Another Thought on Parshas Shoftim

I am always happy to get feedback on my weekly ParshaThoughts. I certainly expected them this week, in that the approach used by Rabbeinu Avigdor was decidedly halachic in focus, and he educated us about the history (and geography) of his time in implementing a challenging psak. He linked this to the opening verse of the parsha, which instructs us to appoint judges and officers in all of our gates. You can re-read the piece if you wish. In short, he was discussing management of one who betrays other Jews and is a catalyst to their sustaining financial losses. Rabbeinu Avigdor was discussing the masur. Now, my learned friend Rav David Derovan shlit'a who left Los Angeles years ago to reside and teach in Israel, was the first to respond. He noted that I used the term masur, rather than the grammatically correct, and colloquially spoken, "moser." My NY based colleague and friend Dr. Asher Lipner shlit'a also noted this. My dear chaver R' Hymie Barber of LA told me that I was "bold" to write what I wrote. I must respond. The word for a treacherous informer is masur. How do I know this? Firstly, because that is what Rabbeinu Avigdor calls him. He refers to him as a masur. Now, how did Rabbeinu Avigdor know this? You will find on daf 62a in Bava Kama that our sages also refer to him as a masur. Now, you might ask, to be moser means to turn someone over or turn them in which is what a masur does. A masur is the one who gets turned in, correct? Well, if you will look in the commentary of Tosfos Yom Tov on Mishnayos Nedarim 10:3, he explains how moser becomes masur and how other Talmudic terms seem to merge from the transitive to the reflexive in order to satisfy certain principles of linguistics. I actually came across a teshuva on this many years ago in Yeshivas Chevron - Geula in a sefer called Rosh Eliahu, volume 3, Choshen Mishpat #41, which examines this closely. [Chevron - Geula has a great Otzar Sefarim where I learn afternoons when I finish in the Bais Din while in Jerusalem.] The author notes that Chazal may have selected the term masur - the one who has been given over - because when a Jew turns against another Jew, he has given himself over to "Sitra Achra" - the ominous unholy Other Side. Others opine that the term masur means that "his fate has already been consigned to Shomayim." TosfosYom Tov offers that he heard a drasha from Rabbi Loewe (probably the MaHaRal) that the traitor is called a masur to teach us that one day, his day will come and he too will be given over; he will have to answer for his treachery. Remember that Rabbeinu Avigdor was French, by the way, where they say,"Oui, Masur." So - the word is masur. The word is not moser, even though we tend to pronounce it moser. I hope that you now understand both the Torah and the Masurah. Good Shabbos. D Fox