parsha bit: Emor

[cellio]

This week's parsha repeats the laws for when one wounds another, saying "eye for eye, hand for hand, wound for wound" and so on. The talmud says not to take this literally and institutes fines instead, bringing various linguistic arguments to justify the change. Ibn Ezra, citing the Sa'adia Gaon, instead brings a practical argument: what if one man's vision is not equal to another's? Or what if someone causes another to lose partial vision -- how would you know when you had inflicted a like amount of damage? And, the Sa'adia says, this kind of judgement is even harder in the case of wounds. Clearly, he says, the Torah never meant this to describe physical punishment, as it would be impossible to administer it fairly. (Ibn Ezra on Lev 24:17-22)

Comments

[dr4b]

It's always funny this time of year, because Emor was my haftorah portion, and it always comes up and I think about it again.

[cellio]

Happy birthday. :-)

What did you talk about, lo those many years ago, for your d'var torah? Or didn't you give one?

technical note

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

And, the Sa'adia says,

Sa'adia is his name, Gaon is the title.

Re: technical note

[cellio]

Thanks! I thought the whole phrase was a title (not recognizing Sa'adia as a personal name).