Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: The Expression of Grief and Joy in Israelite Religion by
Gary A. Anderson
Review by: Victor Avigdor Hurowitz
The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 86, No. 1/2 (Jul. - Oct., 1995), pp. 217-221
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454839 .
Accessed: 18/02/2014 00:15
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
University of Pennsylvania Press and Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania are
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Jewish Quarterly Review.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 117.239.138.34 on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 00:15:47 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, LXXXVI, Nos. 1-2 (July-October, 1995) 217-221
GARY A. ANDERSON. A Time to Mourn, A Time to Dance: The Expression of
Grief and Joy in Israelite Religion. University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1991. Pp. xvii + 139.
Joy and grief are universally experienced, day-to-day phenomena. Every
mentally healthy human being is at one time or another either happy or sad.
Nonetheless, joy and grief are multi-faceted and complex manifestations.
They are emotions felt by individuals or by communities which are displayed
behaviorally and physiologically in both the public and private domain. They
are triggered by external stimuli and internal, personal forces but are subject
in their expression to socially set standards. When described in literature and
conversation or portrayed visually, they may be depicted in spontaneous,
original form or according to stereotyped vocabulary, metaphors, idioms, and
formulae. The proper and full investigation of these manifestations, especially
as they exist in ancient, dead, and remote cultures known mainly through their
writings, requires, therefore, a truly multi-disciplinary approach. Such a study
should be ideally the work of an exegete, philologist, and linguist equipped
with the tools and informed by the knowledge of the psychologist, sociologist,
and anthropologist.
Very few scholars possess all the qualifications for conducting such a
study independently. Such an investigation pursued outside the framework
of a team of scholars can hope at most to be partial and suggestive rather
than comprehensive and conclusive. Given these caveats, it must be said
that Anderson approaches his topic admirably armed. He is versed in the
Bible, Ugaritic and Akkadian religious literature, and rabbinic sources, as
well as in several major writings from the fields of cultural anthropology
and comparative religion.
The central thesis of this book is that in many biblical contexts joy and
grief are behavioral, ritual states and not emotional ones. This surprising
assertion is sparked by the observations of anthropologists A. R. Radcliffe-
Brown and E. Durkheim that the Andaman Islanders or Australian aborigines
could display "emotions" spontaneously at the command of their societal
leaders. It is reinforced by studies of comparative religionists Clifford
Geertz, George Lindbeck, and Mary Douglas suggesting that religions are
not products of human experience but producers of human experience.
To illustrate his case for the culture described in the Bible, Anderson
points out in the first chapter of his book that in legal contexts emotional
terms such as -n-2fx 'love', inlv 'hate', and nn:) 'honor' are not expressions of
internal feelings of one individual to another but indicate required legal re-
lationships between the two parties, such as loyalty, obedience, and subser-
vience. Related to this argument is the last chapter of his book where
This content downloaded from 117.239.138.34 on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 00:15:47 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
218 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
Anderson reproduces Yohanan Muffs's famous demonstration that nnOW in
legal documents means not 'joy' but 'volition'. Anderson points out that in the
Bible nnov is commanded as if it can be turned on and off at will, something
not to be expected if 'joy' is only an emotional response. Finally, he shows
that the Rabbis, in determining how these commands are to be fulfilled,
realize their concrete nature and accordingly prescribe specific actions and
rituals.
The second chapter of the book discusses the ritual performance of joy
and grief. On the basis of biblical, extra-biblical, and rabbinic evidence,
Anderson reconstructs a ritual playing out of these two states. Joy, properly
performed, entailed eating meat, drinking wine, sexual relations with one's
spouse, praise of God through song and music, anointing one's head and
body, and wearing festive clothing. Grief is expressed with the opposite
actions-fasting, sexual abstinence, refraining from public prayer and visits
to the temple, not anointing oneself, and wearing sackcloth.
The third chapter turns from publicly displayed joy and mourning to hap-
piness or grief in the life of the individual. Here Anderson examines some
well-known episodes from the Ugaritic epics of Baal and Danil, the Akka-
dian Gilgamesh epic in its Ninevite and Nippurian versions, the biblical sto-
ries of David and Jacob, and some penitential Psalms. Based on these texts
and his previous recognition that ritual joy and mourning are inversely
related activities, Anderson portrays mourning as a ritual descent to the neth-
erworld, while joy is a reinstatement into the world of the living in general
and the temple in particular. The mourner, like the dead person, lives in
Sheol. He leaves the place of life and God and goes into the desert garbed
like a denizen of the netherworld. Those who comfort the mourner are in fact
accompanying him on his journey, and their role is to bring him back. Those
who do not comfort the mourner or who display happiness in his hour of grief
are considered his enemies. Joy is a ritual return to life, God, and the temple.
The mourning-comforting-return to life sequence is a rite of passage with its
typical stages of separation, liminal existence, and reaggregation into the
community.
The fourth chapter addresses grief and mourning as practiced by the com-
munity at large. Anderson prefers to examine mourning over the first temple
in light of mourning over the second temple rather than in light of earlier
biblical mourning over crises or in light of Mesopotamian sources. The dis-
cussion focuses eventually on the problem of how one should perform ritual
joy in a situation where there is no temple. Anderson traces the development
of Jewish practices and shows how elements of ritualistic, temple-centered
joy, such as eating and drinking, are gradually replaced in later rabbinic
texts by nonsacrificial consumption of meat and drink and eventually by
study of Torah.
Anderson's book is well written and his argument is clearly stated and
largely persuasive. His major methodological innovation is his extensive
This content downloaded from 117.239.138.34 on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 00:15:47 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ANDERSON, A TIME TO MOURN, A TIME TO DANCE-HUROWITZ 219
and decisive use of rabbinic sources. He places these sources on an equal
footing with ancient Near Eastern sources on the one hand, and cultural
anthropological materials on the other, as valid models for illuminating
and understanding ritual and psychological phenomena of biblical Israel
as portrayed in the Hebrew Bible. Although both the thesis of the book
and its methodology will certainly stir up some controversy, they are both
contributions worthy of scholarly attention.
Without denigrating the generally fine character of the book, I would like
to take issue here with several points, some of a general nature (1-5) and some
relating to specific details (6-9):
1. The topic under investigation is a complex one and demands mixed
methodology. Although Anderson has applied his own expertise as an an-
thropologically oriented biblical scholar and student of Rabbinics, one would
still welcome a psychological treatment. More specifically, a psychological
investigation must determine to what extent behavior elicits emotion and
what type of psychological needs are satisfied by ritual performances such
as the ones described by Anderson.
2. The spark which ignited this study is Radcliffe-Brown's observation
that a command could bring an Andaman Islander to an instantaneous dis-
play of tears. It is precisely this ability to display physiological manifesta-
tions of emotion at the drop of a hat which strikes the western mind as so
peculiar. It is therefore most surprising that Anderson does not discuss in
his book the physiological signs of emotion such as crying, tears, walking
slowly with bent head, depression, and signs of joy such as laughter, bright
complexion, erect lively gait.
3. Anderson limits his linguistic study to the Hebrew roots nov and t'ix.
Although these are the principal terms involved, the study could be
expanded to include other roots, such as )rn and )vI/')v and expressions
such as o)no mxi and na nit, as well as their antonyms in Hebrew and their
cognates in Akkadian, Aramaic, and Ugaritic. Examination of these terms
and especially of how they appear in conjunction with the behavioral prac-
tices would serve to answer the question of the effectiveness of the ritual in
producing the psychological effect. More precisely, for example, is an
expression such as nt' :nwi nov, 'happy and of good heart', merely a pair of
synonyms or is it a hendiadys mentioning on the one hand the behavioral
manifestations and on the other hand the emotional aspects of an activity?
4. The Jewish mourning rites for public and private occasions are still
practiced by countless Orthodox Jews throughout the world. A field anthro-
pologist could easily examine or inquire into the psychological effects of
these rites on their practitioners. My own personal experience with both
types of rites has shown that the rites can and do, on occasion, help stimulate
the desired psychological and emotional state of depression or sadness. Fur-
thermore, a prescribed ritual of mourning provides an authoritative answer
to the perpetual question of how to display necessary joy or sadness in order
This content downloaded from 117.239.138.34 on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 00:15:47 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
220 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
to perform one's obligation. Societies which have eschewed traditional prac-
tices (such as nonreligious kibbutzim in Israel) are forced to invent rituals
when faced with the problem of how to respectfully and satisfactorily fulfill
the obligations of the living to the dead as well as to meet the psychological
needs of the bereaved. Since Jews who practice, or consciously refrain from
practicing, the mourning rituals discussed by Anderson are readily avail-
able, it is a shame that he didn't seize the opportunity to utilize them as living
informants and thereby add an important dimension to his work.
5. Emphasizing the ritualistic behavior of literary characters such as Gil-
gamesh, David, and Jacob diminishes the emotional impact of the literary
works. The modern, analytic reader who has been conditioned to value the
spiritual over the ritual or the inner over the outer (see pp. 7-9) may per-
ceive the behavior of these personages as ritualistic and nothing more. The
negative message thus conveyed can hardly be the intent of the authors.
However, a native reader who was trained to identify the ritualistic behavior
as proper behavior in times of grief would most likely also appreciate the
emotions which it reflects and would immediately realize that the characters
are performing in the ideal manner.
6. The commands nnovi or onnovl, 'you (sg. and pl.) shall be happy', are
to be translated, according to Anderson (pp. 19-26), 'you shall celebrate'
rather than 'you shall be happy'. I suggest going even further and propose 'you
shall make a party'. In the same vein, niin nnov in Neh 12:44 can be rendered
'Judah's party supplies'. It is worth noting that even in modern Jewish usage,
a party for a religious occasion, such as a wedding, a circumcision, or a
bar-mitzvah is called a innov and one actually speaks of 'making a simhah'.
7. Anderson takes Isa 35:10, "eternal joy (ofiv nnov) shall be upon their
heads," as a reference to anointing the head with oil. He rejects the sugges-
tion that a headdress is referred to here claiming that this is a rare image in
the Bible and the ancient Near East, citing only one biblical example (Ezek
24:17). This evaluation should be reconsidered in light of such descriptions
of mourning as Lam 5:16, where mwivx nivtv 'the crown of our head has
fallen', follows and develops the statement "Gone is the joy of our hearts;
our dance is turned into mourning."
8. Anderson portrays fasting as the opposite of festive eating and drink-
ing (p. 49). This is, however, an imprecise dichotomy. Fasting is a peniten-
tial activity performed as an act of prayer or remorse and not an expression
of mourning. The proper opposite of festive eating and drinking is restricted
consumption of simple foods and beverages. In general, Anderson should
have differentiated more clearly between the various types of mourning and
the rituals they entail.
9. Anderson's distinction between the processual and resultative uses of
on) in the pi'el form (pp. 84-85) is not convincing. on) by itself never, in
my opinion, has the processual meaning. The process of comforting is
This content downloaded from 117.239.138.34 on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 00:15:47 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ANDERSON, A TIME TO MOURN, A TIME TO DANCE-HUROWITZ 221
expressed in Isa 51:19, Nah 3:7, Ps 69:21, and Job 2:11 by the verb m1).
How does one distinguish between Gen 37:35 (resultative according to
Anderson) and Job 2:11 (processual)?
These questions notwithstanding, Anderson's book is a valuable exami-
nation of some central problems of biblical psychology and religion, and
contributes methodologically to our ways of illuminating these elusive areas.
It is well worth reading and his methodological suggestions merit serious
consideration.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev VICTOR AVIGDOR HUROWITZ
Beer Sheva, Israel
This content downloaded from 117.239.138.34 on Tue, 18 Feb 2014 00:15:47 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions