[Steven Avery]

Hi Folks,

Originally Posted by Will Kinney

Hi Steve. Thanks for these additional sources.

Most welcome, Will. After noticing how Rashi was misrepresented in the anti-preservation article of Doug Kutilek, I figgerred the Jewish interps could use a closer check. Where possible I prefer to track down a primary source, as we saw with Rashi that often tells you a lot more. Especially when the existing summary or snippet is given by a writer struggling to deny the tangible preservation of the pure and perfect word of God.

Here is another one of some interest and strength, that is complementary to Samson Raphael Hirsch. Sfas Emes is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehudah_Aryeh_Leib_Alter
Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter (1847–1905), also known by the title of his main work, the Sfas Emes, was a Hasidic rabbi who succeeded his grandfather, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter, as the av beis din (head of the rabbinical court) and Rav of Góra Kalwaria, Poland (known in Yiddish as the town of Ger), and succeeded the Rebbe, Reb Heynekh of Alexander, as Rebbe of the Gerrer Hasidim ... Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib was one of the greatest Torah scholars of his generation,

http://www.torah.org/advanced/sfas-e...5/shavuos.html
Sfas Emes
Shavuos By Nosson Chayim Leff

... the Sfas Emes quotes from Tehillim (12:7-8): "Imros HaShem imaros tehoros ... " (ArtScroll: "The words of HaShem are pure words; like purified silver ... refined sevenfold ("shiva'sayim") ...

The pasuk continues: "May, You, HaShem, protect them ...". The Sfas Emes explains that the "them" which the pasuk is asking HaShem to protect refers to the words of Torah. Their purity will be preserved by their being kept in the purity of our hearts. The Zohar (and the Sfas Emes) are telling us is that now, at our Matan Torah, we too should prepare our hearts to be vessels suitable for preserving the Torah in its purity.

.... The Medrash explains that Dovid Hamelech composed that perek (chapter) (Tehilim, 12) in a very specific historical context. .... Dovid Hamelech prayed to HaShem to protect them (the bright scholars and their Learning).

Clearly there is a lot of emphasis in the hasidic interpretation that is mystical, arcane and away from our Christian perspective. It is likely that Samson Hirsch is more down to earth, reflecting the streams of Jewish thought, hasidic and mitnagdim (which would be the more traditional 'orthodox').

From Leib, we see clearly that "protect them" is, as with Rashi, applied to protecting the words of God (Torah) so as to be efficacious and lasting in the hearts of the people. In the section above, we cannot tell if Lieb specifically discusses the second part of the verse, however we can see once again that the main Hebrew tradition is that :

Thou shalt keep them, O LORD,

"them" Is a direct reference to the immediately preceding subject :

The words of the LORD

Shalom,
Steven