[Avodah] When was Pi haAretz created?

[Zvi Lampel]

Micha Berger, Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2021 wrote:

I am sure this is addressed by primary sources.
> ... "ve'im beri'ah yivra H' ufatzesa ha'adamah es piha..."
> But according to Avos, the mouth was already created well before Moshe
> spoke! So, why does Moshe describe the earth opening up to swallow people
> as a new beryah?


Yes, it is addressed by the primary sources.

Sanhedrin 110a, invoking the principle that G-d does not create any new
entities after the original Creation, concludes that the term beriah here
cannot be understood literally. Moshe Rabbeynu was only asking Hashem to
relocate that opening so that it would be situated specifically under
Korach’s followers. (And Rambam famously makes the caveat that the mishna
in Avos means that Hashem implanted the ground's aberrational behavior
during Maaseh Breishis. It sounds like he's understanding the
aberrational behavior to be the grounds very opening, but the
principle also works with the Gemora's maskana.)

The rishonim on this posuk and on the posuk in Breishis about the tanninim
point out that the term beriah is sometimes used for significant events
even though they are not ex nehilo.

Zvi Lampel
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20210616/3a7285bf/attachment-0002.htm>