Thursday, December 3, 2009

Chasam Sofer's Pashtanim?

In Chasam Sofer Gittin 12a s.v. kol, he refers to a novel explanation of the pashtanim on Tehillim 45:13 כל כבודה בת מלך פנימה namely - that internal beauty (middos) is more important then the external beauty of the gold chains in the end of the passuk. I could not find this explanation in Ibn Ezra or R'dak on that passuk, any ideas which commentary Chasam Sofer might be referring to?

4 comments:

Yitzhak said...

Not actually an answer to your question, but I recently disputed someone who insisted on the exegesis you mention as being the "real" interpretation of the verse. Here are some of my emails:

I
II
III
IV
V

Joels W. said...

I like this interpretation allot better than the common one (that a woman's place is in the house and not outside).

Anonymous said...

From DF
------
Yitzcah, I read you interesting emails. It is true that the Gemara does understand the verse in the "traditional" way, but of course, that does not mean that the pashtanim are wrong in asserting that their interpretation is actually the pshat.

What is interesting is that some (not the Chasam Sofer) understand the Gemara in Gittin 12b as conceding that there is no such principle as kol kevudah. When I learned that Gemara years ago, I understood it to mean that for PARNASSAH we dont say kol kevudah. In other words, in the context of the passage there, the Gemara is saying that the general principle of kol kevudah, as traditionally understood, is true, but we dispense with it when it comes to making parnassah.

This is importnat, because it undercuts a primary argument of the anti-kollel niks. And I myself am an anti-kollelnik. We often point out how contradcitory it is for koillel guys to be sitting in learning while their wives work - arent they violating the kol kevudah principle of the very same Gemara they are studying? But if my understanding of the Gemara is true, then this argument of ours holds no water.

DF

Wolf2191 said...

Actually, your understanding is exactly the same as CS's. See the Teshuva quoted by Yitzchak.

 
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.