daf bit: Kiddushin 29

[cellio]

Some commandments are binding on men but not on women, among them the following obligations to his son: to circumcise him, to redeem him, to teach him torah, to find him a wife, and to teach him a craft. Some say: and to teach him to swim. Rabbi Yehudah said that a man who does not teach his son a craft teaches him brigandry. (29a)

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Whups: נהר means "river", not "ocean".

So it comes out almost exactly as you translated it above:
There are ones who say: also, to make him float in the river.
What reason?
It is his life.

(I'm looking up words here (http://www.milon.co.il/), since I don't know any Babylonian Hebrew. These words that mean multiple unrelated-in-English concepts are fun . . . so "also" might actually be "nose", or "anger", and "reason" might actually be "flavor", "salt", or "preference". Heh. "There are those who say, "Nose, to make him sail on a river. What salt? It is his life.")

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

If you want to learn Talmudic Aramaic (and Mishnaic Hebrew), I highly recommend Grammar for Gemara and Practical Talmud Dictionary, both by Yitchak Frank.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to work my way through The First Hebrew Primer: The Adult Beginner's Path to Biblical Hebrew (http://www.amazon.com/First-Hebrew-Primer-Beginners-Biblical/dp/0939144158/ref=pd_sim_b_3).

[cellio]

Thanks for these pointers (and the discussion).

Now it all comes clear.

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

"There are those who say, "Nose, to make him sail on a river. What salt? It is his life."

Judaism has stranger precepts.

:)