[Avodah] Just one Hashem in Heaven

[David W. Eisen]

I am admittedly way behind in Avoda, and my apologies if this source was already provided, but on the interpretation of shamayim as being a derivative of sham/thereness, this idea was already suggested by Sforno on his commentary to the very first pasuk of the Torah.

He writes that the etymology of the word Shamayim is indeed derived from the word Sham, which ostensibly implies a powerful idea that the Torah's focus and point of departure is from this world/the Earth with the heavens being far and away; to my mind, this is a poignant and lexical manifestation of Lo Bashamayim Hi.

B'virkat HaTorah,
David

RMB wrote:
> But in the case of shamayim, all derashos about eish+mayim aside,
> I think it's sham+ayim, yeilding "thereness". There, as in not here, a
> place I am not at. Thus shamayim is a term referring to places I
> can't reach.

RAF wrote:
That is exactly how R' Yaakov Meidan, quoting R' Yoel Bin Nun, in the
former's shiurim on Kohelet, interprets shamayim, from shamim,
"theres" or as you put it, "thereness."


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20101221/49aea8ea/attachment-0002.htm>