daf bit: Chillin 137

[cellio]

The mishna discusses the law of the first fleece (that is, the first shearing), which is owed to the kohanim. The mishna says this law applies only when there are "many" sheep. What is "many"? Beit Shammai says two; Beit Hillel says five. The g'mara attempts to explain these positions. Shammai says two because two sheep are referred to as a "flock", and Hillel (apparently) says five because of an account in Samuel where five sheep are brought. (135a mishna, 137a g'mara)

(I don't follow the latter reasoning.)

Comments

[talvinamarich.livejournal.com]

Piqued my curiosity.

1 25,18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.
-- http://www.mechon-mamre.org/e/et/et08.htm

That's the only instance of five sheep I find in Samuel. I haven't seen Hillel's commentary, but I am not seeing how that could be relevant either. However, a search for "five" within that book turns up a lot of hits that are presented as significant in context: five sheep, the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, Mephibosheth was five when he was lamed, five damsels (handmaidens?) of Abigail, five loaves of bread, five hundred thousand men, etc. etc.

Is there some significance or sacred symbolism to the number five that Hillel is looking at?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's something to do with a full hand (five fingers') worth?

Also, using the text from another place to prove something here is one of the usual ways of showing what something means. There, $oddword means X, so here, $oddword also means X, even if the context is different.

[cellio]

That is exactly the source cited in the notes to the g'mara. But I don't see anything there (or in the notes) about five being a magic number.