Seeking Completion | The Jewish Press - JewishPress com | Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein | 7 Heshvan 5782 – October 13, 2021
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Strength and Restraint
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In addition, three more Hebrew terms refer to chickens:
gever, sechvi, ziz sadai, and
tarnegol.
While the word
gever can mean ârooster,â it more often means âman/maleâ and seems to be a cognate of the word
gevurah (âpowerâ or âstrengthâ).
The Talmud (
Brachot 7a) teaches that every morning there is a moment when G-d is especially angry and one who can identify that moment can harness G-dâs wrath to curse other people.
Rabbeinu Efrayim writes that Balaam called himself a
gever because he was able to figure out the exact moment when G-d would be angry enough that a curse would be effective. Interestingly, a 2021 paper by Dr. Jessica L. Lamont of Yale University demonstrates that chickens were particularly associated with curse rituals in Ancient Greece.
Rabbi Yosef Albo (1380-1444) in
Sefer HaâIkkarim (2:27) writes that â
emetâ (truth) is an antonym to both â
shekerâ and â
kazav.â Truth means consonance between a statement and reality, and it also means consonance between what a person verbally expresses and what he thinks in his heart. â
Shekerâ is dissonance between the former pair, and â
kazavâ is dissonance between the latter pair.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel (1760-1828) takes issue with Rabbi Alboâs assumption that a statement that truly reflects oneâs inner thoughts can be called
sheker if it doesnât reflect reality. He asks: According to this definition, how can the Torah forbid a person from testifying