[Avodah] physics and Og

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 06:32:35PM -0500, Lisa Liel wrote:
> On 9/24/2012 11:17 AM, saul newman wrote:
>> http://jewishworker.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-physics-of-superheroes-as-applied.html 

> It's midrash.  Moshe wasn't 18 feet tall.  He didn't jump 18 feet in the  
> air with an 18 foot spear.  Taking midrashim literally like that robs  
> them of their real meaning(s).

That's the conclusion the blog post reaches.

One commentor offers an alternate that takes a position different than
the numerous rishonim and acharonim (RDE posted a list once) who are
against taking fantastical medrashim literally.

> At [Mon Sep 24, '12] 10:08 PM, Milhouse said...
>> Og's ankle was 45 feet off the ground, meaning that he was 300-400
>> feet tall.

> You assume that he was proportioned normally. But the Chumash tells us
> almost explicitly that he was not: his bed was nine amos long [be'amas
> ish], which Rashi tells us means with his own amos. In other words,
> in proportion to his height, his arms were 1/3 the size they should
> be. So, perhaps he had tiny arms; or perhaps he just had enormous feet,
> relative to the rest of him, and his 45-foot ankles supported a body
> that was only another 30 or 40 feet tall. If the rest of him was more or
> less in normal proportions, and his head was ~35 feet above his ankles,
> then his forearms would be ~10 feet long, and a 90-foot bed would make
> sense for an 80-foot Og.

GCT!
-Micha

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