[Avodah] Fables and Lies -- The poem Ayleh Ezke'rah

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "Kohn, Shalom" _skohn at Sidley.com_ (mailto:skohn at Sidley.com) 


>>Various commentators addressed the anachronisms in he poem Ayleh  Ezke'raha 
and whether poetic license impacts on "truth."

The more serious  problem in the poem is that it portrays the kohain gadol as 
lifting the severed  head of the nasi and bemoaning his fate.  This is a very 
dramatic  scene.  But --- since a skull causes tuma'at meit, how could the 
kohain  gadol lift the severed head of the nasi?  

There are three possible  answers....:

1.  The event occurred in a tent, ....
 

2.  It was a case of meit mitzah.....  

3.  ....the reason for meit mitzvah is kavod ha-meit, and in the  context, 
lifting the head was for that purpose.... 
 
The more troubling possibility is that the paytan's literary skills  exceeded 
his halachic awareness.....  <<
 
>>>>>
I can think of a few more possibilities (although I have little halachic  
knowledge and these suggestions may not hold water at all):
 
1. Maybe it says somewhere that a tzaddik's body does not convey  tumah?  
Maybe we don't nowadays posken like this in practice but maybe they  did back 
then, or maybe it's at least good enough for poetic purposes?
 
2.  A completely burnt body with all the flesh burnt off, so that  nothing 
remains but the bones -- do the bones convey tumah?
 
Also another possibility is that "lifting" the skull just means something  
like pointing to it or mentioning it, making it the main point of his  lament -- 
the way a navi is said to "lift a mashal" (pardon me for being  too tired to 
look up where it uses that phrase).  i.e., it's being used  poetically




--Toby  Katz
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