[Avodah] Archaeologists discover 7, 000-year-old Jerusalem settlement

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 01:00:06AM +0200, Lisa Liel via Avodah wrote:
:                           Personally, I'm inclined to understand
: iron as iron and not as something iron colored.  But you know me,
: I'm a fundy.

I am too. The question is whether barzel always means iron, or only
does so when in contrast to other metals.

Nechoshes, for example, means copper and copper alloys -- bronze and
brass. There is no assumption of one-to-one between leshon haqodesh
and 

Tin is named ba'atz in Menachos 28b. Bedil refers to tin only when it's
used to make bronze. The very word refers to the fact that it's removed
by smelting, from havdalah. (See Yechezqeil 22:18-20, or Yeshaiah 1:25,
and Rashi ad loc.)

We had this conversation a little over a year ago, and in
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol33/v33n006.shtml#12> I suggested:
> HQBH bans barzel from the mizbeiach because it's used for killing. Even
> if iron was known, it certainly wasn't the primary metal used in
> weaponry. Why would Hashem identify iron with killing more than the
> metals that were more commonly used?

> So I would still think that ... that in our pasuq the meaning is metal
> in general.

> ... I limited my context to what barzel means in this context, regardless
> of usage in Bamidbar 21:22, where "barzel" appears in a list of types
> of metal.
...
> Still, this too is a linguistic oddity. Why would the default metal
> be iron before iron took center stage?

> Personally, I would point to other examples. E.g. the terms for soul --
> nefesh, ruach, neshamah -- which can mean soul as a whole or particular
> functions of the soul.

> Or "apple" in King James' English, which refers to both a particular
> fruit and fruit in general...

Or corn meaning grain until the British colonies in the Americas
encountered maize.

But that's unimportant here, really.

I was just saying that Tubal Kayin was either the first to work in
copper, and therefore being credited as the father of all who work in
copper or iron or presumably any other metal. Or he was the first to
work in nekhoshes with barzel, a translation that is unlikel if barzel
always exclusively means iron, as a copper iron alloy is hard to make,
they don't mix evenly, and it's softer than either copper or iron, more
like the flexibility of solder. So I revived my suggested that perhaps
barzel had a broader usage. Unimportant, if you want to credit him with
smithing altogether, ie working in copper, rather than as the inventor
of alloying.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The thought of happiness that comes from outside
micha at aishdas.org        the person, brings him sadness. But realizing
http://www.aishdas.org   the value of one's will and the freedom brought
Fax: (270) 514-1507      by uplifting its, brings great joy. - R' Kook