In Mishlei (Proverbs) 28:17, the letter dalet is small in the word "adam". Why is this?
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judaism.stackexchange.com/a/57000– DonielFOct 28, 2018 at 15:55
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Possible duplicate judaism.stackexchange.com/q/9510/759– Double AA ♦Oct 28, 2018 at 15:58
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2@DoubleAA How? That talks about anything significant in the letters as a group; this talks about one particular instance. An answer to your proposition probably won’t address this at all.– DonielFOct 28, 2018 at 16:48
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His daled has become small so he will return to the em.– pcozJan 11, 2022 at 4:21
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3 Answers
The go-to sefer for this is Sefer Katan v'Gadol by R. Zvi Ron (which I discovered via this answer). Your case is on page 258. The author brings four commentaries on this small dalet, as follows (in brief):
- Midrash R. Akiva — the dalet represents the gematria of 4 people "killed", who besides for the victim themselves are the victim's wife, their sons, and their daughters.
- R. Avraham Bick — the killer is reduced and diminished by the act.
- R. Nehemia Friedman — the dalet represents דם (blood), and the killer is diminished by the act (based on a drasha in Sota 5a).
- R. Pinchas Wolf — without the dalet (which again represents דם (blood)), the killer is no longer a person (אדם), and the remaining letters spell אם (if), so: if the sin of murder is on a person, then they are no longer considered a person (אדם). (I think that was what he's getting out of "אם", but it still works without that.)
See inside for (slightly) more details.
As a tentative answer, I would posit that if you read the word without the dalet - it becomes Eim - as in a mother. This admonishment applies equally to both men and women, whether a woman has children or not.
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Because it says adam the implication that this only applies to men and not women.– user18155Oct 28, 2018 at 16:55
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2I think אדם as used in Tanach typically refers to humankind in general, as opposed to איש/אנוש or גבר which refer to men specifically. I could be wrong, but that seems to be the case.– DonielFOct 28, 2018 at 16:56
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Adam refers always to man in his pristine state. In Bereishis it is used in contradistinction to Chava.– user18155Oct 28, 2018 at 16:59
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2You have to look at Chazal and see the deroshos applied in those instances. There are other factors that lead one to read a pasuk. Since, in general, we can't make derashos, we look to chazal to help us. Nonetheless, as I said, my answer was tentative, since I have not seen this anywhere and I have not seen a comment on it.– user18155Oct 29, 2018 at 7:48
According to the authoritative sefer on Masores Mincas Shai, the dalet is not small after all.
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I'm not sure this is true, but anyway even if it was the question still stands according to the other opinions– Double AA ♦May 16, 2021 at 2:19