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Year: 2018
Why Do People Exchange the Purchase First, Then the Money?
Whether trading an asset or service, as in last week’s Parsha:
ותאמר לה בת פרעה היליכי את הילד הזה והינקהו לי ואני אתן את שכרך ותקח האשה הילד ותניקהו.
I asked a friend and he said this was because everyone already has money, so in the case of a dispute, things are less obvious.
Here’s my own answer:
In a barter transaction, each person simply prefers the other item. But money is presumably objectively more valuable to all parties. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be money in the first place. Money is the medium of exchange because it is acceptable to virtually everyone.
What do you think?
This Doesn’t Fit Charedi Hashkafa: Rabbis’ Pens Slip Too…
A Slip of the Pen
Not every mistake is the printer’s fault. Some carry the author’s “handwriting” on them.
The Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 180:1 says one should not remove the tablecloth and bread until after Benching.
Magen Avraham en site says as follows —
(אין להסיר), דהברכה אינה שורה אלא כשיש שם דבר כענין אלישע ושונמית.
“This is because blessing does not rest except where there is something, as seen by Elisha and the Shunamis”.
Now if you examine the account of Elisha seemingly referred to by the Magen Avraham, you will notice it happened with the wife of Obadiah, not the Shunamite women. A wife of Elisha’s deceased student was in debt, and he performed a miracle by filling borrowed vessels with oil. The point being, had no oil been present, to begin with, the miracle could never have occurred. Refer to Kings B, beginning of Chapter 4.
The story with Shunamis happens immediately afterward, in which Elisha revives a different women’s dead son (Kings B 4:8-37).
It seems like the Magen Avraham harmlessly confused the two stories.
But the Pri Megadim (ad. loc.) held otherwise. After raising the above problem, he surmises the Magen Avraham’s intention is as follows:
By saying “Elisha”, the Magen Avraham indeed refers to the story with the oil. By saying “and the Shunamis” he means to quote the source for the second law in the Shulchan Aruch; the one saying one should leave over some of the food as a sign of blessing. See, there was a third anecdote at the end of the chapter (ibidem 42-44), in which it mentions leaving over some leftovers of the food. This happened after the Shunamis story.
His theory seems quite forced and doesn’t fit the actual language used by our edition of the Magen Avraham. Besides, if that was the intent, wouldn’t that require the Magen Avraham to put the “the Shunamis” phrase under new heading and numbering?
We apparently have ourselves a “Slip of the Pen”(Lapsus Calami in Latin).
One of my Rabbis once told me he saw an older print of the Meiri’s commentary on the following Mishna in Pesachim (49a) —
ההולך לשחוט את פסחו ולמול את בנו כו’
Rabbi Menachem Meiri’s version, however, stated: “One who goes to slaughter his son and circumcise his Paschal Lamb”…!
The above is almost certainly not a printer’s error because a printer’s thought processes do not contribute to that kind of switch.
Here’s an example of a more complicated lookalike of an L.C. found in the Mishna Berurah 54:9:
יש ליזהר כשלומדים משניות יאמרו בסוף הלימוד המאמר דר’ חנניא בן עקשיא וכדומה כדי שיהיו יוכלו (יכולים) לומר עי”ז אח”כ הקדיש דרבנן
“One ought to be meticulous when learning Mishanyos to quote the remark of Rabbi Chananya son of Akashia or the like so that they are they may be (permitted to) thereby say the Rabbi’s Kaddish afterward”.
What happened here is pretty obvious. Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (known as the Chafetz Chaim) wavered between “they are permitted” and “they may”. His editorial indecision combined with a lack of proofreading led to both his ideas being memorialized…
Nevertheless, newer editions of the Mishna Berurah simply note a correction at the foot of the page. Zero explanation of the typo’s “Anatomy” is given. Nor do they bother presenting any proof or explanation for their own rendering. Go figure. I detected many other incidents just like it in the Mishna Berurah. Are certain editors more prone to the (real or imaginary) “Hashakafa” aspects of considering such things? No Halacha is being altered (yet)!
The applied lesson for editors is clear.
Not every mistake really happened at the printer, and noticing [and fixing] them requires an open mind.
Subscribers: Please Don’t Be Shy!
Message to our subscribers:
Yes, I can see aggregate statistics, but not who clicked on what. I would love to know that, but the Hyehudi email list is handled through a third-party service.
So feel free to subscribe, and don’t feel self-conscious.
Update: With Feedblitz I can, but not easily.
‘And—Which Is More—You’ll Be a Ma’amin, My Son!’
Goyim aren’t bad at describing The Good. They lack the path, however. (“Wisdom”, not “Torah”, Eichah Rabba 2:13.)
“If” by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
The end.
By the way, this is true even though you should not have bet at all. See the story in Taanis 21a of Nachum Ish Gam Zu being careless with communal property, yet keeping Emunah:
ואמאי קרו ליה נחום איש גם זו דכל מילתא דהוה סלקא ליה אמר גם זו לטובה זימנא חדא בעו לשדורי ישראל דורון לבי קיסר אמרו מאן ייזיל ייזיל נחום איש גם זו דמלומד בניסין הוא שדרו בידיה מלא סיפטא דאבנים טובות ומרגליות אזל בת בההוא דירה בליליא קמו הנך דיוראי ושקלינהו לסיפטיה ומלונהו עפרא למחר כי חזנהו אמר גם זו לטובה כי מטא התם שרינהו לסיפטא חזנהו דמלו עפרא בעא מלכא למקטלינהו לכולהו אמר קא מחייכו בי יהודאי אמר גם זו לטובה אתא אליהו אדמי ליה כחד מינייהו אמר ליה דלמא הא עפרא מעפרא דאברהם אבוהון הוא דכי הוה שדי עפרא הוו סייפיה גילי הוו גירי דכתיב יתן כעפר חרבו כקש נדף קשתו הויא חדא מדינתא דלא מצו למיכבשה בדקו מיניה וכבשוה עיילו לבי גנזיה ומלוהו לסיפטיה אבנים טובות ומרגליות ושדרוהו ביקרא רבה…
Nor does this contradict the story right before that one, of Teshuvah:
אמרו עליו על נחום איש גם זו שהיה סומא משתי עיניו גידם משתי ידיו קיטע משתי רגליו וכל גופו מלא שחין והיה מוטל בבית רעוע ורגלי מטתו מונחין בספלין של מים כדי שלא יעלו עליו נמלים… בניי אני גרמתי לעצמי שפעם אחת הייתי מהלך בדרך לבית חמי והיה עמי משוי שלשה חמורים אחד של מאכל ואחד של משתה ואחד של מיני מגדים בא עני אחד ועמד לי בדרך ואמר לי רבי פרנסני אמרתי לו המתן עד שאפרוק מן החמור לא הספקתי לפרוק מן החמור עד שיצתה נשמתו הלכתי ונפלתי על פניו ואמרתי עיני שלא חסו על עיניך יסומו ידיי שלא חסו על ידיך יתגדמו רגליי שלא חסו על רגליך יתקטעו ולא נתקררה דעתי עד שאמרתי כל גופי יהא מלא שחין אמרו לו אוי לנו שראינוך בכך אמר להם אוי לי אם לא ראיתוני בכך.