In class we learned two different approaches, one given by the Ibn Ezra, and one given by Rashi. Rashi says that the Gever is Yirmiyahu, the author of Eicha, while the Ibn Ezra says that the Gever is a collective voice of B'nei Yisrael responding to the recent tragedy. While these explanations are nice, and very well could be right, I would like to explore the meaning of "Gever" before we jump to any conclusions.
The work Gever in Hebrew literally means man. Of course the explanations above could could be accurate, but I don't think that either are completely right because if we put the whole statement together we get, "Blessed is the man who trusts in G-d." At this time, no one in Israel was trusting in G-d because he had just destroyed the Beit HaMikdash and all of their lives.
After exploring the meaning of Gever, I am left stuck as to who the man who is trusting in G-d is? My one guess would be it is G-d in disguise trying to set an example for B'nei Yisrael of a man who would trust Hashem. But, if I did have to choose an approach given by one of the commentators, I would chose Rashi, because the Pasuk from the song is found in the book of Yirmiyahu. WHO DO YOU THINK THE GEVER IS AND WHY?
Great connection, Sophie! I never realized that the song relates to what we are learning about. If the pasuk really is found in Yirmiyahu, then perhaps it could be Yirmiyahu's ideas here, but like we discussed in class, similar phrasing doesn't really mean anything, because Yirmiyahu did actually write both Eicha and Yirmiyahu. Also, "ברוך הגבר אשר יבתח בה" translates fully into "Blessed is the Gever who trusts/believes in Hashem", so it could also be alluding to the fact that Hashem told Bnei Yisrael that if they trusted in Him, they wouldn't be destroyed.
ReplyDeleteAy yay yay yay yay... ברוך הגבר אשר יבתח בה! :) I actually really like your opinion as to who the Gever is. It feels more like a universal statement than just a reference to one man, who would be Yirmiyahu. You said that you thought that the Gever could be G-d posing as a "human" to set a good example for the people. That's plausible, but I'm not even sure if knowing who the Gever is is necessary for our understanding of the Sefer. This is definitely good food for thought though!
ReplyDeleteI like how you connected it! I also never realized the song had an correlation to our class. Although this is a wonderful connection, I personally like the Ibn Ezers approach. I like how the gever represents universal man because that seems pretty accurate to me personally. With the gever, I really got to see mans reaction to pain and suffering.
ReplyDeleteWay to try to get that song stuck in our heads for eternity. But anyways..
ReplyDeleteCall me a realist (or Ibn Ezra), but I am going to take the Gever at face value here: I think he's just a gever. And by that, I mean that he's just a regular dude. An every-day kind of guy. Your regular Joe. I don't know if I would even say that he's a 'gibur'- a strong hero kind of man. I think it's more personable if we simply say that he was a guy who was living at this time and feeling these certain things. This way, any of us can be a gever.
I think it's the collective feelings of Bnei Yisroel. Everyone goes through similar feelings after a tragedy, and they even come in a similar order. The order of feelings that he presented are probably what everyone was feeling after the destruction.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really cool that you connected it to this song! So creative. I think that what your saying doesn't really make sense if it was G-d -- I think it could be ירמיהו but I think I would agree with Rachel -- maybe Yirmiyahu is giving an example of a גבר - a plain ordinary guy - to make the people feel more relatable to him and so that they too can learn to fear G-d!
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