[Avodah] Bizmaneihem

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
 
> Usually, derashah in the sense of middos shehaTorah nidreshes bahem are
> applied to chumash. They can only be applied to chumash since only chumash can
> be a true maqor for a deOraisa. Yes, there are what seems to be
> counterexamples in shas, but they are farenfered as asmachtos, or as
> historical evidence rather than scriptural source, etc...
> 
> So the question is whether divrei Soferim and derashah mesh, and the answer
> may be a one-off of our case. The nafqa minah would be whether the conclusion
> is also divrei soferim (derashah) or or derabbanan (asmachta).

Again, for the question to begin there must be some reason to suppose
that we don't darshen Nach.  And again I ask: ver zogt?   AFAIK not only
do we darshen Nach, but we darshen Mishna.  The gemara often asks why
the Mishna used one word instead of another, and learns halochos from
the unlikely choice.  Of course sometimes it answers that the girsa is
wrong, and the Mishna in fact used the more likely word, so nothing
can be learned from it.  And today we darshen Rishonim, especially
those known for the precision and economy of their language, such as
the Rambam.

Of course the midot for darshening these sources are different than
those for darshening chumash, but what's happening is still drash.
The drash on "bizmaneihem" isn't using the standard midot for
darshening chumash, and indeed there's a machloket in the gemara
on how closely we can analyse the word.  One opinion uses "zman
zmanam zmaneihem" to derive the precise number of extra days on
which the Anshei Kneset Hagdola intended the megilah to be read,
while another opinion just doesn't see it ("lo mashma leih"), and
suffices with learning that there are multiple times, relying on
other methods to derive their number and dates. 

Perhaps this is what you were thinking of.  But perhaps you were
thinking of a different rule: "divrei torah midivrei kabalah lo
yalfinan".  Because the language changed between the composition
of the Chumash and the Nach, one can't use Nach to definitively
explain a pasuk in Chumash, but only to give an indication of
what the Chumash might have meant.  That doesn't at all preclude
darshening each sefer of Nach on its own terms.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas