[Avodah] Knobbelach

[T613K at aol.com]

From: martin brody <martinlbrody at gmail.com>
To:  zev at sero.name,     "

>> 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.<<  [--RZS]





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

Martin  Brody
 
 
>>>>>
 
 
This exchange is a fascinating example of how fluid and slippery language  
can be -- even the very words "makes sense" don't necessarily make sense!
 
When RZS wrote that the minhag some people have not to eat garlic on Pesach 
 "makes sense," he meant that it made linguistic and psychological sense -- 
how  such a folkloric tradition could have arisen.  People heard "You have 
to  remove the knobelach before you use the wheat" and they automatically 
thought of  the more common meaning of the word "knobel" -- garlic -- rather 
than the less  common meaning -- "some kind of white fungus knob." Ignorant 
of the scientific  facts and perhaps of halacha as well, the common folk 
undertook to avoid  anything called "knobel" on Pesach.  We don't really know 
how the no-garlic  custom arose, but this is at least a plausible scenario.
 
But when RMB reads what RZS wrote -- "It makes sense" -- he thinks, what  
are you talking about?!  It makes no sense at all!  Fungus is nothing  like 
garlic!  He thinks that RZS really believes that it /makes sense/ --  
scientifically and halachically -- to conflate garlic with fungus, and he heads  to 
his keyboard to tell the world that no, it does /not/ make sense.  He  
thinks RZS is /justifying/ the no-garlic custom rather than /explaining/ its  
origin.  
 
If the very words "it makes sense" can be understood so differently by  
different people, it's a wonder that we can communicate at all with  this 
limited tool we have -- language!  One wonders how many halachic  and hashkafic 
disputes have arisen because different speakers had different  understandings 
of the very words they were using.
 

--Toby Katz
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