창세기 46:15의 인용 해설

AND THE WHOLE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL MURMURED AGAINST MOSES. Scripture should have first narrated the nature of the complaint just as it did in Marah²⁸⁴Above 15:23-24, And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter…. And the people murmured against Moses. and Rephidim,²⁸⁵Further, 17:1-2. And they encamped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people strove with Moses. and at all other complaints — and stated here first: “and there was no flesh to eat, nor bread for them to the full, and the people were famished for bread.” Now Rashi explained that the reason Scripture specifically mentions [that the date of their arrival in the wilderness of Sin] was on the fifteenth day of the second month²⁸⁶Verse 1. is in order “to make this encampment unique. On that day, there came to an end the provision which the Israelites took along with them from Egypt, and they now needed the manna. It thus informs you that they ate sixty-one meals²⁸⁷The manna first came down on the sixteenth day of Iyar, the second month (see Verse 4), thirty-one days after the exodus. Since two meals are ordinarily eaten daily (see Verse 8), this period required sixty-two meals. The first meal, however, was taken in Egypt on the night of the fifteenth day of Nisan, thus leaving sixty-one meals, which were furnished by the provisions they brought out of Egypt. of the remains of the dough [which they had baked in Egypt on the day of the exodus].”²⁸⁸Above 12:39. [Thus far the language of Rashi.] This is a tradition received by our Rabbis,²⁸⁹Mechilta on Verse 1 here. and the reason that Scripture did not [first] explain the nature of their complaint was that it had not elaborated on this miracle which was done for them secretively, [i.e., that the remains of the dough furnished sixty-one meals]. And it is as I have already written in Seder Vayigash concerning the reason [that Scripture is disposed to be silent on hidden miracles].²⁹⁰See Vol. I, pp. 556-558.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote that Scripture records the date on the fifteenth day of the second month in order to explain that a month’s time had already elapsed since their departure from Egypt. In the meantime, they consumed the bread they took out of Egypt as well as their cattle, since they were a great multitude of people. This was the reason for the murmuring.
In my opinion, the reason for their complaint is to be found in the Scriptural expression, and they came… unto the wilderness of Sin.²⁸⁶Verse 1. When they came to that wilderness far away from Egypt, they began saying: “What shall we eat? What will this great wilderness into which we have come supply us with?” It may be that at first they had thought that after a few days they would come to the cities round about them. Now that a month had gone by and they found no city of habitation,²⁹¹Psalms 107:4. they said, “We will all die in the great wilderness into which we have come.” This then is the meaning of the verse, And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness, the murmuring being because of the wilderness. And so likewise the people said, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to put to death this whole assembly by famine.²⁹²Verse 3. Thus they mentioned “the wilderness’ and “the assembly,” therein stating that a large assembly such as this will undoubtedly die of hunger in this great wilderness. The Holy One, blessed be He, hearkened unto them, and He now began to prepare a table for them in the wilderness²⁹³Psalms 78:19. until they came to a land inhabited.²⁹⁴Further, Verse 35.

Mushy. [Rashi knows this] because it should only say: “When a woman gives birth to a male child.” [Why does it add “conceives”?] Rather, this comes to include even [when the embryo] is born mushy. One should not object: [The Rabbis taught (Berachos 60a)]: This teaches that if a woman emits seed first [the child will be a male, thus,] it is needed for that! [The answer is:] If so, it should say: “כי תזריע האשה וילדה זכר.” Rather, it juxtaposes “conception” to “giving birth” and writes וילדה זכר with a ו, which indicates certainty, and does not write “if,” the way it does (v. 5): “If she gives birth to a female.” Perforce you have both [explanations]. [You might ask:] Rashi explains above in Parshas Vayigash (Bereishis 46:15): “These are the sons of Leah... along with his daughter Deenah.” — “The males are attributed to Leah while the females are attributed to Yaakov, to teach you that if the woman emits seed first then she will give birth to a male [and if the man emits seed first then she will give birth to a female].” Why is this needed? It is derived from here! The answer is: From here we can only derive that a woman who emits seed [first] gives birth [to a male], however, [it is inconclusive in the event] the man emits seed first or they both emit simultaneously, that she will give birth to a female. Therefore, Scripture lets us know: “along with his daughter Deenah,” that if they [both] emit seed simultaneously they each cancel the other [and she will give birth to a male or female]. And from there alone, however, it cannot be derived, because we can say Scripture attributes the males to Leah because it cannot attribute them to Yaakov, who had other male children, [and if it said “these are the sons of Yaakov” I might think that these alone are the sons of Yaakov]. The female [Deenah] was attributed to him, though, since he had no other daughter besides her. [Thus,] from both [verses] it is derived well. Re’m dwelt at length on this but I shortened it (Minchas Yehudah).

Our sages in Niddah 31 as well as in Berachot 60 are of the opinion that if the woman achieves orgasm first during marital intercourse the baby born from such a union will be male, and that the Torah here informs us of this biological fact. This is why the Torah wrote וילדה זכר as something that is definite. While it is true that Rabbi Tzadok arrived at this conclusion exegetically from Genesis 46,15 ואת דינה בתו, the fact is that the Torah made the birth of a male child dependent on an experience of the mother, and the birth of a female child on the experience of the father during their union. The verse in Genesis does not provide a reason for this linkage to the respective experience of father and mother during their union. [The author of Torah Temimah comments on that verse that the scientific aspect of the matter was an established fact for our sages; they knew that when two factors have to combine to create something it is the last factor which determines the nature of the product. Hence, if the male has spent his reproductive effort before the woman, the result will be a female child corresponding to the reproductive power of the woman. We do not "learn" this from that verse; the verse only alludes to something already known. Ed.] In our verse the Torah explains the reason for this fact of life, namely that the crucial factor is who spends his reproductive power first. The Torah did not need to add the word "first" in our verse for even if the mother were not to expend her reproductive power first she does have to spend it in order to produce a child of either gender. This is why the Torah also had to write the verse in Genesis 46,15 so that from the two verses combined we would know what factors determine the sex of a baby. [The word ואת, "and in addition," in that verse in Genesis indicates that Leah was last in spending her reproductive power during the union that led to the birth of Dinah. Hence the child was a female. Ed.].