Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

Towards the end of the Story of Purim, the Persian king Achashverosh overturned his awful decree against the Jews, sending out messages throughout his kingdom to announce that the Jews had permission to fight back against their enemies. As the Bible reports, and he sent scrolls in the hands of the runners withsusim, the riders of therechesh, theachashtranim, sons of theremachim (Est. 8:10). In Part One of this essay, we focused on the words susandrechesh,which both mean horse. This second installation is dedicated to the wordsachashtranimandremachim,which also seemingly mean horse.After discussing those words, we still have one more matter related to the wordrecheshthat we spoke about last week, and with that we will conclude this two-part essay.

When it comes to the phrase theachashtranim, sons of theremachim, the Talmud (Megillah18a) already comments that we do not know what this means. That comment itself actually implies that wedoknow whatrecheshmeans, hence the above-mentioned commentators offered their respective takes on the meaning ofrechesh. But does the Talmuds comment mean that there is no known way of understandingachashtranimandremachim?

Mrs. Karolyn Benger is enjoying her copy of Rabbi Kleins book God versus Gods: Judaism in the Age of Idolatry (Mosaica Press, 2018). When are you going to get yourself a copy?

Rabbeinu Nissim of Gerona (13201380) thinks not. He explains that the Talmud only meant that themassesdo not know what these terms mean, but that theTorah Scholarsdo know, or at least could know, what these words mean (Teshuvot HaRan79, also cited inTeshuvot Rivash390391).

Menachem Ibn Saruk (920970), Yonah Ibn Janach (9901050), and Radak (11601234) all trace the wordachashtranimto the six-letter root ALEPH-CHET-SHIN-TAV-REISH-NUN. Actually, Ibn Janach asserts that the NUN is extraneous to the root, and elsewhere implies that the ALPEH is also extraneous, so for him the real root ofachashtranimis only four or five letters, not six. Ibn Ezra writes in general that four- (quadriliteral) or five- (pentaliteral) letter roots in Hebrew are typically either compound roots comprised of multiple roots fused together, or are loanwords borrowed from a language other than Hebrew. Both of these approaches are taken by various scholars with it comes toachashtranim.

Many commentators explain thatachashtranimrefer to mules that were born from the union of male donkeys and female horses (as opposed to hinnies, which are born to male horses and female donkeys, and are typically weaker beasts). This explanation is offered by Rabbi Saadia Gaon (to Est. 8:10), Ibn Ezra (to Est. 8:10), Radak (Sefer Shorashim, s.v. ), Rabbi Moshe ben Yitzchak Ibn Chalava (to Est. 8:10), and Ralbag (to Est. 8:10). In line with this, Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (11051170) inSefer HaGaluicites Rabbi Saadia Gaon as explaining the etymology ofachashtranimas derived from a portmanteau of the Persian wordachash(big) and the Aramaic wordtrein(two), alluding to the fact that theachashtranimwere large beasts born out of the merger of two species. According to this,achashtranimare not actually horses, but rather half-horses. As an aside, Rabbi Yosef Kimchis son Radak (to I Kgs. 5:8) writes that the wordrechesh(also?) refers to these mules. Indeed, Ibn Janach writes that it is not too farfetched to presume thatachashtranimrefer to the same thing asrechashim.

Based in London, Rabbi Yossi Kwadrat is the editor-in-chief of the Kankan Magazine. Hes a huge fan of Rabbi Reuven Chaim Kleins God versus Gods, just see his excited smile behind the stoic beard

Rabbi Tuviah ben Eliezer (an 11thcentury exegete) writes inMidrash Lekach Tov(also known asPesikta Zutrata) thatrecheshmeans horses (like we saw earlier), andachashtranimis an adjective that describes the type of horses in question. He parses the wordachashtranimas related to CHET-SHIN (speed/quickness) and TAV-REISH (spying/scouting), as these animals were able to travel quickly and were used by international spies to scout out other lands. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (17401814) similarly sees the wordachashtranimas a portmanteau of the biliteral CHET-SHIN and TAV-REISH (jumping). According to him, the very name of this animal tells us that its swift abilities stem from its ability tojump(as opposed to its ability torunvery fast). [For more about TAV-REISH as spying, see my earlier essay Spy versus Spy (June 2017).]

Interestingly, Rashi (to Est. 8:10) writesachashtranimare fast-runningcamels. In this case, he is somewhat an outlier because most of the other commentators relate the term to horses (or at least partial horses). Another outlier is Rabbi Ernest Klein (18991983), who writes that the wordachashtranderives from the Old Persian wordkhshathrana/khshathra(dominion, government, province). According to this, the term has nothing to do with horses, mules, camels, or any other animals. It is just a common adjective that tells us thatrechashimin question were government-owned.

As mentioned above, the animals by which Achashveroshs messages were delivered are described as sons of theremachim (Est. 8:10). This is the only instance in the entire Bible in which the wordremachim and indeed the triliteral root REISH-MEM-KAF in general appears. However, the singular form of remachimactually appears in the Mishnah (Kilayim8:5), when ruling that one is allowed to interbreed a horse with aramach.The Jerusalemic Talmud (Kilayim8:4) already makes the connection between the Mishnaic wordramachand the Biblical termremachimmentioned in Esther.

Mrs. Ruchy Reese loved Rabbi Reuven Chaim Kleins book! And so you can you. Available on Amazon while supplies last

Maimonides (in his commentary to the Mishnah there) identifies theramachwith a type of frigid horse that one might have thought should be considered a different species than regular horses, when it comes to the prohibition of interbreeding animals. Elsewhere, Maimonides (Laws ofKilayim9:5) writes that theramachis a wild horse (as opposed to asus,which is a domesticated horse). Without explaining why, Rabbi Shlomo Sirilio (14851554) comments that he thinks that theramachis none other than what we call a zebra.

Rabbi Tuviah ben Eliezer (mentioned above) explains that the term sons of theremachimsimply means that whatever animals are being described wereyoung. This explanation is also implied by Rashi (toTaanit23a, see alsoShenot EliyahutoKilyaim8:5 andGilyonei HaShas).Ibn Yachya (to Ext. 8:10) also explicitly claims that sons of theremachimwere small horses.

Alternatively, Rabbi Tuviah explains sons of theremachimas a term used to describe the jockeys who rode the horses. He justifies this understanding by deconstructingremachimas a portmanteau of the roots REISH-MEM (raising/lifting) and MEM-KAF (hitting/whipping). Together, those two roots provide an apt description of how a horse-rider might lift his arm to whip his horse when encouraging it to move faster.

According to those who explainachashtranimas mules born from female horses, the termremachimrefers to those female horses, or mares (see Radak inSefer HaShorashim). There is apparently an Arabic cognate that is similar toremachimthat also means female horse.

When the Bible relates that Hashem created animals on the sixth day of creation, it saysvet habehemah,using the extraneous wordet. Peirush HaRokeach(to Gen. 1:25 and Est. 8:10) explains thatetserves to include the otherwise unmentionedachashtranim. He explains that theseachashtranimare eight-legged animals that run with one set of four legs until they get tired, whereupon they would lift those four legs into their body and lower down the other set of four legs.Peirush HaRokeachalso adds that the wordhaachashtranimingematria(=1014) equals the numeric value of the phraseshel shemonah raglaim(of eight legs).

AlthoughPeirush HaRokeachdoes not explicitly state exactly what sort of animal were theseachashtranim(whether equestrian or otherwise), a similar tradition is recorded by Rabbi Yosef Kara (10651135) in his commentary to Esther, who explains that sons of theremachim refer to flying camels that had eight legs (also noting that they had two sets of four legs, such that when they get tired, they would lift up one set of legs and lower the other). This is similar to Rashi, who likewise explainedachashtranimas camels.

Writer Gil Weinreich is enjoying his copy of Rabbi Kleins book about idolatry! Available on Amazon and Jewish bookstores around the world.

There is a fascinating tradition that provides us with the personal name of Achashveroshs horse. Both Targum Sheini (to Est. 6:10) andPeirush HaRokeach(to Est. 9:4) write that his horse was named Shifrigaz, or as Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (14691549) inMetrugamanvocalizes it, Shfargaz. [My friend Rabbi Yehuda Spitz points out that this tradition regarding the name of Achashveroshs horse differs from what was depicted in C. J. Kramers animated renditionMegillas Lester, wherein the kings horse was named Hangover.]

Rabbi Yaakov Daniel Amash writes that Shifrigaz derives from a portmanteau ofshapir(beautiful) andgaz(transporting, see Rashi to Ps. 90:10). Apparently, Achashveroshs steed was a very beautiful horse in appearance, and the main role of a horse is to transport its rider from place to place. Hence, the name Shifrigaz. Based on his understanding of the Persian language, Dr. Alexander Kohut (18421894) inHaAruch HaShaleimtranslates the name Shifrigaz into German asrothweisses Pferd(literally, the red-white horse).

You know you want a copy. Get it today on Amazon.com before its sold out

Dr. Dan Shapira (a linguist and philologist at Bar Ilan University) wrote to me that he thinks this name for Achashveroshs horse is derived from the Persian wordsshap/shab(black/night-color) andrechesh(horse). In doing so, he assumes the interchangeability of KAF and GIMMEL, as well as SHIN and ZAYIN. Interestingly, Dr. Shapira compared this to a different horse in Persian literature: A famous Persian king named Khosrow Parviz (590-628), who reigned in the early Geonic period, apparently had a horse named Shabdiz, who was said to be the fastest horse in the world. Perhaps the name Shifrigaz associated with Achashveroshs horse is somehow related to or conflated with this later horse.

RABBI REUVEN CHAIM KLEIN is a researcher and editor at the Veromemanu Foundation in Israel. His weekly articles about synonyms in the Hebrew Language appear in the OhrNet and are syndicated by the Jewish Press and Times of Israel. For over a decade, he studied at preimer Haredi Yeshivot, including Yeshiva Gedolah of Los Angeles, Yeshivat Mir in Jerusalem, Beth Medrash Govoha of America. He received rabbinic ordination from multiple rabbinic authorities and holds an MA in Jewish Education from the London School of Jewish Studies/Middlesex Univeristy. Rabbi Klein authored two popular books that were published by Mosaica Press, as well as countless articles and papers published in various journals. He and his wife made Aliyah in 2011 and currently live in the West Bank city of Beitar Illit. Rabbi Klein is a celebrated speaker and is available for hire in research, writing, and translation projects, as well as speaking engagements.

Read the original post:

Happy horses (part 2/2) | Reuven Chaim Klein | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

Category: Rabbi
Tags: