[Avodah] dvar tora

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, December 31, 2007 1:27 am, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: Speaking of which, how did she get the name Bisyah (or as some say,
: Basyah)? That for sure is a Hebrew name.  It's not very likely that
:  that was the name her parents gave her.

I (uncharacteristically) was hoping someone had a real answer before I
shared what crossed my mind.

She is called in the Torah simply "bas Par'oh". "Par'oh" is a title
for a deified king, the son of Ra. It is therefore logical for her,
once she became an observant Noachide, to switch what she is called
from using the false deity to using sheim Hashem.

As for Moshe's name, R' Shlomo Katz (31-Dec-07) points us to
<http://parsha.blogspot.com/2004/01/derivation-of-moshes-name.html> by
R' Josh Waxman. The author of that blog explicitly admits that the
name could be derived in two languages, thus mitigating his problems
with the Egyptian etymology by saying it was stretched in order to
make it work in both.

So, common scholarship is that Moshe is Egyptian, and RJW, who wrote a
rebuttal agrees that a two-language etymology is possible. I stand by
my assertion.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
http://www.aishdas.org   you must know where to slaughter and what
Fax: (270) 514-1507      parts to offer.        - R' Simcha Zissel Ziv