[Avodah] Yelulei Yalil

[Micha Berger]

I want to (belatedly) share what might be a huge chiddush or might
be naarishkeit.

The gemara (RH 34a) records the famous machloqes as to whether the pasuq's
teru'ah, called yevavah, is yelulei yalil (teru'ah) or genunei ganach
(shevarim). The assumption is consistently made that these are two kinds
of crying sounds, whimpering vs sobbing.

However, the sound of the gemara's word "yelulei", echoed in the Rambam
(Shofar 3:2) "hayelala shemeyalelan hanashim be'eis shemeyavevin", made
me wonder if "yevavah" really means sobbing, or inarticulate voicing
in general.

When a Middle Eastern ulelelates, crying a high pitched "lalalalalala",
it's a sound of joy. (If the woman in question is the Eim Sisera of the
100 qolos, maybe she is happy her son died a hero, a shahid.) Ulelate is
an onomatopoeia (a word that sounds like its meaning), so could "yelilah".

And so, the machloqes isn't only technical, how do we fulfil "yom
teru'ah yihyeh lahem" but also be about the basic nature of shofar --
is it a sad sound, or a happy one?

This would imply that when the gemara says that we do a shevarim-teru'ah
and not a teru'ah-shevarim because that's how people do it, they're saying
that people can be initially sad, and then come to terms with the price
and realize it was worth it, but people are less likely to do the reverse.
(Yes, I still have bitachon on the brain... the Dow is down so far yet
again today...)

GCT!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
micha at aishdas.org        but it is my chief duty to accomplish small
http://www.aishdas.org   tasks as if they were great and noble.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Helen Keller