[Avodah] Steps/Stages

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, October 29, 2007 1:45 pm, R Zev Sero wrote:
[RJJB:]
:> So too here: Ana Bekoach was constructed to correspond to the name
:> of 42, with the acrostic Kroa Satan, etc.  But the 42 stages long
:> predate any of our kabbalistic concepts, by at least a thousand years.
:> Where's the connection?  Otherwise, it seems too much like empty
:> symbolism.

: You're begging the question.  You're assuming that "our kabbalistic
: concepts" are merely a human-constructed system, that there really is
: no such thing as "shem MaB", and therefore that the 42 legs of the
: journey from Egypt to the Jordan could not have *in fact* been a
: reflection of that Name.

Alternatively, something in between. Our Qabbalistic concepts could be
theories inherent to what we were given in Sinai. That theory need not
have been fully developed (or even started upon) in order to be
reflected in a tana's poem, as the tana could be reflecting the theory
already given.

More to the point, IMHO: The sheim 42 isn't Qabbalistic, unless we're
considering the Rambam a mequbal <g>. In the Moreh he points out how
the sheim must be a phrase, as no Hebrew word ever gets that long.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             One who kills his inclination is as though he
micha at aishdas.org        brought an offering. But to bring an offering,
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