[Avodah] Esav

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 02:21:36PM +0000, rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
: If you look back in Avodah I've already stated that midrashim attacking
: Esav were thinly veiled criticisms of Rome.

While we're reminding people of old statements, I said something similar
in a thread on maaser kesafim.
The English word "salary" comes
from "sal", salt, because the Romans paid their soldiers their
"salarium" in salt.
(Thus the English idiom "worth his salt".)
The word "soldier" itself might be from sal+dar - to
give salt.

So, when the medrash tells us that Eisav asked his father whether he
should give maaser on salt, what is it really saying? If there were such
a concept as maaser kesafim at the time, would they have ridiculed Eisav
asking about maaser on the medium in which Edom was paid?

IIRC, the linkage between Edom and Rome are two-fold:

The more important one is that Edom ran their empire like anshei sadeh,
might makes right. Conceptually, this truly is galus Edom, regardless
of what entity is seen as spearheading western civilization. (When was
the last US president not elected "ki tzayid befiv", for his ability to
ensnare people verbally?)

The clincher was that the Empire ruled us via the Idumians (such as
Herod), which sounds like (but isn't) Edom. The Idumians might get their
name from Edom, having settled their land and forcing the benei Edom
westward into Judea (Melakhim II 24:2).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Weeds are flowers too
micha at aishdas.org        once you get to know them.
http://www.aishdas.org          - Eeyore ("Winnie-the-Pooh" by AA Milne)
Fax: (270) 514-1507