Jewish Chaplaincy

My son and I just finished studying a unit on the struggle to commission Jewish chaplains for the military and hospitals during the Civil War. The original federal law allowed only for Christian chaplains. The struggle for the appointment of Jewish chaplains was an important beginning of the formation of a united front for American Jewry and a precedent setting incident in the history of religious freedom in American law. I had forgotten that in February 2005 I wrote a Librarian's Lobby column on Jewish chaplaincy (http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/crc80.htm), where I mentioned something about that struggle. Today while doing a Google book search I found that someone quoted my article in his book on chaplaincy. In the book, Leadership Paradigms in Chaplaincy, the author Joel Graves not only quotes me on pages 70-71 but also grants me the title, "Rabbi." I wish it was that easy to be granted the title.

I don't consider myself an expert in the subject. I was just writing some thoughts after hearing a sermon in shul about the need for chaplains in today's hospitals.

A Monty Python moment

A Monty Python moment

Sometimes patrons of the library are so off the wall, their story needs to be told for everyone to enjoy. Last night a real zinger of an exchange went on. I had to bite my tongue to avoid laughing out loud.

I can't repeat it all but it was something like this. Richard is the librarian.

Richard: May I help you?
Lady: Can you help me? Where is the office?
Richard: Which office would you like?
Lady: Where is the office?
R: Is there someone you want to see?
L: Yes, where is the office?
R: Do you want a faculty office?
L. Where is the office?
R: What would you like to find in the office?
L. The office.
R: Do you want the GED office, registrar, or continuing ed office.
L. : Yes, the office.
R: Do you want the business office?
L. Yes, the office.
R: Do you want to register for classes?
L. I just want the office.
R. Ok. The security office is on the first floor, let me show you the way.

Richard finally got rid of her by politely showing her the stairs to the first floor.

Yarmulke Part 2 : Head Gear in General

Shana tov everyone,

So far I've been working on the question of yarmulke and Jewish head gear for 6 weeks. The more I investigate the more I find out is unknown. Here is the link to part 2 : Head Gear in General. Please consider this a work in progress. Changes and corrections are always possible.

The topic this month for Librarian's Lobby September 2008 is Head Gear in General
http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/crc101.pdf


May everyone have a happy and sweet new year.

Tetragramaton in St. Louis

A couple of weeks ago the St. Louis Jewish Light published a magazine with an article about St. Louis Jewish history. ("Historic Heritage" by Jamie Sokolik. St. Louis Jewish Light , September 2008 vol. 61. no. 36 pages 22-30,48)The writer made a comment that the tetragramaton name for God appears on the outside of the St. Louis Old Cathedral. She thought it was misspelled and did not know why. Upon examining some old Bibles I am not so certain this is a mistake.
The letters look like yod-chet-vav-chet instead of yod-hey.

While viewing Library of Congress' web site for Hebraica I saw a picture of a Bible published Amsterdam --Biblia Hebraica (Amsterdam, 1667).

Note the four-letter name of God, the Tetragrammaton, surrounded by light, at the head of the title page. This edition was aimed at both Jews and Christians. The letters look just like the inscription on the Church. I don't know if the church caligrapher was copying from a Bible like this, following a tradition of not writing God's name, or just made an artistic error, but I would not be so quick to say that he made a mistake.

Etymology of Yarmulke

After much research I finally finished the first part of the the study of yarmulke. It is posted as part of my Librarian's Lobby column for August. It is double the length of my usual column and includes 17 footnotes.

It is hard to believe that this is my 100th column. Please spread the word.
Use this link to read the article: http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/crc100.pdf

The additional parts will appear in the coming months. Since this month is the start of the school year and next month starts Elul, I can't promise when they will be done.

In the research and preparation process I had many discussions with people at shul. For some without an understanding of linguistics or history they are quick to quote what they were taught as a child. The type of head covering one wears today is related closely to the message you want to give to the people around you. If you wear a big black hat the message is different than a kippah with your favorite sports team.

Whenever I research a Yiddish word that does not come from Germanic or Hebrew roots there is always an interesting story. The next word people have asked me to search is "parve."

When did the yarmulke become Jewish?

Last Friday night someone at shul asked if I knew anything about the origin of yarmulke. He said that he found an interesting source and wondered if I could confirm or refute it. Since then I have been searching for answers. The problem is, there is no exact answer. The origin of the word itself is uncertain and could be the subject of a full article. The more I search, the more uncertain the answer becomes. In my next Librarian's Lobby I will explore some of the story. As a librarian the search is almost as interesting as the answer.

Targum or Targum Publishing

On AUTOCAT a cataloger was puzzled by the heading

Bible. O.T. Psalms. Aramaic. Targum.

“Targum” is the Hebrew for “translation,” but when referring to the Tanakh it is used for an Aramaic translation. In this heading "targum" is noted as the name of the version. There are a couple of targumim around, Onkelos, Jonathan and Pseudo-Jonathan, but Psalms only has one “Targum” and it is not attributed to any particular author. It seems repetitious to have both "Aramaic" and” Targum."

Targum Onkelos on the Torah is the official, authoritative Aramaic translation. The Aramaic translation of Psalms is partly allegorical and partly literal. It was probably written by more than one person in the time of the Roman Empire.


Similar LCSH headings are:

Bible. O.T. Deuteronomy. Aramaic. Onkelos.
Targum sheni.
Bible. O.T. Former Prophets. Aramaic. Targum Jonathan
Bible. O.T. Genesis. Aramaic. Onkelos.
Bible. O.T. Isaiah. Aramaic

Not used are:

Bible. O.T. Deuteronomy. Aramaic. Targum Onkelos
Bible. O.T. Esther. Aramaic. Targum sheni
Isaiah Targum

However, since I did not see the book that the cataloger had there is another possibility. The heading is created with the “Bible” as the collective name of the work followed by the name of the book. Thirdly is the language of the translation followed by the version. If I wrote an English translation of Psalms a possible heading is: Bible. O.T. Psalms. English. Stuhlman. If the publisher is more prominent than the individual translator the version would be the name of the publisher.

The daily student newspaper at Rutgers University, The Daily Targum was founded in 1869. The name of their publisher is Targum Publishing. If they published the work that the AUTOCATer had in hand, then the heading would be perfectly reasonable as “Targum” would be a version.