[Mesorah] LeChol Ba'ei Sha'ar Iro

[Akiva Miller]

sounds to me like "city hall" would be a great translation of the idiom

Akiva Miller

On Mon, Nov 25, 2019, 12:40 PM Dov Bloom via Mesorah <
mesorah at lists.aishdas.org> wrote:

>
> I suggest to those who are unclear on the meaning of "shaar ha-ir" or
> "petach shaar ha_ir" to visit some archeological sites in Eretz HaKodesh.
> I was recently at a newly designated National Park of Lachish, with
> artifacts from the time, but not only, of Hizkiyahu and Sancheriv.
>
> We saw quite clearly that the Shaar HaIr was a very solid, fortified
> structure, perhaps with a second floor and room for a number of defenders.
> The shaar was not an iron gate or something like that, but a building.
> Think like the structure at Shaar Yafo to the left of the present road.
> So "petach shaar ha_ir" would be the doorway of this structure.
>
> True, BaEi Shaar Iro may be an idiom...
>
> from a Israel Antiquities Authority article
>
>  The northern part of the gate was uncovered decades ago by a British
> expedition and an expedition of the Tel Aviv University, and the current
> excavation was engaged in completely exposing the gate. The gate that was
> revealed in the excavation is the largest one known in the country from the
> First Temple period.
>
> *According to Sa'ar Ganor, excavation director on behalf of the Israel
> Antiquities Authority,* “The size of the gate is consistent with the
> historical and archaeological knowledge we possess, whereby Lachish was a
> major city and the most important one after Jerusalem”. According to the
> biblical narrative, the cities’ gates were the place where ‘everything took
> place’: the city elders, judges, governors, kings and officials – everyone
> would sit on benches in the city gate. These benches were found in our
> excavation”.
>
>
>
> The Lachish city gate (24.50 × 24.50 m), which is now completely exposed
> and preserved to a height of 4 m, consists of six chambers, three on either
> side, and the city’s main street that passed between them. Artifacts
> discovered in its rooms indicate how they were used in the eighth century
> BCE: in the first chamber were benches with armrests, at the foot of which
> were numerous finds including jars, a large number of scoops for loading
> grain and stamped jar handles that bear the name of the official or a lmlk
>
>
>
> (belonging to the king) seal impression. Two of the handles have the seal
> impression lmlk hbrn (belonging to the king of Hebron). The word lmlk is
> written on one of the handles together with a depiction of a four-winged
> beetle (scarab), and another impression bears the name lnhm avadi, who
> was probably a senior official during the reign of King Hezekiah. It seems
> that these jars were related to the military and administrative
> preparations of the Kingdom of Judah in the war against Sennacherib, king
> of Assyria, in the late eighth century BCE.
>
> Dov Bloom
>
> On Mon, Nov 25, 2019, 15:34 Aharon Gal via Mesorah <
> mesorah at lists.aishdas.org> wrote:
>
>> I read the English translation to the verse:
>> וְעֶפְרוֹן יֹשֵׁב בְּתוֹךְ בְּנֵי חֵת וַיַּעַן עֶפְרוֹן הַחִתִּי אֶת
>> אַבְרָהָם בְּאָזְנֵי בְנֵי חֵת לְכֹל בָּאֵי שַׁעַר עִירוֹ לֵאמֹר:
>> "Lechol Baei Sha’ar iro" is transated to “those who entered the gate of
>> his town”.
>>
>> In Parashat VaYishlach it says: “kol yotzei sha’ar iro”. Will the
>> translation there be “all those who left out the gate of his town”?
>> Seems to me that this is an idiom, that means “the inhabitants of his
>> town”.
>>
>> The problem is that both Onkelos and T’ Yonatan write "לְכֹל עָלֵי
>> תְּרַע קַרְתֵּהּ” (LeChol Alei T’ra Karte’)
>> Did both of them mean that Efron talked just to those who entered the
>> town?
>> or it was obvious to them that this is just an idiom, and they translated
>> the idiom to Aramaic.
>>
>> Rashi writes: “shekulam batelu mimlachtan”.  Rashi does not clarify who
>> are “kulan”, but I have a feeling that he meant “all the inhabitants of his
>> town”.
>> Professor Kadari, in his “Millon HaIvrit Hamikrait” writes on the Pasuk
>> in Ruth “Kol Sha’ar Ami” (Ruth 3:11) “Kelal Ezrachei Ha’ir Beth Lechem”
>> (all the citizens of the town Beth Lechem”). This is in-spite of the Targum
>> there that says: “Kadam kol yotvei tra Sanhedrin rabba” “the people who who
>> sit in front of the Great Sanhedrin). He mentioned in the same paragraph
>> the verses from Chaye Sara and Vayishlach. ie, the meaning is the
>> 'inhabitants of the town'.
>>
>> The interpretation of Professor Kadari makes sense.  So why
>> English translations are “those who entered the gate of his town”?
>> Seems to me that all followed the steps of Targum Onkelos, Yonatan, the
>> Septuagint. Although those targumim here translated literally, and not
>> idiomatic.
>>
>> Kol Tuv,
>>
>> Aharon
>> _______________________________________________
>> Mesorah mailing list
>> Mesorah at lists.aishdas.org
>> http://lists.aishdas.org/listinfo.cgi/mesorah-aishdas.org
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Mesorah mailing list
> Mesorah at lists.aishdas.org
> http://lists.aishdas.org/listinfo.cgi/mesorah-aishdas.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/mesorah-aishdas.org/attachments/20191125/1b85b29a/attachment-0002.htm>