A thought on parshas Tzav
A Thought on Parshas Tzav
"...v'ha'nosar ba'basar u'va'lechem..."
"...and the remains in the meat and in the bread..." (8:32)
We will explore this week a very different facet of Torah study. We are going to look at some rules of Biblical grammar.
A Hebrew prefix is a single letter added at the beginning of the word. For examples, putting a lamed at the beginning of a word makes it mean "to" as an infinitive or as a possessive object. So, if limud is learning, l'lmod becomes "to learn." If Avraham is a man, something is given l'Avraham, to Avraham. A shin prefacing a word means "that"; a mem means "from"; a kof means "like" or "similar to", and a bais means "in" or "within."
Our verse speaks about food that is leftover from the sacrificial offerings. It must be burned if it is not eaten within the allotted time frame. By all rights, then, the verse should have said, "v'ha'nosar m'basar u'm'lechem" which would maintain the translation "from the meat and from the bread." That is how it is written earlier in 7:17! How did the mem prefixes in our verse disappear and get replaced by the letter bais?
The Rambam (Moreh HaNevuchim 1:41) spells this out for us. The verse means what it says, and the letter bais here functions as a mem.
Still perplexed? Read on.
"...b'yom mashcho osam..."
"...granted them on the day they are anointed..." (7:36)
The Torah tells us that the kohanim will be awarded certain privileges for eternity, yet the verse says that will happen "on the day they are anointed." Now, if this is going to be a gift for eternity to those kohanim and their descendants, how can that legacy be awarded on one day? Surely it is a gift that will keep on being given to each kohen in his own time.
The Rosh addresses this question and quotes Rabbeinu Avraham (who is none other than Rabbeinu Avraham ibn Ezra, a Spanish rishon who preceded the Rosh by two centuries.) Ibn Ezra explains that the bais here takes on the meaning of a mem. The verse then will translate as "granted them from the day of anointment and onward for eternity."
Once again, we see that Hebrew grammar can interchange bais and mem. Perplexed still?
One of the many facets of Torah linguistics is that certain letters originate in similar areas of the mouth. The letters bais, mem, vav and pae involve pressure on the lips. They are known as the "lip letters." Moreover, certain letters may take on identical and interchangeable meanings. The letters bais, kof, lamed, and mem do this.
By writing the words in both of our verses with bais rather than mem, the bais transposes to mean "of" rather than "in." Hence, the former verse translates as "the remains of the meat and of the bread", which is equivalent even in English to saying "from" and definitely loses the meaning "within." In the latter verse, the bais means "from" as if it were written with a mem.
Perhaps the timelessness of the sacred realm, that of those kohanim and of those temple offerings, makes time stretch, so that something that is "within" at a given moment is understood as being enduring, rather than fixed and limited to a point in historical time. So when the Torah speaks about something which is there (the leftover meat and bread; the kohanim who are serving), we need to understand it as coming from a higher realm where time is fluid. "There" continues and endures in the realm where present, past and future are one interval.
The challenge I leave you with as we approach Pesach and will not have a weekly parsha for a while is: where do we see this same letter-based concept of interchangeable letters maintaining equivalent meaning in the Pesach saga, within both the Torah and the Haggada? Send me your responses!
Good Shabbos and chag kosher v'sameach. D. Fox
"...v'ha'nosar ba'basar u'va'lechem..."
"...and the remains in the meat and in the bread..." (8:32)
We will explore this week a very different facet of Torah study. We are going to look at some rules of Biblical grammar.
A Hebrew prefix is a single letter added at the beginning of the word. For examples, putting a lamed at the beginning of a word makes it mean "to" as an infinitive or as a possessive object. So, if limud is learning, l'lmod becomes "to learn." If Avraham is a man, something is given l'Avraham, to Avraham. A shin prefacing a word means "that"; a mem means "from"; a kof means "like" or "similar to", and a bais means "in" or "within."
Our verse speaks about food that is leftover from the sacrificial offerings. It must be burned if it is not eaten within the allotted time frame. By all rights, then, the verse should have said, "v'ha'nosar m'basar u'm'lechem" which would maintain the translation "from the meat and from the bread." That is how it is written earlier in 7:17! How did the mem prefixes in our verse disappear and get replaced by the letter bais?
The Rambam (Moreh HaNevuchim 1:41) spells this out for us. The verse means what it says, and the letter bais here functions as a mem.
Still perplexed? Read on.
"...b'yom mashcho osam..."
"...granted them on the day they are anointed..." (7:36)
The Torah tells us that the kohanim will be awarded certain privileges for eternity, yet the verse says that will happen "on the day they are anointed." Now, if this is going to be a gift for eternity to those kohanim and their descendants, how can that legacy be awarded on one day? Surely it is a gift that will keep on being given to each kohen in his own time.
The Rosh addresses this question and quotes Rabbeinu Avraham (who is none other than Rabbeinu Avraham ibn Ezra, a Spanish rishon who preceded the Rosh by two centuries.) Ibn Ezra explains that the bais here takes on the meaning of a mem. The verse then will translate as "granted them from the day of anointment and onward for eternity."
Once again, we see that Hebrew grammar can interchange bais and mem. Perplexed still?
One of the many facets of Torah linguistics is that certain letters originate in similar areas of the mouth. The letters bais, mem, vav and pae involve pressure on the lips. They are known as the "lip letters." Moreover, certain letters may take on identical and interchangeable meanings. The letters bais, kof, lamed, and mem do this.
By writing the words in both of our verses with bais rather than mem, the bais transposes to mean "of" rather than "in." Hence, the former verse translates as "the remains of the meat and of the bread", which is equivalent even in English to saying "from" and definitely loses the meaning "within." In the latter verse, the bais means "from" as if it were written with a mem.
Perhaps the timelessness of the sacred realm, that of those kohanim and of those temple offerings, makes time stretch, so that something that is "within" at a given moment is understood as being enduring, rather than fixed and limited to a point in historical time. So when the Torah speaks about something which is there (the leftover meat and bread; the kohanim who are serving), we need to understand it as coming from a higher realm where time is fluid. "There" continues and endures in the realm where present, past and future are one interval.
The challenge I leave you with as we approach Pesach and will not have a weekly parsha for a while is: where do we see this same letter-based concept of interchangeable letters maintaining equivalent meaning in the Pesach saga, within both the Torah and the Haggada? Send me your responses!
Good Shabbos and chag kosher v'sameach. D. Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 7:50 AM
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