[Avodah] Plurals

[Zev Sero]

Here's food for thought.  "Resh Galutha" is Aramaic for "Rosh Hagolah".
"Reshei Galutha" would be "Rashei Hagolah".  "Reshei Galvatha" would
be "Rashei Hagaliyoth" or "Rashei Hagolim".  In my previous message
I suggested the latter, that the original pronunciation of the title
was "Resh Galvatha", or "Rosh Hagolim", and therefore the plural would
be "Reshei Galvatha", or "Rashei Hagolim".

Now I'd like to propose something else.  Let's suppose that "Resh
Galutha" is the correct and original pronunciation of the singular
of this title. That is, in Hebrew, "Rosh Hagolah".  Now, what does
that mean?  What does the word "golah" mean?   R Jay's post seems to
assume that "golah" means the same as "galut", that the entire 2000-
year-long state of Exile in which we find ourselves is the "golah"
and the various RGs were its head for the time that they were in
office.

But that is not so.  "Golah" does not mean an abstract state of exile;
it is the collective term for all the people who are exiled.  Each
person is a "goleh", many of them are "golim", but collectively they
are a "golah".  "Asher hoglah miyrushalayim im hagolah asher hogletha
im Yechonyah Melech Yehudah."  The people who went with Yechonyah were
a golah.  The people who went 11 years later with Tzidkiyahu were
another golah.  And, I suggest, each new generation that is born,
lives, and dies in exile is a golah too.  Each golah in Bavel had its
own head.  Collectively, those heads were the Rashei Hagaliyoth, or
Reshei Galvatha.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher