[Avodah] FRUITFUL QUESTION

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jul 08, 2011 at 02:19:25PM +0300, Ben Waxman wrote:
> The 4 possibilities that I know of (grape, wheat, fig, etrog) are either  
> part of the tikkun (wheat, fig, etrog) or the "first sin" is re-enacted 
> via that fruit (grape)....

Berakhos 40a:
    R' Meir: the vine (brings misery to the world)
    R' Yehudah: wheat (a child doesn't have titles for his parents until
	he is old enough to eat grain)
    R' Nechemiah: fig (because that way they had the leaves for clothing)

Bereishis Rabba 15:6 (also in Yalqut Shim'oni Bereishis 21)
    esrog, ("taam eitzo upiryo shaveh" fulfills the "original plan"
    of "eitz peri" rather than "eitz oseh peri")

(I find it odd that the chazal don't list them in one place.)

All in all, three different criteria for identification:

R' Meir and R' Yehudah looked for edibles that impact the psyche.

R' Nechmeia invokes the notion of the refu'ah (clothing) preceding the
makah (the cheit)

And the medrash goes metaphysical.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
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