[Avodah] Interesting Count

[Michael Poppers]

In Avodah Digest V26#34, RRW replied to me:
> I have not yet read Rav Hamburger on this but... <
WADR, no buts -- we can't really have a discussion before you examine the
sources he (again, hereafter "RBH") brings.

> ...Michael are you sure of
the underlying reason?
> AIUI KAJ eschewed the gimatriyah of 248 and cut back to emes only davka
to avoid public gimatryiah/qabbalah. <
If by "gimatryiah/qabbalah," you're referring to customs popularized
post-Zohar (esp. post-ARYZaL), RBH lists a slew of sources of truly-ancient
and pre-ARYZaL origin for the RaMaCH symbolism.  He also writes at length
upon the one method (of many) of fulfilling that symbolism via repetition
of "H' Elokeichem emes" (HEE), which, as we've now both noted, KAJ doesn't
utilize.  To elucidate for all what you meant by "cut back to emes": in
minhag Frankfurt, the tzibbur await the Rav saying "Emes!" out loud before
continuing w/ the words which follow -- that custom may have been a
reaction to other communities' custom of repeating HEE (as in "'round these
parts, we don't repeat words from 'Shma'!"), but I don't see it as directly
related to the RaMaCH symbolism, nor am I aware of minhag Frankfurt
explicitly forbidding an individual member of the tzibbur from saying "Keil
Melech Ne'eman."

BTW, I believe listmember RDG has a Yediah-'blog post on the subject, so
for those of you w/out a copy of "Sharshei Minhag Ashk'naz"....

All the best from
--Michael Poppers via RIM pager
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