[Avodah] Is the term ?He died before his time? correct?
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name
Wed Oct 8 11:03:25 PDT 2008
Micha Berger wrote:
>> R' Aharon Kotler zt"l commented to a student on the occasion of the
>> birth of the student's son about the phrase "The beris should be
>> be'ito ubizmano", using both "eis" and "zeman" to denote its proper
>> time. Similarly the famous words of Koheles, "Lakol zeman va'eis...
>> everything has its zeman and its eis..." Rav Aharon explained the
>> difference. If the baby is healthy, then the beris is at the
>> pre-decided time, on the eight day. If not, then it will be at the
>> right time for that individual baby. Ideally the beris would be at
>> both.
>
>> An eis is a time that comes according to a prescheduled appointment,
>> ready or not. It is a point in a shanah, in cyclic time that runs its
>> celestial heartbeat regardless of human action. A zeman is a landmark in
>> the course of progression.
In that case, we should refer to a delayed bris as "shelo be'itah"
rather than "shelo bizmanah". But leshon Chazal is "shelo bizmanah",
e.g. Shabbat 132b. Perhaps this is a chiluk in leshon mikra which
was lost in leshon Chazal, and was recovered in the modern era?
Did Chazal even use "eis", when not quoting or referring to a pasuk?
In a very cursory search, I only came across two such instances in
mishnayot, one of which seems to be an archaic formula.
--
Zev Sero Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name interpretation of the Constitution.
- Clarence Thomas
More information about the Avodah
mailing list