I don't know if I was born an English teacher, but I do know that I am one, and that's something. I also know that I like reading Chumash and stuff like that. Yesterday, though, while I was standing in shul during leining, I started applying some English teacher thinking to the text. Now, I'm not here to advocate for a documentary hypothesis or do anything to separate myself from the divinity of the text. I am a true believer that the 5 books of Moses are the word of God. Feel free to dismiss me because of my belief. I'm used to it.
Anyway, I considered a pretty standard topic for English teachers -- that of the narrative voice. Through much of the Chumash, the narrator is Hashem. He acts the ultimate third person, omniscient narrator. I mean, this is the only way that the text makes sense to me. How else could we trust that the narrative voice can tell us the thoughts inside different characters heads, recording the emotions and the private dialogue. I believe that Hashem dictated the 5 books (I'm not going to get into any discussion of the different narrative voice in the 5th book, or for the last 8 verses of Devarim), using his authoritative position as seer of all.
All of this SHOULD make me feel like the narrator is reliable, right? A huge topic I discuss with my classes is that narrative voice-choice and whether it can be trusted to tell the story. I love To Kill a Mockingbird, but how can we trust an adult Scout as narrator, telling me things she could not know or remember from when she was 7 years old? It doesn't destroy the text, but it brings up layers of discussion and possibility. But the Chumash?
So I was reading a dvar Torah about the meeting of Yehudah and Yosef (who was still in incognito mode). According to one explanation, 2 simple words that Yehudah uses indicate a much deeper statement to Yosef. Does the text record the entirety of every conversation? Does the text's retelling match what actually happened? That's not an heretical question -- is it possible that Hashem ADDED information (as opposed to an unreliable narrator who might delete or twist information following another agenda) or changed the words to be more full of the intent. Did Yehudah really have all these things in mind when he spoke? Did Hashem infect his vocabulary to make sure that he used the precisely useful words? Was the cryptic conversation that cryptic intentionally?
Take a look at the Kli Yakar on the first pasuk of Vayigash. He points out that the first 2 words that Yehudah uses (bi adoni) indicate a much deeper content. Why is it boiled down to 2 words? Was that how Yehudah said it? Or was it reduced in Hashem's retelling? Maybe Hashem is an unreliable narrator in that he is TOO reliable, letting us see things that the characters themselves would not know. Look at the Ohr Hachaim (https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.44.18?lang=bi&with=Or%20HaChaim&lang2=en) there and see how much is included in the sparse recorded conversation. Did those saying these things KNOW they were hinting at layers or did Hashem add the layers to establish the relationship he wants us to learn from? Or did he just control what they said so that later generations could dive in and find specific meaning?
This does not shake my faith. It makes me wonder about the text, though.
