[Avodah] The Tube of an Egg

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 10:43:29AM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
>> The Maharil gives the beis a chiriq -- "bitzah", meaning a breed of swamp
>> reed.

> The Kaufmann manuscript has "beitzah":  http://tinyurl.com/6btxm79

I can't speak to that. I'm just reporting the Maharil's position. R' Aqiva
Eiger cites the end of the end of the Maharil, in the Liqutim. Trying
to find it in <http://hebrewbooks.org/11762> hurt my eyes, so I don't have
a sharable copy, but on the Bar Ilan web site edition I found it in liqut
#57. Here's the text:
    Shefoferes shel bitzah:
    Amar shehu qaneh agam.
    "Bitzah" peirush brukhah shegedilin bo qanim.
RAE quotes that in full and adds a reference to Iyov 8:11, "haiv'eh gome
belo vitzhah."

The Rambam and the Bartenura define "shefoferes shel beitzah" as an
eggshell. The Bartenura limits it to the inflexible part of the egg-shell
("haqlipah haqsheh ha'elyonah"), without the inner membrane. Rambam says
just "qelipas habeitzah", although the Bach cites the Rambam giving the
Bartenura's lashon.

Rashi also had no problem with the shefoferes shel beitzah; he uses
the idiom in Shemors 16:14, describing an experiment to show that dew
rises. (Really, that evoporating dew has enough lift to lift an eggshell,
if the experiment works.)

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "'When Adar enters, we increase our joy'
micha at aishdas.org         'Joy is nothing but Torah.'
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