- יעקב לויפר
Belk: And put a rock in your path ~ Jacob Leuper
and in the rock of your nest
And he saw the nest, and he carried it from his place, and he said, ``I will give you your seat and put it in the rock.'' Ned:). One of the places where you can clearly see this feature of Torah words is the language of the scriptures. You can read a sentence in one way, and suddenly - by changing the meaning of a single word, discover a new and completely different meaning in it. Let's take the sentence 'And we shall lay in the rock of your nest', what does Balaam want with these words? He simply turns to the nest and gives his advice, it is appropriate that you set your seat in the rock. This is how the Ramban explains the words: "And he took his own advice and said - to them in the way of advice, make your seat firm and put your nest in a rock - that is, put your seat in a firm place, and in the rock - your nest, so that you move and come down from Amalek lest you perish with him, and put your seat in a firm rock with Israel." According to the Ramban, Balaam is referring here in his prophecy to an event that will happen in the future during Saul's war with Amalek (Samuel 1:15), when Saul said to Kini, "Go and get down from the midst of the Amalekites, face your face with them, and let them go." With all the sons of Israel, he served them from Egypt." It should be noted that the Ramban changed the order of things in his commentary, and moved the commandment 'put' to the beginning of the sentence: Put your seat in a firm place - and in rock will be your nest. In his opinion, the lesson of the scripture is "[in] firmness [place] your seat, and in the rock of your nest". As if the word 'shim' is also used for the beginning of the verse. Rasg also does this in his interpretation, and translates "May your seat be strong, and you place your nest in a rock". It is clear that the simplicity of the words 'your seat is firm' is not a commandment for the future, but rather a description of the current situation: your seat is firm, as emphasized by the translation attributed to Yonatan who interprets the words as an expression of admiration: "Ma tykyf hoe yim shreich" [how firm is a teacher], and as he also writes Rashi: "Eitan Moshavach - I wonder where you got this from?" Aren't you with me on the advice of 'let's get wise to him'. And now we will sit in the stronghold and stronghold of Israel." This is an already existing situation, the seat of the Kini Eitan. And Balaam marvels at that. Rasg and Ramban completely changed the meaning, in their opinion, 'Ethan' is not a description of the place where the Kini now sits, but a recommendation of the place where he deserves to sit: May your seat be firm, as Rasg writes, or 'put your seat in Etan' as As the Ramban puts it. What brought them to push like that and change the simple meaning of the word? The answer is clear, it was the continuation that pushed them. If the nest of the Kenite is already solid now, as Rashi understands and attributed to Jonathan, why does Balaam advise him to put his nest in a rock? It means that now there is still no firm seat. Therefore, Rasg and Ramban were forced to also interpret 'Eitan Moshavach' as speaking of the future and advising Kini to do so. The difficulty is indeed very difficult: the text opened with a description of the situation, and continued with advice for the future. Admittedly, Rabbi Yosef Bachur Shur, one of the owners of the Tosaf, completely reverses the direction! In his opinion, 'and lay in the rock of your nest' is not advice for the future but a description of the current situation. And so he writes "and put - there is a word, that is: and you put your seat in a strong rock". A pit of lime or a secret pit The words of the 'firstborn bull' need an interpretation to reveal the hidden gem in them. To this end, we will look at the words of the mishna in tractate Avot (Pb 18) "a pit of lime that does not lose a drop"; The subjunctive is strange, since we are not talking about a pit full of lime in which there is no way to put water in anyway, but a whitewashed pit. Indeed, the Rav comments there that a 'secret pit' must be crushed, and further elaborates in the interpretation of 'Magan Avot' to the Rabbinate: "And the accurate version is a secret pit, not a lime pit, it wants to say a 'lime pit', and what praise is there in it? But a cistern is a cistern that has been well filled, like the wells and the bush that are well limed and prevent the water from being swallowed by the ground and the soil. And secret is a verb, on the weight of 'return to war' (Micah 2:8), 'Nugei from time' (Zephaniah 3:18), 'Mo velim hiu' (Joshua 5:5), that he would say of them individually return, nug, mol... And in its entirety it was whitewashed, on the weight of 'stored wealth' (Ecclesiastes 5:12), and there came a lack of Yod according to the way of Nehi E'an.
Rashbat teaches us an important linguistic principle here: roots whose middle letter is ו and ו (known as 'nahi a'in', after their verb's eye is 'naha' and is not heard in pronunciation) undergo contraction, and instead of saying siyod they say A secret, just as we stated "that the whole house is plastered with gold" (Midot 4:1), that is, 9 youch, and in our language today: mutih. But precisely the words of the Rabbinate can show us that the same can also be the case with 'Bor Sid'! The interpretation of 'sid' can also be 'whitewashed', as we mentioned "sheda nira" in the language of the Tosefta (BMT 9:5) "lest this is lime and this is not lime, this is rubbish and this is not rubbish". Doc! Just as 'Mezovalat' is an adjective of the field, so 'Nira' means a plowed field, a field where a field is made. And the two forms are found next to each other in the language of the Baryat in Tractate Eruvin (17:) "a field of pit and a field of nir... both are nirot, both are arms, both are pits". Bur - on the weight of a secret pit, nir - on the weight of a lime pit. It was found that the wording in front of us is also settled and confirmed: a lime pit is not a lime pit, but a whitewashed pit. And put in the rock of your nest From now on we will return to our verse: "And put in the rock of your nest" means - and put in the rock of your nest, just like 'bur sid' means a whitewashed pit. It is not a commandment for the future but a description of the current situation, just like 'Itan Moshavach'. And there are other verses with this word. The prophet Obadiah (1, 4) says about Esau: "If you answer it as a gospel, and if it is between a star in the sea, you will make it." A sentence that begins with 'if' cannot be an imperative sentence, it would have been requested 'Tishim Kenach', and indeed Raba'a there is suppressed and writes: 'Shim' like tishim. But according to Rabbi Bechor Shur the interpretation is wonderful! "And if among the stars is your nest." Likewise, "Yeram took the market and put it in front of Saul, and he said, Behold, I put it in front of you to eat" (Sha 9, 24). The language seems puzzling: did the cook put the market there in front of the questioner, and tell him to 'put it in front of you'? After all, the market is already laid before him! It is true that according to the 'firstborn ox' the words are enlightening: here is the rest placed before you, eaten. According to the words of R. Bekur Shor, it is proven from the language attributed to Jonathan and the Jerusalem translation, "Dy Shu'it ben Karia d Tanaria m Dorach" [who died in the opening of the flint in your apartment], the past language clearly shows that they did not interpret 'Ushim Be Sela' as advice for the future but as a description of a situation that has already occurred . And it seems to also appear from Rashi's interpretation, that although he does not interpret the word 'weshim' in a clear way, he describes everything in the past tense "and now we will sit in the stronghold and stronghold of Israel". If Rashi was of the opinion that 'set in rock' is the future, this should have been reflected in his commentary. But he interprets 'and in the rock' as 'and in the rock', and in the rock is your nest. Rabbi Bekur Shur thus revealed to us a new meaning in the word 'Yishim', it can be interpreted as a commandment, according to Onklos, Rasg and Ramban. And it can be interpreted as an adjective: Your nest is placed in a rock. These are two completely different sentences, which affect the entire verse. And so, a structured change of one word illuminates the verse for us in a completely different way.
