[Mesorah] Nechtam or Nischateim

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 08:28:21AM -0400, Micha Berger wrote:
: My q for the chevrah: Which makes more sense grammatically -- "befanai
: nechtam" or "befanai nischateim"?

Rambam's mishnah has "nechtam".

Manuscripts (from <http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/talmud/mishna/selectmi.asp>):
    Kaufman <http://j.mp/15qyA6n>, Parma <http://j.mp/Y58kAU>: "nischatam"
	(with a qamatz under the 2nd tav)
    Cambridge <http://j.mp/XZ0cjc>: "nischatam" (no niqud, just guessing)
	with my original guess)

So I'm dropping "nischateim" and going with "-am". And it's definitely
NOT a transcription error in the Y-mi.

"Nischatam" appears in the Tosafta and the Bavli only (if a search engine
is to be trusted) in the context of "nischatam gezar din[am]" in beis din
shel ma'alah -- and consitently for ill: Tosefta Sotah 8:5, Gitin 57a,
Erkhin 15a mishnah (and yet I got no hit in the mishnayos copy).

In any case, it would seem from these other usages that "nischatam"
is an idiom for sealing justice, not for the actual act of signing.
So I'm now wondering if there is a poetic reason for the "nischatam"
term -- gett as tragedy. "Before me it was written, before me this fate
was sealed."

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A sick person never rejects a healing procedure
micha at aishdas.org        as "unbefitting." Why, then, do we care what
http://www.aishdas.org   other people think when dealing with spiritual
Fax: (270) 514-1507      matters?              - Rav Yisrael Salanter