01_AzuelosVoltaggio_161_178_copia_161_178 10/07/15 11:33 Pagina 177 177 THE “ANGEL SENT FROM BEFORE THE LORD” IN TARGUM JOSHUA 5,14 177 the answer: “I am here because of the abolishment of the Torah (ytyta ![k hrwt dwmlt lwjb l[)”. It follows that the targumic addi- tions in Targum Jonathan and the Geniza Tosefta do not associate the angel’s mission with the preparations for war, such as his instruc- tions to Joshua for the conquest of Jericho in chapter 6. It appears that the targumists in Targum Jonathan and the Geniza fragment view this scene as the conclusion of a literary unit, which begins in Josh 1,8 with the commandment to study the Torah (“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful”) 52 and ends with the admonishment by the commander of the army of the Lord about the duty to study Torah. The scene where the commander of the army of the Lord ad- monishes Joshua for abandoning the Torah was placed before the sto- ries of conquest to emphasize the message to Joshua: he would not succeed in conquering the land without the Torah. Here lies an im- portant message to the assembly listening to the targumic translation in synagogues, where the Targum was part of the liturgical rite. It is all the more effective considering that Josh 5,2 – 6,1 was read as the haftarah of the first day of Passover 53. This targumic addition also has the effect of portraying Joshua more as a scholar dedicated to fol- lowing the commandment to study the Torah than as the heroic con- queror of the land 54. The portrayal of Joshua in the targumic additions agrees with his description in the Sages who interpret Josh 8,9 (“Joshua spent that night in the camp”) and Josh 8,13 (Joshua spent that night in the valley) as follows: “This teaches that he spent the night in the depth of the halakhah” (hklh lX hqmw[b !lX dmlm) 55. 52 For details of the scholarly debate about the role of the literary unit at hand, cf. ASSIS, From Moses to Joshua, 116 n. 37. 53 According to KASHER, “The Aramaic Targums”, 89, who sees the source of the Targum in the educational contexts of the bet midrash and school, this to- sefta is also important for its message to the disciples and students of the Torah. 54 Cf. Th. RÖMER, “Josué, lecteur de la Tora (Jos 1,8)”, “Lasset uns Brücken bauen … ”. Collected Communications to the XVth Congress of the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament. Cambridge 1995 (eds. K.-D. SCHUNCK – M. AUGUSTIN) (BEAT 42; Frankfurt am Main 1998) 117-124. On the transformations in the depiction of the figure of Joshua in the Bible, cf. ROFÉ, “Joshua”, 333-364. 55 Cf. b.San 41a; b.Er 63b; b.Meg 3a. See ROFÉ, “Joshua”, 341.