[Avodah] 10 shevatim

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 11:22:46AM -0400, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: 2.  Today, any Jew called a "Yehudi" is simply a "non-Levi" -- exact  tribe 
: unknown.

Actually, Leviim are called Yehudim today as well. As well as the meaning
of "Yid" in 19th cent Yiddish. The question is whether they would have
been called Yehudim in Mordechai's day.

R' Yochanan (Megillah 13a) says that Mordekhai was called a Yehudi because
he denied AZ. Just as Bisyah was called Yehudiyah for the same reason. And
the megillah's use of "misyahadim". But is this a causal statement, or one
explaining the purpose of choosing this appelation rather than another?
If it's a causal statement, then it means that the connection to sheivet
or malkhus Yehudah is tangential -- both represent the same concept.
If it's a description of the purpose of this word choice, but the word
itself does from the person Yehudah (1 or 2 steps removed) it would
indicate that R' Yochanan would include Leviim under the title, as well
as geirim (like Bisyah).

However, while the above was interesting to look up, I then thought
of a solution from within the megillah itself. Esther 9:27 couldn't
possibly be saying the non-Leviim alone accepted to observe Purim. Thus,
in Mordechai's day the word clearly included multiple shevatim, and
was not a product of a lack of clarity over who was from Binyamin.

I still don't know what happened to Shim'on, who lived in malkhus
Yehudah and is still presumed in the books to be one of the missing
shevatim.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A person lives with himself for seventy years,
micha at aishdas.org        and after it is all over, he still does not
http://www.aishdas.org   know himself.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter