[Avodah] Diberah Torah

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, January 24, 2008 2:18 pm, Daniel Eidensohn wrote:
: I am not sure what you mean "taken out of context" Over time words and
: phrases acquire new connotations....

This is altogether a new use.

Rabbi Aqiva darshened lexically, looking for keywords, pulling mounds
of halakhos out of the tagin on the letters. R' Yishmael objected,
saying the Torah uses natural language, and therefore words like "es"
need not signify any ribui.

The rishonim take his words and turn it into a shorthand to mean
entirely different things. That's beyond just new connotation, it's a
new topic. One can believe that the Torah speaks idiomatically and
still darshen like Rabbi Aqiva -- one is peshat in pasut, the other is
rules of derashah. Differing topics; not different connotations of the
same idea.

:                            For example Prof. Jacob Katz has an
: article [Tarbiz #27 1958] of how the expression "Israel even though
: they have sinned is still Israel." Sanhedrin (44a) was given halachic
: significance when it is not used that way by Chazal. I am not sure
: that there is a prohibition of using phrases differently than
: Chazal....

Not at all. As I was saying, it's common. But don't confuse two uses
of the same phrase to give earlier authority to the later idea, or to
misunderstand either.

When the notion of non-literalism was attributed to Chazal's use of
the phrase and R' Yishma'els side of the machloqes, I spoke up. That's
anachronistic conflation of two uses of an idiom.

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