[Avodah] bat mitzva "bo bayom"

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 07:27:08AM +0300, menucha wrote:
: I always wondered why that Mishna is seen as the "concept of Jewish 
: womenhood"   and not taken at face value as "the mitzvot for which women 
: die in childbirth". Cynically I could say that it "made it big" because 
: of its place in the davening.

You are quite probably correct. However, was it intentional, or only a
side effect of it being in a pereq about hadlaqas haneiros?

My own feeling is that if these are the three mitvos whose violations
cause the judgment at a she'as saqanah to be negative, and not a more
general list of mitzvos, Chazal are trying to say something.

The conclusion is being made because (1) these three mitzvos are
differentiated from (say) withholding tzedaqah when someone asks, and
(2) this time of judgment is being differentiated from war or walking
in a churvah, or anything else men can experience as well.

Also, as I recently mentioned in another thread, I personally believe
that anything that comes in threes is probably trying to say something
fundamental about human nature.


: BTW, see the parallel for men in Kohelet Rabba on "Eit Laledet."

Could yoou spell it out for those of us without ready access to a
Qoheles Rabba?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Rescue me from the desire to win every
micha at aishdas.org        argument and to always be right.
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