[Avodah] Knobbelach

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Jul 04, 2013 at 3:24pm PDT, Martin Brody replied to Zev:
:> checking the wheat, which refers to some sort of fungal growth as
:> "knobblach", i.e. "garlics", presumably because its shape is somehow
:> reminiscent of garlic.

:> If one has to remove "knobblach" from the wheat to make matzah, then it makes
:> sense that this would develop into a minhag not to eat actual knobble.

: Sorry, but no, it doesn't make any sense.

I think in general it pays to trust mesorah enough to ask "What kind
of sense could it make?" rather than just assuming that a minhag that
survived centuries of "peer review" by a large community and its rabbis
doesn't make any. In that spirit...

As we heard last Shabbos, Yirmiyahu prophecied in word-play. "Maqel
shaqqeid ani ro'eah" -- "ki shoqeid Ani al devari la'asoso." (1:11,12)
"Sir nafuach" -- "tipasach hara'ah" (1:13,14)

When Yirmiyahu's mind wrapped a metaphor around the message he received
from the RBSO, word association played a role.

Words shape how we think about the world. This kind of association might
be an irrational part of the human psyche, but it is real. And given
that our minds do indeed make such associations, minhagim prohibiting
things that make us think about chameitz have their own sense.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Between stimulus & response, there is a space.
micha at aishdas.org        In that space is our power to choose our
http://www.aishdas.org   response. In our response lies our growth
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