[Avodah] The root peh-ayin-mem

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 09:39:32PM +0000, Akiva Miller wrote:
: (Rabbi [Matisyahu] Clark begins here)
:
:> PEH-AYIN-MEM -- BEAT DOWN, STRIDE STRONGLY
...

: The basic meaning that I get from these varied contexts corresponds
: very closely to the English "beat", which is both a noun connoting
: regularity (as in music) as also a verb connoting a strong impact done
: repeatedly. For example, a bell could be formed by being hammered
: repeatedly against an anvil. The regularity of the thrice per year
: is obvious, and it is my wild guess that the singular "this one time"
: was adapted from there.

On Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 10:17:02PM +0000, Gershon Dubin wrote:
: Very interesting, but how do you explain "pa'amosav"?

I think it better fits IE and Chizquni, who translate it as the
legs of the aron rather than Rashi and Unqelus who say pa'amosav
are its corners. See Yeshaiah 26:6, Tehillim 85:14 or ShS 7:2
where pa'amayim are mentioned in connction to leglayim, halikhah
and ne'alim -- clearly it means leg or foot in those contexts.

Quoting myself yet again, this time from
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/02/terumah-the-legs-of-the-aron.shtml>:

    On Friday night, Rav Aharon Cohen's devar Torah was based on a seifer
    called Areshes Sefaseinu. He asks why the pasuq would use the word
    "pa'amosav" rather than the far more common "raglav"?

    Angels are stationary, which is why the prophet describes them as
    "standing upon one regel". ... [References to other posts ellided.]
    Regel connotes the ability to stand, stability. Tables have raglayim.

    We see from the pasuq in Tehillim that the Ibn Ezra uses, "and
    he will place his feet on the path", that pa'amos has a greater
    connotation of legs as a means of motion. This is more like the
    nature of people than of angels. People move, we progress. ...

    The aron's role in the Miskan parallels that of the soul in the
    body. Therefore, the Areshas Sefaseinu suggests, it has pa'amos,
    not raglayim.

IOW, the word is meant in the sense of stride, because the aron "walks"
the path of the human soul.

What Unqelus or Rashi would answer is a different question.

GCT!
-Micha

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Micha Berger             A person must be very patient
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