‘Sea-Palestinians’

I mean, aside from the regular “occupied” Philistines singing “From the river to the sea“.

Here’s pseudo-Rashi on Divrei Hayamim (I 1:12):

פתרוסים, פתרוסי ים כסלוחים כסלוחי ים פלשתים פלשתי ים כפתורים כפתורי ים לפיכך כתוב בשני יודי”ן לדרוש וכן כולם.

They squat along part of “Yam Pelishtim”…

And they’re originally Egyptian fellahin and work-migrants. May we soon see the fulfillment of the verse:

ויושע ד’ ביום ההוא את ישראל מיד מצרים וירא ישראל את מצרים מת על שפת הים. וירא ישראל את היד הגדלה אשר עשה ד’ במצרים וייראו העם את ד’ ויאמינו בד’ ובמשה עבדו.

‘Ain Ta’am Baratzon’: An Argumentative Quiz

A friend of mine obstinately denied the truth of the truism ‘Ain Ta’am Baratzon\Laratzon’ (as explained here). It must mean something else instead, something very abstract, he insisted — as in the Tzemach Tzedek (quoted in the above link).

He kept “explaining” that one can ascend to the sefirah of “Tiferes” from a temptress, per the Baal Shem Tov, and that praxis leads ממילא to understanding. As the song goes, “Mitzvos are beautiful, Mitzvos are fine. I love mitzvos, I do them all the time…”

At length, I determined to hand him a quick “quiz” of sorts. I scribbled this out and handed it to him. Worked!

Here’s the actual list of questions that won me the argument (lightly edited while typing):

  1. What does the phrase in fact mean (e.g., as in Malbim on Daniel 2:3 or Tehillim 44:4)?
  2. What ever does “אויף א תאוה איז קיין קשה ניט” mean as a common expression?
  3. Do you agree with the Is\Ought problem?
  4. Praxis leads to understanding? So what?! לא יחפוץ כסיל בתבונה כי אם בהתגלות לבו.
  5. Can’t one descend from Tiferes to an impure shiktza, too?
  6. If mitzvos are about rewards in this world or the next, what about Lishma? And if keeping the mitzvos is smart, reasonable, and “Good” (with The Capital “G”, of course!), how come reward is not Nahama Dekisufa?
  7. If keeping the Torah is plain “eminently reasonable”, how come you’re smarter than Yeravam, Bilam, Kayin, Achaz, Amon (both in Sanhedrin 103b), Acher, and such like? What do you know that they, nebbech, do not?