[Avodah] Rambam on Metaphors

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 06:40:22PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: Given: It is clear that the Rambam holds that every anthopomorphic
: reference to HKBH is metaphorical

"Idiomatic" may be more accurate than "metaphorical".

: Therefore couldn't the Rambam apply this to "ayin tachas ayin" too?

I wondered why "ayin tachas ayin" being mamunus is a derashah, and not
peshat in an idiomatic pasuq. As I wrote as far back as v2n55 (17 Nov
1998), <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol02/v02n055.shtml#15>:
> I'm not as sure the literal meaning is "an eye in place of an eye".
> That would be "bimkom". I couldn't find a single case where "tachas"
> means "in place of". However, "tachas" is used elsewhere to mean
> "payment". So it then becomes "an eye's payment for an eye".

> In this case, the halachic understanding fits the word usage better.

Here's my latest formulation... derashah = idiom.

Or to be more specific, when it comes to halakhah, we have exact rules
of derashah to tell us what's idiomatic and what isn't. Halakhah is a
rule system, and even the idioms are constrained by rules.

And so a gezeirah shavah showing us that "tachas" in other locations
refers to payment, or that an "eidah" is a group of at least 10, are
actually idicators that the term is an idiom.

(Just as a kelal uperat is a writing idiom, etc...)

I this half-baked idea has any merit, I would answer RRW's question by
saying that "ayin tachas ayin" IS "metaphorical", where the derashah
spells out the terms of the metaphor.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha


PS (administative mind-wandering): I just realized when writing the date
on that post that the decade mark for Avodah came and went unnoticed
over a year ago. Avodah and Beis Tefila merged, giving us the list we
know now, on 17 Jul 1998, ie 26 Tammuz 5758. 4002 days.

3502 digests, 53,991 emails (an average of 13.5 per day, 16 per day of
chol here in chu"l). Scary to think how many man-hours that means. Hope
it has been a qiyum of talmud and harbatzas Torah.

-- 
Micha Berger             "The most prevalent illness of our generation is
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