[Avodah] sarah/127/loshon rabim??

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 02:42:26PM -0800, Harvey Benton wrote:
: sarah lived one hundred and twenty seven years, but in the chumash, imo, 
: the loshon rabim/is not accurate, eg, sheva shanim is correct, but is one-
: hundred and twenty also not loshon rabim??

I think that in the leshon Tanakh, lashon rabim was limited in use to
smaller numbers. Once the eye saw the quantity as "a lot", it was no
longer rabim.

E.g.
"Vayechi Yaaqov be'eretz Mitzrayim sheva esrei shanah".

In parashas Pinechas:
    Elieh mishpechos haRe'uveini, vayihyu pequdehem: seloshah ve'arba'im elef
    usheva mei'os, usheloshim.
Note how 43 elef is "elef", but 700 is "mei'os".

"Shelosh mei'os ish" (Shofetim 7:6) vs "vehinei sheloshah anashim" (beg
of Vayeira).

(And even within the pasuq in Shofetim, 300 is "mei'os", because 3 of
something is a number you see immediately, but 300 itself is a "many",
so the "ish" isn't belashon rabbim.)

And so when you don't divide up the 127, as in the beginning of Esther, it
is "sheva ve'esrim umei'ah medinah", but when splitting off just 7 years
from Chayei Sarah, it becomes "sheva shanim".

KNLAD, I never heard someone actually teach this as a kelal.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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