Monday, April 14, 2008

הרי אני כבן שבעים שנה

שאמר ראב"ע הרי אני כבן שבעים...ולא זכיתי

R' Eliezer's excitement with this new Deasha would appear to be somewhat excessive?
The Gemara in Horiyot (4a) discussing derasha that the Saducees did not agree with cites as an example:

דאמרי זבה לא הויא אלא ביממי דכתיב (ויקרא טו) כל ימי זובה

Perhaps in this statement is the explanation behind R' Eliezer's peculiar excitement with this derasha. Lacking a tradition that would explain the "Kol" of Krias Shema to be referring to the night, R' Eliezer was left open to a charge of inconsistency - implying that the Pharisees had no real tradition but rather picked their exegesis based on their own whims). Hence the excitement with Ben Zoma's derasha.

4 comments:

MYG said...

Interesting. And, דרך אגב to your post: http://esefer.blogspot.com/2004/08/berachos-28a-tefillas-arvis-rshus-oy.html

Anonymous said...

See bavli, Niddah, Daf 73a right before "Tana Dbei Eliyahu" and meforshim in the back of the standard edition, "ein yafah" where he links this gemara to the one in Horiyos and to the mishna in Berochos; but cf, the Netziv's Emek Sheila, Siman 86, ois koton 4 where he explains the gemara in horiyos is NOT like R' Elazar ben Azariya.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for those Mareh Mekomos. I will look into them.

Anonymous said...

The same expression also appears elsewhere in the Mechilta, said by someone other than REBA. Which would seem to undermine your thesis (as well as a whole load of Seder-night vertlech).

 
Creative Commons License
Ishim V' Shittos by http://ishimshitos.blogspot.com/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at ishimshitos.blogspot.com.