HATS OR ANGULAR EARS

From little pastry-thingies to ikkarim and other stuff.
And.... tefillin!



Dovbear (http://dovbear.blogspot.com/) asks, regarding the midrash that Rivka was three years old when she married Yitzhok: "How can it be kefirah when the ibnezra says it b'pherush?"

Chaim G. retorts: "Proves absolutely nothing. I would not dare to do anything but heap praise and adulation on the Ibn Ezra. But there is a long history of "the big boys" not only considering one another dead wrong (the basic definition of every machlokes = argument) but of flinging K bombs at one another.

Maharal vs. Ralbag, Rabenu Yonah vs. Rambam and Satmar Rebbe vs. Rav Kook to name just a few.

I for one am considering stopping T'filin. Rashi and Rabenu Tam are having a quarrel and you expect me to take sides?"
----------------------------

I thought this was amusing - so, totally ignoring the actual discussion (which started with Haman's ears and poppy seed pouches and then dived into the deepspace of mesora), I pasted it here.

----------------------------

NOTES:

Rivka = Per Rashi, Sarah Imeinu was 90 when Yitzhak was born, 127 years old at the time of the Akeida, at which time Yitzhak was 37. Sarah dies in Chevron, and Avraham hears of the birth of Rivka, whom his son will marry in three years. Kler, voss?

On the other hand, Ibn Ezra explains that Rivka’s birth is mentioned before Sarah’s death, even though Avraham only hears about it afterwards, and further, the return to Be'er Sheva and Sarah's death in Chevron take up a dozen years (which means that if Rivka was born in the year of the binding, then she is an adolescent when Eliezer sees her at the well.
A three year old is scarcely capable of drawing buckets of water for the household, giving an elderly traveler (Eliezer) a drink of water, and watering his beasts, as the text informs us Rivka did.

But why does anyone believe that Rivka was three years old at the time of her shidduch?

Bereishis Raba 58:2 says ‘Ere Hashem allows the sun of one righteous person to set, He causes the sun of the next righteous person to rise’, which is taken to mean that G-d balanced out the death of Sarah with the birth of Rivka.

However in Bereishis 24:16, Rivka is referred to as a na’arah, which means a girl who has reached the age of sexuality – bat mitzvah age, or even older.

The Vilna Gaon cites Bereishis Raba 56:11 which says that Yitzhak was 26 years old at the time of the Akeida, and that Sarah Imaeinu did not die at that time, as it was at the end of the time when Avraham and his family lived in the land of the Pelishtim, and after that they lived in Chevron for another twelve years. So, if Avraham heard of Rivka’s birth after the death of Sarah, then Rivka would have indeed been a na’arah.



Ibn Ezra = Abraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra, born between 1089 and 1093 (probably the latter), died 1167. Native of Tudela in the emirate of Sarragosa. One of the greatest Torah commentators and a forerunner of modern criticism. Much admired by Spinoza, he was one of the first to translate writings of Muslims and Arabic-speaking Jews into Hebrew. A rationalistic and scientific minded interpreter of Talmud-Torah, a grammarian, and a mystic. A scholar whose profound influence on later scholars continues even today.



The Maharal = Moreinu Ha Rav Loew (our teacher Rabbi Loew); Judah Ben Betzalel Loew of Prague (1525 – 1609), a Mishnaic commentator, scholar, and leader of Central European Jewry, whose family originally came from Worms in Germany. He is, according to several genealogies, a descendant of King David.



Ralbag = Rabbi Levi Ben Gershon (1288 – 1344), in whose lifetime rampaging crusaders and German peasants destroyed several of the flourishing Jewish communities in the Holy Roman Empire – about which there was scarcely anything Roman, and naught holy.



Rabbeinu Yonah = A relative of the Ramban, Rabbeinu Yonah Ben Avraham Gerondi (d. 1263), notorious anti-Maimonidist who later repented of his agitation against the Rambam's work. On his penitential journey to Rabbi Moishe Ben Maimon's kever in the Holy Land he was detained in Toledo, where he remained for the rest of his life, gaining further fame as a Talmudist and champion of the Rambam. He is the author, of among other works, the Iggeres Tshuva, Shaarei Tshuva, and the Sefer Ha Yira. He also wrote many commentaries.



Rambam = Rabbi Moishe Ben Maimon (1135 - 1204), a great Talmudic scholar of the post-Amoraic era. He left Cordoba to get away from the harshness then prevalent in Moorish Spain, finally settling in Cairo. He wrote about everything under the sun and is the author of one of the most authoritative listings of commandments and the explanations for same: the ‘Sefer HaMitzvos’, but is probably most famous for his Halachic works, of which the Mishneh Torah (the Restatement of the Law) is perhaps the best known.

But this reminds me that R'fael Moshe and Avi both mentioned the Rambam's ikkarim a few days ago, and questions arose. So permit me to sidetrack briefly.

The Rambam lists thirteen ikkarim in his introduction of his commentary to masechte Sanhedrin, Perek Chelek:

Ikkar 1. - Belief in the existence of the Creator.
Ikkar 2. - Belief in G-d's absolute and unique unity.
Ikkar 3. - Belief in G-d's noncorporeality.
Ikkar 4. - Belief in G-d's eternity.
Ikkar 5. - Adherence to the commandment to worship Him exclusively.
Ikkar 6. - Belief that G-d communicates with through prophecy.
Ikkar 7. - Belief that the prophecy of Moses takes precedence over other prophecies.
Ikkar 8. - Belief in the divine origin of Torah.
Ikkar 9. - Belief in the unchangeability of Torah.
Ikkar 10. - Belief in divine omniscience and providence.
Ikkar 11. - Belief in divine reward and retribution.
Ikkar 12. - Belief in the coming of the Messiah and the messianic era.
Ikkar 13. - Belief in the resurrection of the dead.


Customarily many synagogues recite the ikkarim in a slightly different form, preceding with "ani maamin" (I believe) after morning prayer.


Satmar Rebbe = The Krulyer rov, Rav Yoel Teitelbaum (1887 – 1979), a descendant of the Yismach Moshe (Rav Moishe Teitelbaum, 1759 – 1841), who became Rebbe of Satmar in Hungary in 1929, and after the war rebuilt Satmar Chasidus in the United States. Most known outside Satmar for his opposition to Zionism and the Medina (both causes which were close to the heart of some other Chasidic leaders).

[Note also: there are very many branches of Chasidus. Amongst many others, in no particular order, Breslover, Bobover, Gerrer, Lubavitcher, Satmarrer, Skverrer. The differences among them are not necessarily minor, and it would be wise not to assume that they associate with each other in perfect amity.]



Rav Kook = If you do not know who rav Kook is, you may not have been awake for a long time. Tsssk, tsssk.



What's that, you say, I'm passing on a marvelous opportunity to go into detail about Rabbeinu Tam and Rashi and the tefillin machlokes?

Not so!

Go here: http://vesomsechel.blogspot.com/2007/01/tefillin-of-rashi-and-rabbenu-tam.html
and read Rabbi Joshua Maroof's excellent excursus.
You'll find it fascinating. It is a very good article.