An Eleventh-Century Eastern Masoretic Codex of the Pentateuch

The Washington Pentateuch consists of an eleventh-century Pentateuch codex, and a small group of 1141 CE replacement folios. The former presents another early witness to the Masoretic Text. The text in the second hand is very close to the Aleppo Codex, but the section division exhibits several variants as compared to the Aleppo codex. The layout of the Song of the Sea and the lines before are like in the Aleppo codex, but not so the lines after the song. The 1141 CE folios are another witness to the Masoretic Text. The text is very close to the Aleppo Codex, but here, too, there are a number of section variants (which later continued in the Ashkenazi codices). The Song of Moses, though differing from the Aleppo codex, follows an alternate standard layout of 70 lines, and 6 lines before and 6 lines after the Song (later found in Sefardi manuscripts).

“Remember Me, in Your Stories and in Your Songs”

This study examines the deployment of magical realism along with cinematic techniques in Song of the Sea. Analysing the animated film as a cultural text in light of magical realism, it argues that the film intermingles two different worlds, the mundane and the fantastic, to provide audiences with a more inclusive view of reality. The existence of Celtic mythical beings, selkies, brought to life by magical realism, becomes the cornerstone in the protagonists’ healing process as their interactions with these mythical beings gradually reshape their conception of reality. A new “reality” is, thus, employed to vex the protagonists’ mind and make them reconsider reality in a new light by helping them vividly see Irish cultural aspects in their mundane life. Taking two selkies, Bronagh and Saoirse, as a metaphor for Irish cultural roots, this paper asserts that the protagonists’ embarking on their magical journey to retrieve the selkie’s coat not only heals their shattered selves but also induces them to hark back to their cultural roots. Ultimately, the research posits that the protagonist’s newly developed self, which eventually allows him and his family to come to terms with their loss, resolves his conflict with Saoirse, who successfully prevents the Irish cultural roots from being forgotten.

A Subdued Demon in Exodus 15:7-8

The Song of the Sea is long known to contain allusions to mythological motifs related to Canaanite religion that have been adapted to the faith of Israel. On the basis of a recent study of the Ugaritic texts KTU 1.107 and 1.100 it is shown that Exod 15:7-8 falls in this category of reinterpretation. It is proposed to render verse 7b ‘you sent your Ḥoron, he devoured them like stubble’. Suffixed personal pronouns with the names of deities are attested in Ugarit and ancient Hebrew inscriptions. However, in Exod 15 Ḥoron has been reduced to a redoutable assistant of God, an executioner called up to punish God’s opponents.

Desert Oral Traditions

The Bedouin oral literary product—proverbs, genealogies, tribal stories, and poetry—shares many likenesses with these genres as they appear in the Hebrew Bible. This commonality pertains, even though some Bedouin oral traditions survived until the late twentieth century CE, when they were still heard recited, while the biblical traditions existed orally only until their ancient transcription in the Bible. This chapter brings examples from the various genres of oral tradition in both societies, comparing them in form, content, background, and initiative, and offering insights into their use in the biblical texts. Bedouin poetry also sheds light on the Bible’s oldest poems, “The Song of the Sea” and “The Song of Deborah.”

Cavalcanti, Alberto de Almeida (1897--1982)

Alberto Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer who made significant contributions to documentary and post-war cinema. In 1926 he made his first film, Rien Que les Heures [Nothing but Time], in Paris, which was a predecessor of Walter Ruttmann’s Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt [Berlin: Symphony of a Big City] (1927) to which he also contributed. Together with Rien he created the prototype of the modernist city symphony, with no narrative story but having an internal structure that dramatized the documentary form. He was close to the surrealist movement which helped him to delve into the dark sides of reality, as in En rade [Sea Fever] (1928). In the 1930s he joined John Grierson’s GPO Film Unit (General Post Office) and became its most modernist director through his use of formalist editing techniques. Here he directed experimental short documentaries such as Coal Face (1935), based on a poem by W. H. Auden. In the 1940s he joined Ealing Studios where he made many films and mentored other directors. Of note during this period was a collective film, Dead of Night (1945), a classic of the fantasy genre. After leaving Ealing he made two films noir with strong social connotations: They Made Me a Fugitive (1947) and For Them that Trespass (1949). In Brazil, he was offered a position to teach cinema at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo and made one of his most powerful movies, O canto do mar [Song of the Sea] (1952), which tells the story of the exodus by a sertão family, fleeing from drought and misery.