[Avodah] binfol oyivkha

[Simon Krysl]

 Dear all,
I apologize for an am haaretz question. The Torah, speaking about Egyptians,
always (or almost always) uses the word mitzraim,  מִצְרַיִם, Egypt,rather
than mitzrim, מִצְרִים – is one allowed to read something into this? It
would appear that what they were guilty of and the punishment that befell
them had to do with their being of, being representative of Egypt the
enslaver (by extension, of the arba malkhuyot) and it is as such that we can
(or should) rejoice over their downfall, not as individual human beings.
This occurred to me only as every time I say the Shirat hayam I am taken
aback – coming from Modern Hebrew, I am afraid – by the translation  “Hashem
saved on that day Israel from the hand of Egypt, and Israel saw the
Egyptians [rather than “Egypt”] dead on the seashore.”(Mechon-mamre has
“Egyptians” in both cases.) What makes the translation “Egyptians” more
appropriate – it was Egypt, in its representatives, but also as a force,
dead on that seashore, and (also) to that- in my humble understanding – does
the “az” of the following verse refer. Someone can probably correct my
reading: but the question has always bothered me.

Greetings to all

Simon
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20110511/e97314b8/attachment-0002.htm>