Avodah Mailing List

Volume 42: Number 78

Sun, 24 Nov 2024

• 1. Re: The tzibbur saying Acheinu together (elazar teitz)
• 2. Oldest Synagogue in Chu"L Found (Micha Berger)
• 3. pikuach nefesh (Joel Rich)
• 4. shehechiyanu (Joel Rich)
• 5. How to spell and pronounce Yishmael (Akiva Miller)

While I cannot attest to any connection with the Six-Day War, I can attest
that its being recited at all by the tzibbur is relatively recent. In my
yeshiva years, not only was it not said together by shatz and tzibbur, it
wasn't said by the tzibbur a
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In Phanagoria, Southern Russia.
Built 51 CE, meaning, 20 years before the end of Bayis Sheini.

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sywsyzvfyg

See the pictures. As is usual for the period, the menoros have round arms.
But 7 arms, and decorated in what could be kaftor vaferach, implying
that in this distant shul, they believed the BHMQ was using a rounded
arm menorah. (IMHO, accuractly. Shuls in Israel of the period had
similar representation. Not to mention the rest of that debate, no
need to rehash?)

Another notable piece is how early having a pushka in shul was de
rigeur. Even if it was a later addition, we are only talking as late
as amoraim before the shul was destroyed (the article implies sometime
before 600 ce).

And maybe that small side room mentioned in the snippet below is our
first evidence of an Ezras Nashim? It's commonly believed that in this
era, there was none -- women simply weren't coming to shul at all.

Last, it is still the custom among many Edot haMizrach to have a garden
around the shul. It allows you a chance to calm the mind before entering.
(Or maybe there is a more authoritative reason. That is just what an
Egyptian friend told me he picked up in childhood.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 None of us will leave this place alive.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   All that is left to us is
Author: Widen Your Tent      to be as human as possible while we are here.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF          - Anonymous MD, while a Nazi prisoner

   Archaeologists reveal what they discovered in first century Russian
   Jewish quarter
   Itamar Eichner

   Archaeologists uncovered a magnificent Jewish quarter in Russia,
   located around the ruins of the oldest synagogue in the world
   discovered outside of Israel. This synagogue was built about 2,000
   years ago, during the time of the Second Temple. The synagogue and
   the Jewish quarter were first discovered last year in Phanagoria in
   southwest Russia.
   ...
   The synagogue was built in 51 CE and lasted about 500 years...
   ...
               ... Among other things, the remains of three remarkable
   marble menorahs and a stone lid of a charity box were uncovered. The
   building, with a total area of 140 square meters, included two rooms: a
   prayer hall, with three rows of benches, a platform, and a small room.
   The second room was probably used for meals and community meetings.
   Next to the synagogue was a winery, where kosher wine was made, and a
   building where food for community meals was stored. There was also a
   garden behind the building which probably served as the mikveh. The
   archaeologists also located clay barrels for irrigation, residential
   buildings, and a water supply system. Copper coins were discovered in
   excavations on the floor of the synagogue. Some of them were placed
   near the platform and the benches. Additional coins were found near the
   lid of the charity donation box. A total of 58 copper coins were found
   at the site.

R H Schacter and R A Weiss speak of pikuach nefesh as including
non-immediate threats to life. Is there a materiality standard or does any
decrease in life expectancy qualify?

Bsorot tovot

Joel Rich
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For purposes of a seasonal shehechiyanu, if a fruit is available all year,
but in certain seasons the cost is exorbitant, is shehechiyanu  still said?

bsorot tovot

joel rich
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.
The name "Yishmael" means "G-d heard". I don't even need Rashi for that;
Bereshis 16:11 says it explicitly. If so, I think it would be quite
reasonable for the Ayin to have a shva, and the Aleph to have a tzere,
forming a compound word: Yish-ma*-el, God-heard.  That's the usual way to
construct this kind of name. Betzal-el, Mahalal-el, Nesan-el, Sh'lumi-el,
and many others - not to mention Yisra-el - put the tzere on the Aleph.

But that's not how Yishmael is spelled. The Ayin gets the tzere, and the
Aleph has no vowel at all, making it silent. The correct pronunciation is
Yish-ma-*el.

Besides Yishmael, there are a very few other exceptions. Daniel has the
tzere on the yud, and Yechezkel has it on the kuf, the same oddity as
Yishmael.
Jezreel has no tzere at all, but it does have a segol, and it is on the
ayin. [For those unfamiliar with the name of the valley, it is spelled yud
zayin resh ayin aleph lamed.]

From what I can tell, those first 3 names are the only words in all of
Tanach which end in tzere-aleph-lamed.
And Jezreel is the only word in the entire Tanach which ends in
segol-aleph-lamed,
This contrasts with the many many many which end with aleph-tzere-lamed.
Any ideas what they might have in common?

Akiva Miller
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