The 8 words for >POVERTY<:#1 of 1
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# 10 YEAR Ayelet DAILY-RASHI-YOMI CYCLE #
# Feb 16, 2001 #
# Rashis 590-592 Of 7800 (7.6%) #
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-GRAND SUMMARY-
OVERVIEW:
========
Today we review 3 Rashis on >ONE< of the words for Poverty.
Superficially Rashi appears to comment on the meaning of
a Hebrew word that means poverty.
But to fully appreciate Rashi we review a Beautiful Midrash
Rabbah that presents 8 Hebrew roots meaning poverty. This
broader perspective enables us to appreciate Rashi.
Rashi the King of Databases
===========================
I call this Midrash Rabbah beautiful because it shows the
superiority of Chazalian methods over modern database
methods. There is no computer that can give you the 8 roots
meaning poverty since the underlying query is semantic and
20th century computers can by and large do only syntactic
queries (Thought things are advancing).
Thus we have a unique opportunity to see both Chazals greatness
and Rashis greatness.
TODAYS UNIT
===========
In todays unit we present the grand summary, reviewing
the 3 Rashis on the subject
REFERENCE:
=========
This module comes from the following digest in the
Rashi-is-Simple series
For the original source of this grand summary see
http://www.RashiYomi.Com/dt15-07a.htm
Todays posting is cited almost verbatim from the original
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
-GRAND SUMMARY-
VERSE: Dt15-07a
RASHIS COVERED: Dt15-07a Dt15-04b Dt24-14b
RULE: The Hebrew word EVYON comes from the Hebrew root AVH.
AVH means to ACQUIESCE.
Hence EVYON(poor)=Someone who acquiesces(AVH) to everyone
3 EXAMPLES
----------
Dt24-14b EVYON--RASHI:Someone who must acquiesce(AVH) to everyone
Dt15-07a EVYON--RASHI: The first to acquiesce & give in
Dt15-04b EVYON--RASHI: DL, ONI(2 words for poor);acquiesces
SUPPORT FROM THE MIDRASH VAYIKRAH RABBAH: 34:6
----------------------------------------------
{LIST} {The 8 Hebrew roots that mean poverty: Note this
is a SEMANTIC list and cannot be produced with
CD roms. These 8 names are listed by severity
of the poverty*5}
ROOT MEANING VERSE WHY IT MEANS POVERTY
---- ------- ------- --------------------
DLH Bit by bit Ex02-19*1 Poor loses his money bit by bit
YRSH Conquer Dt28-42 The poor has been "conquered"
SCh Protect Ps27-5*2 Someone "protected" by an "owner"
AVH Acquiesce Job9-26*3 The poor "acquiesces" to all
ANH Answer 1K18-21 The poor "answers" to everybody
HLCH Walk 2Sam12-4 A "beggar" who roams and begs
DCA Cut off Ps51-19*4 "He sees food but can't reach for it
MCH Crushed Ecc10-18 Everyone "steps" on the poor
------------------------------NOTES-------------------------------
*1 It usually means to "draw water bit by bit" but this root
can be used to denote anything done bit by bit such as
"My eyes bit by bit turn to God (in prayer)"(Isa38-14)
*2 The root actually means "to cover"--but "covering" in the
sense that it affords "protection" like a Succah hut that
protects.
*3 The translation "AVH=Acquiesce" instead of the usual
"AVH=desire" is a brilliancy due to the master of
nuance, Rav Hirsch who skillfully cites Job9-26 which
refers to "boats of acquiescence"(sailboats? that
acquiesce to the wind?).
Note that Rashi, following the Midrash Rabbah **does**
translate EVYON as "TAYV TAYV" to everything..so it
"looks like" Rashi thinks that EVYON=TAYV is someone
who desires everything. But in truth, the root TAYV
occurs only 4 times in the Bible and it could equally
mean DESIRE or ACQUIESCE so indeed Rashi and the Midrash
are fully consistent with Rav Hirsch. (As an example the
verse Am06-08 could mean "I do NOT DESIRE the HONOR
of Jacob" or it could more poignantly mean "I(God) will
NOT ACQUIESCE to the HONOR of Jacob")
*4 The RADACK explicitly says that both the roots DCA and DCH
both mean "broken and cut off".
Note that it would be reasonable to say that the poor
person is "cut off from friends and society". The midrash
points out that in extreme poverty one is ALSO cut off
from ones own emotions---"The poor person sees food but
cannot reach out (because of his poverty)--he is "cut off"
from the food"
*5 Thus we have the following TYPES of poverty
-------------------------------------------------
These people are poor now but once had money
-------------------------------------------------
DL "BIT BY BIT"--He loses his money bit by bit
RSH "CONQUERED"--He had money but was BEATEN in a business deal
---------------------------------------------------------------
These poor people at least are protected/interact with people
---------------------------------------------------------------
SCN "PROTECTED"--He is poor but "belongs" someplace
AVYN "ACQUIESCE"--He belongs but must "give in" to his owner
ANI "ANSWER"-----He belongs but must "answer" to his "owner"
---------------------------------------------------------------
These people have no money and do not belong anywhere
---------------------------------------------------------------
HLK "WALK"--he doesn't belong anywhere but begs
DCh "CUT OFF"--he sees offers of food/money but can't reach out
MCH "CRUSHED"--he sits there is trampled by everybody
RULE: SYNONYMS
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