[Avodah] Drops of wine

[Zev Sero]

On 22/06/2012 4:10 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 02:40:27PM -0500, Lisa Liel wrote:
>>> >>        We are accustomed to spill them out for the loss related to the
>>> >>        makkos, and we don't drink [what we spilled].
>> >  I'm sorry, but that's grammatical silliness...

> I don't think "We are accustomed to spill out for destruction the
> [symbol of] the makkos" is plausible. It requires a significant
> insertion, and requires believing RDF placed the object after
> the prepositional phrase.

There is no insertion.  Calling the spilled wine "makkos" is a common
idiom.  I'm sure that when RDF wrote those words in Hebrew it never
occurred to him that someone would think he meant the plagues themselves.
And the object comes after the *verb phrase* "shofchin le'ibud", which
means, practically, "throw out".


> But... you do realize that while we are arguing what RDF may have
> meant, we're discussing a translation of his work published during his
> lifetime, and with no one's name on it (or the translation) but his own.
> It's unlikely the author himself agrees that the translation is in error.

He probably didn't notice it.  If you think that's what he really meant,
feel free to ask him, but I'm confident I know what he meant.


BTW the Chavos Yair *also* says that even according to the Medrash Harninu,
Hashem's sadness at the death of the Mitzrim was only at the moment when
they were drowning, not later.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon