midrash session 13

[cellio]

(If you're reading the series and wonder what happened to session 12, it was fully consumed in preparing for a beit-midrash session we taught jointly on the stuff covered in session 11. I knew that the beit midrash that day would have three segments, with one rabbi involved in each; I did not know in advance that mine was the only team-taught one. So yeah, three rabbis and me... no pressure. :-) )

Anyway, we are now going to talk about the ram that's caught in the thicket.

(1) R' Eliezer said: from the hills he [the ram] came, that he was grazing [1] there. (2) R' Y'hoshua said: an angel caused him to come from Gan Eden and under the tree of life he was grazing, and he was drinking from the waters that pass under it, and the scent of the ram was wafing in all the world. (3) And when was he given in the garden? (4) At twilight [2] for the sixth day of creation.

(5) All that (the) day Avraham was seeing the ram, caught in this thicket and released and freed, caught in this bush and released and freed, caught in this thicket and released and freed. (6) The Holy One blessed be He said: Avraham, such are the futures of your sons[,] caught in their sins and "thicketed" [3] in kingdoms, from Bavel [Babylon] to Madai [Media], from Madai to Yavan [Greece], and from Yavan to Edom [4]. (7) He [Avraham] said before him: Master of the worlds! It will be thus forever? (8) He said to him: [in] the end they will be redeemed by the horn for this ram -- "Adonai, Adonai [5] in the shofar he will blow and he will walk in the storms of Teman". [6]

[1] The root for "graze" is the same as for "shepherd", but I can't parse out the reflexion in the grammar.

[2] "bein-hashmashot", literally "between suns".

[3] Alternatives welcome. :-)

[4] Allegorically Edom is Rome, but there was also a historical Edom closer to home. I think the rabbis writing this mean Rome.

[5] I had not seen this before. The first of the two words here is literally "Adonai" (lord); the second is the four-letter name of God, with the vowels from the word "Elohim" (another name for God) written in instead. If I understand correctly, this has something to do with not repeating the name of God? The Masorites are apparently responsible.

[6] I went looking for the proof-text, searching "Teman" in all of Nevi'im (prophets), but didn't turn it up. (I did find other uses of Teman, though, so I'm pretty sure I'm not dealing with a spelling-in-transliteration problem.)

We're now at the second paragraph on the second image.

(9) R' Z'charyah said: [oto?] [7] the ram that was created at twilight was running and coming [8] to be sacrificed instead of Yitzchak, and Samuel (?) was standing and "sataning" in order to cancel Avraham Avinu's sacrifice, and two horns were caught between the trees. [We are to infer a causal relationship, I believe. Also, at least one interpretation says this was really the satan, but it says Samuel.] (10) What did the ram do [oto?]? (11) He extended his hand to the outer garment of Avraham. (12) Avraham looked? behind him and he saw the ram, and he extricated [9] him and he offered him instead of Yitzchak his son.

[7] I have a leftover word and don't know what to do with it.

[8] The rabbi translated this "to and fro", I think. Idiom?

[9] I'm taking someone's word for that.

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

(3) I think it would be better to say "when was he placed in the garden," e.g., when was this particular ram created (apparently not with all the other rams, but with the other miraculous things that are listed as just before Shabbat in creations, such as the well that followed Miriam, or the first tongs (you need tongs to make tongs)).

(4) Technically, I think it would be at twilight for the six days of creation, which means erev Shabbat, not any of the other twilights, somehow. (y'mai = yamim (pl) + shel = days of).

(5) I think your first thicket s/b a tree.

[6] I'm not sure of the cites, but it looks to me like the first one could be the Tanchuma on Vayera, and the third might be Masechet Sanhedrin, daf peh-tet second side. The fifth one might be the Yerushalmi Taanit, daf bet.

[7] oto here is that self-same (ram), or this very (ram).

(9) Samael, not Samuel. More angel-y name.

[cellio]

Thanks!

I didn't know tongs were among those special creations, but I guess that makes sense!

(4) -- gah, I should have picked up on the plural.

(5) -- trees (that aren't "eitz") and bushes and thickets are all special just-memorize-it vocabulary for me. Looks like I failed to do so. Oops.

[7] Is this just a different word from the "oto" that is a contraction of "et" and a possessive, or is there a relationship and I'm just being dim?

(9) *smacks forehead* Yup, quite clearly!

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

[7] Is this just a different word from the "oto" that is a contraction of "et" and a possessive, or is there a relationship and I'm just being dim?

It makes more sense if you think of it as et + pronoun rather than et + possessive, so here "oto" means object marker (or pointer to noun) + 3rd person male = him = that specific male singular entity that we already know about.

[cellio]

To convey, for instance, "that very ram", when would I say "oto ha-ayil" versus "ha-ayil ha-hu"? The latter formation is the one learned for "that ram". (Like in "bayom ha-hu".)