[Avodah] Rav Shimon Schwab on how Jewish women should, dress

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 10:02:35AM -0400, David Riceman wrote:
:>what do we see from Abba Chilkiyah's wife? That it's okay to dress
:> up for one's husband even when he brings home guests, or that she didn't
:> expect guests?

: We see that she went to (in the immortal words of AA Milne) "the edge of 
: the town" while dressed up.

(We're discussing Taanis 23b, the maaseh begins on amud A.)

The words are "ki mata lemasa". While "masa" does sometimes mean
"hometown", it usually means one's estate (home and yards). The meaning
you presume is a derived one, and the it would have been more natural to
call the town a kefar or an ir (depending on how urban Aba Chilkiyah's
town was). So, one can't "see" from this quote that she went beyond the
gate of their property.

BTW, see Aramaic wiktionary entry at
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%90>. I found its
existence amazing. There is also an online Jastrow at
<http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/jastrow/>.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 42nd day, which is
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