Biblical Hebrew and Akkadian Comparative Lexicon

[AlejandroBotta]

The Commentator Features

March 2, 2006

 

Yeshiva Faculty Scholar's Lexicon Set to Revolutionize Field of

Biblical Study

 

By: Zev Eleff

 

After eight years of diligent research, distinguished Yeshiva

College Associate Professor (non-tenured) Hayim Tawil will be

releasing a Biblical Hebrew and Akkadian Comparative Lexicon to be

published by CDL Press within the next month. The Lexicon, which

will be the first of its kind to focus on the comparative study and

interpretation of Akkadian, Aramaic and Hebrew languages, is seen

by many scholars within the field as a groundbreaking intellectual

and spiritual endeavor.

 

"Professor Hayim Tawil's Lexicon is on the same level as Jastrow or

any top-caliber work," said Yeshiva Hebrew Department Chair,

Professor Samuel Schneider while listing many of the acclaimed

Semitic grammarians who have hailed Tawil's revolutionary opus. "He

is known as a top scholar in his field and deserves the highest of

praises for the places he is taking his particular area of study."

 

"[Professor Tawil's] work will be of major importance to the

studies of the Bible," wrote the late Brandeis University Professor

and noted scholar, Dr. Nahum Sarna. "It is obviously impossible

today to study Biblical Hebrew successful without knowledge of

Akkadian, and [Professor Tawil's] forthcoming Lexicon should be

particularly important to all students."

 

Other Semitic experts such as Union Theological Seminary Professor

Emeritus, Dr. George Landes applauded Tawil on his labors as he

viewed the project's importance from its earliest stages. "I want

to encourage your continuing efforts," commended Dr. Landes in a

letter of recommendation of Tawil's work. "I hope that, like Moses,

you will be able to see the 'Promised Land' of your work's

completion, with your sight unimpaired and your vigor unabated."

 

Structurally, the Lexicon, which features over 1,000 entries,

involves a direct comparison of Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew and

Biblical Aramaic. Tawil's central thesis states that unmediated

comparison can assist in explicating otherwise difficult biblical

lexemes and idioms. The assumption behind this thesis, as Tawil

conveys in the Lexicon's introduction, is that Akkadian

lexicography is further advanced than its Hebrew counterpart.

 

The Lexicon will aid both students and premier scholars in several

areas of research. In particular, the work aims at uncovering

meanings for Hebrew words that eluded clear definition in specific

contexts and to propose nuances for Hebrew words suggested by

similar Akkadian usages. In addition, Tawil's work attempts to

illuminate idioms from related expression in Akkadian, to correct a

certain understanding of Hebrew words and expressions in light of

their Akkadian equivalents, and to shed insights Akkadian

literature may have on interpreting difficult Biblical Hebrew.

 

Tawil was born in Jerusalem to Yemenite Jews. His

great-grandparents had imigrated to Israel in 1899, making Dr.

Tawil a third generation sabra. Tawil proved to be a gifted student

before serving in the Israeli Defense Force as a paratrooper in the

Golani Twelfth Battalion. After the army, Tawil spent the ensuing

two years at Hebrew University but decided that in order to better

pursue his area of interest, Assyriology, to relocate to the United

States where a broader range of scholarly venues would allow him to

study Assyriology at a more intense level. Professor Tawil would go

on to earn a PhD from Columbia University.

 

Fellow Yeshiva College faculty member and Semitics scholar, Dr.

Richard White credited Tawil's mentor for providing him with the

opportunity to rise in the academic world. "What one must bear in

mind about Professor Tawil's scholarship is the rigor of the

training that he went through. He was a student of Moshe Held,

whose approach to the Semitic languages was that of a scientist,"

said White. "In a sense Professor Tawil's articles on biblical

philology are a tribute to the exacting and painstaking methods of

his teacher and are probably better appreciated by people in the

sciences than in the humanities."

 

The advanced academic path blazed by Tawil was seen as a novelty in

both the Yemenite and Oriental Jewish communities. "Yemenite Jews

didn't get graduate degrees in my period," said Tawil. "They had

too many children and couldn't even afford to send their kids to

high school, which only became free in 1977."

 

In 1988, Tawil was selected to become the chairman of the

International Coalition for the Revival of the Jews of Yemen. He

was soon charged by the U.S. State Department with spearheading the

operation for the ultimate release of the Jews of Yemen using Track

II diplomacy, by which civilians play the role of diplomats in

rectifying international situations. Tawil was recognized for his

efforts and nominated for the prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Human

Rights Award - a prize awarded personally by the President of the

United States - in 2002.

 

After returning from Yemen, Tawil worried that he would not be able

to continue his scholarly endeavors due to the large amount of time

in which he neglected his studies in favor of saving lives. "When I

came back to scholarship, I was very frustrated, because I forgot

basic things," recalled Tawil.

 

However, after a short period of time, Tawil returned to his

previous levels of proficiency in analyzing Semitic texts. He

attributes his personal renaissance to Divine providence.

 

Tawil has been teaching in Yeshiva College's Hebrew Department for

over twenty years. He was the recipient of the Yeshiva College

Teacher of the Year Award in 2003 and 2005.

 

Based on official rules, faculty are not eligible for the prize the

year after being awarded. "I am very appreciative of the honors I

have received at Yeshiva," stated Tawil. "At the same time however,

I am humbled by the immense credit due to my students and peers for

their drive for excellence and constant encouragement toward

continued studies."

 

Similar sentiments were echoed by other colleagues at Yeshiva.

"Anyone seriously interested in Biblical studies or Semitics will

need his lexicon, which he has been preparing for many years,"

lauded Jewish Studies and Revel Graduate School Professor, Dr.

Yakov Elman. "At long last, a scholar equally at home in Bible and

Assyriology has carefully brought together the date from both

fields to produce a book useful to both."

 

Professor Tawil credits his students at Yeshiva as being one of the

great sources of inspiration that allowed him to spend painstaking

hours in the fifth floor of the Wilf Campus' Mendel Gottesman

Library sifting through manuscripts and Semitic dictionaries. "I am

very involved with the many students at Yeshiva who are interested

in the field of Hebrew," explains Tawil who was aided by ten past

and current students who tirelessly helped type the initial

manuscript for the Lexicon. "This contributes tremendously to both

theirs and my development of research and academic study in and out

of the classroom."

 

Tawil describes the two required sequenced courses he teaches at

Yeshiva to be fundamental and important sections that give students

the thorough basis of Hebrew grammar in phonology and morphology.

Moreover, the courses are designed to enhance students'

understanding in the classic texts of the Bible and siddur which

further supplement the spiritual life force of the Yeshiva

community.

 

Regarding his colleagues in the YC Hebrew Department, Tawil has

nothing but the highest of praise. "The Hebrew faculty is a very

dedicated group led by Professor Schneider who directs us as we try

to achieve the best results for the students."

 

Tawil also emphasized that the Hebrew Department is specifically

burdened with the responsibility of teaching one of the most

important disciplines a Jewish student must master. "Our faculty is

extremely important because Hebrew will follow the students their

entire lives. The Hebrew language is being neglected by high

schools in the United States and we at Yeshiva are continuously

trying to correct this and allow our students to better access the

tradition of their forefathers."

 

Aside from lecturing daily at Yeshiva, Tawil is currently working

on a thematic commentary on Canticles featuring a breakthrough, but

still developing, approach to the Biblical text.

 

Professor Tawil is a prolific writer and has written for celebrated

journals such as Beit Mikra, Journal American Oriental Society,

Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Leshonenu and Orientalia.

 

"Over the years, Professor Tawil has produced a serious of

carefully honed articles, each one taking issue with the standard

interpretation of a biblical word and providing abundant evidence

for a new understanding," asserted Dr. White. "And now he has

applied his knowledge and experience to produce a dictionary that

will be a sine qua non for all biblical scholars. Until now, no

dictionary has been devoted to studying the entire vocabulary of

the Bible in the light of Akkadian. This ranks as one of the most

important tools for the study of the Bible in the last 100 years."

[Dr. Nathan Parker]

Reviving this thread to see interest.