This sheet on Exodus 12 was written by Rafi Spitzer for 929 and can also be found here
Ex 12:5-“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a yearling male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.”
Everett Fox translates the word tamim as “wholly-sound.” In the note he writes, “Or ‘hale,’ that is, physically unblemished. This primary physical meaning often gives way to a spiritualized one, in reference to human beings (Job, for instance, is described as tamim, variously translated as “blameless” and “perfect” in Job 1:1).
Noah is also called tamim (Genesis 6:9), and there Fox translates the word as wholehearted, intending by the use of the word whole to invoke the sense of unblemished, as an animal fit for sacrifice. Abraham, too, is charged by God (Genesis 17:1) to (Fox’s translation again): “Walk in my presence! And be wholehearted/tamim!”
Here, in the context of the Passover offering, in the chapter which contains the first commands by God to the Jewish people, and which Rashi suggests would be the beginning of the Torah, if the Torah were simply a book of laws, I am struck by the resonance of the word tamim.
What does it mean to be “wholly-sound” in a spiritual sense?
How might the command to watch over the lamb from the 10th day of the first month until the animal is slaughtered be also understood spiritually?
Should we be striving to be tamim?
In what ways are Noah, Abraham, and Job, who are called tamim also being asked to sacrifice aspects of their own lives and selves to God?
Can we be tamim with God in a way that doesn’t feel as dangerous as this yearling lamb?
Everett Fox translates the word tamim as “wholly-sound.” In the note he writes, “Or ‘hale,’ that is, physically unblemished. This primary physical meaning often gives way to a spiritualized one, in reference to human beings (Job, for instance, is described as tamim, variously translated as “blameless” and “perfect” in Job 1:1).
Noah is also called tamim (Genesis 6:9), and there Fox translates the word as wholehearted, intending by the use of the word whole to invoke the sense of unblemished, as an animal fit for sacrifice. Abraham, too, is charged by God (Genesis 17:1) to (Fox’s translation again): “Walk in my presence! And be wholehearted/tamim!”
Here, in the context of the Passover offering, in the chapter which contains the first commands by God to the Jewish people, and which Rashi suggests would be the beginning of the Torah, if the Torah were simply a book of laws, I am struck by the resonance of the word tamim.
What does it mean to be “wholly-sound” in a spiritual sense?
How might the command to watch over the lamb from the 10th day of the first month until the animal is slaughtered be also understood spiritually?
Should we be striving to be tamim?
In what ways are Noah, Abraham, and Job, who are called tamim also being asked to sacrifice aspects of their own lives and selves to God?
Can we be tamim with God in a way that doesn’t feel as dangerous as this yearling lamb?
Rafi Spitzer is a fifth-year rabbinical school student at JTS.
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