[Avodah] Titles Before Names

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:19:14 -0500
Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 06:12:52PM -0600, Jay F Shachter wrote:
> : Micha Berger has already sarcastically suggested that maybe the
> : western language (he changed "European" to "western" when making his
> : sarcastic comment) was Greek...
> 
> It wasn't 100% sarcastic. The title "rav" post-dates the zugos, and
> therefore coulld very well follow a Greek pattern.
> 
> I think the reall difference is that until late bayis sheini we didn't
> so much give titles as use appositives to emphasize someone's positive
> role. (An apppositive is when you identify the noun in a second way. Eg,
> "Mrs Cohen, my teacher,...")
> 
> :                                                                  Look
> : at the end of Parashath Vayyishlax, at Genesis 36:15-18,29-30,40-43.
> 
> I'm not sure how the alufei benei Eisav are relevent. There the chiefs 
> aren't named. "Aluf Teiman" names who the person was aluf of, and not
> calling Teiman the aluf.

That's certainly not the plain meaning of the text; the names of the
Alufim correspond (more or less) to those named earlier as the sons and
grandsons of Esav.

Yitzhak
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