Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 41:4

D’VOTHAH.’ “This is an expression for anything which flows from her body, derived from the wording¹¹In our text of Rashi: “Another interpretation.” for malady [madveh] and sickness, for no woman sees an issue of blood without becoming unwell, and her head and her limbs feeling heavy on her.” This is Rashi’s language. But I do not know on the basis of which root the word d’vothah can be an expression in the Sacred Language for “anything which flows.” But it is possible that it is an expression of malady, on the basis of what the Rabbis have said,¹²Niddah 9 a. “and her head and limbs are heavy on her.” So also is the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, who writes: “D’vothah is a noun and means sickness, for the blood which issues indicates a sickness in the woman.” Now it is true that the flow constitutes a cleansing of surpluses [of blood], and due to the fact that her head and her limbs feel heavy upon her, the flow is perhaps termed “a sickness.” The correct interpretation, however, is that d’vothah is an expression derived from the word madveh [which does not mean “sickness,” i.e., an unnatural occurrence in the body, since a woman’s menses are natural; and d’vothah is therefore like the terms] plague and pain, just as in the expressions: My heart is ‘davoi’ (faint) within me;¹³Jeremiah 8:18. for this our heart is ‘daveh’ (faint),¹⁴Lamentations 5:17. and like: the plague of his heart.¹⁵I Kings 8:38. Thus menstruation is an affliction upon the woman even though it is in her nature [to experience it regularly]. A similar expression is upon the bed of ‘d’voi’ (illness].¹⁶Psalms 41:4.

A different approach quoted in Tanchuma Vayechi 3 holds that Yisrael prostrated himself before G’d and thanked Him for the promise Joseph had made him. The reason the Torah defines the exact location where Yisrael prostrated himself-toward the head of the bed- teaches us that G’d’s Presence takes up its position at the head of the bed of a sick person. Regardless of before whom Yisrael prostrated himself, the interesting thing is the mention of the word מטה, “bed,” in our verse. This is to teach us that whereas the “bed” of Avraham and Yitzchak were not “complete,” (i.e. neither Avraham nor Yitzchak had succeeded in raising all their children true to their beliefs) Yisrael was the first of the patriarchs who had succeeded in doing this. The Talmud in Pesachim 56 relates the following concern expressed by Yaakov prior to his death when his prophetic powers suddenly failed him: “Maybe G’d forbid one or more of my children is not really loyal to my teachings as happened to Avraham with Ishmael and as happened to Yitzchak with Esau.” His sons reassured him by reciting the words שמע ישראל ה' אלוקינו ה' אחד. Another reason why the word מטה is mentioned here is that the שכינה had come to Egypt with Yaakov. When he is now reported as “gathering in his feet to the bed,” this is a reference of his joining the שכינה which had accompanied him ever since he had gone down to Egypt. The word מטה occurs in that sense also in Song of Songs 3,7 just as the word יאסף appears in Isaiah 58,8 as referring to G’d’s Presence being Israel’s rear guard.