Philosophy, Thoughts, and Musings – Page 35

All Abuzz about the Nexus Between My Readings: The Promised Land

Honey Bee alighting on a bloom. Photo by Michelle Reeves on Pexels.com

And the Lord said, “I indeed have seen the abuse of My people that is in Egypt and its outcry because of its taskmasters. I have heard, for I know its pain. And I have come down to rescue it from the hand of Egypt and to bring it up from that land to a goodly and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivvite and the Jebusite.”
Exodus 3:7-8. From Robert Alter’s The Hebrew Bible : A Translation with Commentary.

What particularly caught my attention after reading this passage was Robert Alter’s commentary on the milk and honey to be found in The Promised Land. He stated the following: “The honey in question is probably not bee’s honey, for apiculture was not practiced in this early period, but rather a sweet syrup extracted from dates. The milk would most likely have been goat’s milk and not cow’s milk. In any case, these two synecdoches for agriculture and animal husbandry respectively become a fixed epithet for the bounty of the promised land” (Alter, Robert (2019). The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, v. 1, p. 221, n. 8.).

Immediately upon reading this I was seized with a curiosity to know more about the sweet syrup extracted from dates and apiculture in the Holy Land. Let us begin with a research paper that helps me understand the comment above and discusses the earliest known archaeological apicultural remains in The Promised Land.

In 2010, Guy Bloch and others published an exciting paper detailing the oldest archaeological evidence related to bee-keeping ever discovered (Bloch, Guy; Francoy, Tiago; Wachtel, Ido; Panitz-Cohen, Nava; Fuchs, Stefan; and Mazar, Amihai. (2010). Industrial Apiculture in the Jordan Valley during Biblical Times with Anatolian Honeybees. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107. 11240-4. 10.1073).

The work began by noting that: “[a]lthough texts and wall paintings suggest that bees were kept in the Ancient Near East for the production of precious wax and honey, archaeological evidence for beekeeping has never been found. The Biblical term “honey” commonly was interpreted as the sweet product of fruits, such as dates and figs.” This confirmed Alter’s comment, above. But then the paper proceeded to share its extraordinary findings:

“However, actual evidence for beekeeping in antiquity had not been found before the recent discovery of what appears to be a well-organized apiary at Tel Rehov in the middle Jordan valley in northern Israel. Tel Rehov is one of the largest Iron Age sites in Israel. A city 10 ha in area flourished there between the 12th and 9th centuries Before Common Era (B.C.E.). The apiary includes ≈30 hives (of 100–200 estimated) that were made as unfired clay cylinders. The hives have a small hole on one side for the bees to enter and exit and a lid on the opposite side for the beekeepers to access the honeycomb. Three rows of such hives were located in a courtyard that was part of a large architectural complex that was severely destroyed, most probably at the end of the 10th or beginning of the 9th centuries B.C.E. In terms of Biblical historiography, this period corresponds with the United Monarchy of David and Solomon and the beginning of the kingdom of northern Israel” p. 11240.

What is also extraordinarily interesting is that the authors report the discovery of remains of honey bees and their larvae inside the hives, which allowed them to identify the species of bee. The authors determined that the bees in the hives were A. m. anatoliaca, which currently resides in Turkey. This suggested to them that either Western honeybee subspecies distribution has undergone rapid change during the past 3,000 years or that the ancient beekeepers at Tel Rehov imported bees with a less aggressive temperament and superior honey yield (3 to 8 times more yield than the native species, A. m. syriaca). The possibility of importation cannot be easily dismissed given tantalizing hints of a developed apiculture transport practices, such as the following, cited by the authors:

“There is evidence that beekeeping was practiced in Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age (1); Hittite laws dated to the 14th–13th centuries B.C.E. contain severe punishments for thieves of bee swarms and hives (25). The Zenon papyri from Egypt suggest that transferring bees in portable hives or pottery jars was practiced in the third century B.C.E. (1). An Assyrian memorial stele dated to the mid-eighth century B.C.E. (about 100–150 y later than the beehives at Tel Rehov) describes the importation of honeybees from a country called “Habha,” probably in the Zagros or Taurus mountains (modern day southeastern Turkey
or northwestern Iran), about 300–400 km to the north or northeast of the land of Suhu on the Middle Euphrates (the modern border zone between Syria and Iraq)” pp. 11243-11244.

Today, apiculture is flourishing in The Promised Land. The Israeli Honey Production and Marketing Board says that apiculture and the trade in honey produced by honey bees can be traced back to 1882. The Israeli honeybee is actually of Italian origin, and is known as the Apis mellifera ligustica – a subspecies of the western honey bee. There are 529 beekeepers in Israel tending to approximately 120,000 hives. Their bees produce approximately 35 kilograms of honey per hive annually. Fortunately, honeybee populations are reported to be stable in The Promised Land, which serves as a transition to my next “connected” reading.

Newsweek reported earlier this week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed a petition calling for the the American bumble bee to be listed as an endangered or threatened species and found it “may be warranted.” The petition, which can be found here, was written and submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Bombus Pollinators Association of Law Students. The petition states, in part, in its executive summary, the following:

*Bombus pensylvanicus De Geer* (American Bumble Bee)

“The American bumble bee (Bombus pensylvanicus De Geer) is one of the most iconic native pollinators in North America. This highly adaptable pollinator once ranged coast to coast, foraging in the grasslands, fields, and open spaces in 47 of the lower 48 states. Like the endangered rusty-patched bumble bee, it is a generalist that provides essential pollination service to a wide variety of plants—including native plants and cultivated crops, across a vast range. Its loss will have considerable consequences to whole ecosystems and to crop production. Once the most commonly observed bumble bee in the United States, the American bumble bee has declined by 89 percent in relative abundance and continues to decline toward extinction due to the disastrous, synergistic impacts of threats including habitat loss, pesticides, disease, climate change, competition with honey bees, and loss of genetic diversity. In the last 20 years, the American bumble bee has vanished from at least eight states, mostly in the Northeast, and it is in precipitous decline in many more. For example, in New York it has suffered a catastrophic decline of 99 percent in relative abundance, and in Illinois it has disappeared from the northern part of the state and is down 74 percent since 2004. In sum, the American bumble bee has become very rare or possibly extripated from 16 states in the Northeast and Northwest; it has experienced declines of over 90 percent in the upper Midwest; and 19 other states in the Southeast and Midwest have seen declines of over 50 percent” p. 8.

That the American Bumble Bee would be so close to extinction, in the land that so many identify as the new promised land, is depressing. Which leads to one final, not bee related but promised land related reading: Charles Taylor’s book review, An America That Could Explain: On Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land.” The reader should read the review but for my purposes, I will share only the concluding thought of the review, as it seemed most appropriate for these troubled times:

In Caste, Isabel Wilkerson quotes Taylor Branch, the author of the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr. biography America in the King Years. “The real question,” Branch asks, “would be if people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?” At last count, the answer is 74,222,958.

And to hold back the donkeys, Who has breath for that?

As they say: to stand up, and to sit down,
To protect the king’s son,
And to hold back the donkeys,
Who has breath for that?
Gilgamesh and Akka, Lines 24-27 (trans. Dina Katz)

Gilgamesh and Akka, by Dina Katz (Library of Oriental Texts, Vol. 1, STYX Publications, 1993), explores the short narrative poem in standard literary Sumerian which tells the tale of Gilgamesh of Uruk’s war against Akka of Kish.

In the tale, Akka of Kish demanded physical labor from the people of Uruk “to finish the wells, to finish all the wells of the land.” Gilgamesh, in response, asked the elders of Uruk for permission to wage war against Kish. The elders denied Gilgamesh permission to wage war against Kish, at which point Gilgamesh took his case for war to the able-bodied men of Uruk directly:

Since Gilgamesh, the Lord of Kulaba
had placed his trust in Inanna,
He did not take to heart the words of his city’s elders.
Gilgamesh before the able-bodied men of his city again
Laid the matter, seeking for words:
‘To finish the wells, to finish all the wells of the land,
To finish all the shallow wells of the land,
To finish all the deep wells with hoisting ropes,
Let us not submit to the house of Kish,
Let us smite it with weapons.’
The convoked assembly of his city’s able-bodied men answered Gilgamesh:
‘As they say: To stand up, and to sit down,
To protect the king’s son,
And to hold back the donkeys,
Who has breath for that?
Let us not submit to the house of Kish, Let us smite it with weapons.’
Gilgamesh and Akka, Lines 15-29 (Trans. Dina Katz)

The tale records that Gilgamesh and his able-bodied men went on to wage successful war against Akka and Kish.

Katz identified the passage that I am so enamored of, and which I quoted at the beginning of this post, as “puzzling.” She noted that a previous scholar felt that the expression was likely a “common saw” [i.e., a common Sumerian saying] whose meaning was lost to us. She noted, however, that the verbs “to stand” and “to sit” were often associated with the participants of the public assembly. It would appear, from the context, that the expression suggests having no more need or patience for further discussion due to appropriate consideration having been given (as in an assembly), pressing exigent conditions (as in a security situation), or exasperating circumstances (as in corralling or guiding donkeys).

Herman L. J. Vanstiphout, in reviewing Katz’s work in “A New Edition of Gilgamesh and Akka” (Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 119, no. 2, American Oriental Society, 1999, pp. 293–96) generally approved of Katz’s scholarly contributions and, with respect to the translation of the particular passage, took exception only with the wording regarding holding back the donkeys. He conceded that translating the line as “to hold back” “might surely be all right in a general sense” but seemed to suggest that something along the lines of “to hold the reins” may have been (more?) appropriate. For my part, I find the translation endearing, and intend to invoke the phrase regarding the donkeys, as translated, however perplexing it may seem, whenever I seek to end a discussion and perhaps give exasperated approval to a request in which I am in agreement.

The Lasting Influence of the Ursuline Sisters on My Writing Style

It is incontrovertible that I abhor beginning a written sentence with a first person personal pronoun. This aversion was engrained in me by Sister Madeleine in the first grade when I attended Saint Luke Catholic School in Boardman, Ohio. As I vaguely recall, fifty years later, Sister explained in age appropriate terms that it was exceedingly narcissistic to begin a sentence centered upon oneself. Thus, to this very day, I twist a sentence to no end to avoid such a sin, though sometimes I cannot avoid such a transgression.

Curious as to whether I was remembering the source of my predilection correctly, I recently conferred with my older sister, who also attended St. Luke Catholic School, to inquire if she had been instructed as I had been, regarding the use of first person personal pronouns at the beginning of sentences by the Ursuline Sisters at St. Luke Catholic School. She quickly confirmed that she had been so instructed and that, like myself, she still avoided beginning sentences with a first person personal pronoun with the result that she often found herself twisting perfectly fine sentences into contorted jumbles for little reason. Laughter ensued as we both recognized the hilarity of the situation.

The Ursuline Sisters who taught us at Saint Luke Catholic School were excellent teachers and role models, and we both remember them fondly. Sister Mary and Sister Madeleine were kind and generous and exemplified the best of both the education profession and the Church. And if on occasion my writing is a bit convoluted because of their slightly misguided effort to teach children to avoid excessive self-centeredness, I can live with that.

Guidance for Life from Ralph Waldo Emerson

Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradicts everything you said today.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

In an earlier post, I described how, while in junior high school I had written on a piece of paper those quotes which had mightily impressed me and, after folding that paper multiple times, placed it in my wallet and carried it with me faithfully for many years. The quote above, from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance, is one of the quotes that I scratched in my barely legible adolescent handwriting onto that piece of paper. Those who had the misfortune to work with me over the years, know well that I took the import of that quote to heart.

In truth, as I oft explained to my colleagues, it was my duty, when articulating an idea or position, to defend it with vigorous rationality until reason and evidence had persuaded me of the error of my position. It was also my duty, I advised, to listen carefully to the construct of their opposing arguments, and to present their arguments to myself even more ably than they had, if I were able, so as to ensure the integrity of my position. But, until I was ultimately persuaded of the error of my position, there would be no hint that I was considering the abandonment of my position and I continued to defend it in “hard words.”

My approach to case discussions, in conformity with the quote above, sometimes resulted in what would appear to colleagues as a sudden and inexplicable change in my position on cases: suddenly I was in agreement with them whereas I appeared solidly opposed the day before and unpersuaded by all arguments and reason. Friends, hard words do not mean one is deaf to reason, persuasion, and commitment to duty (e.g., to search for truth). Regardless of my hard words in articulation of my position, I am always listening, persuadable, and picking up the arguments of my interlocutors to make their arguments better than even they so that I may determine if their position should prevail over mine. And if their position, based on reason, should prevail, it will prevail, and I will embrace it without being fearful of the seeming contradiction. For the seeming contradiction is no contradiction at all, in my mind. And this observation leads nicely to the final paragraph.

Some may recognize that the quote above comes from the paragraph in the essay which begins with an even more famous quote – a quote that did not make much of an impression upon me when I first read it over five decades ago: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Indeed.

My Purple Elephant Story

Those who know me well know that I have a great affinity for elephants. They may not know, however, when and how the seeds of that affinity were first sown. Though it is possible that the majesty and beauty of the largest of land mammals would, perchance, have been sufficient to attract my admiration, I have a childhood story – My Purple Elephant Story – which explains my especial affinity for elephants.

When I was in second grade, I attended Market Street Elementary School. My teacher was Mrs. Workman. She was a very pleasant teacher and generally kind, as I remember. I also recall that she allowed us, after we completed in-class assignments, to go to the back of the room to play quietly in the play area, which had items such as sculpting clay.

One day, we had an art assignment which, for me, consisted of coloring in an elephant. Well, I wanted to complete that assignment as quickly as possible so that I could go to the back of the room and use my imagination shaping the sculpting clay. So, as I recall, I grabbed a purple crayon and quickly scribbled -without much regard to the lines delineating where the elephant began and where he ended – all over the page. I then thrust my hand in the air to signal to Mrs. Workman that she should come over to see that I had finished my assignment and release me to the back of the room. Well, my scheme did not work out as I had planned. Mrs. Workman came over to inspect my work. She took a gander at it, picked it up, called my classmates’ attention to it, and said that she was disappointed in my work and that her preschooler could do better work. Needless to say, I was not released to the back of the room. But, I had learned multiple valuable lessons that day. Lessons that I appreciated and embraced: always do your best for you never know with whom your work will be shared (equally, do your best for yourself alone); embarrassment is generally a useless emotion; and shame can be a constructive emotion.

Although I know many would disapprove of Mrs. Workman’s method of addressing my failure to appropriately address the assignment, I am grateful to her and the lessons she imparted to me that day. The lessons I walked away with from that interaction have served me exceedingly well for the past five decades. Though I was ashamed of my performance on my assignment (and well I should have been), I did not cry at the exposure of my substandard work, nor did go home and complain to my Mother about what had happened in class. Finally, I did not shrivel up in embarrassment at what my classmates may have thought about my work. Rather, I resolved that going forward, I would always do my assignments as if they were being done for all to see. (Interestingly, this was a message re-enforced to me by my Grandpa Yarab a decade later when discussing painting. He told me that when painting furniture or fences or trellises, one should paint the portions which will never been seen by anyone just as one would paint the portions that would be seen, just to do the job the right way, always.)

Now, a few words about shame versus embarrassment. There is a world of difference between the two. Shame is defined as a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. It is internal to the person and, I believe, can be a morally constructive force. Shame does not need witnesses to be activated. It serves as an internal motivation to proper conduct. It differs from embarrassment in that embarrassment is an emotional state that is associated with mild to severe levels of discomfort which is usually experienced when someone commits a socially unacceptable or frowned-upon act that is witnessed by or revealed to others. It is rarely a morally constructive force in and of itself. If you are only pained when witnesses are about, you are a lost soul.

Thus, My Purple Elephant Story, while ostensibly a story of embarrassment, is really a story of a different sort. I recognized, in hindsight, that I acted shamefully in completing the assignment, and committed to not doing so again. As such, I view it as a positive and instructive experience in my life rather than one that many would perhaps view as mortifying or unfortunate. So rather than remembering the Purple Elephant as a story to be forgotten as traumatizing, I remember it as a story of betterment.

Oh, and how did the year progress with Mrs. Workman? I recently found a midyear note and an end of year note from Mrs. Workman to my Mother. In the midyear note Mrs. Workman said the following: “I’ll keep reminding Donald to to work more carefully and slowly. I feel he’s come a long way this year.” In the end of year note she said: “I have been very pleased with Donald’s progress this year. I feel he’s been trying very hard and shown he can do the work. He has been a pleasure to have in class.” A Purple Elephant apparently did the trick.

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