Fasting in the Kingdom of Ugarit
Nearly 100 years after its discovery, we still don't know much about Ugaritic religion. It is true that we were able to discover many tablets that gave us the names of the gods and many of their myths, but we still do not know a lot about the characteristics of most of these gods, their rituals, and their worship, except perhaps for the ritual offerings and sacrifices, many of whose details were recorded for us on the clay tablets, including the types of animals. Which were offered as sacrifices, and any animal could be offered to any of the gods, and things like that.
Despite the above, the Ugaritic tablets provide many important references that would shed some light on the obscure doctrine and laws in the kingdom. Tablet KTU 1.169 is an important example, as this magical text contains two unique pieces of information contained in an orphan line that has no similarity in other tablets. In explaining the steps that must be followed when a young man is exposed to the evils of witchcraft, the text mentions the phrase: “Talham is the meat of thirst,” which literally means: “Eat the bread of fasting.”
A number of important points become clear from this statement:
The Kingdom of Ugarit knew and practiced the worship of fasting.
There was a certain type of bread associated with Lenten worship, with a clear similarity to Lenten bread (Passover bread) in Jewish law.
This Lenten bread has magical, healing properties, indicating that it was blessed, and was probably made according to a special ritual method.
This phrase sheds light on another side issue, as it is clear that the word “fasting” is derived from the Ugaritic Semitic root “dhamma,” which in turn is derived from the root “thirsty” common in a number of Semitic languages, including Arabic, which indicates that the worship of fasting It may have been abstinence from drink alone in ancient times. As for how the letter “dha” was transformed into “sa,” this is a common issue in Semitic languages, and we find it in languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic, as the letter “tha” in the verb “thirst” was transformed into the letter “sa” in these languages, and Arabic may have borrowed the word “fasting” later. From one of these two languages.
The problem remains that this type of tablet only provides us with answers to the extent of the questions it poses. So what did the Ugaritic people fast? How much time? In what month or months of the year? In the context of what worship and satisfaction of any of the gods? How and what was Lenten bread made from? All these questions and others will remain unanswered until we are lucky with new discoveries that reveal some of the mysteries and secrets surrounding this amazing kingdom.
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