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"Master of the good name"

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Trumpeldor:

--- Quote from: Masha on July 01, 2007, 10:41:11 AM ---
--- Quote from: Trumpeldor on July 01, 2007, 10:36:19 AM ---Ba'al Shem Tov

--- End quote ---

O! I've heard this, but didn't know what it meant! (Actually, I'm very embarrassed to say, I thought it was a name of someone  :-[ :-[ :-[ ). So it means "master of the good name" then? Let me see, I know that "tov" is good. Would "shem" mean name, and "ba'al" - master? Or the other way around? (Forgive my ignorance).

--- End quote ---

Ba'al=owner/master
Shem= Name
Tov= Good

Masha:
Thank you all very much! This is very helpful!  :)

I think I found Midrash Sifri on the net (if it's the right thing). I'll search in it.

Masha:

--- Quote from: Masha on July 02, 2007, 01:55:26 AM ---I think I found Midrash Sifri on the net (if it's the right thing). I'll search in it.

--- End quote ---

Oops, no, that wasn't the right thing.

Does anyone know whether the text of Midrash Sifri exists online?  Thank you.

MassuhDGoodName:
Masha,
Read thoroughly the account of Moses receiving Torah at Sinai.
You will discover in your reading that Ha'Shem declares that the Jews are the only people who would receive The Law, due to their character traits of being so "stiff-necked" and "stubborn" that they would keep it and refuse to give it up.  Also, you will read how Moses actually argued face to face with Ha'Shem and won the argument!  Ha'Shem was so angered with the rebellious Children of Israel that he was going to destroy them all...Moses successfully argued that they be spared, convincing Ha'Shem that if he were to destroy them, the rest of the world would all say that the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, and the Jewish People's receiving Torah, were merely lies and myth, and they would claim that the "disappearance" of the Jews would be proof positive that their G-d was not the One True G-d!

Masha:

--- Quote from: MassuhDGoodName on July 02, 2007, 10:05:53 AM ---Masha,
Read thoroughly the account of Moses receiving Torah at Sinai.
You will discover in your reading that Ha'Shem declares that the Jews are the only people who would receive The Law, due to their character traits of being so "stiff-necked" and "stubborn" that they would keep it and refuse to give it up.  Also, you will read how Moses actually argued face to face with Ha'Shem and won the argument!  Ha'Shem was so angered with the rebellious Children of Israel that he was going to destroy them all...Moses successfully argued that they be spared, convincing Ha'Shem that if he were to destroy them, the rest of the world would all say that the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, and the Jewish People's receiving Torah, were merely lies and myth, and they would claim that the "disappearance" of the Jews would be proof positive that their G-d was not the One True G-d!

--- End quote ---

That's very interesting. I'll go back and reread this passage. Thank you!

It's another way of understanding the notion of "chosen." Not only does G-d choose, but there is a reciprocal move of accepting the burden of election. It shows that the question of free will vs. predestination is paradoxical. On the one hand, G-d must know in advance that the Jews will accept the task he assigns to them - so that, in a sense, it is predestined. On the other hand, the acceptance of it remains, in another sense, a "free choice."

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