Published November 12, 2009
Follow up
Last week’s column was about words with different meanings depending upon the presence or absence of a DAGESH CHAZAK in one of its letters. The example we gave was AMA and AMMA (the double M represents an emphasized MEM due to its DAGESH CHAZAK). Without a DAGESH in the MEM, the word means “maidservant”. With a DAGESH, it means the measure known as a cubit.
Tasya emailed to refer us to Rashi on Sh’mot 2:5. There, Par’o's daughter sees a baby floating in a basket on the Nile out of her reach and she sends AMATAH (her AMA) to get it. The MEM is unDAGESHed and therefore the straight meaning of the verse is that she sent her maid to retrieve the basket.
Rashi then says that our Sages in the Gemara and Midrash interpreted ET AMATAH as “her arm” and say that a miracle occurred that her arm extended to a great length until she was able to reach the basket. Rashi objects to this interpretation because of the lack of a DAGESH in the MEM, thus “agreeing” with what we wrote last week.
[Note: AMMA, the measure, is the length of the arm from elbow to tip of the extended middle finger (which is also called AMMA). In other words, AMMA meaning arm or the middle finger or the cubit all come from the same word.]
Although the lack of a DAGESH suppots the plain meaning (P’SHAT), the DRASH from the Gemara and Midrash still stand and they teach us something - that one should never say something is impossible
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