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Brachos 64a:

אמר רבי אלעזר אמר רבי חנינא תלמידי חכמים מרבים שלום בעולם
שנאמר (ישעיהו נד, יג) "וכל בניך למודי ה' ורב שלום בניך"
אל תקרי בניך אלא בוניך

What is the function of this Al Tikrei? The pshat of the pasuk does a fine job of proving the tannah's assertion. What does the Al Tikrei come to add?

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    Personally I would ask the opposite; even after the al tikrei, the point is still not really demonstrated.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented May 23, 2016 at 19:49
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    בוניך may mean "those who understand You" @mevaqesh
    – wfb
    Commented May 23, 2016 at 23:52
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    Can you explain what is the pshat without al tikre. If this pshat has a Kashia, so the al tikre is a teruts. I feel that if you explain the pshat before the Drasha, it would be easier to discuss on your question.
    – kouty
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 4:11
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    The Maharsha asks your question, but not in Brachos. Check where else this gemara appears.
    – user12688
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 14:02
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    @mevaqesh, probably not builders, but understanders (see wfb's comment - ie., scholars. But your second point is taken: without the Derashah, it seems only to be speaking about children who have/receive/give/increase peace.
    – Seth J
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 16:02

2 Answers 2

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I thought this was an interesting pshat from Erel Segal-Halevi (a fellow Yodeyan!).

In context, the psukim (Yeshayahu 54:11-17) are talking about building Jerusalem. So bonayikh means the builders of Jerusalem. Later on (Yeshayahu 60:10), the pasuk says

וּבָנוּ בְנֵי-נֵכָר חֹמֹתַיִךְ

And aliens shall build up thy walls

From this, we learn that non-Jews will be among the builders of Jerusalem.

So while we might have thought that our pasuk was saying that the children of Hashem would become learned in God's Torah and therefore they would have a great peace, instead, read the second בניך as בוניך, "your builders". That includes the non-Jews as we learned from perek 60. Learning Torah doesn't just cause שלום for the Jews; it causes שלום בעולם.

If we had read the second בניך as it's written, we would have thought the pasuk was only implying peace for the Jewish people and therefore it would not prove R' Chaninah's point.

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  • This is essentially the answer I suggested in the comments; it just widens the scope of בוניך from non-scholars to non-Jews.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 16:49
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The emphasis of the drosh is on scholars in particular, bringing peace to the world, and there was already an established metaphor likening scholars to builders - see the Mishna, Mikvaot 9:6, where "בנאים" is constrasted with "בור" (and the Bartenura there, who explains).

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  • "to the world in particular" as opposed to what? Something broader than the world?
    – mevaqesh
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 21:53
  • @mevaqesh - no, as in scholars in particular. Sorry for the ambiguity.
    – Shimon bM
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 22:04
  • I edited it; change it back if you dont like it of course.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented May 25, 2016 at 22:05

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