Shalem: City or Safely?
Argues that the ambiguous word shalem in Genesis 33:18 names a place rather than describing Jacob's condition, since the adverbial sense of arriving unharmed is otherwise unattested in Scripture and normally requires an accompanying preposition, and suggests that rabbinic reluctance to link the term to Shechem reflected polemic against Samaritan claims for Mount Gerizim.
Cohn examines a single ambiguous word in Genesis 33:18, where Jacob reaches Shechem either shalem, meaning intact or unharmed, or else arrives at a place called Shalem. Traditional exegetes followed a talmudic reading in Shabbat 33b that took the term as an adverb describing Jacob’s body, property, and learning. Cohn objects on grammatical grounds: nowhere else does the word carry that adverbial force standing alone, and comparable constructions require an added preposition. He also proposes that rabbinic reluctance to identify a town of Shalem near Shechem served to deny Samaritan claims for their Gerizim sanctuary.
Herbert Cohn, PhD, translated into Hebrew the classic work Die Lehren des Judentums nach den Quellen [The Teachings of Judaism according to the Sources] (Meisharim, Jerusalem, 1991). He chairs the Conservative congregation Etz Hayim in Ashdod, Israel, and has long been active on Jewish communal issues.
Cite this article
Herbert Cohn. "Shalem: City or Safely?." Jewish Bible Quarterly 36, no. 2 (April – June 2008): 121–123.
Herbert Cohn. "Shalem: City or Safely?." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, 2008, pp. 121–123.