The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

214 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
well-developed tradition possessing a moral-didactic aspect so immanent
to the world of Targum. 20
And in a similar fashion:
Genesis 34.31: (= Should he deal with our
sister as with a harlot?)
Neofiti: \
...(= And the two sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, answered and say to
Jacob, their father: It is not fitting that they should say in their congregations
and in their schools: Uncircumcised have defiled virgins and servers
of idols the daughter of Jacob. But it is fitting that they should say in the
congregations of Israel and in their school-houses: Uncircumcised were
slain on account of a virgin and servers of idols because they defiled
Dinah, the daughter of Jacob...)
The story of the sons of Jacob in Shechem comes to a close together
with the apparent end to a lectionary unit of the Pentateuch; expanding
in a wealth of detail, wavering somewhere between apologetics and
polemic. Midrashic literature has not a single parallel to show. 21
This targumic tradition is also of relevance to our subject:
Deuteronomy 24.6: (= No man shall
take the nether or the upper millstone for a pledge).
Marginal notes MS Neofiti 1:'
(= you shall not tie bridegrooms and brides from approaching
each other).
Pseudo Jonathan:
(= Neither shall a man tie bridegrooms and brides
by magical incantations; for he destroys what would be born of them).
It would seem that both of these targumic passages (and in a more
limited and tenuous way, the rest of the Targums) marshal their
forces against an act of magic that is basically a charm for delaying
consummation of the marriage. 22 The exact nature of this charm 'is
not mentioned in the Talmuds or the Midrash'. 23
20. On this tradition see also Shinan, Embroidered Targum, pp. 68-69.
21. Cf. Shinan, Embroidered Targum, pp. 29-30; Maher, Genesis, p. 119 n. 13.
22. See D.M. Splanski, Targum Pseudo Jonathan—its Relationship to Other
Targumim, Use of Midrashim and Date' (dissertation, Cincinnati, 1981), pp. 89-90.
23. M.M. Kasher, Torah Shlemah XXIV (Jerusalem, 1975), p. 152 [Hebrew]. It
does receive its share of hints, or so it seems, in the Palestinian Talmud. Ket. 1.1