The bitter waters operating with gender equality

In parshat Naso, both adulterer and adulteress get what is coming to them. In Bemidbar 5:22:

כא וְהִשְׁבִּיעַ הַכֹּהֵן אֶת-הָאִשָּׁה, בִּשְׁבֻעַת הָאָלָה, וְאָמַר הַכֹּהֵן לָאִשָּׁה, יִתֵּן ה אוֹתָךְ לְאָלָה וְלִשְׁבֻעָה בְּתוֹךְ עַמֵּךְ--בְּתֵת ה אֶת-יְרֵכֵךְ נֹפֶלֶת, וְאֶת-בִּטְנֵךְ צָבָה.	21 then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman--the LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to fall away, and thy belly to swell;
כב וּבָאוּ הַמַּיִם הַמְאָרְרִים הָאֵלֶּה, בְּמֵעַיִךְ, לַצְבּוֹת בֶּטֶן, וְלַנְפִּל יָרֵךְ; וְאָמְרָה הָאִשָּׁה, אָמֵן אָמֵן.	22 and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to fall away'; and the woman shall say: 'Amen, Amen.'

Rashi writes:

causing the belly to swell and the thigh to rupture [This refers to] the belly and thigh of the adulterer, or perhaps only those of the adulteress? [However,] when Scripture says “causes your thigh to rupture and your belly to swell” (verse 21), those of the adulteress are stated [thus here it must refer to the adulterer]. — [Sotah 28a and Sifrei Naso 1:65]

This idea that it applies to the male adulterer is thus a traditional Jewish one; and it also makes us see the justice of the situation, for otherwise the suspected adulteress dies while her lover gets off without harm.

If we would not resort to this midrashic explanation of the miracle, one could imagine that he would not escape his due punishment; for her miraculous punishment would indicate her guilt, and if we don't understand the double Amen to apply to another man, then he has been shown to be guilty as well. Of course, this is not the way the halacha has been established; I am merely pointing out how this sense of justice could have been catered to in a different scenario.

The derivation of this midrash has to do with duplication (pasuk 21 and 22), as well as dikduk. Because there is a seeming eschewing of possessive pronouns, which would indicate gender. Thus, יְרֵכֵךְ and בִּטְנֵךְ in pasuk 21 for the woman, but לַצְבּוֹת בֶּטֶן וְלַנְפִּל יָרֵךְ with no possession in pasuk 22. And so the midrash is free to run with this and apply it to the man, the adulterer.

Baal Haturim likes to take traditions which have been derived using other mechanisms and further support them with gematrias. Thus, he writes:

The word הַמְאָרְרִים is equal to 2 X Ramach. This shows that it enters into all the limbs of both the woman (as one) and the man (as another). He further connects it to another fairly common textual feature, that in the word "hi" (meaning "she") there is a vav, as if it were "hu" (him). Thus it refers to him, the adulterer. One a peshat level, this is a relic of the development of the imot hakeriah, and does not bear any special import.

There is a difference between taking an existing derasha from Chazal and supporting it with a gematria (thus perhaps adding extra inspiration for those who like and believe in gematrias) on the one hand, and coming up with new derashot with little or no support from Chazal, on the other. Can gematria be the basis of a novel derasha? Such examples are few. But by way of illustration, here are all the places in Tanach words occur with the value 496 (which is 248 X 2):

Text	Strong's	First Occ.
ויפת	H3315 Yepheth / Japheth	Gen 7:13
וישקף	H8259 shaqaph / look	Gen 19:28
המאכלת	H3979 ma'akeleth / knife	Gen 22:6
כתמול	H8543 temowl / times	Gen 31:2
ומתן	H4976 mattan / gift	Gen 34:12
יפות	H3303 yapheh / fair	Gen 41:2
נמות	H4191 muwth / die	Gen 42:2
צרור	H6872 tserowr / bundle	Gen 42:35
בצפרדעים	H6854 tsephardea` / frog	Exo 8:2
לגלגלת	H1538 gulgoleth / poll	Exo 16:16
וכליתיך	H3615 kalah / consume	Exo 33:5
וסלת	H5560 coleth / flour	Lev 7:12
	H8263 sheqets / abomination	Lev 11:11
מטמאתו	H2932 tum'ah / uncleanness	Lev 14:19
מכלות	H3615 kalah / consume	Lev 26:16
לשמעון	H8095 Shim`own / Simeon	Num 1:6
המאררים	H0779 'arar / curse	Num 5:18
ומררים	H4844 meror / bitter	Num 9:11
מתנו	H4191 muwth / die	Num 14:2
תמנו	H8552 tamam / consume	Num 17:13
מלכתו	H4438 malkuwth / kingdom	Num 24:7
בנחלתו	H5159 nachalah / inheritance	Num 36:9
ועדתיו	H5713 `edah / testimonies	Deu 6:17
וכסית	H3680 kacah / cover	Deu 23:13
תלינו	H3885 luwn / lodge	Jos 4:3
פיות	H6366 peyah / edge	Jdg 3:16
התיכונה	H8484 tiykown / middle	Jdg 7:19
וכעת	H6256 `eth / time	Jdg 13:23
מנות	H4490 manah / portion	1Sa 1:4
כלותם	H3615 kalah / consume	1Sa 15:18
תמלוך	H4427 malak / reign	1Sa 24:20
ומלכת	H4427 malak / reign	2Sa 3:21
ככלותך	H3615 kalah / consume	2Sa 11:19
תסוכי	H5480 cuwk / anoint...8,	2Sa 14:2
והתיכנה	H8484 tiykown / middle	1Ki 6:6
מתאנה	H0579 'anah / deliver	2Ki 5:7
עדותיו	H5715 `eduwth / testimony	2Ki 17:15
ויתכס	H3680 kacah / cover	2Ki 19:1
מלכות	H4438 malkuwth / kingdom	1Ch 12:23
ונפשכם	H5315 nephesh / soul	1Ch 22:19
מתנדב	H5068 nadab / offered	1Ch 29:5
ומנת	H4521 menath / portion	2Ch 31:3
ותנם	H5414 nathan / give	Neh 4:4
לויתן	H3882 livyathan / leviathan	Job 3:8
ולכתם	H3800 kethem / fine	Job 31:24
סביבותיו	H5439 cabiyb / round	Psa 18:11
מוקשים	H4170 mowqesh / snare	Psa 64:5
האכלתם	H0398 'akal / eat	Psa 80:5
כסיתו	H3680 kacah / cover	Psa 104:6
ופתי	H6612 pethiy / simple	Pro 19:25
וטמאתם	H2930 tame' / unclean	Isa 30:22
תכלמו	H3637 kalam / ashamed	Isa 45:17
יתכסו	H3680 kacah / cover	Isa 59:6
וחטאותינו	H2403 chatta'ah / sin	Isa 59:12
תאמנה	H0539 'aman / believe	Isa 60:4
ממותי	H4463 mamowth / death	Jer 16:4
וימתם	H4191 muwth / die	Jer 52:27
והכינתה	H3559 kuwn / prepare	Eze 4:3
והודעתה	H3045 yada` / know	Eze 22:2
המאתים	H3967 me'ah / hundred	Eze 45:15
מאחזתם	H0272 'achuzzah / possession(s)	Eze 46:18
אתיעטו	H3272 ye`at (Aramaic) / counsellor	Dan 6:7
שקוץ	H8251 shiqquwts / abomination	Dan 12:11
כמלקוש	H4456 malqowsh / latter	Hos 6:3
כלמות	H3639 kelimmah / shame	Mic 2:6

Will we now go to each of these instances and give an explanation having to do with two people's Ramach Eivarim? Must we? I would doubt it.

Thus, the general Baal Haturim-type gematria is not the same as looking at a pasuk, or looking at the world, and saying that X must be so because the gematrias add up. For example, the Barack Hussein Obama is the same gematria as Yishmaelim, so Obama is a closet Muslim. I do not believe that Baal Haturim would subscribe to such nonsense, as much as we occasionally disagree of the validity of his own methodology.

Interesting Posts and Articles #151

1. Shirat Devorah notes that Tamar Yonah is going to interview the "facilitator" of the autistics, Rabbi Sachs, and that you can post your questions for him in the comment section of Tamar Yonah's blog.
   

2. Life In Israel now has his own running series of interesting posts. The latest here. Also, he discusses a recommendation by a rabbi to check mezuzos, based on a story of a car accident, where afterward they checked all the mezuzos and found them to be pasul. Probably they did not start out that way, due to taus sofer, but degraded due to the climate, which is why checking mezuzot is required. (Though I seem to recall a position mentioned in one shiur that due to better wrappings in plastic nowadays, they do not degrade so much -- this might have been in terms of tefillin, though.)
   
   The practice of checking mezuzot when things go wrong apparently goes all the way back to the Maharil, in teshuvot Maharil, siman 94. That siman indeed discusses mezuzot, but maybe I missed it but I do not see it there. Maybe someone can point it out to me in either the words of the questioner or in the words of the Maharil.
   
   It can be cast as follows: a mezuzah is a mitzvah, but in addition, as part of the merit of performing the mitzvah, it affords protection. When that protection is lacking, things can go wrong.
   
   This is a very different attitude from, e.g., the word את being miswritten as אש so, almost in punishment, the guy's house burns down.
   
   Whether we agree with either approach, Rabbi Don Segal's attitude seems a lot more like the latter, which in turn seems much more superstitious to me, casting Hashem as some malignant force, while covering oneself by saying "while we don't know the ways of God..."
   
   Meanwhile, it is not magic that the mezuzot were all pasul. If the impetus for the halacha for one to check is indeed that the effects of time and climate cause the deterioration of the text; and if people do not regularly check their mezuzot for decades and decades, until something goes wrong, then it makes sense that it would be deteriorated. And quite possibly, many of their neighbors who did not have a car accident also have pasul mezuzahs. That is, the accident and associated practice of checking the mezuzah in consequence is what led to the discovery of something that was true all along, and this correlation does not (necessarily) indicate causation.
   
   In any case, here is an xkcd comic:
   
   
   
3. Cosmos Magazine has an article on challenging the current beliefs about dinosaur posture.
   
   
4. Avakesh on heretic hunts and childrens literature, in which he considers an interview in Mishpacha with the author of a "banned" book by an Orthodox rabbi co-authored with a Reform rabbi -- and the link to a similar situation in a children's book by the Orthodox author.
   
   
5. Menachem Mendel and Just Call Me Chaviva take note of the Jewish American Girl doll.
   
   
6. At Cross Currents, Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein has a beautiful response to an anti-Zionist reader. A short excerpt:
   

   In the middle of the 19th century, a prolonged ideological battle for the Jewish soul was waged in Europe.
   
   ...
   

   The battle was long, deep, and at times bloody.

   It is also over, and has been for some time. Only people who are living in the past don’t realize it.

7. JNUL puts up the teshuvot maharashdam.
   

8. At Hirhurim, finding out the gender of a fetus.
   
   
9. Oh, and the Haveil Havalim was over at DovBear this week. Check it out.
   

The rules of trup, pg vi

The Rules of Trup by Wolf Heidenheim continues. See previous segment. He concludes his discussion of whether or not segolta is a melech, and turns to pasek. He says it is not, and even though you see the same vertical bar in the munach legarmeih, that is a different trup. And he explains away the seeming exception. The text of his work follows:

for one instance in Scriptures where the segolah does not come after it, and it is (Yeshaya 45:1)*

כֹּֽה־אָמַ֣ר יְהוָה֮ לִמְשִׁיחוֹ֮ לְכ֣וֹרֶשׁ | אֲשֶׁר־הֶֽחֱזַ֣קְתִּי בִֽימִינ֗וֹ לְרַד־לְפָנָיו֙ גּוֹיִ֔ם וּמָתְנֵ֥י מְלָכִ֖ים אֲפַתֵּ֑חַ לִפְתֹּ֤חַ לְפָנָיו֙ דְּלָתַ֔יִם וּשְׁעָרִ֖ים לֹ֥א יִסָּגֵֽרוּ׃

{see Wickes' discussion of this pasuk here.} {The trup at mechon-mamre lacks the vertical bar which would clearly mark this as munach Legarmeih.}
and sometimes two zarkas come one after the other, and a single segolah comes after them, such as (I Shmuel 2:15)

גַּם֮ בְּטֶרֶם֮ יַקְטִר֣וּן אֶת־הַחֵלֶב֒ וּבָ֣א ׀ נַ֣עַר הַכֹּהֵ֗ן וְאָמַר֙ לָאִ֣ישׁ הַזֹּבֵ֔חַ תְּנָ֣ה בָשָׂ֔ר לִצְל֖וֹת לַכֹּהֵ֑ן וְלֹֽא־יִקַּ֧ח מִמְּךָ֛ בָּשָׂ֥ר מְבֻשָּׁ֖ל כִּ֥י אִם־חָֽי׃

And so too the Pasek is not counted either with the teamim nor the meshartim. It is not enumerated with the teamim for it only comes with the mesharet, such as Divrei Hayamim I 21:3:
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יוֹאָ֗ב יוֹסֵף֩ יְהוָ֨ה עַל־עַמּ֤וֹ ׀ כָּהֵם֙

and we said above that this {cantillation mark on amo, before the pasek} shofar mahpach is of the mesharetim. And further, in Bereishit 18:21,
עָשׂ֣וּ ׀ כָּלָ֑ה
which is a shofer illui, which is from the mesharetim.

And if a person whispers to you that "does not the legarmeih come with a shofar?" {That is, it is a munach sign followed by a pasek sign.} This is its way, that you never find a legarmeih except with a shofar and a {vertical} stroke between two words, and all legarmeihs in Scripture come before a revia, such as (Devarim 31:20)
כִּֽי־אֲבִיאֶ֜נּוּ אֶֽל־הָאֲדָמָ֣ה ׀ אֲשֶׁר־נִשְׁבַּ֣עְתִּי לַֽאֲבֹתָ֗יו
except for in a few places which are enumerated in this work, in the gate of legarmeih. And {meanwhile}, pasek is never found before revia (in the middle of a verse) except for in one place in Scriptures, which is (Yeshaya 42:5)
כֹּֽה־אָמַ֞ר הָאֵ֣ל ׀ יְהוָ֗ה בּוֹרֵ֤א הַשָּׁמַ֨יִם֙

________

* {As I noted above, our standard trup is different than he gives above. He explains:} So is the melody of this verse in manuscripts and careful version, and so is primary {what is should be}: Koresh with a munach legarmeih, for we never place two munachs to a revii if the first one is not a munach legarmeih, as is explained later on in the second gate, chapter one, in the law of revii.

"The Sinners of My People (Who Ignore Autistics) Will Die By The Sword"

So Nava's apocalypse, courtesy of the Tzaddik Nistar, has not yet arrived, and she turns to promoting other false prophets. (Indeed, in a post ironically titled "Falsehood is Disintegrating"!) The nevi`ei sheker in question are the autistics. They are fake for four evident reasons:

1. The mechanism they claim to use to communicate, facilitated communication, is nowadays (though was not initially) considered by many to be a pseudoscience even in the common case of non-mystical autistics. Critics claim that it is the facilitator, rather that the autistic, who is communicating, using the same sort of "ideamotor effect" that scientifically explains movement on Ouija boards.
   
   
2. Even those doctors who promote facilitated communication as scientific in the general case distance themselves from facilitated communication as practiced by these "mystical" autistics, among other reasons because of problematic differences in procedure which would make it even less likely it comes from the autistics. Indeed, the mystical autistics have taken to explaining away all sorts of these problems by means of telepathy, or the neshama of the autistic rather than his conscious mind communicating.
   
   
3. While on the surface, the messages from the autistics appear inspirational, as calls to teshuva, in truth their messages are more problematic. They insult Gedolim; engage in tremendous sinas chinam; attempt to dictate halacha, where the matter is often a machlokes -- something which a navi would be a navi sheker if he tried to do -- while claiming that they are not doing it. The message alone is not believable, but this is perhaps not clear to the hamon am.
   
   
4. They have already made a number of false predictions, including one apocalyptic war in Israel about a year ago and the failing of all commercial banks (rather than investment banks, which is a homonym)  such that no one would be able to withdraw any of their money. The connected George Bush and the minor war in Georgia to Gog and Magog, based in part on similarity of name. Some of these false predictions have been "interpreted" rather charitably as being fulfilled by people who want to see them fulfilled, so some think that the autistics have a track record of accurate predictions. This is not the case. If a navi were being put to the test, the correct conclusion would be navi sheker. (Except of course that negative predictions cannot be put to the test, so they are staying "safe".)

As such, there is no reason to pay heed to these false "facilitators" over any other lunatic screaming on the street that the end is nigh. Besides being a likely violation of tamim tihyeh im Hashem elokecha, we are told explicitly in Devarim 18:22 that we should not be afraid of him:

כב  אֲשֶׁר יְדַבֵּר הַנָּבִיא בְּשֵׁםה, וְלֹא-יִהְיֶה הַדָּבָר וְלֹא יָבֹא--הוּא הַדָּבָר, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-דִבְּרוֹ יְהוָה:  בְּזָדוֹן דִּבְּרוֹ הַנָּבִיא, לֹא תָגוּר מִמֶּנּוּ.  {ס}

22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken; the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him.

There is a positive aspect of this false prophecy. Time Magazine had an article last week about the difficulty of managing autistic people as they age. Perhaps so long as they are in these yeshivot and being exploited they will be well taken care of. Even so, it is unfortunate how they are poisoning Judaism and leading Jews astray in an apocalyptic cult.

It seems to me that they are lashing out at the disbelievers in the latest missive. For they title the latest one "The Sinners of My People Will Die By The Sword," a reference to Amos 9:10. (And here in Mikraos Gedolos.) But there is an end to that pasuk, that makes it clear precisely which sinners the facilitators mean:

י  בַּחֶרֶב יָמוּתוּ, כֹּל חַטָּאֵי עַמִּי:  הָאֹמְרִים, לֹא-תַגִּישׁ וְתַקְדִּים בַּעֲדֵינוּ--הָרָעָה.

10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, that say: 'The evil shall not overtake nor confront us.'

That is, the sinners are those people who do not believe in the claims of the impending doom. I guess that means me. The thing is, I know already from their methods and their messages that they are false prophets, so I will not believe them, no matter how much they try to scare me. The pasuk in Devarim tells me not to worry about the message of these prophets. And they are no Amos.

Another of their messages is that one cannot simultanously be any bit materialistic and merit redemption and/or olam haba. Perhaps because the facilitators are poor, they begrudge wealth on the part of others and call it the Egel Hazahav. Meanwhile, the Torah promises wealth in this world as well for doing mitzvos, and some Tannaim and Amoraim were wealthy, and did not look at it as a bad thing, but rather as a blessing from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The autistics more or less say to cast off wealth, because this will prevent redemption or any share in Olam Haba. To cite:

"They too are enjoying all the gashmius like the Charedi Jews in America. In each country it takes on a different shape but in the end it is still the Egel Hazahav and it is destroying every thing spiritual in life. 

Am Yisrael, we are right before The End. You want eternal life? Then you must throw away every connection to the olam hazeh. The only way to do that is to accept with humility the Yoke of Heaven. 

This is the final tikkun [rectification] for this generation. Whoever does not complete this tikkun, chas veshalom, whoever does not lower his head and accept everything we are given form Hakadosh Baruch Hu, every blow, every difficult thing He gives us, without question, and does not cry out to Heaven: “Hashem is the Lord, Hashem is the lord, Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem echad” will disappear from this world - as well as from the Olam Haba, lo aleinu. 

Whoever does say this with all of his heart and truly accepts the Yoke of Heaven, he will gain eternal life [olam haba] and greet Moshiach Tzidkanu, bezras Hashem. Whoever does not – there is no hope for him."

There was another Jewish false prophet, about 2000 years ago, who had a similar message. He said (Matthew 19:24):

Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God."

To cite an article which was found in Hamodia:

And as a matter of fact, the Torah does take a far more favorable attitude towards the accumulation of wealth than does Christianity. There were Tannaim and Amoraim of great wealth as well as great poverty, and neither state was viewed as conferring moral superiority. With wealth goes responsibility, but those responsibilities do not undercut property rights; they are found in Yore Deah not Choshen Mishpat. The ymearly [sic] Church fathers, by way of contrast, viewed the accumulation of more wealth than one needs for his basic subsistence to be sinful, akin to theft.