[Avodah] R. Reisman's question

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

This post is a followup to my own earlier post, in which I thanked REMT and RZS for resolving R Reisman's question, when they pointed out that "ben sh'monas yamim" means "in his eighth day", and that a lamb is "ben shana" *during* its first year.

According to this, how are we to understand what Moshe Rabeinu said. Let's look at his exact words, from the beginning of Vayeilech: "Ben meah v'esrim shana anochi hayom." According to REMT and RZS, this would mean, "Today I am in my 120th year."

I suppose one way of interpreting this could be, "Today I am in my 120th year. But tomorrow, if I live so long, which I won't, I'd be in my 121st year." This reading would be consistent with the commonly-accepted chronology that he was born on 7 Adar 2368, and that this speech, and his death, occurred on 7 Adar 2488.

But to me, it seems unnatural to stress the word "today" in this manner. It seems more likely that "today" would be used to indicate something new, which did not exist yeaterday. According to this, what he meant was, "Today I am in my 120th year. But yesterday I was not yet in my 120th year."

I think this is a much simpler way of understanding the words, but it totally messes up our chronology, because according to this, if he was born in 2368, then he entered his 120th year in 2487. And if he entered his 120th year in 2488, he couldn't have been born until 2369.

Can anyone suggest a way in which "Today I am in my 120th year" is consistent with the 2368/2488 chronology?

Akiva Miller

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