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RE: Urim etc.

Jim West:
>The Urim and Thummim were lots carried in a bag (at least in the earliest
stage) and when a decision was needed the priest would reach in- white 
stone
(Urim) meant yes, black meant no.<

Neither stone was likely black and neither stone was likely white.  Both 
stones were EVen SHOham, one of the _lesser_ disputed gem identifications 
-- 
onyx, agate; like a cameo.  If one were ground so only the white was left 
(if that's even possible without making the stone unusably thin?) the other 

might have been similarly processed to be reddish but, as I understand it, 
not black.

While any dispute was probably stated in Boolean algebra, even this hasn't 
been established to my knowledge,* much less that the Koheyn Ha-Gadol 
simply 
reached into a bag to pull out the tumIYM (wholesomes) v'urIYM (and lights 
-- hence, probably, the assumption about a white stone).  Was there no 
decision making significance in six tribes inscribed on one and the other 
six on the other?  I don't think anyone has ever given anything beyond 
speculation on this subject, or that anything conclusive is possible given 
the information we have.

* For example, it's also possible that the Koheyn Ha-Gadol selected the 
stone with the disputant's tribe inscribed on it and somehow discerned an 
answer, not necessarily even Boolean, from that stone alone.  We're talking 
about cases in which the legal arguments from TorAH and HalaKHAH concerning 
TZEDeq and QOdeysh have been exhausted in the baTEY diyn without a solution. 
 Some combination of the tribe and the gem selected -- in a still unknown 
process (throwing in the air and catching, for example) -- might have tipped 
the scale toward the argument for TZEDeq as opposed to QOdeysh (for 
examples) or vice-versa.  While there doesn't seem to be any relevant 
evidence either for or against, perhaps, for example, TumIYM was associated 
with TZEDeq if the disputant was from one of the six tribes inscribed on 
that gem (else the reverse) while urIYM was similarly associated with 
QOdeysh for the other six tribes.  There are myriads of such speculations.

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Yirmiyahu Ben-David, Pakiyd 16; Ra'anana, Israel
K'hiylat Ha-N'tzarim
(Global Congregation of Nazarene Jews)

N'tzarim Virtual Community Center:
www.netvision.net.il/~netzarim

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