יום רביעי, 14 בנובמבר 2012

Renaming The City - Toldos 5770


We have an incident in which Avimelech gets into a squabble with Yitzchok.  After this, Avimelech and Fichol come together to make Shaloim with Yitzchok. It says they made it a Bris between them in 26:33, (וַיִּקְרָא אֹתָהּ, שִׁבְעָה; עַל-כֵּן שֵׁם-הָעִיר בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה)  Meaning, He named it Shiva, therefore the city is called Be’er Sheva until this very day. Pashut Pshat in the Posuk is that it was named after the 7th Be’er. Rashi says, (שבעה: על שם הברית) At any rate it is difficult. It already says earlier in 26:23 that (וַיַּעַל מִשָּׁם, בְּאֵר שָׁבַע) That Yitzchok went to Be’er Sheva. In Parshas Vayeira 21:31 we already have that Avraham named it Be’er Sheva (עַל-כֵּן, קָרָא לַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא--בְּאֵר שָׁבַעכִּי שָׁם נִשְׁבְּעוּ, שְׁנֵיהֶם). Al Pi Pshat it is very difficult to understand. The Meshech Chochmah and Netziv both say, that the city was called Be’er Sheva. However, subsequently, the Bris was broken when Avimelech’s people made trouble for Yitzchok. Yitzchok came and made a new Bris between them and was again Mefarseim the name בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה.
This idea that a person can give a name to a city that already has a name brings to mind a Noide B’yehuda which Rebbi learned in Yeshiva now in Maseches Gittin. The Teshuva is in Even Ha’ezer and it is about a city in Poland named Piltz. They were writing a Get and the city was always spelled Pei, Yud, Lamed, Tes, Ende Tzaddik. A new Rav came to town and said this is an incorrect spelling because in Lashon Koidesh you can never have 3 Sh’va sounds one after the other. He spelled it without the Tes on 2 Gittin. Earlier there had already been Gittin with the Tes. People wrote the Noide B’yehuda asking if the new Rav was correct or not. This was one case where knowing too much Dikduk caused problems because the Noide B’yehuda wrote back that the original spelling was correct. It should have the Tes and the rules of Dikduk don’t apply to other languages. However, due to Kavod Harav the Noide B’yehuda asked that for the next 30 days they should be Machriz in every Shul in town and say that the city’s name is spelled without the Tes. Just like we can change a person’s name so to you can change the name of a city and with this Hachraza, he made that there wouldn’t be any Lav made on the Gittin. Of course the Chidush is that you can change the name of a city which we learn here from Yitzchok, that he called the city Be’er Sheva which happened to be the same name, however, with a different Tam. What we learn B’derech Mussar is the tremendous Kavod Hatalmid Chochom that the Noideh B’yehuda had.

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