The Exegetical Role of the Paseq

It is well-known that the Biblical accents have an exegetical value in interpreting Scripture. The ocurrences of the paseq -a vertical line which is inserted in the space between two words but does not belong to the accentuation system- have been noted by many scholars, but few are aware of its exegetical value in Scripture. This article discusses the exegetical role of the paseq, i.e., instances in which a paseq appears because of questions of meaning and understanding. Following Aaron Ben-Asher, we assume that the paseq emends the parsing of a verse according to the accents, where two words must be separated due to the meaning. In the examples illustrating our hypothesis, first we examine the interpretation that follows from parsing according to the accents. Then, in view of the appearance of a paseq, we suggest a different division of the words and show how the new parsing implies a different interpretation or precludes the interpretation that follows from the accents. In the examples in which the paseq is given exegetical significance, we attempt to sub-stantiate our position by citations from Midrashim, Targumim, and Biblical exegesis. We begin with the example of עשר ׀ כלה (Gen. 18:21), followed by three groups of examples. In the first group, the paseq separates «said» from the actual content of an utterance. In the second group, the paseq separates two items in a list. In the third group, the paseq can be explained by other rules aside from the exegetical one.Es bien sabido que los acentos bíblicos cumplen una función exegética en la interpretación de la Escritura. Muchos autores han prestado atención a los casos de paseq -una línea vertical entre dos palabras que no pertenece al sistema de acentuación-, pero pocos se han dado cuenta de su importancia exegética en la Escritura. Este artículo analiza el valor exegético del paseq, es decir, los casos en los que se utiliza por razones de significado y comprensión. Según la opinión de Aaron Ben-Ašer, cuando por el significado dos palabras de un versículo se deben entender separadamente, el paseq viene a modificar el análisis que según los acentos tendría ese versículo. En los ejemplos que ilustran nuestra hipótesis analizamos, en primer lugar, la interpretación que se deduce del análisis según los acentos; después, considerando la existencia del paseq, sugerimos una división distinta de las palabras y demostramos cómo este nuevo análisis nos lleva a una interpretación diferente o contradice aquella que corresponde a la acentual. En los ejemplos en los que el paseq tiene una relevancia exegética intentamos apoyar nuestro punto de vista con citas de los midrašim y targumim y de la exegesis bíblica. Comenzamos con el caso de עשר ׀ כלה (Gen 18:21), al que siguen tres grupos de ejemplos. En el primero, el paseq separa el verbo «dijo» de aquello que se dice; en el segundo, separa dos elementos de una enumeración; y en el tercero, el paseq puede explicarse por otras funciones distintas de la exegética

Review of \u3ci\u3e Conservation: Linking, Ecology, Economics, and Culture\u3c/i\u3e by Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and Peter Coppolillo

Guided by their extensive field experience in conservation research and practice, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and Peter Coppolillo offer an encompassing introduction to some of the most pervasive and incendiary social and biological science debates concerning biodiversity conservation. As environmental conservation initiatives have expanded throughout the globe in recent decades, scholars primarily from the social sciences have begun to critically examine the often fraught social dynamics of such conservation. This body of work has ignited a series of fierce debates among those with a concern for local peoples who have found themselves marginalized by conservation, those with a concern for rapidly diminishing biodiversity, and those with a concern for both. Until recently much of the expansive literature on the subject is deeply mired in one position or another, highly complicating the task of establishing the broader context and underlying assumptions of the debate. Borgerhoff Mulder and Coppolillo contribute significantly to such a gap by synthesizing a wide array of theoretical and practical resources, spanning social and biological science disciplines as well as policy-oriented and academic publications

The Identity of the First Masoretes

The paper focuses on the question of the identity of the early Masoretes. We propose that the priests who were occupied with and preserved the Biblical text and its exact language from the time it was received, should properly be regarded as the original Masoretes whose activity was oral at the beginning, and some time later in writing. We began our discussion based on Dotan's assertion that “the transmission of the Bible is as old as the Bible itself.” The commentary of Rashi on the Song of Songs and Urbach's statement tutor us with a first clew concerning the linkaage between the priests and the Masorah. We add proofs that teach of a historical reality of such a connection, an association that is expressed in a number of realms: the proximity of the accurate copies of the Bible to the Ark of the Covenant (in the Temple Court), thus enabling access to the scrolls by the priests, who were active in the Tabernacle and afterwards in the Temple. The priests’ expertise in the Bible, gained from their occupation with its teaching, reading, singing and copying, also enabled them to actively engage in the preservation of the Biblical text.Este artículo estudia la identidad de los primeros masoretas. Partiendo de la afirmación de Dotan, según la cual «la transmisión de la Biblia es tan antigua como la misma Biblia», la autora propone que los sacerdotes dedicados a la preservación del texto bíblico desde el mismo momento de su recepción deben ser considerados como los masoretas originales, que desarrollaron primero una transmisión oral y luego escrita de su actividad. El comentario de Raší al Cantar y una aseverración de Urbach proporcionan la primera pista acerca de la relación entre sacerdotes y la Masora. Se añaden pruebas que muestran la realidad histórica de dicha conexión, que se expresa en varios niveles: proximidad de las copias del texto bíblico más precisas al Arca de la Alianza (dentro del Templo), facilitando así el acceso a los rollos de los sacerdotes activos, primero en el Tabernáculo y luego en el Templo. La pericia de los sacerdotes en la Biblia, adquirida con su enseñanza, melddado y copia, también les posibilitó involucrarse en la preservación del texto bíblico

On One Masorah in Rashi's Biblical Commentary

The aim of our research was to clarify the Masoretic sources which Rashi used in his commentary on the word נחלה in Ezek. 47:19. Rashi claims that he has see that the stress is penultimate for גחלה מצרים (Num. 34:5) and that the Masorah ad loc is לית בטעמא (= unique with this accentuation). I examined scores of medieval Biblical manuscripts that originated from all known regions but did not find a single Masoretic note formulated in this way. Moreover, they all apply the ב (= two occurrences) in different wording, without the use of לית as Rashi does. In only one manuscript, Parma di Rossi 2, did I find the note ל פס דס וחד נתלה עבר על נפשנו (the word-pair מצרים נחלה is unique in the Bible as is נחלה עבר על נפשנו). I suggest viewing this note and the other one quoted by Rashi לית בטעמא as a rewording by the Masoretes of the equivalent note found in the Aleppo and Leningrad Manuscripts: בתרי לישני ב (= a unique pair of words identical in pronunciation but different in meaning).El propósito de nuestra investigación ha sido dilucidar cuáles fueron las fuentes masoréticas que Rashi empleó en su comentario a la palabra נחלה en Ezek. 47:19. Rashi sostiene haber visto que el acento va en la penúltima sílaba en גחלה מצרים (Num. 34:5), y que la Masora ad loc es לית בטעמא (única por tener dicha acentuación). Por nuestra parte, hemos examinado numerosos manuscritos originarios de todas las regiones conocidas, pero no hemos encontrado ni una sola anotación masorética formulada de este modo. Además, todos ellos utilizan en sus masoras el ב (dos casos) en diferentes ocasiones, pero sin usar לית del modo que lo hace Rashi. Sólo en un manuscrito, Parma di Rossi 2, pudimos encontrar la anotación ל פס דס וחד נתלה עבר על נפשנו (la pareja נחלה מצרים es única en la Biblia, al igual que נחלה עבר על נפשנו). Sugerimos, a la vista de esta anotación y de la otra citada por Rashi, que לית בטעמא es otra forma con que los masoretas expresaron la anotación equivalente encontrada en los manuscritos de Alepo y Leningrado: ב בתרי לישני (una pareja única de palabras, idéntica en su pronunciación pero de diferente significado)

Risk prediction to inform surveillance of chronic kidney disease in the US Healthcare Safety Net: a cohort study.

BackgroundThe capacity of electronic health record (EHR) data to guide targeted surveillance in chronic kidney disease (CKD) is unclear. We sought to leverage EHR data for predicting risk of progressing from CKD to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to help inform surveillance of CKD among vulnerable patients from the healthcare safety-net.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults (n = 28,779) with CKD who received care within 2 regional safety-net health systems during 1996-2009 in the Western United States. The primary outcomes were progression to ESRD and death as ascertained by linkage with United States Renal Data System and Social Security Administration Death Master files, respectively, through September 29, 2011. We evaluated the performance of 3 models which included demographic, comorbidity and laboratory data to predict progression of CKD to ESRD in conditions commonly targeted for disease management (hypertension, diabetes, chronic viral diseases and severe CKD) using traditional discriminatory criteria (AUC) and recent criteria intended to guide population health management strategies.ResultsOverall, 1730 persons progressed to end-stage renal disease and 7628 died during median follow-up of 6.6 years. Performance of risk models incorporating common EHR variables was highest in hypertension, intermediate in diabetes and chronic viral diseases, and lowest in severe CKD. Surveillance of persons who were in the highest quintile of ESRD risk yielded 83-94 %, 74-95 %, and 75-82 % of cases who progressed to ESRD among patients with hypertension, diabetes and chronic viral diseases, respectively. Similar surveillance yielded 42-71 % of ESRD cases among those with severe CKD. Discrimination in all conditions was universally high (AUC ≥0.80) when evaluated using traditional criteria.ConclusionsRecently proposed discriminatory criteria account for varying risk distribution and when applied to common clinical conditions may help to inform surveillance of CKD in diverse populations

Urinary excretion of RAS, BMP, and WNT pathway components in diabetic kidney disease.

Abstract The renin-angiotensin system (RAS), bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), and WNT pathways are involved in pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). This study characterized assays for urinary angiotensinogen (AGT), gremlin-1, and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7), components of the RAS, BMP, and WNT pathways and examined their excretion in DKD. We measured urine AGT, gremlin-1, and MMP-7 in individuals with type 1 diabetes and prevalent DKD (n = 20) or longstanding (n = 61) or new-onset (n = 10) type 1 diabetes without DKD. These urine proteins were also quantified in type 2 DKD (n = 11) before and after treatment with candesartan. The utilized immunoassays had comparable inter- and intra-assay and intraindividual variation to assays used for urine albumin. Median (IQR) urine AGT concentrations were 226.0 (82.1, 550.3) and 13.0 (7.8, 20.0) μg/g creatinine in type 1 diabetes with and without DKD, respectively (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) urine gremlin-1 concentrations were 48.6 (14.2, 254.1) and 3.6 (1.7, 5.5) μg/g, respectively (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) urine MMP-7 concentrations were 6.0 (3.8, 10.5) and 1.0 (0.4, 2.9) μg/g creatinine, respectively (P < 0.001). Treatment with candesartan was associated with a reduction in median (IQR) urine AGT/creatinine from 23.5 (1.6, 105.1) to 2.0 (1.4, 13.7) μg/g, which did not reach statistical significance. Urine gremlin-1 and MMP-7 excretion did not decrease with candesartan. In conclusion, DKD is characterized by markedly elevated urine AGT, MMP-7, and gremlin-1. AGT decreased in response to RAS inhibition, suggesting that this marker reflects therapeutic response. Urinary components of the RAS, BMP, and WNT pathways may identify risk of DKD and aid development of novel therapeutics