The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations: Vindicating God.

• Author: Grossfeld, Bernard
• Position: Book review

The Rabbinic Targum of Lamentations: Vindicating God. By CHRISTIAN M. M. BRADY. Studies in Aramaic Interpretation of Scripture, vol. 3. Leiden: BRILL, 2003. Pp. x + 187. $65.

This volume consists of an analytic study of the Targum of Lamentations in three chapters and concludes with a fourth chapter containing "Textual Tradition and Principles of Translation" (appendix 1), "The Text of Codex Vaticanus Urbinas Hebr. I" (appendix 2), and "Translation of TGLAM" (appendix 3). A bibliography and a series of indexes round out the book. The important MS Codex Vaticanus Urbinates was published by Etan Levine in a vocalized transcription in his The Aramaic Version of Lamentations (New York: Hermon Press, 1976).

In his introduction here the author states "it remains troubling to consider God as the cause of Jerusalem's suffering. These are issues and theological difficulties that the targumist had to address ... the targumist demonstrates that Jerusalem's destruction was ordained by God, but it was not due to his capriciousness." Brady claims the targumist demonstrated that Israel herself was responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem. The fact is that there are no less than a dozen or so verses in the Hebrew text of Lamentations where Israel herself acknowledges her guilt and responsibility for the catastrophe in Jerusalem. One need only refer to Lam. 1:7, 8, 18, 20, 22; 2:14; 3:33, 39, 40, 42; 4:6, 13, 22; 5:7, 16 to realize that Israel was fully aware of its sinful ways, and that God was righteous in his retribution for their rebelliousness against him. Brady acknowledges this fact (p. 17, n. 1), but the value of his thesis lies in showing how the targumist expanded the biblical text in order to demonstrate why Israel deserved its retribution from God. He claims that the targumist built upon those reflections and interpretations of the author of Lamentations by intensifying the effect for his own purposes.

His dissection of this Aramaic version is exhaustive and instructive in a variety of ways. In chapter one, he focuses on the Targumic Memra, and the Rabbinic Attribute of Justice (Middat HaDin) and the Measure for Measure (Midda KeNeged Midda) concepts, which play a significant role in the theology of the Targum. In describing the role of the Attribute of Justice in TgLam 2:20, he points out that Jerusalem and the people of...