[Avodah] Interesting Count

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 09:49:07PM -0500, Cantor Wolberg wrote:
: Saadya Gaon writes that if you count all the letters of the Aseres  
: Hadibros from the aleph of Anochi to the chof of l'rayecha, you will
: find there are 620 letters: 613 Mitzvos for the Jews and the shiva
: mitzvos b'nai Noach. 

The "siddur" used by the kohanim in bayis II included the 10 diberos
and shema.

The Kol Bo (9, "Umaschilin Qeri'as Shema") quotes the Seifer haEshkol
that in Shema there are 18 hazkaros corresponding to the 18 chulios,
and 248 teivos keneged rama"ch eivarim, to fulfil "kol atzmosai
tomarna". From which we get the notion that Keil Melekh Ne'eman is to
round out the count of 248 when the sha"tz isn't there to repeat three
words.

Our [Ashk] practice of saying Keil Melekh Ne'eman (EMN) when beyechidus
in particular seems to follow the Seifer haEshkol. The oldest siddur that
mentions it altogether is Machzor Vitri -- not R' Amram, R' Saadia, the
Rambam or Siddur Rashi. 

Or it could be to follow the Medrash Agadah (Buber, Devarim 5:11 "lo
sisa"), which CRW's post reminded me of.

There are 610 words if you add up the words of Shema and of the Diberos
(presumably the Devarim version, given the location of the medrash).
And therefore we add three words (the shatz's repetition) to complete
the count of 613 milos.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             For a mitzvah is a lamp,
micha at aishdas.org        And the Torah, its light.
http://www.aishdas.org                   - based on Mishlei 6:2
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