[Avodah] Birds & Fish in the Mabul

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2011 at 01:17:09PM +0200, Liron Kopinsky wrote:
: How do you translate Gen 7:23 ...
: Vayimach et kol hayekum asher al pnei haadama...?

"... everything that stood upon the face of the earth [of the flooded
region]." Not that /I/ would translate it that way, just pointing out
one could. (IIRC from earlier iterations, RnCL did.)

I think harder to translate as referring to a less-than-global event
would be 6:17, "... leshacheis kol basar acher bo ruach chayim mitachas
hashamayim; kol asher ba'aretz yigvah."

Similarly 7:19, "kol heharim hagevohim *asher tachas kol hashamayim*".

"Mitachas hashamayim" and moreso "kol hashamayim" lack the ambiguity
of whether eretz or adamah refers to the whole world, a piece of it,
a clump of dirt, etc...

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Never must we think that the Jewish element
micha at aishdas.org        in us could exist without the human element
http://www.aishdas.org   or vice versa.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                     - Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch