<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16825" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>From: "kennethgmiller@juno.com" <A href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com">kennethgmiller@juno.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>>>The last pasuk in Parshas haMan tells us that "An omer is
one-tenth of an eifah." ....<BR><BR>a) Why was this information included in
Torah Sheb'ksav? Isn't this exactly the sort of thing which is usually relegated
to Torah Sheb'al Peh?<BR><BR>b) Are there any other examples of where the Torah
goes out of its way to define a word? We have lots of places where the Torah
explains why a person was given a certain name, but that's not quite the same
thing.<<<BR><BR><BR>Akiva Miller<BR><BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>There is a certain pattern seen in several places in Torah where things
that are weighed or measured are specified/defined, and the omer that you
cite is just one example. Here are some others:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>1. Avraham pays 400 shekels for Me'aras Hamachpela and the shekels
are defined as "over lasocher." (Ber. 23:16). The pasuk doesn't just
say Avraham "paid" 400 shekels, it says he "weighed out" 400 shekels, so you
know he paid top dollar.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>2. Eliezer gave Rivka a nose-ring and two bracelets, and their value
is spelled out: the weight of the nezem is a beka and the weight of the
bracelets is a total of asarah zahav. (Ber. 24:22)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>3. Bnei Yisrael were counted by giving a machtzis hashekel each, and
the shekel is defined there as "beshekel hakodesh" and further defined as "esrim
gerah hashekel." (Shmos 30:13). Although we don't know what weight
that is (at least, I don't), it seems clear that the shekel hakodesh had a
specific defined weight and that was twenty gerah, and of course, a gerah also
had a specific defined weight.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>4. The shemen hamishchah had several ingredients, each a specific
measure (500 shekel-weights of myrhh, 250 cinnamon, etc) and the measure is
defined as "shekel hakodesh." (Shmos 30:23-24) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>5. Each person gave a beka to the mishkan, a beka defined in the same
pasuk as a half-shekel (Shmos 38:26)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>6. If a person vowed to donate the value of a man, that value was
defined as fifty silver shekel "beshekel hakodesh" (Vayikra 27:3). A
woman's value is set at 30 silver shekel, a child's at 20 or 10 and so on.
The value of the shekel hakodesh is defined once again, as twenty gerah.
((Vayikra 27:25).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>7. The "extra" first-borns are redeemed by kohanim ((Bamidbar 3:47)
in the desert and the general law of pidyon haben for all time is set (Bamidbar
18:16) and in both places the amount is specified as five shekalim "beshekel
hakodesh" which once again is defined as "esrim gerah." The definition of
the shekel hakodesh appears repeatedly, as you see.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>8. My final example for the night, and quite appropriate as I think
sleepily that it is time for me to go to bed already: Moshe recounts
the victories that B'Y have already experienced, even before entering E'Y, and
he speaks of the slaying of the giant, Og Melech Habashan, whose
bed -- still on display in Rabbat Bnei Amon -- was nine amos long and four
amos wide "be'amas ish." It is our loss that we don't know how long this
amah is (at least, I don't) but Moshe's audience did! </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We do know it was BIG. (I think 13 1/2 feet long and six feet
wide.) Some say it was bigger because it was measured not by the ordinary
amah -- arm's-length of an average man, maybe 18 inches -- but by the amah of
Og, but that kind of measurement is circular because without knowing how long
his arm was we can't know how long his amah was and so such a measure is
meaningless. So I personally think that "be'amas ish" means "by the amah
of an average man" which gives the enormous dimensions I gave above.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So we arrive by stream of consciousness some distance from where we
started, but to sum up, the Torah does often define things that can be weighed
or measured with numbers, whether mannah, money, jewelry, ingredients or
King Og's bed. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff><BR></FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"></B>--------------------</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR></FONT> </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>