[Avodah] Teyqu - Peirush or Hevel?

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Feb 16, 2025 at 12:07:53PM +0200, Danny Schoemann via Avodah wrote:
> R' Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter wrote:
>> Teyqu is not an acronym

> This is the view brought down in the Tishbi (dictionary) from Eliyohu
> Bochur (a.k.a. Elia Levita d. 1549) who goes so far as to call this
> acronym "Hu Peirush Shel Hevel".
...

I with all due respect for R Eliyahu Bachur, I would think this is an
overstatement, for a couple of reasons:

1- Yes, as a peirush it may well hevel, but as a remez, just a cute
mnemonic, it adds color to the expression. Arguably one of the primary
reasons for Eliyahu haNavi's return is to reboot the halachic process
with someone who can give true Mosaic Semichah.

(Another less relevant but important role: someone has to open schools
for Benei haNeviim, or else Nevu'ah will remain a lost art.)

RYF, as quoted by RDS, continued:
>> As has been stated before on this
>> mailing list, Eliyahu can have one vote on the Sanhedrin, if he wants
>> a seat on the Sanhedrin and if we let him have one, but it is we who
>> have both the power, and the duty, to reconstitute the Sanhedrin, and
>> resolve these questions ourselves.

Actually, it may be up to Eliyahu to reconstitute the Sanhedrin, as
the only living holder of semichah in the chain from Moshe. I know the
Rambam has a means for reviving true semichah, and since the Mechaber was
involved in one attempt to implement it, we know he held of it as well.

However, in practice neither attempt to use the Rambam's formula so far
-- R Yaaqov Beirav (1538) and R Moshe Heberstam (2004) -- managed to
recreate a chain of further students. The Rambam's pesaq about reviving
semichah may require Messianic levels of Jewish unity anyway. Im which
case, we won't need it -- Eliyahu haNavi could give semichah.

So this turning "teiqu" into a reminder that there will be a Sanhedrin
again and Eliyahu haNavi will be able to reinstate a team that can pasqen
all these open questions isn't "hevel"....

... But it's not "peirush", either. Or in other words, it is only a
peirush shel hevel" if you assume it's a peirush at all.

And isn't that what basically the Musaf haArukh wrote some 350 years ago?

2- Sometimes these post-facto folk etymologies take on more significance
than the real etymology.

For example, "yarmulke". It is a Slavic word meaning "cap", and is used
for whatever the common kind of caps men wore in that particular region.
Any linkage to the Aramaic "yarei Malka" is a folk etymology.

BUT...

If the masses didn't think the word was associated with the feelings of
standing in the shadow of Divine Greatness, would the word "yarmulke"
have caught on? Or would Judeo-English had ended up with "kopel" or
"kippah", because "yarmulke" would have just been another local word
and never have gotten market share?

"Yarmulke" may be a popular term today more because of the folk etymology
than the historical one. So, which is more important?

Who knows who first came up with the acronym for "teiqu"? Maybe it
only became a buzzword because they liked the association to Eliyahu
haTishbi. And maybe if "teiqum" was indeed the origin, that is even why
they shortened "teiqum" to "teiqu" -- so as to create the play on words!

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 We are great, and our foibles are great,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and therefore our troubles are great --
Author: Widen Your Tent      but our consolations will also be great.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                      - Rabbi AY Kook