:ס"ב The ט"ו בשבט Connection

[Originally published in the vicinity of ט"ו בשבט תשע"ד]

Ok, this is a little bit of a stretch...

מיעוט צפרים שנים *שתים

I was initially intrigued by the הגהה. Really? ציפור is feminine? Certainly there are other words that don't give off any apparent evidence of being feminine but are, nevertheless. But I wanted to double-check it. As I was approaching the חומשים where I would confirm that it most definitely is feminine - החיה, השחוטה, אותה, etc. - it hit me that the ubiquitous ט"ו בשבט ditty as well indicates that it is so. Here are the words:

השקדיה פורחת
ושמש פז זורחת,
צפורים מראש כל גג
מבשרות את בוא החג.

ט"ו בשבט הגיע חג לאילנות.
ט"ו בשבט הגיע חג לאילנות.

.ב Plural of מקוה

Well, what is it? The 6^th מסכתא in טהרות is commonly known as מקואות. I would have to say that that is certainly the most common pronunciation. However, the text in our opening משנה seems to imply that perhaps it is מקוות. Is it possible that it depends on סמיכות? That is, the regular plural is מקואות but next to מים, it becomes מקוות מים.

:י"ד Pair of Lechis

לחיין שאמרו כו' לימא תנן סתמא כר"א דאמר לחיין בעינן לא מאי לחיין לחיין דעלמא אי הכי קורה נמי ניתני קורות ומאי קורות קורות דעלמא הכי קאמר אותן לחיין שנחלקו בהן ר' אליעזר וחכמים גובהן עשרה טפחים ורוחבן ועוביין כל שהוא

There is a grammatical significance to this discussion. In the end, the גמרא concludes that we are in fact referring to ר' אליעזר's position and the subsequent dispute regarding it. The first word of the משנה is therefore written/pronounced לְחָיַיִן, the exact translation of which would be a pair of lechis, following a similar structure to עינים or אזנים. If the משנה were to have been interpreted as the גמרא first suggested - referring generally to multiple lechis as they pertain to multiple alleyways, the word would be a simple plural and would probably be punctuated differently, although I'm not quite sure exactly how.

[תש"ף] How fitting that this סוגיא comes immediately after פרשת שופטים. Not only is the grammatical structure of a pair evident in שופטים, as per this Dikdukian piece but the actual word לחיים is also mentioned.

:צ"ב Different types of sheep?

There is no mention of sheep anywhere on דף צב. Or is there? It's not often that I will have something to say about a note in the מסורת הש"ס but one in particular caught my attention at the bottom of the דף. It pertains to a discussion we've had over at Dikdukian as to whether there is a difference between the words כבש and כשב. I have posted this comment there as well:

Towards the bottom, the word מלגז is used. רש"י translates as "forke." The מסורת הש"ס comments: פי׳ מזלג ע״י חילוף האותיות כמו כבש כשב מוסף ערוך To me, that seems to imply that the words are the same but the letters can simply switched around. But I suppose that is up for interpretation.

:המוציא ל”ח

מה הוא אומר המוציא לחם מן הארץ רבי נחמיה אומר מוציא לחם מן הארץ אמר רבא במוציא כולי עלמא לא פליגי דאפיק משמע דכתיב אל מוציאם ממצרים כי פליגי בהמוציא...והלכתא המוציא לחם מן הארץ

תוספות here ask a very simple question: If everyone agrees that מוציא fits the bill, why don’t we just go with that? They answer that it is preferable to say המוציא in order to make a separation between the מ”ם at the end of העולם and at the beginning of מוציא. They go on to explain that while a similar concern exists with לחם – מן, since that phrase comes from a פסוק we aren’t going to change it. We have already seen that it is important to be careful with pronunciation of קריאת שמע and of course קריאת התורה as well. But this תוספות shows us the importance of דקדוק with ברכות as well.

That said, there is a discussion as to the proper pronunciation of the word המוציא. The rule of נסוג אחור would determine that since the accent on לחם is on the first syllable, the accent on המוציא is moved back and it would be ha-MO-tzi. The discussion revolves around whether or not this rule is applicable to ברכות. Indeed, we do employ that rule for ברכת התורה as we say אשר בחר בנו – BA-char, instead of ba-CHAR. Nevertheless, the סידור עליות אליהו maintains that the rule is not applied to המוציא and it should be pronounced ha-mo-TZI.

I was recently referred (by the brother of the מחבר סידור עליות אליהו, ironically) to a ספר דרכי הנסיגה which is dedicated to the rules of נסוג אחור. Therein, he states that as a rule that a word with a ה הידיעה will not have its accent pushed up by נסוג אחור. This would explain המוציא.

:ל"א Misreading the חושן

אמר עולא ואיתימא רבי יוסי ברבי חנינא אמרה ליה לא אדון אתה בדבר זה ולא רוח הקודש שורה עליך שאתה חושדני בדבר זה

There is a famous פירוש of the גר"א on the episode of חנה. To summarize, he writes that עלי looked at the חושן for the letters to light up and give him guidance. He observed what he thought was the word שכרה, meaning that she was drunk. However, it really was meant to read כשרה. Now, I always had thought the proper word was כְּשֵׁרָה. However, in פנינים משלחן הגר"א it is explained that the intended word is definitely כְּשָׂרָה - like שרה אמינו. That being the case, there is an interesting דקדוק revelation that comes out of this episode – that שׁי"ן and שׂי"ן are fully interchangeable. After all, there are both on the חושן. But yet, whichever letter did light up, it could be interpreted as either. We never think of the two as being the same letter just like בּ and ב but perhaps we should? I’ve always wondered how far this theory goes with respect to correcting a בעל קריאה who interchanges the two.

.כ”ט The Divine Hand

והתועים על דעתך ישפטו ועל הרשעים תניף ידיך

There is something that struck me as slightly odd about this pharse. ידיך is clearly in the plural form. I am not by any means an expert with the full of knowledge of all Jewish texts at my fingertips but to my limited recollection, it seems that whenever we refer to the Divine Hand it is in the singular form, as in היד החזקה and וירא ישראל את היד הגדולה. I can’t recall any instance where we refer to HaShem’s having hands. And it would stand to reason. Any limb which we would attribute to the Divine through anthropomorphosis should be perfect and not need a companion.

Perhaps I’m on to something. Speaking of היד החזקה, I was intrigued to explore how the text of this תפילה is presented in the later works. It is not uncommon to see the text of the גמרא undergo a certain degree of metamorphosis in the פוסקים (e.g. the תפילה for the בעל הבית in ברכת המזון.) While the ערוך השלחן preserves the spelling of ידיך I found that רמב”ם הל’ תפלה ב:ג (ironically, the author of the יד החזקה) has ידך without the יו”ד!

I would be most interested to hear any arguments for or against my assertion above.

Update: When I mentioned this to my brother he almost instantaneously pointed me to the .גמרא כבובות ה which references מקדש ה' כוננו ידיך and discusses why, in fact, it is in the plural form. Nevertheless, I still maintain that it is an exception and the norm is to refer to יד in the singular. The גירסא in the רמב"ם still supports that assertion.

:י"ב All of your days

א"ר אלעזר בן עזריה הרי אני כבן שבעים שנה ולא זכיתי שתאמר יציאת מצרים בלילות עד שדרשה בן זומא שנא' למען תזכור את יום צאתך מארץ מצרים כל ימי חייך ימי חייך הימים כל ימי חייך הלילות וחכ"א ימי חייך העוה"ז כל להביא לימות המשיח

[5772: Another "פרשה Bonus" this week as the above פסוק appears in פרשת ראה.] The גר"א explains the מחלוקת in our משנה. The word כל can have two different meanings, much like the English word "all." It can mean "all of," in other words, the totality of. Or, it can mean "each and every." The discussion here is which does it mean in this specific instance. ר אלעזר בן עזריה understands it to mean the totality. So כל ימי חייך therefore means that your day should be "completely covered" by זכירת יציאת מצרים - once in the day and once in the night. The חכמים however take כל to mean "each and every." So the פסוק is therefore teaching us that we must remember יציאת מצרים every single day - even in the time of משיח.

:המלך המשפט י"ב

רש"י ד"ה המלך המשפט - כמו מלך המשפט. כמו נושאי הארון הברית (יהושע ג) כמו ארון הברית וכן המסגרות המכונות (מלכים ב טז) שהוא כמו מסגרות המכונות וכן העמק הפגרים (ירמיהו לא) כמו עמק הפגרים :

The term המלך המשפט is somewhat anomalous. Typically, when there is an adjective identifying a definite noun, the prefix ה is put on the second word*. This is what is "bothering רש"י" and why he has to give other examples in תנ"ך where we find similar phrases to prove that it is a somewhat common anomaly.

* Funny story: Our גבאי, when delivering the מי שברך following an עליה will, if asked, mention the בעל קורא. Last time I got an עליה I asked him to include the בעל הקריאה. That kind of caught him off guard and he said הבעל קורא instead. But now I have him saying הבעל קריאה. Close enough, I suppose.

.י Abolishing Sin

אָמְרָה לֵיהּ בְּרוּרְיָא דְּבֵיתְהוּ: מַאי דַּעְתָּךְ — מִשּׁוּם דִּכְתִיב ״יִתַּמּוּ חַטָּאִים״, מִי כְּתִיב ״חוֹטְאִים״? ״חַטָּאִים״ כְּתִיב. וְעוֹד, שְׁפֵיל לְסֵיפֵיהּ דִּקְרָא ״וּרְשָׁעִים עוֹד אֵינָם״, כֵּיוָן דְּ״יִתַּמּוּ חַטָּאִים״ ״וּרְשָׁעִים עוֹד אֵינָם״? אֶלָּא בְּעִי רַחֲמֵי עִלָּוַיְהוּ דְּלַהְדְּרוּ בִּתְשׁוּבָה, ״וּרְשָׁעִים עוֹד אֵינָם״.

ברוריא seems to make a beautiful point here but the problem is that is not the actual meaning of the פסוק. The word חטאים is also used to refer to sinners using the same בנין as, for example a גַמָל, referring to a camel rider. I recall R' Moshe Eisemann mentioning once, "didn't ברוריא learn דקדוק in seminary?" He offered the following answer: Surely, ברוריא knew that the actual meaning of the פסוק is that the sinners themselves should pass away. But the point that ברוריא was making was that since the פסוק could conceivably be read differently to mean "the sins," you, רבי מאיר, since you are involved in the conflict and thus נוגע בדבר, you have a responsibility to err on the side of caution and understand the פסוק otherwise. It is a similar theme we find later on (:כ"ח) that there was no one who was capable of properly arranging the extra ברכה to combat the heretics. Only שמואל הקטן whom, as we know (אבות ד:י"ט) was the champion of בנפול אויבך אל תשמח, was capable of arranging the ברכה with the proper intent.

I recently heard a beautiful answer to this question, more along the lines of פשט. (This was found in the ספר אם למקרא in the name of ספר ליהודים היתה אורה.) Indeed, the word חַטָּאִים does mean sinners. However, there is a difference between חַטָּאִים and חוֹטְאִים. A חַטָּא is someone for whom sin is an essence of his being. It is the same construct as גַמָל or חַמָר referring to a camel or donkey driver as that is their profession. A חוֹטֵא, however, is someone who sins casually. They are heavily influenced by the חַטָּאִים to follow in their ways. What the פסוק in תהילים is teaching us is that when the חַטָּאִים are no longer they will cease to influence the חוֹטְאִים and all other רשעים and they will naturally do תשובה. Beruriah was cautioning her husband that these men are not really חַטָּאִים. They are merely חוֹטְאִים and he should not pray for their demise.

:ב A Tense Moment

אָמַר רַבָּהּ בַּר רַב שֵׁילָא: אִם כֵּן, לֵימָא קְרָא: ״וְיִטְהָר״, מַאי ״וְטָהֵר״ — טְהַר יוֹמָא

One might find it surprising to find a lesson in דקדוק on the very first דף in ש"ס. I, for one, do not. This segment impresses upon us the importance of understanding the tense and בנין of verbs in order to properly understand what the תורה is conveying.