A little something to remember me by:   The relation between ritual and remembrance in the Pentateuch

Description

In a vast amount of Semitic dedicatory inscriptions from the Persian and Hellenistic period the votary asks for "good remembrance" from the deity in return for the dedicated object. But what does it mean to be remembered favorably by a deity? The act of remembering on behalf of a goddess or god is not merely a cognitive exercise of recalling a past event, but an act that is expected to have a tangible beneficial effect for the one remembered; Yahweh remembers Noah in the ark in Genesis 8:1 and makes the waters withdraw and Yahweh remembers the childless Rachel in Genesis 30:22 and opens her womb. To be remembered by Yahweh is to be taken care of.

In this paper I wish to explore the relation between ritual acts and God's remembrance in the Pentateuch in order to shed light on the relationship between votive practice (giving gifts to the gods) and blessing in the Hebrew Bible and its surrounding world.