Saturday, December 1, 2007

בזכות שמך הגדול (דיקרנוסא גי' חת"ך) הממונה על הפרנסה

Chacham Yosef Faur - Anti-Maimonidean Demons [1]

"A most solemn prayer pronounced at the end of the Sephardic services (but not of the Spanish and Portuguese!) the night of Rosh ha- Shanah invokes the “great and holy name dicarnosa” (wulma’an ha-shem ha-gadol vehaqadosh diaqarnosa) that is supposed to be encoded in the subtexts of two Scriptural passages. This superlative magical name is nothing more than the Spanish “dea carnosa” or “fleshy”—probably in the sense of “portly”—“goddess.” Let us not forget that, until recently, only plump ladies were regarded as sexually attractive. I once casually brought this point to the attention of an acquaintance. Upon realizing the gravity of the matter, he wished to request from the rabbi removal of this conjuration from the prayer. I remember telling him that since nobody, including the rabbi and cantor, had the foggiest idea of what they were saying, there was no point in removing it."

Note: A similar name (Edit: I leave it to ny readers to guess who Dionysum might be) is also encoded in the prayer said after the "ישא ה'" of Birkas Kohanim. (As an aside the first two Tefillos - from the Talmud Berachot to "sweeten" bad dreams - end of ותחנני ותשמרני ותרצני- Note that each ending corresponds to a different Bracha (יברכיך...וישמריך,יאר...ויחניך,ישא ה' פניו אליך (שתפלתינו(?) יתקבל לרצון לפני ה'-ותרצני ) apparently the original intention was to add only the ending that corresponds to that Bracha - According to this the Dream prayer was meant to be said all three times (It would be worth checking the earlier editions of the Siddur) and the Kabbalists inserted the third prayer on their own. The same name is found in the Tefillah for Parnosoh that can be found in the Tefilloh for Parnosoh on the bottom of שומע תפלה in Shemona Esrei and other places. (Edit: This tefillah is always accompanied with dire warnings not to say the name in the parenthesis - perhaps whoever wrote this wanted to prevent straoghtforward idol-worship. Note also that Artscroll unobtrusively removed this name from their version of the Tefillah.)

In the sefer Ha-kemea Haivri they write "מלאך הפרנסה. בגימטריה 431, כמו באותיות המודגשות ב-"פותח את ידך"

The following is also relevant - taken from http://www.sichosinenglish.org/books/vedibarta-bam/091.htm

Some Chassidim and men of deeds have a custom to purchase a new knife, Erev Rosh Hashanah (Nitei Gavriel 11:10)

QUESTION: What is the reason for the custom of purchasing a new sharp knife before Rosh Hashanah

The final letters of the words, "Potei'ach et yadecha" - "You open up your hand" - spell the word "chatach" - "cut" - which is the name of the Angel in charge of parnasah - livelihood. Also, the word "u'masbe'a" - "and satisfy [the desire of every living being]" - which follows afterwards in the pasuk (Psalms 145:16) has the numerical value of four hundred and twenty-eight which is also the numerical value of "chatach." Thus, the acquiring of a new sharp knife is considered a "segulah" - something spiritually propitious - for parnasah, which we request on Rosh Hashanah for the entire coming year.

See also Mitpachat Soferim from R' Yaakov Emden on the Zohars term for Shul אש נוגה is actually the Portugese Esnoga (Synagogue) (See also the Mevo to Mekor Baruch wherein he talks about the different terms for Shul's - typically - ער מאכט זיך נישט ויסענדיק )to which the Ittur Soferim responds with the implausible and impossible assertion that "maybe the Portugese took the word from the Zohar rather then vice-versa."

See also the section I added to Wikipedia -Arguments for an earlier dating והבוחר יבחר

[1]- I was highly surprised that Chacham Faur for whom I have the greatest respect produced such a flawed biased article. If possible I will demonstrate this at another time. Suffice it to say that he matches Graetz at his most venomous. See Reuvein Margolies's article on the Raavid (Peninim U' Margolyet) for a clear refutation of Faur on the Raavad's reason for writing the Hasagot.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

His sarcastic put-downs of Rashba, Rosh et al were appalling.

Wolf2191 said...

Thanks for responding,

Guess you've never read Graetz ;).

I fully agree. Care to write a refutation (It's a rather long teshuva in the Rosh, I haven't had time to go through it yet.)

It really does seem that he's projecting his personal problems back on to the past. (Notice how many of articles focus on the "Other" , etc.)

BTW, I believe we live in the same part of town.

Anonymous said...

Was your last line addressd to me?

Wolf2191 said...

Yes. So I gather from your references to a certain Otzar Seforim.

Anonymous said...

I can't find the reference to Dionysus. Can you fill in the ellipses?

Wolf2191 said...

In that Yehi Ratzon - you should see some names in a paragraph - something like - פספסים דיונסים

Alex Schindler said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alex Schindler said...

In retrospect, I spoke in error 2 years ago. His reading of the RO"Sh is consistent with his understanding, more fully presented in his book "The Horizontal Society."

The tone of the article may be off-putting, and it's in that regard that he has perhaps softened up a bit in several decades, but the tone of his targets was no friendlier-- and only one side ever requested that Church authorities engage in book-burning.

J to the Ay said...

Any updates here since 2012?

Just had an enquiry from someone as to this dea carnusa idea. I'm acquainted with Hakham Faur's world and am halfway through horizontal society.

 
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