[Avodah] alphapbet.........

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 05:48:04PM -0500, Zev Sero wrote:
> In any case, this whole discussion is only according to the opinion
> that the Torah was given in Ksav Ivri.  But the gemara's conclusion
> is that the Torah was given in Ksav Ashuri, because "vezos hatorah",
> so the questions don't begin in the first place.

Not the way the Ridbaz (the founder of the Slutzk Yeshiva, and thus of
Lakewood, not to be confused with the earlier Radvaz, R' David [ben
Shelomo] ibn Zimra) understands that gemara, which has the advantage
of making both shasin agree, and makes R' Chisda consistant across two
gemaros. (I'm being meqatzer because I am referring to what I posted
at <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol28/v28n252.shtml#12>
and described at greater length at
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2011/07/holy-script-speech.shtml>.)

The Ridbaz suggests that the gemara's conclusion was about the first
luchos, and it was its floating mem and samech in Megillah, but the second
luchos were as per the common writing, Ivri. If we lost the qedushah to
get the 2nd luchos in Ashuris, then presumably the Ridbaz means the rest
of the Torah too was in Ivri.

OTOH, it also means that Ashuri is miSinai and the text is miSinai
(barring some minor spelling issues) and thus obtaining results from
AkHG's giving us reshus to recombine the two wouldn't be philosophically
problematic. Especially since, barring the eigel, we should have
originally gotten the Torah that way to begin with.

Thinking out loud... Perhaps this has to do with AkHG's imprisonment of
the yeitzer hara that led to the eigel. And after that, it was okay to
allow the final revalation of the Torah in its full *image*. And yes,
there is an inyan to meditate on the appearance of sheimos in Ashuris,
so one could argue the two were linked; until then the full glory of the
Torah might lead someone to worship the word. OTOH, perhaps Chazal's
statement about "... lehatir lahem es ha'arayos" refers to the eigel
being more about the yh"r for arayos than that for AZ.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I hear, then I forget; I see, then I remember;
micha at aishdas.org        I do, then I understand." - Confucius
http://www.aishdas.org   "Hearing doesn't compare to seeing." - Mechilta
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