and periods of fidelity to Yahweh. Some scholars date the start of widespread monotheism to the 8th century BC E, and view it as a response to Neo-Assyrian aggression. In an inscription discovered in Ein Gedi and dated around 700 BCE, Yahweh appears described as the lord of "the nations", while in other contemporary texts discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei (near Lachish) he

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2656-528: The birthing of lambs , Shavuot with the cereal harvest , and Sukkot with the fruit harvest. These probably pre-dated the arrival of the Yahweh religion, but they became linked to events in the national mythos of Israel: Passover with the exodus from Egypt, Shavuot with the law-giving at Mount Sinai , and Sukkot with the wilderness wanderings. The festivals thus celebrated Yahweh's salvation of Israel and Israel's status as his holy people, although

2739-523: The ceramics studio of Samy D. , alongside trendy cafés and bars, and more recently boutique hotels and shops selling handmade goods. The Marc-Chagall Collège français Marc-Chagall de Tel-Aviv ( Hebrew : בית הספר הצרפתי מארק שאגאל תל אביב ), a French international school, is in Neve Tzedek. In 2009, the Tel Aviv municipality began to approve plans to construct a number of new highways and widened arterial roads throughout southern Tel Aviv, including

2822-415: The conclusion that infant sacrifice , whether to the underworld deity Molech or to Yahweh himself, was a part of Israelite/Judahite religion until the reforms of King Josiah in the late 7th century BCE. Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of psalms , but again the details are scant. Prayer played little role in official worship. The Hebrew Bible gives the impression that

2905-530: The construction of the Temple in 957 BCE to its destruction in 586 BCE, exilic for the period of the Exile from 586 to 539 BCE (identical with Neo-Babylonian above), post-Exilic for later periods and Second Temple period from the reconstruction of the Temple in 515 BCE until its destruction in 70 CE. There is almost no agreement on Yahweh's origins. His name is not attested other than among

2988-535: The dead and other aspects of the old religion. Features of Baal, El, and Asherah were absorbed into Yahweh, and epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone. In this atmosphere a struggle emerged between those who believed that Yahweh alone should be worshipped, and those who worshipped him within a larger group of gods; the Yahweh-alone party, the party of the prophets and Deuteronomists , ultimately triumphed, and their victory lies behind

3071-460: The earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost. His worship presumably involved sacrifice, but many scholars have concluded that the rituals detailed in Leviticus 1–16, with their stress on purity and atonement , were introduced only after the Babylonian exile , and that in reality any head of a family was able to offer sacrifice as occasion demanded. A number of scholars have also drawn

3154-460: The earliest Biblical literature, Yahweh has characteristics of a storm god typical of ancient Near Eastern myths, marching out from Edom or the Sinai desert with the heavenly host of stars and planets that make up his army to do battle with the enemies of his people Israel: Yahweh, when you went out of Seir,     when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled,

3237-727: The early Persian period. They saw the messiah in Zerubbabel , a descendant of the House of David who seemed, briefly, to be about to re-establish the ancient royal line, or in Zerubbabel and the first High Priest, Joshua (Zechariah writes of two messiahs, one royal and the other priestly). These early hopes were dashed (Zerubabbel disappeared from the historical record, although the High Priests continued to be descended from Joshua), and thereafter there are merely general references to

3320-603: The end of the 1980s, work began to renovate and preserve Neve Tzedek's century-old structures. New establishments were housed in old buildings, most notably the Suzanne Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre and the Nachum Gutman Museum , located in the artist's home. This gentrification led to Neve Tzedek's rebirth as a fashionable and popular upmarket residence for Tel Avivians. Its main streets became lined once again with artists' studios, including

3403-471: The existence of other deities was denied outright, and Yahweh was proclaimed the creator deity and the sole divinity to be worthy of worship. During the Second Temple period , openly speaking the name of Yahweh in public became regarded as a religious taboo, and Jews instead began to substitute other Hebrew words , primarily ăḏōnāy ( אֲדֹנָי‬ ‎, lit.   ' My Lords ' ). By

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3486-786: The fading traditions of the European shtetl (village). In a wider context, he also contributed to broadening the characteristic conception of the narrator 's role in literature. Agnon had a distinctive linguistic style, mixing modern and rabbinic Hebrew. In 1966, he shared the Nobel Prize in Literature with the poet Nelly Sachs . Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes (later Agnon) was born in Buczacz (Polish spelling, pronounced Buchach , Butschatsch in German), Polish Galicia (then within

3569-619: The family to the National Library in Jerusalem . His home in Talpiot , built in 1931 in the Bauhaus style, was turned into a museum, Beit Agnon. The study where he wrote many of his works was preserved intact. Agnon's image, with a list of his works and his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, appeared on the fifty-shekel bill , second series, in circulation from 1985 to 2014. The main street in Jerusalem's Givat Oranim neighborhood

3652-640: The gods of a subjected people, some have assumed the coin simply depicts the surrender of a Judean who was called "Bacchius", sometimes identified as the Hasmonean king Aristobulus II , who was overthrown by Pompey's campaign. In any event, Tacitus , John the Lydian , Cornelius Labeo , and Marcus Terentius Varro similarly identify Yahweh with Bacchus–Dionysus. Jews themselves frequently used symbols that were also associated with Dionysus such as kylixes , amphorae , leaves of ivy , and clusters of grapes ,

3735-419: The historical and social character of Neve Tzedek and its surrounding areas in southern Tel Aviv. Furthermore, residents and environmentalists were concerned about the effects of large amounts of traffic being funneled through the area. Opponents believe that the discussions have been conducted outside of the public view and with developers' interests being put before those of the community. Shmuel Yosef Agnon ,

3818-596: The influences of authors whose names, in my ignorance, I have not even heard, while others see the influences of poets whose names I have heard but whose writings I have not read." He went on to detail that his primary influences were the stories of the Bible . Agnon acknowledged that he was also influenced by German literature and culture, and European literature in general, which he read in German translation. A collection of essays on this subject, edited in part by Hillel Weiss , with contributions from Israeli and German scholars,

3901-581: The invocation of a prestigious foreign deity. A coin issued by Pompey to celebrate his successful conquest of Judaea showed a kneeling, bearded figure grasping a branch (a common Roman symbol of submission) subtitled BACCHIVS IVDAEVS , which may be translated as either "The Jewish Bacchus " or "Bacchus the Judaean". The figure has been interpreted as depicting Yahweh as a local variety of Bacchus, that is, Dionysus . However, as coins minted with such iconography ordinarily depicted subjected persons, and not

3984-517: The latter difficult. Other scholars hold that Yahweh and Qōs were different deities from their origins, and suggest that the tensions between Judeans and Edomites during the Second Temple period may lie behind the omission of Qōs in the Bible. It has been argued that Yahweh was originally described as one of the sons of El in Deuteronomy 32:8–9 , and that this was removed by a later emendation to

4067-481: The life of a newborn child rather than the universe. This conception of God was more popular among ancient Near Easterners but eventually, the Israelites removed the association of yahwi- to any human ancestor and combined it with other elements (e.g. Yahweh ṣəḇāʾōṯ ). Hillel Ben-Sasson states there is insufficient evidence for Amorites using yahwi- for gods, but he argues that it mirrors other theophoric names and that yahwi- , or more accurately yawi , derives from

4150-637: The lives of his characters. Some of Agnon's works, such as The Bridal Canopy , And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight , and The Doctor's Divorce , have been adapted for theatre . A play based on Agnon's letters to his wife, "Esterlein Yakirati", was performed at the Khan Theater in Jerusalem. Agnon's writing often used words and phrases that differed from what would become established modern Hebrew. His distinct language

4233-478: The monarchic period: to quote one study, "[a]n early aniconism, de facto or otherwise, is purely a projection of the post-exilic imagination". Other scholars argue that there is no certain evidence of any anthropomorphic representation of Yahweh during the pre-exilic period. Yahweh is frequently invoked in Graeco-Roman magical texts dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE, most notably in

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4316-464: The name Yahweh itself, for more familiar terms associated with Dionysus. Other Roman writers, such as Juvenal , Petronius , and Florus , identified Yahweh with the god Caelus . Shmuel Yosef Agnon Shmuel Yosef Agnon ( Hebrew : שמואל יוסף עגנון ; August 8, 1887 – February 17, 1970) was an Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he

4399-532: The national god. Yahweh filled the role of national god in the kingdom of Israel (Samaria) , which emerged in the 10th century BCE; and also in Judah , which may have emerged a century later (no "God of Judah" is mentioned anywhere in the Bible). During the reign of Ahab , and particularly following his marriage to Jezebel , Baal may have briefly replaced Yahweh as the national god of Israel (but not Judah). In

4482-444: The principal deity to whom "one owed the powers of blessing the land" appear in the teachings of the prophet Elijah in the 9th century BCE. This form of worship was likely well established by the time of the prophet Hosea in the 8th century BCE, in reference to disputes between Yahweh and Baal. The early supporters of this faction are widely regarded as being monolatrists rather than true monotheists ; they did not believe Yahweh

4565-454: The proposed railway road , which would partially encircle Neve Tzedek. As part of these plans, the municipality approved the construction of a large number of skyscrapers in and around Neve Tzedek. A number of parking lots would also be constructed along Rothschild Boulevard in order to handle the parking demand induced by the new road space. Opponents of this plan argued that the addition of new skyscraper-lined highways would dramatically alter

4648-442: The root hwy in pa'al, which means "he will be". One scholarly theory is that "Yahweh" originated in a shortened form of ˀel ḏū yahwī ṣabaˀôt , "El who creates the hosts", which Cross considered to be one of the cultic names of El. However, this phrase is nowhere attested either inside or outside the Bible, and the two gods are in any case quite dissimilar, with El being elderly and paternal and lacking Yahweh's association with

4731-407: The same deity in the text, based on contextual analysis. The late Iron Age saw the emergence of nation states associated with specific national gods : Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qōs the god of the Edomites, and Yahweh the god of the Israelites. In each kingdom the king was also the head of the national religion and thus the viceroy on Earth of

4814-466: The scriptures were translated into Greek by the Jews of the Egyptian diaspora . Greek translations of the Hebrew scriptures render both the tetragrammaton and adonai as kyrios (κύριος), meaning "Lord". The period of Persian rule saw the development of expectation in a future human king who would rule purified Israel as Yahweh's representative at the end of time —a messiah . The first to mention this were Haggai and Zechariah , both prophets of

4897-415: The semantic equivalent of the Akkadian ibašši- DN; though Frank Moore Cross emphasized that the Amorite verbal form is of interest only in attempting to reconstruct the verbal root of the name "Yahweh", and that attempts to take yahwi- as a divine epithet should be "vigorously" argued against. In addition, J. Philip Hyatt believes it is more likely that yahwi- refers to a god creating and sustaining

4980-417: The sister of Alexander Marx . They married in 1920 and had two children. In Germany he lived in Berlin and Bad Homburg vor der Höhe (1921–24). Salman Schocken , a businessman and later also publisher, became his literary patron and freed him from financial worries. From 1931 on, his work was published by Schocken Books , and his short stories appeared regularly in the newspaper Haaretz , also owned by

5063-433: The sky also dropped.     Yes, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked at Yahweh's presence,     even Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel. ... From the sky the stars fought.     From their courses, they fought against Sisera . ( Book of Judges 5:4–5, 20, WEB World English Bible , the Song of Deborah .) Alternatively, parts of

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5146-433: The storm and battles. Even if the above issues are resolved, Yahweh is generally agreed to have a non-causative etymology because otherwise, YHWH would be translated as YHYH. It also raises the question of why the Israelites would want to shorten the epithet. One possible reason includes the co-existence of religious modernism and conservatism being the norm in all religions. The oldest plausible occurrence of Yahweh's name

5229-406: The storm god imagery could derive from Baal. From the perspective of the Kenite hypothesis , it has also been suggested that the Edomite deity Qōs might have been one and the same as Yahweh, rather than a separate deity, with its name a title of the latter. Aside from their common territorial origins, various common characteristics between the Yahwist cult and the Edomite cult of Qōs hint at

5312-461: The supreme being of the universe and without any equals. In the oldest examples of biblical literature , Yahweh possesses attributes that were typically ascribed to deities of weather and war , fructifying the Land of Israel and leading a heavenly army against the nation's enemies. The early Israelites may have leaned towards polytheistic practices that were otherwise common across ancient Semitic religion , as their worship apparently included

5395-454: The term. Rabbinic sources suggest that, by the Second Temple period , the name of God was officially pronounced only once a year, by the High Priest , on the Day of Atonement . After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE , the original pronunciation of the name was forgotten entirely. Philip King and Lawrence Stager place the history of Yahweh into the following periods: Other academic terms often used include First Temple period, from

5478-465: The text: When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,  when he divided up humankind, he set the boundaries of the peoples,  according to the number of the heavenly assembly. For the Lord's allotment is his people,   Jacob is his special possession. ( Book of Deuteronomy 32:8-9, New English Translation , Song of Moses ) Nonetheless, some scholars argue that El Elyon ("the Most High") and Yahweh are theonyms for

5561-444: The time of the Jewish–Roman wars —namely following the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the concomitant destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE—the original pronunciation of Yahweh's name was forgotten entirely. Additionally, Yahweh is invoked in the Aramaic -language Papyrus Amherst 63 from ancient Egypt , and also in Jewish or Jewish-influenced Greco-Egyptian magical texts from the 1st to 5th centuries CE. The god's name

5644-428: The work. Agnon's writing has been the subject of extensive academic research . Many leading scholars of Hebrew literature have published books and papers on his work, among them Baruch Kurzweil , Dov Sadan , Nitza Ben-Dov , Dan Miron , Dan Laor and Alan Mintz . Agnon writes about Jewish life, but with his own unique perspective and special touch. In his Nobel acceptance speech, Agnon claimed "Some see in my books

5727-401: The worship of Yahweh among a broader Semitic pantheon —was still essentially polytheistic or, according to some accounts, monolatristic . However, during and after the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE, the Israelite religion gradually evolved into Judaism and Samaritanism , which are both strictly monotheistic and thus regard Yahweh as God in the singular sense—that is, as

5810-409: The writing of second Isaiah , Yahweh was no longer seen as exclusive to Israel, but as extending his promise to all who would keep the sabbath and observe his covenant. In 539 BCE Babylon in turn fell to the Persian conqueror Cyrus the Great , the exiles were given permission to return (although only a minority did so), and by about 500 BCE the Second Temple was built. Towards the end of

5893-475: Was " Agunot " ("Chained Wives"), which appeared that same year in the journal Ha`omer. He used the pen name "Agnon", derived from the title of the story, which he adopted as his official surname in 1924. In 1910, "Forsaken Wives" was translated into German. In 1912, at the urging of Yosef Haim Brenner , he published a novella, "Vehaya Ha'akov Lemishor" ("The Crooked Shall Be Made Straight"). In 1913, Agnon moved to Germany, where he met Esther Marx (1889-1973),

5976-704: Was an ancient Levantine deity who was venerated in Israel and Judah . Though no consensus exists regarding his origins, scholars generally contend that he is associated with Seir , Edom , Paran and Teman , and later with Canaan . His worship reaches back to at least the Early Iron Age , and likely to the Late Bronze Age , if not somewhat earlier. While the Israelites held him as their national god , their religion—known as Yahwism , involving

6059-481: Was assured. In 1935, he published Sippur Pashut ("A Simple Story"), a novella set in Buchach at the end of the 19th century. Another novel, Tmol Shilshom ("Only Yesterday"), set in Eretz Yisrael (Israel) of the early 20th century, appeared in 1945. Agnon was a strict vegetarian in his personal life. During much of the 20th century, there was debate about whether Agnon or Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog

6142-457: Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people". The prize was shared with German Jewish author Nelly Sachs . In his speech at the award ceremony , Agnon introduced himself in Hebrew: "As a result of the historic catastrophe in which Titus of Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Israel was exiled from its land, I

6225-485: Was born in one of the cities of the Exile. But always I regarded myself as one who was born in Jerusalem". The award ceremony took place on a Saturday during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah . Agnon, who was religiously observant, postponed attendance at the awards ceremony until he had performed two Jewish ceremonies of his own on Saturday night, to end the Sabbath and to light the menorah . In later years, Agnon's fame

6308-448: Was from the southern region associated with Seir , Edom, Paran and Teman . There is considerable although not universal support for this view, but it raises the question of how Yahweh made his way to the north. An answer many scholars consider plausible is the Kenite hypothesis , which holds that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the caravan routes between Egypt and Canaan . This ties together various points of data, such as

6391-548: Was no distinction in language or material culture between Canaanites and Israelites. Scholars accordingly define Israelite culture as a subset of Canaanite culture. In this view, the Israelite religion consisted of Canaanite gods such as El, the ruler of the pantheon , Asherah , his consort, and Baal . However, Israel Knohl argues that there is no evidence of any anthropomorphic figurines or cultic statues in Israel during this period, suggesting monotheistic practice. In

6474-770: Was published in 2010: Agnon and Germany: The Presence of the German World in the Writings of S.Y. Agnon . The budding Hebrew literature also influenced his works, notably that of his friend, Yosef Haim Brenner . In Germany, Agnon also spent time with the Hebraists Hayim Nahman Bialik and Ahad Ha'am . The communities he passed through in his life are reflected in his works: Nitza Ben-Dov writes about Agnon's use of allusiveness, free-association and imaginative dream-sequences, and discusses how seemingly inconsequential events and thoughts determine

6557-691: Was rooted in the indigenous culture of the Kingdom of Israel and was promoted in the Kingdom of Judah by the Omrides . Frevel suggests that Hazael 's conquests in the Kingdom of Israel forced the two kingdoms to cooperate, which spread YHWH worship among Judean commoners. Previously, YHWH was viewed as the patron god of the Judean state . In the Early Iron Age, the modern consensus is that there

6640-399: Was such that when he complained to the municipality that traffic noise near his home was disturbing his work, the city closed the street to cars and posted a sign that read: "No entry to all vehicles, writer at work!" Agnon died in Jerusalem on February 17, 1970. His daughter, Emuna Yaron  [ he ] , continued to publish his work posthumously . Agnon's archive was transferred by

6723-412: Was the only god in existence, but instead believed that he was the only god which the people of Israel should worship. Finally, in the national crisis of the Babylonian exile , the followers of Yahweh went a step further and outright denied that the other deities aside from Yahweh even existed, thus marking the transition from monolatrism to true monotheism. The notion that Yahweh is to be worshipped as

6806-555: Was the true author of the Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel in 1948. Herzog was generally considered the author until a 1983 article in Ma'ariv by scholar David Tamar raised the possibility of Agnon's authorship. However, findings by scholar Yoel Rappel and corroborated by the National Library of Israel in 2018 confirmed Herzog's authorship, but confirmed that Agnon had edited

6889-532: Was written in paleo-Hebrew as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 ( יהוה ‎ in block script ), transliterated as YHWH ; modern scholarship has reached consensus to transcribe this as "Yahweh". The shortened forms Yeho -, Yahu -, Yah - and Yo - appear in personal names and in phrases such as " Hallelu jah !" The sacrality of the name, as well as the Commandment against " taking the name 'in vain'  ", led to increasingly strict prohibitions on speaking or writing

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