Today was an especially long day, so this post will be brief!
I read a huge chunk of Judah Goldin’s “The Period of the Talmud (135 B.C.E.-1035 C.E.)”, which is in Louis Finkelstein’s The Jews: Their History. I like this chapter because of its romantic story-telling. There are heroes, such as Jochanan Ben-Zakkai, who was humble enough to open the door for his students. Then there’s a midrash about Moses, whom God prepared for leadership over Israel by making him a shepherd of sheep. You know what Jesus said: Whoever is faithful in little, will be entrusted with much.
I kind of like this midrash as a bedtime story—something soothing, like the dream that I could be President of the United States. In my evangelical days, I dreamed of God having a plan for me in which I’d be important and famous. I still do have that dream, in a sense, for I hope to write books some day. But I doubt that I’ll be head of a corporation, or a big-time preacher, or a U.S. Senator, though I wouldn’t be overly surprised if, some day, I sit on a city council or a school board. I’d have to be a lot more knowledgeable than I am now for that to happen!
I also started on Jeffrey Reed’s article, “The Epistle”, which is in The Handbook of Classical Rhetoric in the Hellenistic Period. Reed says that Cicero talks about the difficulty of picking a topic to write about. I don’t have a great problem with this when it comes to my blog. When it comes to writing articles, or talking to people, however, there is more difficulty, on my front.