[Avodah] [Areivim] Hammurabi

[Micha Berger]

On 2/14/2012 5:42 PM, Saul.Z.Newman at kp.org wrote to Areivim:
> http://finkorswim.com/2012/02/14/parshas-misphatim-and-the-code-of-hammurabi-problem-or-solution/

or  <http://bit.ly/wThPjx>

To quote a piece:

    In R' Hertz's view, showing the humanity added to the law by the
    Torah when compared to The Code of Hammurabi, we can better appreciate
    the morality of our law.

    Most significantly, The Code of Hammurabi actually punctures a hole
    in a common theory of BibCrit. That is, the Torah was written by Ezra
    or some contemporary of Ezra before the Second Temple period. It is
    highly unlikely that a human author would use such an old code if
    he were writing for his Second Temple period audience. Rather, it
    suggests that the Torah is indeed of an older vintage and closer in
    time to Abraham and Hammurabi. This fits in well with the Revelation
    at Sinai and the idea proposed by some Rishonim that the Torah,
    by word of God, included old scrolls of law that went back to the
    time of our forefathers.

    Further, and R' Hertz does not say this, if the Jewish people
    present at the revelation were familiar with The Code of Hammurabi
    it would make sense to use language and structure with which they
    were familiar.

    One final point. The Code of Hammurabi is perhaps most useful for
    understanding many passages in the Torah, specifically in Genesis. R'
    Hertz mentions Abraham taking Hagar as a concubine as one example....


On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 06:21:25PM -0600, Lisa Liel replied:
> It's interesting, but I don't think Hammurabi pre-dated Matan Torah.  So
> rather than the Torah being an improvement on Hammurabi, Hammurabi was
> more of a "dis-improvement" on the Torah.  Or what happens when Torah
> concepts get distorted by non-Jews.

On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 07:56:37PM -0800, R Martin Brody also wrote to
Areivim:
: Then can you give us an idea when the Hammurabi codes were written?
: Even R.Shafran, the Agudah spokesperson, recently admitted the antiquity of
: the codes predating Matan Torah, but then spoiled it all by suggesting that
: Abraham taught Hammurabi.

Now to bring the conversation here...

Lisa's theory is kind of involved. By which I mean it has enough detail
to explain a broad swath of data, if in a way different than accepted
chronologies. I would start with Lisa's web page
<http://www.starways.net/lisa/essays/care.html>. The section you want
is "iii Mesopotamia", but you should really read the essay in full to
make sense of it. The most relevent excerpt:

    The Amorite kingdom of Hammurabi dates to the mid-Judges period,
    and the Ibni-Hadad king of Hazor who was a contemporary of Hammurabi
    was the Jabin king of Hazor at the time of Deborah. The chronology
    of this period seems on the face of it to be somewhat short for all
    the long reigning kings of Babylon, but it has been noted that the
    New Year, or Akitu festival, later celebrated only on the 1st of
    Nisan, was in earlier times celebrated both on the 1st of Nisan and
    the 1st of Tishrei. This might mean that the "long reigning kings
    of Babylon" were not really, and that their "years" were actually
    half-years. This needs to be checked, and a project to do so is in
    the planning stages. The famous Code of Hammurabi was compiled about
    two centuries after the Exodus.

Whereas most place Hammurabi about the same time as Avraham. Speculation
usually revolves around Nimrod, or one of the kings in the war when Lot
was captured. 100 years ago (when the Jewish Encyc came out), the "in"
theory was to identify him with Ampraphel.
<http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1440-amraphel>
Despite some similarity in sound (Amraphel vs Hammurabi), it turns out
the transliteration is a stretch. See the article.

But if we assume for the moment the mainstream theory is correct,
it would make more sense to me to assume that Hammurabi's code was a
corruption of Noach's, Sheim's and Ever's teachings.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Despair is the worst of ailments. No worries
micha at aishdas.org        are justified except: "Why am I so worried?"
http://www.aishdas.org                         - Rav Yisrael Salanter
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