Monday, July 18, 2022

Balaam and the Calf in the Targums

DR. SHLOMI EFRATI: Balaam Sets His Face Towards the Calf—A Targum Tradition. (TheTorah.com).
Targum Onqelos usually offers a straightforward Aramaic rendering of the biblical verse. The Palestinian Targums (=Targum Yerushalmi), in contrast, offer more expansive, midrashic renderings of the verse. Numbers 24:1, in which Balaam looks to the wilderness, offers us a further glimpse into a world with multiple Targumic traditions.
The essay opens with a brief, useful introduction to the Targums in question.

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