[Avodah] ceremonies in Halacha

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Thu Dec 1 10:19:15 PST 2011


On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 02:23:04AM +0000, Elazar M. Teitz wrote:
: While pomp, in its original use in Greek, may have connoted
: "solemn procession, display," in its adaptatiion into the Hebrew as
: pumpi -- together with its equivalent form, pumbi -- does not have
: the connotation of ceremonial, but of public; i.e., its meaning is one
: of pirsum. It is not done for ceremonial purposes, but to enhance the
: public's awareness of the matter.
...
: It is this meaning of the word which is given by all the
: commentaries in the places it is used, including the P'nei Moshe in the
: first citation RMB gave...

To which I replied:
: I was aware of its evolution in Babylonian Aramaic (Hebrew?), and thought
: about it when learning [Yuma 2:4 (13b) about using more kohanim than
: needed. But had the Penei Moshe ... not said it [on 2:2], ... There
: is no enlarging of the audience for hadlaqas hamenorah, as pirsum
: isn't really an issue in the heikhal.

Here's another case of pumbi (with a beis, but that doesn't mean much
in Y-mi, where hefqer and hevqer are identical), Yuma 4:1 (20a), where
we are told that the use of a wooden bowl rather than a basket to hold
the two goralos is "kedei laasos pumbi".

That has strong parallel to RYBS's white tablecloths and silver shabbos
lechter. But in any case I don't see how it could possibly be explained
as being pirsum / more public.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I long to accomplish a great and noble task,
micha at aishdas.org        but it is my chief duty to accomplish small
http://www.aishdas.org   tasks as if they were great and noble.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                              - Helen Keller



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