[Avodah] Lying to protect the simple of faith

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 04:44:26PM -0400, Yitzhak Grossman wrote:
: Minhas Hinuch (#613) tries to argue your claim, that we assume accuracy
: even with regard to haseros ve'yeseros as long as they are semantically
: significant, but he runs into trouble with the word 'totafos', since
: according to Rashi, the Gemara's D'rashah of the four Parshiyos of
: Tefillin is based on the plene spelling of the word in Parshas Ve'haya
: Im, whereas we have it deficient.

Pewrhaps I'm thinking of the wrong source, but it's not a derashah, it's
peshat.

Tosafos is a hapax legamenon, and its translation was lost. Chazal used
comparison to other languages to try to recapture its roots, and got
"two pairs", ie four. Pulling in another language isn't on anyone's list
of middos shehatorah nidreshes bahem, but it is a tool used by linguists
to decode words.

The Shelah writes that this can work because the bilbul haleshonos was
incomplete, and thus some Hebrew remains in other languages. (Linguists
know that numbers tend to persist between related languages, so that
fits.) And so, two rarer Hebrew words for two-ness survived in some
form in nearby languages.

The Caspian original could be "path", "feth" or even "poonth" for this
to work. Words can take some winding roads; eg:
    Proto Indo European root: *ed- (to bite, from which we also get
	"eat")
    Latin: dent -> dont (as in orthodontist)
    Old German: tanthus
    Old English: toth
    English: tooth

Given such variation, why would a semivowel here or there make a
difference to the conclusion?


BTW, the Caspian names found in Aramaic Papyri from Egypt are
etymologically Iranian. So, Kaspi is likely some derivative of Iranian.
Old Iranian is a title given to two languages, Avestan (used in
Zoroastrianism, whose scriptures are alls "Avesta") and Old Persian.
Both are Indo-European, in the Indo-Iranian branch, thus related to
Sanskrit. Not semitic. A bit difficult to explain how Hebrew would have
a related but infrequently used word for two that is similar. But that's
what Chazal found.

Afriqi doesn't tell you what part of Africa. We know it was nowhere near
Egypt, since Libya is Midian (Yisro's piece) and to the south (Sudan,
Ethiopia and Somalia) is Kush.

In Tosefta Shabbos 8:12 R' Shim'on ben Gamliel says that there is no
nation more fertile than the Emoriim, and so we find that they believed in
the Omnipresent and were cast to Afriqi, and Hashem gave them a beautiful
land like their land; and E"Y was called by their name.

The Y-mi Shevi'is 6:1 (36b) says that one nation, the Girgashi, believed
in Hashem and went to Afriqi.

Which would fit Carthage. Not adjacent to Mitzrayim, and land of
Phoenician and Canaanite refugees. The name "Carthage" is from
the Phoenician Qart Chadasht (cf Aramaic: Qarta Chadashah) -- new
city. Afriqi, like the original Phoenician, was a semitic language.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 30th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        4 weeks and 2 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Gevurah sheb'Hod: When does capitulation
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  result in holding back from others?