.יד Moshe's Burial Location

[2015]

It is somewhat ironic that while in my car this day, one of the songs that popped up on my stereo was Tzadikim by Yaakov Shwekey. You can hear it here. From my research, it appears the words come from the עין יעקב on our very דף and go as follows:

(א"ר חמא בר חנינא) מפני מה נסתתר קברו של משה מעיני בשר ודם, מפני שגלוי וידוע לפני הקב"ה שעתיד בית המקדש ליחרב ולהגלות את ישראל מארצם שמא יבואו לקבורתו של משה כאותה שעה ויעמדו בבכיה ויתחננו למשה ויאמרו לו משה רבינו עמוד בתפלה בעדנו ועומד משה ומבטל את הגזרה, מפני שחביבין צדיקים במיתתם יותר מבחייהם.

I happen to think it's a very nice song and the words are most intriguing. There's certainly much to discuss regarding praying to intermediaries but ... not now.

The Egyptian Holocaust

The end of the first פרק goes into great detail in expounding upon the פסוקים in the beginning of שמות. It is therefore appropriate to point you to an essay written by my good friend and scholar, David Farkas, entitled The Egyptian Holocaust, detailing the many chilling correlations between the machinations of פרעה thousands of years ago and those of Hitler and the Nazis, ימח שמם וזכרם.

.ו Enlighten Us

אמר רב עמרם הא מילתא אמר לן רב ששת ואנהר לן עיינין ממתניתין

It would seem that רב עמרם chose these specific words, "he enlightened our eyes," very deliberately. רב ששת was blind. This is not ח"ו to insult רב ששת but rather as a form of extended praise, as if to say "we can physically see and he cannot. Nevertheless, it is he who enlightens our eyes with his exposition of the משנה. In fact, שוב מצאתי, in the Artscroll that they make the very same observation and also point out that this terminology is actually used quite often, specifically with regards to רב ששת.

.ה In the Right Time

ואם חוזר בו נאסף בזמנו כאברהם אבינו שנאמר והומכו ככל יקפצון כאברהם יצחק ויעקב דכתיב בהו בכל מכל כל

I am somewhat puzzled as to the exact meaning of נאסף בזמנו. Does it mean they will die in their proper time? If so, that is slightly troubling per the well-known רש"י in next week's  פרשה (כ"ה:כ"ט) which states that אברהם passed 5 years before his time so as not to see his grandchild stray from the path. Regarding יעקב as well, we are told that years were taken off his life. What, then, is the meaning?

.ה An 1/8 of an 1/8

א״ר חייא בר אשי אמר רב ת״ח צריך שיהא בו אחד משמונה בשמינית א״ר הונא בריה דרב יהושע ומעטרא ליה כי םאםא לשבולתא

The גר”א asks why the גמרא chose that specific number. Doubling up the number has a certain poetic effect. But why not a seventh of a seventh, or a ninth of a ninth? (Indeed, the number 7 is more commonly used in Talmudic hyperbole.) He answers that an eighth of an eighth is 1/64, just less than 1/60. In other words, the גאווה should be בטל בשישים. It should be there but not even noticeable. I have used this approach to understand .גמרא ברכות לד.

It is also intriguing that the imagery of a םאםא לשבולתא is used here in a positive context. Just above on this very עמוד, it is used to portray the downfall of the haughty. רש"י there, however, indicates that the metaphor is in reference to how this part of the שבולת falls off on his own. This later reference is not to the behaviour of this "beard" but rather to its stately appearance when it is still intact.

:ד How did he know?

והאיכא בן עזאי דלא נסיב איבעית אימא נסיב ופירש הוה ואיבעית אימא מרביה שמיע ליה ואיבעית אימא סוד ה' ליראיו

תוספות ד. ד"ה בן עזאי אומר. האי דמקדים בן עזאי לרבי עקיבא אע"ג דרבי עקיבא היה רבו כדאמר בפרק הרואה

The first difficulty here is that, as תוספות clearly states, בן עזאי's rebbe was in fact רבי עקיבא. But רבי עקיבא was one of the other תנאים who weighed in on this matter. So how could their opinions differ? One must be forced to say that בן עזאי had yet another רב from whom he received this tradition.

The last answer is also puzzling. It must be that the סוד ה' ליראיו in this case is what the שיעור would have been had בן עזאי married. It could not be a transmission that this is the true measure for if so, what does that mean for all the other opinions?

שוב מצאתי that the Artscroll makes both these points.